Follow our Workgroup and Collaborative updates for the months of January and February 2018

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

Stewardship Group: At its bi-monthly meeting in December 2017, the L.A. Compact Stewardship Group approved recommended language for an additional fourth goal to the L.A. Compact related to whole child success: “All children and young adults thrive socially and emotionally and contribute positively to the community.” The L.A. Compact has not updated its three systemic goals since the agreement was first signed in 2010. Additionally, the L.A. Compact Stewardship Group is welcoming two new members: Lizette Patron, Chief of Staff for LAUSD Board President Mónica García and Harvey Kawasaki, Manager of the L.A. County CEO Service Integration Branch. 

Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) Collaborative: As part of the L.A. Compact “3.0” planning process, the Steering Committee of the IHE Collaborative will meet on February 22nd to discuss revised language for Goal #2, which presently reads “All students have access to and are prepared for success in college.” The group will also revisit membership criteria for institutions, which previously required: (1) physical location in the L.A. basin; (2) significant contributions to local workforce by serving local area students and/or producing graduates who stay and work in the region; and (3) status as a not-for-profit institution. Finally, the group will plan for the 2018 convening of the full IHE Collaborative, which is tentatively scheduled for March 29, 2018. 

Student Success Workgroup: The Student Success Workgroup reconvened on February 7th to continue a conversation on building and scaling “Promise” style initiatives in the region. Workgroup members were briefed on the status of the L.A. College Promise, including term-to-term persistence rates and other success indicators for the inaugural cohort that entered in the Fall 2017 term. LACCD has applied to participate in the “Promises that Count” cohort, which aims to provide technical assistance and coaching to developing Promise initiatives in L.A. County. In addition, members from four-year institutions have been developing localized initiatives, including G.O. East L.A., South Up, Canoga Park Promise, and more. The workgroup will explore ways to scale and/or align these initiatives in order to support more students in the region. Given last November’s College Math Readiness summit, the group will also decide if it wants to pursue future partnership and joint fundraising opportunities with the Charles A. Dana Center at UT Austin to support regional efforts to develop aligned math pathways and assist local campuses in implementing remedial education reforms. Lastly, CSUN and LACCD hosted a planning team at L.A. Valley College on February 13th to continue work plan development for the L.A. Reverse Transfer Partnership, an innovative partnership between CSUN and three feeder community colleges to assist San Fernando Valley residents who have “some college, no degree” in obtaining their associate degree. 

L.A. Compact Data Workgroup: The L.A. Compact Data Workgroup convened in early February and—after a thoughtful and participatory process—reached conditional agreement on a primary set of cradle-to-career indicators to track progress toward the Compact’s goals. The proposed set of metrics will now be considered for adoption by the Stewardship group. The Data Workgroup also welcomed UCLA as a new institutional partner and new representatives from LAEDC, UTLA, and the L.A. County Workforce Development department (WDACS); we look forward to welcoming another representative from the Mayor’s Office of Budget and Innovation later in 2018. 

Health Care Collaborative: The Hospital Association of Southern California (HASC) and FutureSense in partnership with the L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce and the Health Workforce Initiative (HWI) will soon release a Health Care Sector Report, exploring challenges, approaches and solutions to recruit and develop a strong and skilled health care workforce. Over the next five years, Southern California will need to fill close to 150,000 health care job openings. The Health Care Sector Report will be launched at a “Southern California Health Care Workforce” event on February 26th in Montebello. 

Kindergarten Readiness Assessment Project, convened by First 5 L.A.: To build a better understanding about the school readiness of children entering kindergarten, First 5 L.A. has embarked on an endeavor called the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment (KRA). School Districts across L.A. County will collect KRA data using the Early Development Instrument (EDI). The EDI is a population level assessment and highlights population wide vulnerabilities in five developmental domains including: social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive skills, communication skills, and physical health and well-being. Six of the eight communities participating in the KRA project will collect EDI data in 2018. Districts include: LAUSD South, Pomona Unified School District, El Monte City School District, Valle Lindo School District, Rosemead School District, and Mountain View School District. Data will be collected by March 2018, and all eights districts (including Santa Monica/ Malibu and Pasadena) will participate in individual coaching with the UCLA Center for Healthier Children, Families and Communities. District representatives will also participate in the quarterly shared learning network, where they will collaborate with others in L.A. County to identify trends in the EDI data and share best practices at the local level. 

L.A. Opportunity Youth Collaborative (OYC), convened by the Alliance for Children’s Rights: 

OYC Stewardship Group: The next Stewardship/ Governance Committee meeting is Wednesday, March 14th from 10am-12pm at the Alliance for Children’s Rights. 

OYC Quarterly Meeting: The next OYC Quarterly Meeting is Monday, March 12th from 2-4pm at the California Endowment. 

