On April 30, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, in partnership with the L.A. Compact, launched COVID College Connect to support L.A.’s graduating high school class of 2020 in navigating their college options and addressing their enrollment concerns during these uncertain times. 

Check out the five-minute video of the mayor announcing COVID College Connect and read our latest update on the initiative from the Compact’s newsletter.

How you can help

Sign up to provide college guidance to Class of 2020 students: If you have professional experience in college advising or mentoring students and would like to help follow up with students in the L.A. region who have expressed concerns about attending college in the fall, fill out this volunteer form. We will provide a list of students who have consented to be contacted, a sample outreach script, FAQs and other college & financial aid resources.

Donate to the COVID College Response Scholarship Fund: UNITE-LA launched the COVID College Response Scholarship Fund to provide L.A. area students with the financial resources to say yes to their college dreams. Many college bound high school seniors have decided to put college on hold due to COVID-related hardships, but you can help change that. Your donation could make the difference between enrolling in college or staying home. Donate here.

For general inquiries, please contact Adam Gottlieb, Sr. Manager for Postsecondary Initiatives, at agottlieb@unitela.com.

County partners set goal of increasing FAFSA completion rate to 65%

The FAFSA completion rate for foster youth high school seniors in L.A. County increased from 33% in 2018 to 61% in 2019. The L.A. County Office of Child Protection recently reported back to the County Board of Supervisors highlighting this progress of the foster youth FAFSA Challenge, led in partnership with John Burton Advocates for Youth (JBAY) and the OYC Foster Youth College Advancement Project (FYCAP). Building from this tremendous success, countywide partners have set a goal of increasing the rate to 65% in 2020.

Public sector collaboration to improve postsecondary outcomes for foster youth

In May, the OYC Foster Youth College Advancement Project (FYCAP) partners presented a session at the Collective Impact Forum in Chicago, titled “Driving Public Sector Systems Change: Lessons from Los Angeles County.” The session described the process that FYCAP co-conveners, John Burton Advocates for Youth (JBAY) and UNITE-LA, undertook in order to build buy-in from the L.A. County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) and to co-design College Bound Antelope Valley, a project that is training social workers to initiate college exploration and planning activities with middle and high school aged youth. FYCAP also supported DCFS in launching two new higher education courses this past April that will increase the capacity of Resource Parents to assist youth with college exploration and planning. To learn more about this new postsecondary education curriculum for caregivers, register for this webinar on June 5.

Further illustrating their deep commitment to increasing postsecondary attainment for foster youth, DCFS  launched two new higher education courses this past April that will increase the capacity of Resource Parents to assist youth with college exploration and planning. Developed in collaboration with DCFS, JBAY, UNITE-LA, and the local Foster and Kinship Care Education program, each course is approximately 3 hours in length and covers essential college planning steps, as well as resources that are available to assist youth in paying for and succeeding in college. DCFS requires that all Resource Parents with children in their care ages 12-19 complete at least one of these courses as part of the Resource Family Approval process.

Ariana Oliva joins Child Care Planning Committee

Ariana Oliva, the Compact’s Early Childhood Manager, is now serving a three-year term as a member of the Los Angeles County Child Care Planning Committee. The committee engages in collaborative planning efforts to improve the overall child care infrastructure in the county, including the quality and continuity, affordability, and accessibility of child care and development services for all families.  She attended her first planning committee meeting on Sept. 4.

Gov. Gavin Newsom names Alma Salazar to the Board of Governors

The L.A. Compact applauds Alma Salazar, Ed.D., on her recent gubernatorial appointment to serve on the California Community Colleges (CCC) Board of Governors, which sets policy and provides guidance for the 73 districts and 115 colleges within the system. Dr. Salazar leads the convening of the L.A. Compact’s Workforce Systems Collaborative in her role as Senior Vice President of the L.A. Area Chamber’s Center for Education Excellence and Talent Development.

L.A. Compact Student Success Workgroup focuses on community college transfers & reverse transfers

UNITE-LA staff and 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 to think about how to support and scale reverse transfer through state and system-wide policy development. The partners, including project leaders from CSUN, L.A. Mission College, L.A. Valley College, L.A. Pierce College, and California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office 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.

On April 24, the Compact hosted a meeting with CSU and LACCD District Office representatives to review preliminary research findings by WestEd that map  available Associate Degrees for Transfer (ADT) pathways in L.A. County, identify feeder patterns between local community colleges and local California State University campuses, and highlight programs of study where bottlenecks are occurring.

L.A. County launches coordinated referral process to connect foster youth with work experiences

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. DCFS will now utilize a common form to send referrals to L.A. County Workforce Development Aging & Community Services department (WDACS) who will manage the assignment and tracking of referrals across workforce agencies. DCFS has allocated $1 million this year to provide 400 foster youth with paid work experiences through a new FosterYouth@Work program. Nearly 400 foster youth have been referred through the new system in March and April.

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

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

Thank you for your steadfast dedication to improving educational outcomes and closing attainment gaps for children and youth in Los Angeles. We hope the new year brings you a renewed sense of purpose and optimism for the future.

"Foster Youth College Awareness Month", Sharing Successes and Lessons Learned, Young Ambassadors Program and more

L.A. Compact's Workgroup and Collaborative updates for the months of September & October 2018

L.A. Compact Workgroup Update Archive>>

Current list and description of L.A. Compact collaborative initiatives>>

L.A. Compact's Workgroup and Collaborative updates for the months of May and June 2018

L.A. Compact Workgroup Update Archive>>

Current list and description of L.A. Compact collaborative initiatives>>

Follow our Workgroup and Collaborative updates for the months of March and April 2018

Current list and description of L.A. Compact collaborative initiatives>>

Promoting College Readiness for Antelope Valley Foster Youth

This story and more in the April issue of the L.A. Compact Connection

The L.A. Compact has been busy this summer! Check out the L.A. Compact's updated workgroup descriptions and read up on our progress in the August workgroup update.

Updates include LAUSD Strategic Plan engagement, Joint Advocacy legislative priorities, L.A. STEM Hub's new partnership foundation, OYC's Young Leaders, and more

Welcome to the launch of the L.A. Compact's first bi-monthly newsletter!  

Since 2008, the L.A. Compact has convened cross-sector stakeholders to work together across siloes in pursuit of three big, systemic goals:

1. All students graduate from high school;
2. All students have access to and are prepared for success in college; and
3. All students have access to pathways to sustainable jobs and careers.

Today, 17 working groups (and counting!) are engaging hundreds of partners to improve cradle to career outcomes through the power of collective impact.  We hope this newsletter will help shine a spotlight on this important collaborative work that seldom makes headlines.  Each edition of The L.A. Compact Connection will include a short feature story, timely Compact workgroup or partner updates, and links to relevant news and research. We look forward to your feedback on how we can best utilize this newsletter to share the collective work of L.A. Compact partners.