CAEP
Annual Plan

Produced: Aug 16, 2023, 05:25 PM UTC - By Frank Gerdeman

24 ADVANCE
CONSORTIUM APPROVED

2023-24

Plans & Goals

Executive Summary

Our objectives remain relatively unchanged in that we continue to work on helping adults in our communities meet their career and educational goals while providing the kind of holistic case management and navigation support that increases the likelihood of successful outcomes. An ongoing example of this is that at the consortium level we continue to provide that holistic navigation support even after they enter post-secondary education and training. While our college partners provide academic support, the consortium staff are able to help manage individual pathway plans that include a wider range of services - from financial support (oft en through our WIOA Title I contract) to mental/behavioral health support(thorough a licensing partnership with LTCC and Timely Care) to housing and transportation. These supports are especially important for the majority of our clients who enter post-secondary as part-time students and so oft en don't qualify for the more robust college support usually reserved for full-time students. The impact of that support can be seen in the continued success of clients after enrollment and with our college partners has also started to translate into significant work around credit-for-prior learning which the consortium plays a key role in.

One last note on success and funding impacts. Based on the success of ongoing work with several of our partners, we continue to see increases in contract services from Golden Sierra Job Training Agency and the California Conservation Corps among others,. This allows us to expand services to our general community, those partners targeted populations, and our consortium members. This included securing the GSJTA contract to provide WIOA Title I services for another four years (one of our 22-23 strategies).

Regional Planning Overview

The provision of holistic navigation and case management services remains our communities priority. In addition, we continue to provide access to direct instruction and high school credential programs (including HSE testing), WIOA Title I services through our service delivery subcontract with Golden Sierra Job Training Agency, as well as providing access to supportive and instructional resources for all members - these include Burlington English and EnGen for ESL support, ACT Workkeys, Traitify, NorthStar Digital Literacy and the Essential Skills Program curriculum for general support. Employment outcomes represent a significant amount of our work but the "requirement" of "two years after exit" is somewhat problematic given that we oft en continue to provide holistic case management even aft er someone gets or improves a job. That not only delays measuring that impact but also ignores the value of ongoing support to maintain employment, especially in a mountain resort community with a high percentage of part-time service industry jobs as well as inadequate housing, child-care, or other services. We will continue to expand use of resources, like our integrated case management system to help us monitor and assess program impact and effectiveness.

Maintaining, strengthening, and expanding our community/consortium partnerships will continue to play a critical role in helping us implement the current three-year plan. Well established relationships with the Tahoe Prosperity Center (a basin-wide economic development organization) and JOIN, Inc. (our Nevada partners in WIOA Title I work) ensure we are not operating in an isolated segment of our larger Basin ecosystem. Our outreach to, and integration with, local employers through an ongoing MOA with the Tahoe Chamber continues to allow for increased communication with, and service to, a wide range of employer partners. A similar relationship with the Alpine County Economic Development Advisory Committee helps us stay connected to our rural neighbor and consortium member to our south.


Meeting Regional Needs

Regional Need #1

Gaps in Service / Regional Needs

Even as we continue to emerge from the most stringent impacts of COVID, affordable workforce housing remains far and away the single biggest need while access to affordable, and flexible, child-care services remains a challenge. The former is being worked on at several levels and our consortium remains partnered with the largest potential development to bring on-site services and support to residents and the community once the project is completed (phase I, or 68 of the 248 units at Sugar Pine Village should open for occupancy in or around May 2024). We are also working on partner and advocacy efforts to increase wages for child care professionals through credit for prior learning, apprenticeship, and employer relationships. Access to behavioral/mental health support is another gap - local providers have limited capacity and most currently have 3-6 month waitlists for services. By working with our consortium college partner, we continue to expand access to on-demand and scheduled sessions through the use of TimelyCare. One of the most notable educational gaps remains access to a broad, and more flexible range of options for improving English language proficiency though we believe we have built some new partnerships to increase the amount of locally (and virtually) available in-person instruction.

How do you know? What resources did you use to identify these gaps?

