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Home My WebLink About20191275.tiffRESOLUTION RE: APPROVE STATE YOUTH COUNCIL (SYC) INNOVATION GRANT APPLICATION AND AUTHORIZE DIRECTOR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES TO SIGN AND SUBMIT ELECTRONICALLY WHEREAS, the Board of County Commissioners of Weld County, Colorado, pursuant to Colorado statute and the Weld County Home Rule Charter, is vested with the authority of administering the affairs of Weld County, Colorado, and WHEREAS, the Board has been presented with a State Youth Council (SYC) Innovation Grant Application from the County of Weld, State of Colorado, by and through the Board of County Commissioners of Weld County, on behalf of the Department of Human Services, Weld County Employment Services, to the Colorado Workforce Development Council (CWDC), Colorado State Youth Council, commencing April 1, 2019, and ending December 31, 2019, with further terms and conditions being as stated in said application, and WHEREAS, after review, the Board deems it advisable to approve said application, a copy of which is attached hereto and incorporated herein by reference. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Board of County Commissioners of Weld County, Colorado, that the State Youth Council (SYC) Innovation Grant Application from the County of Weld, State of Colorado, by and through the Board of County Commissioners of Weld County, on behalf of the Department of Human Services, Weld County Employment Services, to the Colorado Workforce Development Council (CWDC), Colorado State Youth Council, be, and hereby is, approved. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED by the Board that the Director of the Department of Human Services, be, and hereby is, authorized to sign said application and submit electronically. The above and foregoing Resolution was, on motion duly made and seconded, adopted by the following vote on the 1st day of April, A.D., 2019. ATTEST:d�2 J jeido;lik Weld County Clerk to the Board Mi a Freeman, Pro-Tem BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS W D COUNTY, COLD DO h i r ounty At orney Date of signature: y/2/Iq rbara Kirkmeyer, „-ems Steve Moreno CC ; NSO, PC1(jcice) 2019-1275 H R0090 PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM DATE: March 27, 2019 TO: Board of County Commissioners — Pass -Around FR: Judy A. Griego, Director, Human Services RE: Employment Services' Submission of Colorado Workforce Development Council's State Youth Council Innovation Grant Application Please review and indicate if you would like a work session prior to placing this item on the Board's agenda. Request Board Approval of the Department's Employment Services' Submission of Colorado Workforce Development Council's (CWDC) State Youth Council (SYC) Innovation Grant Application. The State Youth Council (SYC) is offering grants for innovative projects that support youth/young adults in Colorado, and how they can best receive training, education, and workforce assistance through the workforce development system. Employment Services is currently developing a program tied to House Bill 18-1319, which aims at providing guidance and support for former foster care youth, 18-21 years of age, to become self-sufficient adults. If awarded, the grant funding will be utilized for outreach efforts of this program, which directly aligns with SYC's objective for the grant opportunity. The deadline for online submission of the grant application is April 1, 2019. The maximum award amount for any local organization is $4,500.00, with a spending deadline of December 31, 2019. I do not recommend a Work Session. I recommend approval for Director to sign the application and submission of the grant application online. Sean P. Conway Mike Freeman, Pro -Tern Scott K. James Barbara Kirkmeyer, Chair Steve Moreno Approve Recommendation Work Session Schedule Other/Comments: 2019-1275 Pass -Around Memorandum; March 27, 2019 — Not in CMS 41t Page 1 l.kR to Al Colorado Workforce Development Council _„iiivaihk Colorado State Youth Council State Youth Council Innovation Grant Application Table of Contents: A. Application a. General Information b. Application Questions B. Budget Narrative C. Signature The following required documentation shall be sent to cdle cwdc svc@state.co.us: • Completed application and budget narrative A. Application GENERAL INFORMATION: Organization name: Employment Services of Weld County Amount of funding requested: $4,500.00 Who is the primary contact/submitter for this application? Name: Karina Amaya Title: Youth and Adult Programs Manager Organization: Employment Services of Weld County Email address: kamaya@weldgov.com Phone: 970-400-6763 Colorado Workforce Development Council Colorado State Youth Council APPLICATION QUESTIONS: Please provide a thorough description that addresses each item below. 1. Please provide a detailed overview of your organization including your goals, mission statement, ties to the State Youth Council and any major accomplishments in the youth workforce development space. Employment Services of Weld County (ESWC is a comprehensive America's Job Center for Weld County. Our mission is" to keep the workforce system responsive to employers, employees, and job seekers." ESWC's vision and goals, in collaboration with our workforce system partners, is to develop and operate employment and training programs in innovative, adaptive and customer driven ways that are: • Understandable to our customers and easy to use • Administered locally • Focused on outcomes and performance • Supportive to individual's growth to become productive employees • Flexible and pro -active in changing resources to meet customer needs ESWC, with oversight provided by the Weld County Board of Commissioners and the Weld County Workforce Development Board, has effectively operated and administered a wide variety of employment and training programs for approximately 40 years. ESWC focuses on aligning program services with local and regional labor market needs, as well as on providing quality, customer -driven employment and training programs and services to business owners, job seekers and other stakeholders. Dating back to the early 1990's ESWC has had a robust youth services team which focuses services and programs working with opportunity youth while also focusing on the needs of the local area. In 2014 when WIOA mandated a focus for serving a higher percentage of out -of - school youth, ESWC did not face any challenges as this had always been our focus. Through these efforts ESWC developed several state and nationally recognized programs to assist youth. ESWC has been recognized numerous times by the Colorado Workforce Development Council, Colorado State Youth Council, and the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment for our innovative youth programs. At several Think Big and Rocky Mountain Workforce Development Association conferences ESWC received recognition for our locally developed best practices focusing on the needs of youth in our community. Multiple programs have been developed targeting locally identified needs such as: Pillars of Successful Independence (PSI), Gee Whiz Health Camp, Weld Works 4 Youth, TIGHT (Teamwork, Innovation, Growth, Hope