TEN28-07acc.pdf

ETA Advisory File Text

EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING ADMINISTRATION U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR WASHINGTON D.C. 20210 NO. 28-07 TRAINING AND EMPLOYMENT NOTICE DATE January 31 2008 TO ALL STATE WORKFORCE AGENCIES ALL STATE WORKFORCE LIAISONS ALL ONE-STOP CENTER SYSTEM LEADS FROM GAY M. GILBERT s Administrator Office of Workforce Investment SUBJECT The Shared Youth Vision A Collaborative Approach to Prepare Youth for Success in a Global Demand-Driven Economy 1. Purpose . The purpose of this Training and Employment Notice TEN is two-fold a to inform states and local workforce systems of the Shared Youth Federal Partnership s current activities to implement its Shared Youth Vision and b provide information on available tools designed to implement the Shared Youth Vision at the state and local level. 2. References . Training and Employment Guidance Letter No. 3-04 The Employment and Training Administration s ETA s New Strategic Vision for the Delivery of Youth Services under the Workforce Investment Act WIA of 1998. http wdr.doleta.gov directives corr doc.cfm DOCN 1589 . Training and Employment Guidance Letter No. 28-05 The Employment and Training Administration s New Strategic Vision for Delivery of Youth Services Under Workforce Investment Act WIA Expanding ETA s Vision for Delivery of Youth Services under WIA to include Indian and Native American Youth and Youth with Disabilities http wdr.doleta.gov directives corr doc.cfm DOCN 2224 The White House Task Force Report on Disadvantaged Youth . December 2003. http www.ncfy.com publications disadvantaged FinalReport.pdf 3. Background . In 2003 recommendations from The White House Task Force Report on Disadvantaged Youth charged all Federal youth serving agencies with developing more effective interagency collaborations to better serve targeted youth populations with priority given to serving the neediest youth a children of incarcerated parents b court-involved youth c youth at-risk of court involvement d homeless and runaway youth e Indian and Native American Youth f migrant youth g out-of-school youth h youth in or aging out of foster care and i youth with disabilities. EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING ADMINISTRATION U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR WASHINGTON D.C. 20210 - 2 - In 2004 ETA adopted and announced its new strategic vision to serve out-of-school and at-risk youth under the Workforce Investment Act WIA TEGL No. 3-04 highlighting and implementing activities in four priority areas a ETA s Strategic Vision for Youth b Increasing Business Engagement c Developing and Investing in Multiple Educational Pathway Strategies Re-connecting out-of-school youth with high quality educational opportunities and d Aligning Discretionary Funding Streams and Investments to Overarching Goals Implementing pilot and demonstration projects that employ new approaches for serving highly at-risk youth. Recognizing the need to involve other federal agencies in this collaborative initiative ETA s outreach and recruitment strategy led to the creation of a national cross agency group which evolved into the Shared Youth Vision Federal Partnership. 4. The Shared Youth Vision Federal Partnership Federal Partnership . The Federal Partnership includes the U.S. Departments of Education Health and Human Services Housing and Urban Development Justice Labor Social Security Administration Transportation and the Corporation for National and Community Service. In 2006 the Federal Partnership adopted the following official Shared Youth Vision and mission statements The Nation s neediest youth will acquire the talents skills and knowledge necessary to ensure the healthy transition to successful adult roles and responsibilities and The mission of the Shared Youth Vision Partnership is to serve as a catalyst at the national state and local levels to strengthen coordination communication and collaboration among youth-serving agencies to support the neediest youth and their healthy transition to successful adult roles and responsibilities. Specifically the goals of this group are to a promote the Shared Youth Vision b develop approaches to prepare youth most in need for success in a global demand- driven economy c communicate the Shared Youth Vision to States and local workforce system providers d engage the support of state and tribal leadership e facilitate the alignment of programs policies and funds and f leverage resources and promote outreach to recruit additional partners to connect youth most in need to quality secondary and post-secondary educational opportunities and high- growth and other employment opportunities. 5. Shared Youth Vision Federal Partnership Activities . The Federal Partnership has sponsored numerous activities to promote the Shared Youth Vision to state and local agencies serving youth and workforce boards. These activities included a series of forums for state teams the selection of pilot states to incubate innovative EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING ADMINISTRATION U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR WASHINGTON D.C. 20210 -3- approaches that leverage their state-level coordination at the local service delivery level and development of an overall technical assistance plan for infusing the collaborative vision throughout the country. a. Shared Youth Vision Forums 2004 Regional Youth Forums Three regional forums were held in Philadelphia PA Chicago IL and Phoenix AZ to facilitate the creation of state interagency teams to better serve youth most in need. Specifically State teams 1 received facilitated assistance in the development of their initial strategic planning activities 2 developed an initial action plan for implementing a team approach to serve the at-risk youth in their locality and 3 drafted a vision for their teams to carry out the new strategic vision for youth. Forty-nine states attended these regional youth forums. 