The above gaps were identified through a variety of methods - local surveys/interviews (with client/students, prospective learners, partners, service providers), consortium license access to LMI and census tract data though LightCast and CollegeAPP, and in partnership with ongoing projects and partners in the Tahoe basin including the Tahoe Chamber of Commerce and the Tahoe Prosperity Center. The former provides us a unique communication channel directly to many of the South Shore's employers and the latter continues to provide meaningful data and information through the Envision Tahoe project and playbook.

How will you measure effectiveness / progress towards meeting this need?

Using the metrics identified in the three year plan, and on subsequent sections of this annual plan, the consortium will evaluate impact and continue to dig deeper into data that we generate locally and which we believe will provide meaningful insights on our continued work. One critical, and innovative, way we do this is through the alignment of systems across members and partners through CPS and PairIn. This system allows us to combine records across adult education, higher education, and even workforce development in ways that are more challenging at the state level. For example, this allows us to look at any single student record (or group/cohort records if needed) and see post-secondary transition, ongoing navigation support provided by consortium staff , course enrollment/completion, access to WIOA Title I support, and even degree and certificate completions. This robust and integrated system means we can get fairly timely and accurate feedback on what impact services, programs, supports, etc. have on outcomes that matter most in the lives of our clients/students (think employment, improved employment, post-secondary success, not just enrollment). In addition, this program year will see us integrate the client-facing component (My Journey) into this system so that clients will ahve access to their own education, training, services information for more self-advocacy and decision making.

Address Educational Needs

2023-24 Strategies

Support launch of, and enrollment in, regionally important industry sector education/trainings.

Activity that Applies to this Strategy

Incubation of industry training/certification

Metrics that Apply to this Activity/Strategy

  • All: Number of Adults Served (AE 200 - Overall)
  • Success: Participants Who Earn a Postsecondary Credential (AE 625 - Overall)
  • Transition: Participants with Transition to Postsecondary (CTE) (AE 636 - Overall)

Because of our structure, the consortium (ADVANCE) remains able to rapidly design and deploy trainings, supports, and services to meet the changing needs of our local business partners. Using our access to the broad range of locally relevant data (e.g.,LightCast, CollegeAPP, etc.) we can identify potential areas of need and confirm with local partners. Once we have designed the offering, the consortium can operate it while our local college partner walks the (now) vetted and proven course (class, bootcamp, etc.) though the governance structure which enables long term financial support and allows the consortium to begin incubation to meet that next need.

A primary focus for PY 2023-24 will be to continue to provide navigation and other support for the new LTCC Forestry Program, specifically (Foundational SKills Certificate, Certificate of Achievement, and Forestry AA and AA/T). Our strategy last year saw the awarding of 20+ Foundational Skills Certs (exceeding our original goal of 10), four (4) Certificates of Achievement and even one AA degree. Additional work this year will include co-creating content with our partners at EnGen to build resources that support English language learners in acquiring language skills in the specific context of Forestry education and careers (this will be the first of it's kind in the US in not beyond).. 


Expand access to meaningful and relevant high school/post-secondary credentials.

Activity that Applies to this Strategy

Competency-Based High School Credentials

Metrics that Apply to this Activity/Strategy

  • All: Number of Adults Served (AE 200 - Overall)
  • Student Barriers: English Language Learner (AE 305 - Overall)
  • Student Barriers: Low Income (AE 310 - Overall)
  • Success: Participants Who Earn a High School Diploma or Equivalency (AE 633 - Overall)

Expand use of competency-based graduation requirements for adults seeking a high school credential, specifically those working toward a diploma. This builds of the ongoing work from the previous three-year plan. We also expect to see this approach integrated into the work our member, EDCOE, does here in South Lake Tahoe with the County jail. In addition, we will use processes and resources from this work to assist our community college member (LTCC) in their ongoing implementation of credit for prior learning. This will build on the successes of last year when over 220 quarter units were awarded to 28 unique individuals in 20 courses spread over five (5) disciplines. This CPL approach also played a significant role in individuals earning a total of over 20 Foundational Skills Certificates, Certificates of Achievement (4) and one AA in Forestry.

