In early October, UNITE-LA’s leadership participated in California Forward and the California Stewardship Network’s annual California Economic Summit, speaking on two panels, reconnecting with current partners, meeting new leaders from across the state, and hearing from state leadership, including a surprise appearance by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The Summit has served as a powerful catalyst of action, moving policies forward that are responsive to today's challenges that help all Californians share in the prosperity of the state.

Alysia Bell, president of UNITE-LA, co-chair of the California Stewardship Network executive committee and member of the California Forward Leadership Council, moderated a substantive session on how cross-sector leaders leverage partnerships for high-mobility careers in the new economy. She was joined by panelists: Eloy Oakley, College Futures Foundation president and CEO; Kaina Pereira, California Workforce Development Board executive director; Cesar Lara, California Labor Federation director of workforce and economic development; Natalie Miller, Apprenti regional director; and David Silver, California Volunteer Fund director of workforce. They shared different opportunities for preparing and connecting Californians for work in high-growth, high-mobility careers, including the High Road Training Partnerships, apprenticeships, the California Community College systems and California Volunteer program, as well as the work needed to align the education and workforce system under the state’s first Career Education Masterplan.

Bell also presented on a panel that discussed the development of evolution and need to integrate the L.A. Region K-16 Collaborative and California Jobs First state programs. In Los Angeles, UNITE-LA, as the convener of the L.A. Region K-16 Collaborative, and L.A. County Economic Development Corporation, as the convener of the California Jobs First initiative, had begun thinking about how to integrate the work.

Amy Cortina, SVP of Strategic Partnerships for UNITE-LA, served on a panel with Claudia Sanchez of the California Public Utilities Commission, Patrick Messac of Oakland Undivided and Tahra Goraya of Monterey Bay Economic Partnership to highlight opportunities and explore resources and strategies to ensure successful engagement across digital equity priorities as California’s State Digital Equity Plan (of which UNITE-LA contributed to the development last year) enters the implementation phase. As the co-convener of the Los Angeles Digital Equity Action League (LA DEAL), L.A. County’s Regional Broadband Consortium, UNITE-LA called for the California Public Utilities Commission to remove restrictions that prevent Regional Broadband Consortia from supporting their communities in accessing historic federal digital equity funding being released now through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program.