2006 Advanced Level Technical Assistance Youth Vision Forums All States and U.S. territories were provided an opportunity to apply to attend the 2006 forums held in Atlanta Georgia. Of the states that applied to attend the 2006 forums sixteen states who were most advanced in implementing the vision were competitively selected to attend. The selected teams met specific criteria to attend the forums outlined in an application. b. Pilot States Selection of Pilot States The Federal Partnership provided an opportunity for the sixteen advanced level forum state teams to apply to become a Shared Youth Vision pilot state an opportunity designed to support the development of collaborative interagency approaches and joint partnerships at the state and local levels. All sixteen were selected to be pilot state teams and received financial assistance to demonstrate the implementation of their collaborative strategy in a specific geographic area at the service delivery level. The selected states participating in the 1.6 million pilot demonstration project are Alabama Arizona Arkansas Delaware Florida Iowa Kansas Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi New Hampshire Ohio Oklahoma Rhode Island and Utah. Each state will assist one other non-pilot state in implementing their vision. c. Regional Dialogue Meetings In June 2007 under ETA s regional office leadership the Federal Partnership hosted six regional dialogue meetings for all states. State teams along with national and regional federal partners shared and exchanged information and established a peer network which coincides with approaches undertaken by the Shared Youth Vision Partnership. These meetings also provided states an EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING ADMINISTRATION U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR WASHINGTON D.C. 20210 -4- opportunity to expand their work on the new Youth Vision discuss barriers and challenges identify effective practices to address them and develop action plans to help move the Youth Vision forward. ETA s regional offices are planning follow-up activities to expand support of the state teams efforts by assisting with technical assistance facilitating peer exchange resource sharing and promoting the collaboration concept to other Federal agencies at the regional level. 6. ETA Activities . The activities below are those that ETA has been working on through collaboration with the workforce system education partners and businesses to successfully support education and employment outcomes for out-of- school youth. These activities are fully aligned with the Shared Youth Vision. a. Multiple Education Pathways . ETA is working nationally to develop multiple education pathways that offer youth a variety of paths into education and the workforce address the educational needs and learning styles of youth and coordinate with the businesses and the workforce system to ensure that education and training is responsive to the demands of regional economies. ETA provided funding to seven cities to blueprint and implement a system that can reconnect youth that have dropped out of high school to a variety of high quality innovative multiple education pathways. These pathways will offer alternative learning environments that engage these youth in rigorous and relevant academic studies and workforce preparation while preparing and connecting them to post- secondary education opportunities. Former dropout youth will then be better prepared to enter the labor market and career pathways in high growth high demand industries. These grants are intended to serve as catalysts to bring together community partners to assess and address the challenge of serving youth who are at risk of dropping out and youth who have dropped out of school. The blueprints will be used to leverage and integrate education strategies and assets in the community in ways that cut across multiple schools and community colleges. They will serve as the city s strategic plan for developing and benchmarking progress toward creating a multiple education pathway system that move students to post- secondary education and career pathways. ETA will disseminate lessons learned from these blueprints to assist the nation in creating multiple education pathways that lead to successful secondary and post-secondary graduation rates among our youth. Also the following webinars support the activities of ETA s multiple education pathways initiative and can be accessed at the following Web sites EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING ADMINISTRATION U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR WASHINGTON D.C. 20210 - 5- The Cost of Dropping Out The Effects of the High School Drop Out Rate on America s Competitiveness http workforce3one.org public shared detail.cfm id 4593 simple false Improving Labor Market Success for Low-Wage Workers MDRC s Research on Job Retention and Advancement Programs Education Interventions and Transitional Jobs Programs. MDRC will focus on findings from its long-term evaluation of Career Academy high schools which combine small learning communities with career-oriented curricula and with work experience and on how practitioners are using the research to improve their programs. http workforce3one.org public shared detail.cfm id 4519 simple false b. Business Engagement One of the major components of the Shared Youth Vision pilot grants is business engagement. Business is a key partner in the project and emphasized as a major focus area for the workforce systems nationwide. ETA is focusing efforts around multiple strategies for engaging business and industry in meeting the needs for a skilled and ready workforce through the creation of a supply pipeline of young workers. 