In March, UNITE-LA held a kickoff planning session to develop a proposal for California's K16 Regional Collaborative grant program.

More than two dozen stakeholders attended, representing LAUSD, LACOE, all five CSUs in L.A. County, UCLA, LACCD, the L.A. Regional Consortia of community colleges, and workforce boards. The goal of the K16 Regional Collaborative grant program is to create or strengthen equity-centered, high-quality programs from K-12 into career, with practices that streamline transitions between systems, provide accelerated and work-based learning, and augment holistic support. L.A. County's proposal will focus on streamlining pathways into occupations related to the health sector, engineering and information technology. UNITE-LA is leading the development for a potential $20 million regional proposal over four years.