Improve Integration of Services & Transitions

2023-24 Strategies

Pathway Planning - Case Management

Activity that Applies to this Strategy

Intensive, pro-active navigation/case-management

Metrics that Apply to this Activity/Strategy

  • All: Number of Adults Served (AE 200 - Overall)
  • Student Barriers: English Language Learner (AE 305 - Overall)
  • Success: Participants Who Earn a High School Diploma or Equivalency (AE 633 - Overall)
  • Success: Participants Who Earn a Postsecondary Credential (AE 625 - Overall)
  • Transition: Participants with Transition to Postsecondary (CTE) (AE 636 - Overall)
  • Transition: Participants with Transition to Postsecondary (credit college) (AE 637 - Overall)

This remains the core of what we bring to our clients/students and our community. The ability to ensure an individuals pathway plan is personalized increases successful progress on, and completion of, their goal(s). By selecting, organizing, even sequencing the resources, services, supports, etc. that any individual needs to be successful we are able to avoid the pitfalls often associated with one size (or limited sizes) fits all. It means making sure we look at all available resources - not only from local partners/providers but also those at the state, regional, national, even global levels to be able to meet the unique needs, in unique ways, because no two people, even with the same goal, will "fit" in the exact same plan.

Continued refinement of existing (and nationally-recognized) processes and approaches among partner agencies, and consortium members will inform/enhance all efforts with our clients and better meet the intent of Guided Pathways and CPL initiatives.

Improve Effectiveness of Services

2023-24 Strategies

Continued refinement of Personal Pathways Plan(s)

Activity that Applies to this Strategy

Intensive, pro-active navigation/case-management

Metrics that Apply to this Activity/Strategy

  • All: Number of Adults Served (AE 200 - Overall)
  • Student Barriers: English Language Learner (AE 305 - Overall)
  • Success: Participants Who Earn a High School Diploma or Equivalency (AE 633 - Overall)
  • Success: Participants Who Earn a Postsecondary Credential (AE 625 - Overall)
  • Transition: Participants with Transition to Postsecondary (CTE) (AE 636 - Overall)
  • Transition: Participants with Transition to Postsecondary (credit college) (AE 637 - Overall)

This will include the addition of the client-facing component , (My Journey)with our holistic case management and record/data system (My Professional Center, formerly, Community Pro Suite). Not only will this give clients access to comprehensive information, documents, and information about their ongoing work with the consortium (and beyond) but also allow them to interact with their information and the system in a way that recognizes the fluidity of their lives, outcomes, and needs.

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.

As stated previously, our unique structure, where much of the work is done by the consortium, on behalf of the consortium, members, and the community, means that we are more consistently aligned to the annual plan than other consortia may be. Staffing for our intensive case management services, supporting the personalized needs and education/career goals of our clients/students remains the largest single expenditure and we were able to add a fourth full-time Navigator (bi-lingual) to the team in 22-23. Our structure/approach also assists with full alignment of spending/budget with the annual plan, the three-year plan, and ultimately, the consortium vision in serving our local community.

An approach to incorporating remaining carry-over funds from prior year(s) into strategies planned for 2023-24.

Carry-over funds will continue to be used for one time expenses that have longer term impact on program impact and effectiveness. This may be equipment, temporary staffing for new or pilot programs as we explore the sustainability of new offerings, or other needs that arise over the course of the program year. We have continued to decrease the amount of carry-over each of the past few years and expect that to continue as our program matures and operational costs become more predictable.

Certification

Alpine County Unified - Member Representative

Approved by Ken Burkhart

08/10/2023 03:43 PM PDT

El Dorado Co. Office of Education - Member Representative

Approved by Carey Buchanan

08/10/2023 03:48 PM PDT

Lake Tahoe CCD - Member Representative

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

08/16/2023 10:25 AM PDT

Lake Tahoe Unified - Member Representative

Approved by Frank Gerdeman

08/16/2023 10:24 AM PDT