1 Shared Youth Vision Federal Collaborative The proposed next step in supporting the state teams around business engagement is to work with some of the state teams to pilot state-led executive and solutions forums focusing on industries critical to regional growth within the state but lack a clear youth pipeline to supply new entry- level talent. 2 Roundtables with Industry Stakeholders Dialogs will be conducted with business and industry leaders and intermediary organizations to learn how the youth workforce system can collaborate with industry as a viable supplier to meet industry s human capital needs. Examples of areas to be explored may include how to interface with industry helping the youth workforce to become business literate connecting with the continuum of education especially K-12 and alternative learning environments establishing portable industry-wide credentials recruitment and retention challenges and strategies leveraging resources and business involvement on workforce boards and regional economic development. Information from these roundtables will be disseminated to the system through webinars workforce3one and the Shared Youth Vision website http www.doleta.gov ryf . EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING ADMINISTRATION U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR WASHINGTON D.C. 20210 -6- 3 Industry Models ETA will identify industries employers states or workforce system boards that have developed effective business solutions-based approaches to engaging youth that include effective connections to the workforce system community colleges or the continuum of education in regional economic development. Through the identification of models ETA will promote the replication of innovative solutions. These models will be disseminated to the system through webinars workforce3one and the Shared Youth Vision website www.doleta.gov ryf 7. Technical Assistance and Other Resources . ETA regional offices in conjunction with the Federal Partnership will provide assistance to help states in advancing their collaborative approaches to serving youth through a variety of means. The overall technical assistance strategy provided by the Federal Partnership will include a. Shared Youth Vision Indicators and Assessment Tools The 4 tools in this product are designed to assist states and local collaboratives implement a Shared Youth Vision. ETA commissioned the development of a set of self-assessment tools to help states and local areas identify key outcomes and indicators to measure their progress toward meeting stated goals and objectives for a Shared Youth Vision. These tools are not monitoring tools nor do they describe a mandated or preferred path of implementation. The 4 tools are A Sample Shared Youth Vision Logic Model to describe the broader relationships between potential interim and long-term outcomes of a state or local initiative including the roles and responsibilities of the Collaborative activities and expected youth outcomes. A State Checklist for each phase of the implementation of a shared youth vision to help state officials identify and prioritize actions to support local success. A Local Assessment Tool to help local areas identify and prioritize sample outcomes toward building operating and integrating a Shared Youth Vision Collaborative. This tool includes relevant indicators to measure those outcomes. A Shared Youth Vision Outcome Indicators Worksheet to help state and local collaborative partners identify participant outcomes used by the agencies in the Federal Partnership to judge program performance. EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING ADMINISTRATION U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR WASHINGTON D.C. 20210 - 7- These tools can be accessed at http www.spra.com PEP syv syv-tool.doc . b. The Solutions Desk The Solutions Desk is a technical assistance resource available to all s tates. The Solutions Desk provides 1 access to the Federal Partner Representa tives who respond to issues of concern around the shared youth vision and 2 a platform for information exchange dialogue on promising practices challenges and solutions to issues concerning the implementation of the Shared Youth Vision pilot demonstration projects. The Web site for the Solutions Des k is http www.nrcys.ou.edu yd solutionsdesk default.html or you may contact Robert Peck at 919 660-3786. c. The Shared Youth Vision Implementation Study Abt Associates will conduct both an analysis of the work of the Federal Partnership from 2004-2007 and the work of the state pilot teams around system transformation at the state local levels. A report of the lessons learned will be developed for release to the workforce system federal partners and the public at large. 8. Actions Required . States are requested to share this Training and Employment Notice with local areas. 9. Inquiries . Questions concerning this TEN should be directed to the appropriate ETA regional office.