Collaboration to improve postsecondary outcomes for foster youth, supporting expansion of community schools, Mayor Garcetti prioritizes early education and more...

Stewardship Group & Compact 3.0

The Stewardship Group met on April 19 to continue advancing the revised L.A. Compact discussion and review partner commitments. The group left the meeting having adopted 10 priority strategies for inclusion in the new agreement. UNITE-LA is working individually with all partners to refresh their partner commitments. Drafts have been developed for the L.A. Area Chamber, IHE Collaborative, United Way, First 5 LA and L.A. Unified.

Community Schools

On April 29th, the L.A. Compact, in partnership with L.A. Unified and United Teachers Los Angeles, hosted the inaugural meeting of the Community Schools Steering Committee. The group will guide the selection of up to 20 L.A. Unified schools to pilot a model that emphasizes integrated student supports, expanded and enriched learning time, family and community engagement and shared decision-making. The pilot represents an opportunity for schools to transform the way they partner with families and community members to ensure students’ holistic success.

Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) Collaborative

At the start of the academic year, the L.A. Compact IHE Collaborative received a planning grant from College Futures Foundation to map transfer pathways in Los Angeles County. As part of this project, UNITE-LA contracted with WestEd to conduct preliminary analyses of available Associate Degrees for Transfer (ADT) pathways, identify feeder patterns between local community colleges and local California State University campuses, and highlight programs of study where bottlenecks are occurring. On April 24, the Compact hosted a meeting with CSU and LACCD District Office representatives to review preliminary findings and discuss next steps in data analysis.

CSUN Connections

Representatives from the CSUN Connections reverse transfer partnership traveled to Detroit, MI at the end of April to participate in the Lumina Foundation’s national Talent Hubs convening. In addition to project leaders from CSUN, L.A. Mission College, L.A. Valley College, and L.A. Pierce College, staff from UNITE-LA and the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office also participated in the convening in order to think about how to support and scale reverse transfer through state and system-wide policy development. The partners participated in a half-day institute on reverse transfer that was facilitated by the Institute of Higher Education Policy, where we joined Shasta County’s North State Together team members in sharing implementation lessons with other communities that are exploring reverse transfer.

Los Angeles Educator Pathways Partnership (LAEPP)

At the Los Angeles Educator Pathways Partnership (LAEPP) meeting in March, partners from LAUSD and local university teacher training programs discussed possible additions to the shared teacher and teacher trainee dataset, new ideas and research questions specific to STEM middle and high school teachers, and renewal of the data sharing MOUs this summer for new phases of data sharing.

Kindergarten Readiness Assessment

In its ongoing effort to collect and assess data, the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment workgroup completed EDI data collection at Compton Unified School District and specific feeder patterns at LAUSD LD West and LD Central. The group is also continuing to coordinate with UCLA to develop EDI National Case Studies. Also, one team member attended USC’s 2019 Social Innovation Summit to hear about the newest developments around early childhood outcomes in Los Angeles County. Lastly, in new and exciting news, the group has begun planning for the L.A. County Early Childhood Stewardship group set to launch in FY 19-20.

Opportunity Youth Collaborative

The OYC is planning a “Fostering Connections to TAY Self-Sufficiency” summit on July 9th at the California Endowment to strengthen connections between LA County’s campus-based foster youth support programs, workforce providers and the child welfare system. This summit will help participants gain further knowledge about innovative and best-practices that support foster youth success in higher education and the workforce.

Fostering Careers L.A., convened by the L.A. Chamber of Commerce & Alliance for Children’s Rights

Thanks to the efforts of L.A. Opportunity Youth Collaborative partners, L.A. County recently launched a new coordinated referral process for foster youth ages 14-24 to improve connections to job training and early work experiences. Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) staff who support youth living from Lancaster to Long Beach face a confusing array of work readiness programs managed by 7 workforce boards and over 40 non-profit agencies across the county. READ MORE.

The OYC also convened its Foster Youth Career Readiness Guide Advisory Group on April 19 to review a first draft of the career guide and provide feedback.

• DCFS coordinated referral process for workforce services launched in April following signed MOU between WDACS & DCFS
• Foster Youth Career Readiness Guide Advisory group met 4/19 to review first draft and provide feedback

L.A. Workforce Systems Collaborative

At the April 9 L.A. Workforce Systems Collaborative meeting, the LAUSD Division of Adult and Career Education (DACE) and City of LA Economic and Workforce Development Department (EWDD) presented on their partnership to connect WorkSource Center clients to relevant training offered by LAUSD DACE to support their success. EWDD and DACE mapped out priority sectors with high-demand occupations and the biggest impact has been around connecting WorkSource Center clients to DACE’s CTE programs (Career Technical Education). DACE is working seamlessly with EWDD to build a pipeline for employers around high-demand/high-need positions.

Health Sector Collaborative

The Health Sector Collaborative met on March 19 and April 2 to conduct a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats) analysis around efforts to align healthcare workforce education and training pathways from K-12 into post-secondary education. Based on the analysis, the group decided to focus on training pathways with an industry-led work-experience component, such as youth apprenticeships.