and Training) Youth Corps, and our focus on developing career pathways. The PSI program was developed in 2007 to fill a void for youth ages 13-1/2 to 15 years of age that are in foster care or kinship placement. It was anticipated that youth served through the PSI program would benefit from the four (4) major aspects of the program; Education, Life Skills, Social Skills, and Employment. These are referred to as the "Pillars of Successful Independence". The youth would then experience a smoother transition into the Chafee Program (if youth chooses to enter Chafee Program), and as a result wil have a smoother transition from Chafee to independence/emancipation from foster or kinship care. The Weld Works 4 Youth program provides summer employment and life skills workshops to youth ages 14-15. The youth are determined eligible by receiving one of the following services: food stamps, TANF, Medicaid, placed in foster care, adopted in the past six months, or receiving services through the Weld County Department of Human Services Prevention Colorado Workforce v Development Council ,A Colorado State Youth Council programs. During the summer of 2018, this program enrolled 53 youth throughout Weld County. All youth were placed on a worksite in the community and learned basic work ethic and work maturity skills while earning minimum wage throughout the months of June and July. Workshops covering topics including: financial literacy, soft skills, conflict resolution, healthcare career exploration (through a collaborative effort with Aims Community College), job readiness (resume/interviewing skills), drop -out prevention/community educational resources, and healthy relationships were offered weekly. Youth attending workshops received an hourly bonus. All youth successfully completed their summer work experience. The TIGHT Youth Corps was developed in 2003 and is a collaborative effort between Employment Services and Child Welfare (several of which are in the foster care system). This program works with adjudicated youth and is structured to hopefully delay or eliminate the need for out -of -home placement. TIGHT members are generally between the ages of 15-17 and work on their education and community projects while enrolled in the program. The members also work on leadership skills and learn how to be positive members throughout the community. Throughout PY17, the WIOA Youth Case Managers enrolled and provided services to 218 youth ages 16-24. These youth received services such as resume preparation, interviewing skills, job search, paid work experience, on-the-job training, and apprenticeship opportunities. Colorado Workforce Development Council Colorado State Youth Council 2. Explain how you will utilize the grant funding to support a project involving at least one of the below topics: a. Increasing youth voice in workforce development programs and initiatives, b. Awareness building of the need for workforce and education programming for vulnerable or underserved youth sub -populations, c. Business engagement, career pathways and/or work -based learning opportunities for all youth. ESWC intends to utilize the funding from this grant to support the start-up and further set the foundation for Weld County's efforts under Colorado HB 18-1319. Funding will allow us to develop the awareness materials to promote services to the vulnerable populations of current and former foster youth ages 18-21 and promote their engagement and connection to various career pathways and work -based learning opportunities. In Weld County, the WIOA Youth Program and Chafee program have a long-standing relationship of collaboration and working well together to serve youth placed in foster care. Over the past six months, managers from the WIOA Youth Program and Chafee program have worked together to develop a program under the legislation of House Bill 18-1319. This House Bill focuses on the extension of services to the targeted population 18-21 former foster care youth to assist and enable them to become self-sufficient adults. The program will focus on assisting this specific population that may be facing challenges and are need of services and/or referrals to resources in the community to assist with education, employment, financial management, housing, mental healthcare, and substance abuse prevention. When a former foster care youth is referred to the program or is reaching out for assistance, a coach will meet with the individual to assess their specific needs and determine the severity of each need. The coach will refer the individual to internal resources or to agencies in the community to assist them with meeting their needs. Colorado Workforce Development Council Colorado State Youth Council 3. Outline how the program that will be supported with this grant — the implementation and timeframe and explain how it will be strongly tied to the SYC. This grant will allow staff to continue with the process of marketing and developing materials for outreach and recruitment which will assist with the implementation of this program. When funds are received in May 2019, staff will be able to spend time researching names for the program as well as developing a logo. Once this is complete, the process of creating flyers and brochures can begin which will assist with marketing, advertisement, outreach, and recruitment. The flyers and brochures will include the Colorado Workforce Development Council — Colorado State Youth Council logo and state they were created using this funding. The Weld County Government Facebook page will be used to promote the program as well as other uses of social media. Staff will have the ability to meet with agencies in the community that work specifically with individuals ages 18-21 to explain the program and determine how referrals can be made. The projects listed above will be complete by November 30, 2019. In February 2019, the Youth Committee under the Weld County Workforce Development Board held a meeting and discussed the Strategic Plan of the State Youth Council. Reviewing the three priorities, the committee determined it could best align with strategic priority three. With the Youth Committee aligning with priority three, the youth programs (including the creation of the program under House Bill 18-1319) will be strongly tied to the State Youth Council. Colorado Workforce Development Council Colorado State Youth Council B. Budget Provide a budget narrative to describe how funds will be spent. Be sure to include the amount of funding requested. Employment Services of Weld County is requesting the maximum amount of $4,500.00. The following is a breakdown of how the funds will be utilized: $3,500.00 will be spent on the creation of marketing and outreach materials to include flyers, brochures etc. and will also cover the cost of advertisements. All marketing materials will state the funding was received by the Colorado Workforce Development Council — Colorado State Youth Council and will include the logo. $1,000.00 will cover staff time on the research and creation of marketing efforts and materials. This will also allow staff to meet with community agencies throughout Weld County to complete outreach and recruitment. C. Signature Signature: Date: April 1, 2019 Hello