Last month, the City of Los Angeles Economic & Workforce Development Department (EWDD) and the L.A. Opportunity Youth Collaborative (OYC) held the third Horizons 32K Stewardship Board meeting.

The Los Angeles Digital Equity Action League (LA DEAL), convened by UNITE-LA and the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC), team members recently collaborated with 15 organizations from throughout Los Angeles County at the Jackie Robinson Community Center to help more than 400 residents affected by the recent wildfires by distributing free laptops and internet access as part of a major relief effort.

UNITE-LA, in partnership with LAUNCH LA and the Southern California Apprenticeship Network, recently concluded a four-part webinar series on apprenticeships. The series was designed to support small, nonprofit organizations looking to engage in apprenticeships by providing all the information they need to successfully enter this space. Looking ahead, we will launch a community-based organization (CBO) bootcamp in May, which will provide technical support to all who sign up to establish their own apprenticeship programs. Register here to get signed up! If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Amber Chatman.

In March, the Los Angeles Digital Equity Action League (LA DEAL) team led a breakout session during the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation's (LAEDC's) 88 Cities Summit, "Empowering the Workforce of Tomorrow and Creating Digital Opportunities: Youth, Broadband and the Digital Economy in Los Angeles County." The panel featured two catalytic projects, Gateway Cities Council of Governments 25 Cities Fiber Connect Project and Destination Crenshaw, a project empowering broadband in the Crenshaw Corridor, led by Jason Foster, a UNITE-LA board member. Destination Crenshaw received $25 million from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) Federal Funding Award to build out a network to serve community businesses and residents.

In early March, UNITE-LA supported the L.A. Region K-16 Collaborative's South Bay Subregion in hosting a summit at California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH), which brought together education, workforce and community leaders. The two-day event offered partners an opportunity to tackle systemic barriers in college and career pathways in the region. To start the summit, Dr. Thomas Parham, CSUDH president, and UNITE-LA's president, Alysia Bell, echoed the goals and strategies of the L.A. Region K-16 Collaborative by highlighting the need for institutions to close disconnections among families, schools and employers to support student success. Discussions centered on expanding work-based learning (WBL), increasing dual enrollment access and addressing equity gaps in health care and technical fields.

Last month, the Los Angeles Digital Equity Action League (LA DEAL), convened by UNITE-LA and the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC), hosted a Broadband Leaders convening for 10 municipal leaders from across L.A. County, providing a technical training session on permitting through the California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF) Learning Community.

UNITE-LA’s Workforce Systems Team worked with the Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) on a research study for the past year to assess the full cost needs of youth workforce programs in Los Angeles.

In February, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Community Schools Steering Committee (CSSC) finalized the selection and designation of seven schools to join Cohort 6 of the Community Schools Initiative (CSI). These seven schools will join the 63 existing community schools, bringing the LAUSD CSI expansion goal of 70 community schools by the 2025-26 year to fruition! This follows UNITE-LA's efforts to co-create solutions and lead efforts in school recruitment, application revisions, creation of a scoring rubric aligned with the state’s Community Schools Framework, volunteer scorer trainings and the comprehensive scoring of completed applications to guide the CSSC in selecting the seven schools between August and December 2024.

Last month, the L.A. Opportunity Youth Collaborative (OYC), which is co-led by the Alliance for Children’s Rights and UNITE-LA, presented at the City of L.A.'s Workforce Development Board (WDB) Youth Council meeting on the Horizons 32K Strategic Plan.

UNITE-LA is aligning and transforming public systems to achieve education and equity in the L.A. region. Our Systems Change team put together a snapshot of the incredible work done in 2024. Take a look!