Local Governance & Sectors Subcommittee Regions recommendation

Bottom lines: Regions –Are required for the state to receive funding ▫ Are identified by the state after consulting with local boards and chief elected officials ▫ Must be included in the state plan ▫ Must be formalized via in regional planning Regions do not replace local areas, nor the authority of local boards States must have a “regions policy” ▫ Proposed § (b) - the Governor must develop a policy for designation of a region prior to submission of the State Unified or Combined Plan, in order to receive WIOA title I-B adult, dislocated worker, and youth allotments. States must have a “regions policy”

Governor’s Charge In addition to… “Help more people find and keep jobs that lead to economic self-sufficiency, with a focus on disadvantaged populations. Close skill gaps for employers, with a focus on in-demand industry sectors and occupations. Work together as a single, seamless team to make this happen… …Provide a data-driven evaluation and recommendation for planning regions in consultation with chief elected officials, local workforce development boards, and stakeholders, including our partner in the workforce systems in Oregon and Idaho”

TasksAprilMayJuneJulyAugSeptOctNov Send letter to solicit local input on regions Done Hosted a webinar Done Reviewed feedback Done Develop regions policy Recommend regions based on policy Solicit feedback on regions recommendation Recommend regions to WTECB Regions built into state plan Provide local plan guidance Regions timeline

The vision § “purpose of requiring States to identify regions”: align workforce development resources to regional economies to ensure coordinated and efficient services to both job seekers and employers. ensure that training and Employment Services support economic growth and related employment opportunities and are meeting the skill competency requirements of the regions. facilitate alignment of workforce development activities with regional economic development activities, and better supports the execution and implementation of sector strategies and career pathways. may lower costs and increase the effectiveness of service delivery to businesses that span more than one local workforce development area within a region and to job seekers through coordination of shared services, processes, and operations. States encouraged to identify any performance, fiscal, or planning challenges and to ensure that local and regional planning areas are aligned to support improved service delivery, improved training and employment outcomes, better meet employer needs, and greater effectiveness and efficiency in achieving these outcomes.

 All respondents support regional planning to:  Meet needs beyond the means of a single WDC,  Bring in additional resources  Effectively serve industry sectors and/or key populations (like veterans)  Leverage and collaborate.  Lots of examples of regional collaboration in WA, mostly related to specific grants and projects  Eleven of 12 local areas asked to be identified as their own regions. Feedback from input letter

Economic development district boundaries Existing economies and labor markets. Commuting data What is in the sample maps support the Act’s focus on aligning workforce development closely with economic development Labor market data Sector strategies (key industries) Labor market areas and regional economic development areas  Organizational capacity & substantive impact - the expectation that it will meet the needs of employers and job seekers. Ground level intelligence  Relationships drive cooperation and innovation  Factors will vary by area Factors for identification of regions

 What gets in the way of achieving the vision?  What are the barriers?  What would it take for us to mitigate those barriers?  How could we add value to regional planning and coordination? The big questions

 The administrative burden related to  The physical act of planning  Managing governance issues and questions  Aligning local policies and efforts  The size of planning regions  For rural areas, distances between population areas, the need and cost of travel - oversized region may produce diminishing returns.  For urban areas the complexity of meeting the needs of diverse populations and sub- economies  Loss of flexibility  Mandated regional plan partners versus creating tactical alignments based on changing needs.  Partnering with different regions for different reasons –  e.g. South Central may partner with North Central and Eastern to address the needs of food processors, but may align with Hood River and The Dalles Oregon for to create a an effective service delivery strategy. Challenges identified by local areas

 Provide state level support for bi-state planning regions  Figure out a way for the “single regional plan” required by WIOA to be the only plan an local area in a region submits  Phase implementation  e.g. Allow for progress along a continuum  e.g. Allow local areas to focus on those areas they are most ready to align first  Other? Opportunities to mitigate challenges

Local Governance & Sectors Subcommittee Sectors recommendation

 The steering committee has approved a framework  Guiding principles  A process and criteria for the targeting sectors  Common definitions  What’s missing – a way to know if sectors are making a difference… Where we’ve been

 Creating a new measure(s)  Challenge – the outcomes of sectors are the same as those for other workforce development activities  Did participants get and keep jobs  Did they get, replace or increase wages  Are the businesses and job seekers satisfied with their services  Parse data in existing performance measure system  Challenges  there is no clean way to attribute performance outcomes to sector strategies  There is no common approach to the implementation of sectors Options considered

 Sectors strategies are about process  Sector strategies employ a variety of employer and job seekers services  Sectors strategies a localized activity  Sector strategies are about learning and continuous improvement Therefore, take a process improvement approach to sectors:  Define  Standardize  Learn/share/innovate Committee conclusions

 Charge a taskforce with developing a sectors rubric to include in the state plan.  Ask locals to use the rubric to as part of regional/local planning to clarify:  Where they are in the implementation of sector strategies  Identify next steps  Report anticipated and actual outcomes and identify best practices  Provide training to local practitioners Recommendation