Increased FAFSA completion rates among foster youth

One of the largest barriers to postsecondary education completion is access to financial aid. Despite being eligible, only 50 percent of foster youth receive a Pell Grant and 9 percent receive a Cal Grant. In 2017, FYCAP co-convener John Burton Advocates for Youth, launched the statewide “FAFSA Challenge.” The goal of this challenge is to support local jurisdiction in eliminating the FAFSA as a barrier to college enrollment. 

L.A. College Promise First Cohort Graduation

On May 29, the L.A. College Promise celebrated its inaugural class of graduates. Hosted at Cal State L.A., the ceremony brought together over 500 family and community members to celebrate 150 graduating students. The program included keynote remarks by Mayor Eric Garcetti, who launched the program in 2016, and by notable education leaders, including LAUSD Board President Monica Garcia, L.A. Community College District Chancellor Francisco Rodriguez, and California Community Colleges Chancellor Eloy Oakley. While final numbers for the Class of 2019 are still pending, the Promise has been very successful at increasing the direct college enrollment rates of LAUSD graduates.

EDI Expansion Continues in Los Angeles County

UNITE-LA staff interviewed eight EDI implementing communities across the nation to learn how communities have used the EDI data to move the needle on early childhood policies and systems change. Staff traveled to four of the communities (Erikson Institute, Chicago; ReadyKidSA, San Antonio; Oakland Starting Smart and Strong, Oakland; Starting Smart and Strong, San Jose). Some of the communities had just completed their first round of EDI data collection, while others had already gone through multiple rounds. Communities used the EDI results to make informed decisions on how to best support young children. For instance, some school districts opened up new early learning sites based on the percentage of vulnerable children in a specific region. Having a consistent measure of kindergarten readiness leads to a shared understanding of what it means for a child to be ready for school; however, this work takes years to unfold and it will be important for the L.A. Compact Early Childhood Stewardship Group to identify how cross sectors groups, not just schools, can benefit from the EDI.

Ensuring a successful future for foster youth

On July 9, 250 practitioners from child welfare, higher education and workforce development agencies came together at the California Endowment to deepen their knowledge about innovative programs and best-practices that support foster youth success in higher education and the workforce. Hosted by the Opportunity Youth Collaborative (OYC), the Fostering Connections to Transition-Age Youth Self-Sufficiency Summit focused on strengthening connections between college campus foster youth support programs, workforce providers, juvenile probation, K-12 districts, community based agencies and LA County's child welfare system.

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.

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.

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.