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CAEP Annual Plan: 2020-21 24 Lake Tahoe Adult Education Consortium

Status: Consortium Approved

California Adult Education Program : Annual Plan : 2020-21 Produced: Aug 14, 2020, 11:20 PM UTC Frank Gerdeman

24 Lake Tahoe Adult Education Consortium

Plans & Goals - Consortium Approved

Executive Summary
ADVANCE continues to work to serve the broad needs of the community and all of the members. This has allowed for: More rapid program incubation and deployment (as in the case of boot camp style offerings in partnership with local industry), local access for programs that support adult learners (as in the case of establishing the first HSE testing center in the community), and providing services that reach across members, sectors, and partners (as in the case of Transition Navigator positions that provide holistic case management and systems navigation support to individuals). We will continue to: Serve as an incubator of programs and services which can transition to other partners better equipped for long-term sustainable delivery, broaden access and support to those community members who are difficult to reach for a number of reasons (including, working multiple jobs, inadequate local housing, language or basic skills gaps), provide outreach and expansion of our work in Alpine County (which includes the Hung A Lel Ti Washoe community), increase opportunities and earlier transition connections with our local corrections populations, provide enhanced opportunities for non-native English speakers, and better serve adults with disabilities. This will include ongoing review and evolution of membership, governance, and processes to ensure all learners in our unique mountain/resort community thrive. Apprenticeship(s) remain an important focus as we restart the Culinary Apprenticeship program, which paused during the early stages of the COVID-19 shutdown, and continue to work on design and implementation of a ski lift maintenance apprenticeship program in collaboration with a number of the 14 ski resorts in the Tahoe Basin. Details on plans to address the impact of the ongoing pandemic, addressing systemic inequality, and budget issues, follows: COVID-19 response - Our structure of robust relationship building remains an essential service and an aspect of our program's approach that has helped our transition to the mostly virtual environment. Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, not all individuals have access or can connect in this virtual setting and to address that, we opened a controllable, off-campus office in May of this year. This allowed us to establish strict protocols for in-person sessions (one-on-one, appointment only) which proved instrumental in helping in-process high school credential students, those struggling with accessing government and philanthropic supports, or needing general assistance to keep families fed and housing intact. This off-site operation will continue to operate, even after our primary offices re-open at some point this year so that we can continue to observe appropriate social distancing and maintain high levels of support. In addition, we are expanding our use of online resources, especially as they can be connected to potential re-training or up-skilling in the face of a hard hit local hospitality/tourism industry. This will include training and support for culinary/hospitality operations in the COVID environment (an extension of existing boot camps and integration into existing industry partnerships).Budget Reductions - Over the last two years, our consortium has been able to add new funding sources through contract work in several areas, including, Federal WIOA Title I and contracted Technical Assistance services with local and regional organizations. that will insulate us, a bit, from fluctuations in CAEP funding. In additional, as will be addressed in the Fiscal management section, carry forward amounts for PY 20-21 will be targeting one-time expenditures that will address not only COVID related needs but also ensure we are providing true equality of access, services and support.Systemic Racial Injustices - because of our focus on individual and personalized services, we believe our structure leans in the direction of addressing this issue. However, that system, and its intent, are not enough so we will ensure that we are measuring the impact and outcomes for BIPOC in regards to access, services received and outcomes achieved. Advocacy for, and piloting of, innovative practices - especially around assessment of prior learning, equivalent experiences, and flexible scheduling/access for working (or displaced working) adults - will be a primary focus in this program year.
Regional Planning Overview
Because we are constantly looking three years out - that is, as we neared the end of PY 2019-20 we began to define and refine the specifics of the PY 2020-21 plan, we also have started to revisit the PY 2021-22 plan, and sketch out the beginnings of PY 22-23, we have built our system to operate in an ongoing 3-year approach. Rolling into the "new" three-year plan is, for us, just another year of evolution and ongoing implementation. Not only does this mean we can more rapidly respond to state requirements around plan submission but we are more attuned to the needs of our learners, industry partners, and community which means we remain more responsive and flexible in a dynamic environment.

Meeting Regional Needs

Regional Need #1

Gaps in Service / Regional Needs
By partnering with local agencies, employers, and even the Workforce Development Board, we have closed many of the critical of the service gaps. What really remains (and the work we continue to focus on) within our community (outside of housing and public transportation - that is, issues we can continue to help address but are outside of our direct control) are gaps in access to those existing and evolving services. With the onset of the pandemic in late winter 2020 and the impact on the local hospitality-tourism economy, we saw a rise and shift in immediate need. Finding employment suddenly became an almost unrealistic goal, at least temporarily, and the need for support in accessing resources for food, shelter, navigating systems (like UI), and physical/mental health became paramount. We expect to see another increase in need for services as the COVID crisis continues and the summer surge in tourism winds down in August. We also expect a significant increase in the need for rapid and ongoing deployment of support and services for re-training and/or up-skilling.
How do you know? What resources did you use to identify these gaps?
Through ongoing review and evaluation at partner/network meetings, work group meetings, participant input/feed and the three-year pre-planning assessment process/tool. in addition, we are able to access zip code specific labor market information (LMI) for all of the communities in the Tahoe Basin, on both sides of the state border. This continues to be critical due to the fluid nature of employment and housing in our tourism-centric region.Because of our network connections with local Chamber, workforce development board(s), employers, and others we get new/updated information almost weekly.
How will you measure effectiveness / progress towards meeting this need?
Effectiveness continues to be measured primarily by participant and community outcomes. This includes completion of high school credentials (HSE and diplomas), access and skill gain in basic skills, especially improving ESL gains, entry to post- secondary education and training and successful completion of same. As mentioned above, we expect a significant increase in the need for re-training and up-skilling as well as continued need for connection to private, local, state, and federal support (especially financial support through philanthropy, UI, etc.). Local "brand" recognition and identification as the leader in transition navigation services for our community as evidenced by student feedback and referral numbers/sources. Determining new metrics for the new environment, especially in regards to systemic racial injustice, is part of the work we will need to complete early in the program year.

