Working With Your Workforce Board Richard Tariff, Director, Adult Programs Suzanne Cimochowski, Assistant Director, Adult Programs

 History of EASTCONN’s workforce board partnerships  The Key  Funding  Program Comparison Example  Our Programs  What Can You Do?  Questions

 1998Welfare to Work program contract  1999TANF case management contract  1999WIA Out of School Youth contract  2006Collaborative WIA Out of School Youth contract  2006Collaborative JFES Intensive contract  2006Subcontractor for TANF case management contract  2009Collaborative Education Refresher contract at CTWorks East

 2009 cont’d21 st Century Customer Service workshop ARRA Summer Youth Program  2010Collaborative Basic Skills Math workshops at CTWorks East  2011Collaborative workshops at CTWorks East: Surviving Tough Times Foundations of Algebra Adult Learners Guide to College Success Foundations of Reading and Writing

 2012CT Conservation Corp  2013JFES I-BEST Pilot with EWIB and Workforce Alliance  2013Storm Sandy National Emergency Grant Subsidized Employment

 The key to successfully working with the WIB is to realize that their needs are very different from our traditional adult education funders – local towns and the SDE.

 From EWIB RFP:  SELECTION OF SERVICE PROVIDERS. No bidder shall receive funds that duplicate services already available in the Eastern CT Workforce Investment Area.  The primary consideration in selecting entities to deliver services shall be the demonstrated effectiveness of that entity in delivering COMPARABLE services based on past performance. Performance factors shall include attainment of performance goals, costs, quality of training, and participant target groups. No bidder shall receive funds that duplicate services already available in the Eastern CT Workforce Investment Area.

 This means we need to look at how we can meet their needs, not how we can fit what we are already doing into what they want.  And it means they are not going to give us additional money for programs that we already offer.

 Their funding often comes from the Department of Labor and not the Department of Education.  DOL focus is employment  SDE focus is education Not mutually exclusive, but different goals and outcomes

ProgramMandated GEDWIA Out of School Youth StaffTeacher Full time case manager ScheduleSchool YearYear round Eligibility17 and older residents17 – 21 with income and additional qualifying barrier requirements OutcomesGEDGED and Employment portfolio Employment, training or military by 1st quarter after exit Credential by 3 rd quarter after exit Follow up after exitNoneQuarterly for three quarters after exit DatabaseCARSCARS and CTWBS

 Workforce Board funding can serve both those with and without a high school diploma  Stipends  Workforce Board funding often is for a very specific population (i.e. JFES, WIA, age sepcific)  Minimum hours/week for some programs  It is possible to combine Workforce Board funding with other funding (i.e. SDE) to serve more adults (i.e. those with a diploma)  They often get new funds during the year (i.e. JFES I-BEST). Once you are their contractor, they can award you new programming without an RFQ process

 Contracts, not grants  Often have reduction in funding midyear  Some programs’ classes can’t be cancelled  Workshops can be cancelled if minimum enrollment isn’t met. If workshop is cancelled, we don’t get paid!  Recruitment  Some have annual monitoring

 Attend your workforce board’s board meetings  Visit their website regularly  Get on their distribution list  Meet with your CTWorks Business Services team member  Find out who else is already collaborating with them

WIA OSY

JFES Intensive

National Emergency Grant (Storm Sandy)

Airline Trail

21 ST Century Customer Service

Education Refresher

Basic Skills Math

Surviving Tough Times

EWIB

Workforce Alliance

 Questions?  Contact information: Rich Tariff Director of Adult Programs Suzanne Cimochowski Assistant Director of Adult Programs