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Community Planning Grants
On April 24, 2006 the Youth Council recommended funding for six agencies to complete Community Planning Grants.
The purpose of these grants is to:
– Use recommendations for funding, planning and policy purposes.
– See an increase in leveraged resources in order to expand the number of youth who receive workforce and career services.
– See the development of partnerships that lead to innovative program designs. So that or resources are better utilized.
– Share information and increased coordination driven by the community.
– Improve the image of the Workforce Partnership as a true “partner” in the community.
– Increase awareness and deepened understanding about the workforce needs of youth.
Planning Processes
All grantees used different approaches, however, there were some commonalities including:
– Most of the groups were existing collaborative bodies that had been meeting over a period of time, with the exception of June Burnett/Juvenile Justice focus and Comprehensive Training Systems/South County focus.
– There was a range of community stakeholder involvement.
– Youth were involved in each of the planning processes but at varying levels.
– Most planning processes had some type of community event that took place to either gather or share information about services, needs and steps to implement solutions.
– These processes resulted in an increased level of excitement, awareness and attention to providing career preparation services for youth and a venue for a community response community response.
– All groups have indicated that they will continue to meet to carry out defined action steps even after the planning process is completed.
Recommendations
Common themes in the recommendations include the following:
– Youth, especially low-income youth, need the opportunity to earn money and other types of financial incentives.
– More opportunities for internships are needed and could be structured as opportunities for career mentorship with adult professionals.
– Community service projects including volunteering need to be offered as an opportunity for skill development as well as to assist youth to be positively invested in their community and move towards become neighborhood stewards.
– Youth need help to be supported in thinking about and setting long-term goals through creative means. This is critical so that youth can see that there is success and hope in their own future.
– Peer influence is a central part of successful programming and creating more activities that support a high level of peer involvement is needed.
– Overall there is not a lack of services. More of an issue is for those with the least amount of financial resources who are the ones not taking advantage of those services. Specific opportunities need to be fostered for this population through community wide efforts and supports.
– Among youth, service providers, schools, parents, and businesses there is a huge lack of knowledge about services that already exist - more opportunities for information dissemination is needed including written, technology-based and face-to-face.
– Parental support and involvement is key to helping youth achieve educational success and taking advantage of other types of opportunities.
– More outreach to schools is needed to bring career awareness activities into local high schools. There were ideas for intensive services as well as one time or shallow services.
– The use of technology was common in many of the recommendations. Using technology to share information, market to youth and provide youth access to information.
– There is a need to provide infrastructure to organize services and coordination regionally either through regional coordinators and or other types of methods to support the capacity of stakeholders.
Next Steps
Specific actions and next steps have been developed by each of the planning groups including the following:
Escondido Youth Opportunities/ Escondido Education COMPACT/Escondido Workforce Development Roundtable:
– The recommendations will be presented to the Escondido City Council.
– All future Roundtable agendas will include a standing item focused on continued support of the recommendations.
– A marketing campaign has begun to gain business and community support for the creation of an Escondido Youth Opportunities website. This effort is being lead by the Student Advisory Council who were instrumental in carrying out the tasks of the planning grant.
– As a result of this planning grant project, an opportunity has presented itself for the Student Advisory Council to have input on another issue effecting youth success: transportation. In collaboration with SANDAG, the Council will help to solicit feedback from high school and college age youth as part of SANDAG’s community input process.
Click Here for Presentation
Contact Information:
Patty Huerta
(760) 839-4515
phuerta@ci.escondido.ca.us
El Cajon Career Development Network/El Cajon Collaborative:
– A campaign will be developed to bring workforce resources to schools.
– Recommendations will be presented to the El Cajon City Council, School Board and Chamber of Commerce.
– A marking strategy for the entire community will be developed to emphasize awareness and responsibility of the community to address workforce needs of 14-21 year old youth.
– Commitment cards at the Community Forum indicate that there is interest in continuing efforts even without funding. Click Here for Presentation
Contact Information:
JoAnne Bushby
(619) 579-1191 voice
(619) 334-9570 fax
jvrbushby@cox.net
Linda Vista Youth Action Team/Bayside Community Center:
– A Family Center at Montgomery Middle School is being created. This will be a One Stop Center for parents of middle and high school youth to connect them to the schools and opportunities for their students. Resources will focus on a variety of direct support to the family.
– USD will be working with the Middle and Kearny High School to offer campus tours.
– The collaborative will begin to look for grants to bring additional resources for parents and the youth in Linda Vista. Click Here for Presentation
Contact Information:
Grover Diemert
(858) 278-0771
grover@baysidecc.org
Metro Youth Collaborative/ACCESS, Inc:
– The Collaborative plans to look into hiring a Metro Youth Collaborative Coordinator to keep all the organizations connected.
– The Collaborative plans to expand the idea of partnering youth with local college students to do service activities.
– The Collaborative is committed to continuing to look into how to implement the results their research. Click Here for Presentation
Contact Information:
Sarah Granby
(858) 560-0871 x108
sgranby@access2jobs.org
San Diego Civic Justice Project/June Burnett Institute:
– A resource development plan is being compiled to support the civic justice model.
– Elements of the civic justice model will be implemented into programming currently supported in San Diego’s Comprehensive Strategy. This includes programs funded under the “treatment” category of the Juvenile Justice continuum.
– The concept paper and recommendations will be presented to the Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council in January. Click Here for Presentation
Contact Information:
Benita Page
(619) 594-2814
bpage@projects.sdsu.edu
South County Youth Solutions Collaborative/CTS:
– Collaborative members will develop teams to conduct outreach and “awareness visits” to high schools in order to give information to career technical instructors and create resource boards at each local high school.
– A resource guide will be developed for workforce development services for youth in the South County.
– A promotional brochure will be created for the collaborative and/or they will compile collaborative members promotional materials into one packet to be given to schools and youth serving organizations.
– Quarterly events will occur that could feature guest presenters that would be of interest to providers, employers and to youth. Click Here for Presentation
Contact Information:
Linda Blair-Forth
(619) 424-6650
linda@cts.jobs.org
For more information contact, Kelly Henwood, Director of Youth Programs at kellyh@workforce.org .
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