Gaps In Service

New Strategies

Strategy #1
Continue to serve as an incubator for new services and industry specific training beyond culinary and hospitality based on LMI and local industry leader input. Because we can rapidly deploy services, our time from design to delivery is relatively short - programs can be researched, designed, and implemented and proven quickly. At that point they "enter" the K-12 or CCC approval process where they can become self-sustaining. Proof of concept is achieved while the community has access to an immediate need while still working through the approval and eventual hand off of programs to the most appropriate educational entity. Of particular focus in this "incubation" approach will be focusing on developing services, resources, and tools that explicitly address the needs of BIPOC.

Seamless Transitions

New Strategies

Strategy #1
Continue to work with the Tahoe Chamber and others to increase employer referrals to program services as well as provide on-site transition navigation services to reduce the barriers for working adults to programs. We believe this enhanced connection to employer partners will be especially important as the full impact of the ongoing pandemic ripples through the local hospitality-tourism industry.
Strategy #2
Increase capacity for bi-lingual support from on-boarding through Transition navigation services and goal completion - this was started in the late winter of 2020 and will continue through PY 20-21.
Strategy #3
Leverage existing partnerships and vendor relationships to bring together collaborators for new and/or innovative approaches, tools, and resources - especially between data, data management, and case management.

Student Acceleration

New Strategies

Strategy #1
Expand partner options, especially in the almost completely virtual world of COVID-19 response so clients/learners have as much flexibility in creating a personalized pathway to their goal(s) as possible. This addresses the limitation of only accessing courses/training from the local, site-based entities and creates a broad array of options.
Strategy #2
Related to the strategy above, we will increase our efforts to not only make better use of existing Assessment of Prior Learning -Credit for Prior Learning (APL/CPL) options, regardless of location offered, but will continue to work on advancing a more systemic approach throughout California Community Colleges.
Strategy #3
Expand our earn while you learn strategies. This means restarting our culinary apprenticeship program which was "paused" during the initial COVID-19 shutdown, begin piloting related instruction components of a ski lift maintenance program utilizing courses and expertise from industry as well as multiple college partners, and exploring the possibility of integrating WIOA Title I work with a green jobs/solar installation project in Tahoe.

Professional Development

New Strategies

Strategy #1
Continue to participate in ongoing local opportunities with all community partners that includes bringing subject-mater experts for shared training events to our mountain community. In the past, this has included training on 21st Century employability skills, leadership development aimed at community service and social agency staff, and will include program staff participation in trainings hosted by partner agencies, like Leadership Tahoe through the Tahoe Chamber. In PY 20-21 this will also include training on new and developing systems and services (especially those piloted/created related to APL/CPL and enhanced case management).

Leveraging Resources

New Strategies

Strategy #1
Expand connections between Community Pro Suite (CPS, our case management system) and Tahoe Career Connect (a collaborative between Advance and the Tahoe Prosperity Center) to reduce duplication of efforts and build upon the strengths of each respective vendor/partner. In effect, serving as a "laboratory" that allows current resource partners to explore and pilot new, innovative ways to enhance each other's practices and products.
Strategy #2
Connect WIOA Title I funds - general contract and special grant funding - to existing and new programs, specifically, ski lift maintenance and green jobs/solar as we continue to look at opportunities for re-training adults who have been "displaced" by current (and future) downturns in the hospitality/tourism industries.
Strategy #3
Work to create resources/tools that will build on existing program and partner strengths by connecting vendors with complimentary products and approaches - this will be especially important as we look to shorten the path to certificates and degrees for displaced workers and work to remove systemic barriers to access.

Fiscal Management

A narrative justifying how the planned allocations are consistent with the annual adult education plan which is based on your CAEP 3-year plan.
All allocations are reviewed against the vision/mission of the partnership as well as the 3-year and 1-year plans during the CFAD process and again during the annual planning and budgeting process. This has been challenging at times in the past but as NOVA allows for a more discreet listing of partners (funded and unfunded) this will become even more effective
An approach to incorporating remaining carry-over funds from prior year(s) into strategies planned for 2020-21.
As in previous years, carry forward funds not expended by members revert to the consortium for incorporation into one-time expenses during 2019-20. As mentioned in the executive summary, the majority of these carry forward funds will focus on addressing systemic racial inequalities (including increased bi-lingual capacity) and the impact of COVID-19 (from additional equipment, technology, and PPE to more resources for online and distance learning).

Certification

Alpine County Unified - Member Representative

Approved by Frank Gerdeman

08/14/2020 04:20 PM PDT

El Dorado Co. Office of Education - Member Representative

Approved by Gary Sutherland

08/13/2020 10:18 AM PDT

Lake Tahoe CCD - Member Representative

  • Brad Deeds
  • Dean of Workforce Development and Instruction
  • deeds@ltcc.edu
  • (530) 541-4660 ext: 225
Approved by Brad Deeds

08/13/2020 12:10 PM PDT

Lake Tahoe Unified - Member Representative

Approved by Bob Grant

08/14/2020 10:04 AM PDT