OYC Young Leaders: The 2017-2018 OYC Young Leaders program is coming to a close soon. Young Leaders will be responsible for a year end or service project that they can choose to do individually or in a group. The projects are in the preliminary stages, but we are excited to see what they will do and show how much they have grown as leaders. In addition, two young leaders, Alex Maldonado and Doniesha Thomas will be presenting alongside Nisha Kashyap (Alliance for Children’s Rights attorney) at the TAY Conference in Sacramento next week. 

OYC Foster Youth College Advancement Program (FYCAP), convened by John Burton Advocates for Youth and UNITE-LA: Over 400 providers from K-12, higher education, child welfare, and nonprofit agencies participated in a webinar on FAFSA filing for foster youth hosted by John Burton Advocates for Youth and Cash for College on January 22. This training came at a critical time as FAFSA completions for the region trailed behind previous years. The FYCAP partners also developed informational tools to help youth and providers navigate the community college remediation assessment process. These materials were shared at the L.A. Court Scholars meeting in January and are also posted here. On January 30^th, FYCAP facilitated a planning meeting for College Bound Antelope Valley, a pilot initiative within the L.A. County Department of Children & Family Services (DCFS) that will train social workers in Lancaster and Palmdale to embed college exploration and goal setting activities within core social work practices. Lastly, FYCAP leaders met with the new DCFS Director, Bobby Cagle, on February 8th to brief him on the workgroup’s strategies and work to date. Director Cagle expressed his strong support of FYCAP and even issued a message to DCFS staff on the importance of FAFSA completion.

Lastly, FYCAP facilitated a planning meeting for the Antelope Valley Postsecondary Pilot on January 30th, and developed next steps to train a cohort of social workers and supervisors in the DCFS Lancaster and Palmdale regional offices on how to embed college exploration and goal setting within existing child and family team processes and within transition to independent living planning. John Burton Advocates and UNITE-LA met with the new DCFS Director, Bobby Cagle, on February 8th to brief him on FYCAP’s strategies and work to date. The Workgroup will next convene in April 2018. 

iFoster Jobs Program: The iFoster Jobs Program has begun recruiting youth for the next cohorts in February/March 2018. There will be 3 cohorts: L.A. Trade Tech (UMOJA Program) from February 17th to March 10th, Lennox Library from February 17th to March 10th, and a weeklong intensive at Cerritos College from March 12th to March 15th, with assessment day on March 17th. 

Fostering Careers L.A., convened by the L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce Foundation and the Alliance for Children’s Rights: In December 2017, the L.A. Area Chamber Foundation in partnership with the OYC was awarded a $250k grant from the California Workforce Development Board through their Workforce Accelerator 6.0 fund. The awarded Fostering Careers L.A. Project will convene child welfare, workforce development, education and nonprofit stakeholders to advance systemic strategies to ensure more transition-age foster youth in L.A. County access positive work-based learning experiences, training programs, and employment. A primary goal of the project is to enhance and integrate a regional referral and enrollment process for foster youth between L.A. County’s child welfare system and workforce development programs. The project also aims to develop a “career readiness guide” for DCFS to support social workers, caregivers, and youth in understanding activities that support career readiness at various developmental stages. Fostering Careers L.A. will help advance the recently finalized L.A. P3 Strategic Plan, including a strategy to enroll AB12 foster youth into regional YouthSource and American Jobs Centers. The 18 month grant kicks off in February 2018. 

L.A. 100k Coalition, convened by the Alliance for Children’s Rights, iFoster, and the L.A. Area Chamber: After finalizing a shared work plan for 2018, the L.A. 100k Coalition partners have begun developing their employer engagement strategy. The goal is to deepen relationships with at least five employers from the national 100k Opportunities Initiative Coalition to improve hiring opportunities for transition-age foster youth in L.A. County. 

Performance Partnership Pilot (P3), convened by L.A. City EWDD and L.A. County WDACS: The LAP3 Operations Workgroup reconvened in January, co-chaired by Maritza Dubie-Uribe with the L.A. County Workforce Development Aging and Community Services Department and Chang Kim with the L.A. City Economic and Workforce Development Department. The group engages stakeholders from workforce, education, child welfare, housing, mental health, and business agencies to advise strategies to improve service delivery systems for L.A. disconnected youth. Participants discussed the mission and scope of the Operations Workgroup as well as emerging challenges experienced by L.A. City YouthSource Centers in the implementation of the L.A. P3 model. In January, the L.A. P3 Policy and Waiver Workgroup also submitted an inquiry to the Federal Department of Labor seeking clarification on: 1) How long the pilot’s approved eligibility and performance waivers for disconnected youth are authorized for; and 2) Whether the L.A. City Workforce Development Board’s federal waiver to count foster, homeless, and runaway youth who are enrolled in school as “out of school” for WIOA eligibility purposes can be expanded to the other six Workforce Development Boards in L.A. County. Since WIOA requires workforce agencies to expand 75% of their youth funds on “out of school youth,” this waiver is a particularly important incentive for workforce agencies to enroll transition-age foster youth who face significant barriers to education attainment and employment, even while they may be technically enrolled in high school or college.