Health Care Collaborative Highlights Strategies to Close Workforce Skills Gap

This May, the L.A. Area Chamber released Health Care Services in the Los Angeles Basin in partnership with the Center for a Competitive Workforce. The report forecasts job opportunities, analyzes changing skills requirements and illuminates career education pathways for the health care industry in the greater L.A. Basin. The Healthcare Collaborative held a convening with nearly 200 industry, higher education and workforce development leaders to highlight the report findings. The convening included a discussion with employers on the health care workforce skills gap, highlighted exemplary health care training and industry-partnerships, and emphasized why attracting students from underserved communities to health careers is vital to the region’s success.

WORKGROUP HIGHLIGHTS

L.A. Compact Stewardship Group Considers Support for Community Schools

At its June meeting, the Stewardship Group provided feedback to LAUSD Deputy Superintendent Vivian Ekchian and several members of the LAUSD Community Schools Implementation Team on a comprehensive community school framework for the district. L.A. Compact partners expressed strong support for engaging in the expansion of community schools in LAUSD as a new Compact priority and identified several ways the Compact could contribute.

L.A. College Promise Raises over $500k for Student Tuition

On June 6, the L.A. College Promise partners joined the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) Foundation in presenting the LACCD with a check for $536,000.  The funds, raised primarily by the Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles, covered first semester tuition and fees for the inaugural College Promise cohort.  LACCD continues its collaboration with the Los Angeles Unified School District to recruit, enroll, and support the second L.A. College Promise cohort in the 2018-2019 school year, in partnership with Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Office and UNITE-LA.

W.M. Keck Foundation Grant will Support STEM Teacher Preparation 

The Los Angeles Educator Pathways Partnership (LAEPP) recently received a grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation to support its collaborative work to improve teacher preparation pathways.  The grant will allow the LAEPP partners to conduct joint research on the effectiveness of local Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) teacher preparation programs and identify opportunities for continuous improvement.

L.A.’s Workforce Boards Collaborate to Streamline Referrals for Foster Youth

 The L.A. Opportunity Youth Collaborative worked in partnership with the L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce, L.A. County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), and the region’s workforce development agencies in May and June to design a new coordinated referral process to connect foster youth with paid work experiences and job training.  The partners developed a common referral form to be used by DCFS staff and formalized a referral and tracking process between DCFS and the seven regional workforce agencies in L.A. County. The OYC plans to launch the coordinated referral process in July as part of the County’s Youth@Work program, which provides up to 120 hours of paid work experience and training.  In addition to the coordinated referral process, DCFS and 11 workforce programs will be piloting the use of Career Hub, a web-based texting platform, to improve outreach and enrollment of foster youth in workforce programs.

Check out what’s happening across all of the L.A. Compact workgroups, including the Student Success Workgroup, L.A. Opportunity Youth Collaborative, and more in our L.A. Compact Workgroup May/June Update.

PARTNER HIGHLIGHTS

United Way’s #EveryoneIn Campaign Awarded $200k LA2050 Activation Challenge Grant

Through their #EveryoneIn campaign, United Way of Greater Los Angeles will activate 100,000 Angelenos to connect the dots between housing affordability and homelessness. #EveryoneIn will empower participants to say “yes” to supportive housing, the preservation of existing housing, and the creation of new affordable housing.

John Burton Advocates for Youth & L.A. Area Chamber Celebrate Cal Grant Expansion for Foster Youth

The final 2018-19 budget signed by Governor Brown in June includes an allocation of $5.3 million to expand foster youth access to the Cal Grant, California’s largest financial aid program for students attending college. The budget expands Cal Grant entitlement eligibility requirements to enable foster youth to apply for a grant up until age 26, renew grants for up to 8 years, and extends the application deadline from March 2 to September 2 for foster youth attending community college. Currently, only 9 percent of students who have been in foster care receive the Cal Grant and only 4 percent obtain their bachelor’s degree by age 26 as compared to 36 percent of the general population.

CSUN Alumnus Bradley Upshaw Selected for National Teachers Hall of Game

Bradley Upshaw, a third-grade teacher with 33 years of service at Vanalden Avenue Elementary School, is one of two teachers from the Los Angeles Unified School District ever to be chosen for induction into the National Teachers Hall of Fame. Only five teachers nationwide are chosen for induction annually.

LACCD's Ryan Cornner Selected as Aspen Presidential Fellow for Community College Excellence

LACCD’s Vice Chancellor for Educational Programs and Institutional Effectiveness, Ryan Cornner, was recently selected to join an elite group of 40 leaders across the country for the Aspen Presidential Fellowship for Community College Excellence, a leadership program aimed at preparing the next generation of community college presidents to transform institutions to achieve high and equitable levels of student success both in college and in the labor market.

WHAT WE’RE READING

“Outside funders give L.A. Unified under new Supt. Beutner a $3 million vote of confidence” via LA Times

“A Hunger for Information: California’s Options to Meet its Statewide Education Data Needs” via Education Insights Center

 “The Water of Systems Change” via FSG

“Housing Costs Are a Bigger Burden to California Students than Tuition” via the Student Loan Report

“Call for Sessions for the 2019 Collective Impact Convening: Submissions due Sept. 7” via Collective Impact Forum