The community school model leverages community assets to address the comprehensive needs of students and families and levels the playing field for success. Already into our second year of implementation, the L.A. Unified Community Schools Initiative recently celebrated two significant wins. L.A. Unified was awarded two California Community Schools Partnership Grants, totaling $6 million, and the district's Community Schools Steering Committee selected the second cohort of schools that will begin their Community School transformation process in the fall of 2021.

SoCal Grantmakers invited UNITE-LA to present at its Education Funders Group meeting on the history, accomplishments and current initiatives of the L.A. Compact. The event took place on May 5, 2021, and featured a panel of leaders from UNITE-LA and L.A. Compact member organizations. Panelists shared highlights from three Compact workgroups: L.A. Educator Pathways Partnership, Community Schools and the Student Success Workgroup. Thank you to our partners at USC, CSU Northridge and Dominguez Hills, United Teachers Los Angeles, and California Community Foundation, who provided powerful testimony to the value and impact of the Compact.

The L.A. Opportunity Youth Collaborative (OYC) recently released its 2020 Impact Report, demonstrating the power and impact of more than 100 partners from public agencies, community-based organizations, foundations, young adults and educational institutions working together to improve education and employment outcomes for transition-age foster youth.

The L.A. Educator Pathways Partnership (LAEPP) Policy Advisory Group finalized its 2021 legislation and budget priorities, which include advancing alternatives to subject matter competency tests, reducing financial burdens for teacher trainees and increasing teacher diversity. In March of 2021, the policy advisory group sent letters to California State Senate and Assembly Committees voicing our support for four bills promoting our priorities and a suite of funding initiatives included in the Governor's January Budget.

Since September 2020, the L.A. Compact’s Let’s Go to College L.A. initiative has offered resources and insights to college students navigating virtual education. To support this effort, Let’s Go to College L.A. launched a Student Ambassador program to offer near peer support at institutions across L.A. County. Students from the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD), Long Beach City College as well as CSUs Northridge, Los Angeles, and Long Beach are participating in the six month internship program.

Despite the slow reopening of the economy, the unemployment rate in L.A. county is 10.6 percent, which is well-above the national rate (6.3 percent) and California’s rate (9 percent). Black and Latinx Angelenos have been disproportionately impacted as they were more likely to be employed in industries hardest hit by the pandemic, such as hospitality and retail. To address these and other challenges, the L.A. Workforce Systems Collaborative (LAWSC) jointly advocated for federal infrastructure and workforce development investments. They also updated their outreach materials to ensure unemployed L.A. residents have access to the most current information on applying for unemployment insurance benefits.

The L.A. Compact’s work in the San Fernando Valley targeting students with “some college but no degree” was recently featured in a Reverse Transfer Guidebook, produced by the Institute for Higher Education Policy. Students across the country are unknowingly leaving earned postsecondary credentials behind as they accumulate credits at community colleges and transfer to four-year institutions without collecting the associate degrees they’ve earned.

Continuous improvement is one of the Compact’s guiding principles. As such, UNITE-LA is committed to looking inward to ensure we are delivering on our promise to bring together cross-sector stakeholders to deliver results for children and youth. We commissioned Harder + Company Community Research to evaluate the L.A. Compact, and we are excited to share the findings with you. Through the Compact, UNITE-LA has built relationships, increased trust and supported shared decision making among members.

A comprehensive community schools model can improve student achievement and well-being. It is a framework that has gained traction across the nation and has placed participating schools in a better position to respond to the ongoing challenges caused by COVID-19. In other words, community schools are a catalyst for change, which is why many stakeholders in L.A. County stand ready to see the model expand in the region. Adopting a countywide, comprehensive community schools model is one of the L.A. Compact’s priority strategies, and we are excited to work alongside our partners to make this happen. We have started the year strong with the region’s first community schools convening, co-hosted by The Greater L.A. Education Foundation and the Los Angeles County Office of Education, and the launch of the selection process to identify L.A. Unified’s second cohort of community schools.

Access to reliable child care is key as the economy reopens and more parents go back to their physical work spaces. However, due to the pandemic, the operating costs of running a child care center or home have gone up forcing many providers who were already operating on a thin margin to close their doors permanently. Finding child care was already a challenge before the pandemic and now with these looming closures it could become harder. In response, both Los Angeles County and the City of Los Angeles dedicated a portion of their CARES Act funding to create complimentary Child Care Provider Grant Programs.