Last month, UNITE-LA was present at the National Skills Coalition’s (NSC) Skills Summit, which is NSC’s largest event of the year bringing together workforce and business advocates from across the country to Washington, D.C.

UNITE-LA supported the May REAL Education and Workforce Development Committee meeting last month, featuring Edgar Cabral, deputy legislative analyst at the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO), who shared an update on the May Budget Revise pertaining to education and workforce budget priorities.

The Policy Team has worked closely with Valley Industry & Commerce Association (VICA) over the last few weeks.

Did you know in 2017, UNITE-LA and Educare partners celebrated the groundbreaking of Educare Los Angeles at Long Beach? This state-of-the-art school serves as a regional hub for early learning professional development, demonstrating how programs can use evidence-based approaches to provide quality early childhood education for low-income families. A dual-language learning program serves as a model for other early childhood programs and connects to related programs in K-12 schools in the Long Beach Unified School District. As an Educare network school, Educare Los Angeles at Long Beach also helps drive change in early childhood policy and practices statewide to increase access to high-quality early education for all children.

As we approach the end of state budget negotiations between Gov. Newsom and state leaders, UNITE-LA has submitted two, separate budget letters to the Governor and legislative leadership.

This month, we are delighted to feature Early Edge California as our ongoing partner in advancing equitable education and literacy access for our youngest learners. Our partnership with them has helped bring together like-minded organizations with the goal of promoting multilingual education that supports Dual Language Learners (DLL) and English Language Learners (ELL).

Together, we have achieved significant milestones, including advocacy for Universal Preschool for all four-year-olds through expanded Transitional Kindergarten (TK) in California. We also celebrated the passage of Assembly Bill 1363 (Rivas), which Early Edge California sponsored, to develop an assets-based standardized process to identify DLLs. Gov. Newsom signed the bill on Oct. 5, 2021, and it was implemented Jan. 1, 2023. Check out Early Edge's video highlighting benefits of the DLL identification process for teachers, children and families.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 23, 2023

MEDIA CONTACT:
Claudine Battisti

UNITE-LA, LOS ANGELES UNIFIED AND UTLA COMMEND HISTORIC STATE INVESTMENT TO EXPAND THE DISTRICT’S COMMUNITY SCHOOLS

In the early 2000s, when L.A. had dismal graduation rates (and Collective Impact wasn't yet a thing), UNITE-LA was inspired by a model being used for Boston's school district - a district that was outperforming all other urban districts in the country when it came to education outcomes for low-income and students of color. Much of it was attributed to a collaborative effort that sought to bring together cross-sector stakeholders to form a common agenda, with shared responsibility for student success.

This month's partner spotlight belongs to the Southern California Center for Nonprofit Management (CNM). Recently, CNM named a new president and CEO, Efrain Escobedo, and UNITE-LA has to admit, we are a bit biased here. Efrain is a dedicated UNITE-LA board member, and was named as Board Vice Chair earlier this year! More than that, he is a fabulous human, with a compassionate heart, outstanding leadership abilities and years of experience that fit his new role perfectly. We are so fortunate to have him on our board, providing thoughtful and steady guidance and inspiration, and we are thrilled for CNM to have him at the helm.

Members of UNITE-LA's Policy Team participated in the California Stewardship Network's (CSN's) inaugural Workgroup Leads Retreat in April to build connections across other work groups and policy areas and identify opportunities for collaboration in preparation for the fall summit.