This July, UNITE-LA welcomed Antonio Ramirez as the L.A. Region K-16 Collaborative Director and Isabel Duran as Senior Manager. Together, they are leading regional strategy, supporting implementation across the Collaborative’s five subregions and strengthening alignment and accountability among partners, while creating new opportunities for partners to learn from one another and align around shared priorities. This work includes expanding special projects such as the Gates Foundation-funded L.A. Purposeful Pathways Project and launching new regional convenings designed to strengthen collaboration across the broader K–16 ecosystem.

The L.A. Region K–16 Collaborative is strengthening connections between education and industry to help students better understand and access the region’s growing health care workforce. In partnership with Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) and the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC), the Collaborative convened K–16 partners for an employer engagement session focused on expanding students’ exposure to health care careers, strengthening connections between education and employers and identifying opportunities to build more connected pathways from learning to employment.

UNITE-LA is creating opportunities for business leaders to shape conversations about workforce challenges affecting employers and workers across California. Through recent engagements at the California Workforce Association’s Meeting of the Minds conference and the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce Annual Convention, UNITE-LA is bringing industry perspectives into workforce strategies and connecting leaders with resources and partnerships that strengthen workforce stability and expand pathways to employment.

California is moving Community Schools toward a more sustainable funding model. Signed into law on July 9, 2026, Assembly Bill 126 established $1 billion in annual funding through the California Community Schools Partnership Program (CCSPP) to support existing Community Schools and new eligible school sites. The shift from time-limited grants to ongoing annual funding creates an important opportunity for Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) to think strategically about how these resources can sustain and strengthen its Community Schools Initiative (CSI), including the district’s 70 existing CSI schools.

As the Purposeful Pathways partnership moves from identifying priorities to implementation planning, UNITE-LA is working with Centinela Valley Union High School District (CVUHSD) and El Camino College to strengthen connections between high school and postsecondary education. During the fourth strategy session, partners focused on expanding equitable access to dual enrollment beyond students already participating in career technical education pathways and creating clearer opportunities for students to earn meaningful college credit while still in high school.

The Opportunity Youth Demonstration Project is helping inform how California can create more connected and equitable pathways into health care careers for young adults facing barriers to education and employment. On Sept. 29, UNITE-LA brought together education, workforce, health care and policy leaders from across the state to share lessons from three local demonstration projects and explore how promising approaches can be strengthened and scaled to support economic mobility while meeting California’s growing health care workforce needs.

The Los Angeles Unified Community Schools Steering Committee (CSSC), co-convened by UNITE-LA, has begun its 2026–27 year with a renewed focus on the long-term sustainability, quality and impact of the Community Schools Initiative (CSI). With six new members joining 10 returning members, the 16-member committee brings together perspectives from across LAUSD, UTLA, school leadership, higher education, families, students and community partners. Together, the committee will help shape priorities for the year ahead as LAUSD prepares for new state community schools funding and continues strengthening implementation across the initiative.

Los Angeles County has released its first-ever Digital Equity Roadmap, a three-year action plan to expand access to broadband, devices, AI literacy and workforce development across the region. As a member of the County's External Stakeholder Advisory Team, UNITE-LA worked alongside the Internal Services Department (ISD) and regional cross-sector partners to ensure workforce equity and economic mobility remained central to the strategy. The resulting roadmap establishes a shared framework for coordinated action across public agencies, community organizations and industry leaders to strengthen how Angelenos connect to vital tech infrastructure and high-growth opportunities.

UNITE-LA is launching Certificates to Careers, a new, two-year demonstration focused on understanding how education and training translate into career advancement in Los Angeles County’s health care sector. In partnership with CredLens and a demonstration community college, the project will connect education and workforce data to examine how learners move into and across health care occupations, how their earnings and career opportunities change over time and where barriers to advancement emerge. By looking beyond enrollment and credential completion, the project will help identify where education-to-career pathways are working, where they are falling short and how they can be strengthened to support greater career mobility.

This quarter, UNITE-LA highlighted a critical challenge facing California's workforce development system: turning investments in career-connected learning into consistent, high-quality work-based learning opportunities for young people requires stronger coordination among employers, educators and workforce partners. In a CalMatters commentary, UNITE-LA President Alysia Bell outlined the need for stronger regional coordination around employer engagement, sustainable funding for paid experiences and better connections between education and employment. A new $500,000 award from the ECMC Foundation gives UNITE-LA an opportunity to help address these systemic barriers and put many of these ideas into action by building the foundation for a more coordinated statewide approach to high-quality work-based learning.