Workforce Developments

Put on your oxygen mask first in order to help others

This is it, the final Workforce Developments post from the CWA 2008 Spring Conference. As usual, we heard from great speakers, learned good new ideas and new approaches, and connected with all the terrific people doing workforce development in California (and elsewhere). I had a great time in my workshop - hope you all enjoyed the conference too.

This year, CWA members voted to set aside half the funds raised by the end-of-conference raffle, for workforce development lobbying efforts. While that's great news - and I wasn't surprised to learn my workforce development colleagues had done it - I was a little underwhelmed by the amount: $300 for the raffle, of which $150 will go to lobbying. It reminded me of the old bumper sticker: It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber.

Just the day before, Deputy Secretary at the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency, Jaime Fall, told us one of our biggest problems is that not a single member of Congress makes workforce development a priority. They might like the work we do and love their local one-stop, but workforce development comes along number three or four at best. That's why we're underfunded.

We've got to do a better job of promoting ourselves, whether it's online, in print or face-to-face. We may not have tons of money for PR, but we are good advocates for our clients - employers and job seekers alike. Problem is, we can't provide them the services they need if our coffers are drained. It's like when flight attendants say "Put on your own mask before helping the person next to you." If recent events are any indication, we're losing altitude and the oxygen masks have dropped. Advocating for our programs is advocating for our clients, so let's get out there and do it. 

For all the Workforce Development blog posts from the conference, click here. My thanks once again to Racy Ming, manager of the Marin Employment Connection for a stellar blogging job.

Even with two of us blogging, we still couldn't cover all the workshops. The good news is CWA has spiffied up its wiki, and you can find links to the powerpoint presentations, photos and other cool stuff from the conference. You can even add your own text, documents and links. Just click here.

Web 2.0 Survival Guide

On Friday I ran a workshop at the California Workforce Association's 2008 Spring Conference, Web 2.0 Survival Guide. My thanks to everyone who was there, and to those who asked good questions. The full powerpoint presentation is embedded below:

| View | Upload your own

If you don't see it here, just click over to slideshare.net to watch it.

Click here for the handout summarizing the powerpoint presentation, and here for a worksheet walking you through key decisions needed before starting a blog.

Links to all the websites and examples I mentioned can be found on right here on del.icio.us. 

If you start your own web 2.0 site, or start using web 2.0 technology to enhance your workforce development site, please let me know. I'd love to showcase it here on Workforce Developments.

LA's workforce development scorecard

The City of Los Angeles has set a goal of putting more than 100,000 Angelenos to work by mid-2010. How will they do it? Representatives of the Los Angeles

• Workforce Board
• Mayor's office
• Chamber of Commerce and
• local one-stop operator El Proyecto del Barrio

presented the six strategies L.A. is following to meet those goals, in a CWA workshop on Wednesday. To summarize briefly, here are strategies (number of people they aim to put to work through that strategy)

1. Sector-based workforce initiatives (3,930) 
2. Strengthen the region's workforce development system (67,075)
3. Leverage public sector hiring and contracting (8,800)
4. Move youth into self sufficiency (7,600)
5. Transition incumbent workers into living wage jobs (16,900)
6. Job creation (4,810)

L.A.'s a complicated city with complex relationships between all its potential workforce partners. There's also a lot of volume there - lots of workers, job seekers and jobs.  To make these strategies work to achieve their lofty goals, the presenters told how a wide range of partners are beginning to work together in ways they never have before. City departments like the airport administration that have never had workforce goals before, now have them.

Can they all just get along and put 100,000 people to work? Stay tuned to find out.

Image credit: Boyle Heights Youth Technology Center

Surviving an Audit

Nothing strikes fear into the hearts of Americans quite like the word "audit." For individual taxpayers, we have the IRS. For nonprofits and government agencies who receive more than $500,000 in federal funds, we have the A-133 audit.

That is, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-133, based on the Single Audit Act of 1984 (amended in 1996).

Just reading those words, you're already shaking in your boots.

You don't have to be scared, says Zaskia Ruiz-Jones, but you do have to be prepared. She's a former auditor, now Supervising Accounting for the Riverside County Economic Development Agency. Her presentation went over key requirements of the A-133 single audit (that's when they audit both your financials and your programs). Here are some of the key points I took away from her presentation yesterday:

• If you act like you're trying to hide something, the auditor is going to start looking for it. So don't drag your feet, hide from the auditor, act unresponsive to their requests, etc.
• You'll get a list in advance of all the documents the auditor wants to see. Get them ready, look them over, and if you see any potential problems, be ready to answer questions.
• Make a copy of every document you give to the auditor. You don't want things to get lost in the shuffle.
• Make sure you and your staff know how and why certain controls and measures are in place. That means good training throughout the year. It also means reviewing procedures to make sure they're in compliance.
• Read the OMB circulars and regulations for yourself so you can explain your reasons. Another good resource is to talk to colleagues at similar organizations and find out how they do things and what's been judged to be in compliance.
• When the auditor comes, make sure everyone has the same answer for how and why things are done. It's better that everyone has the same wrong answer, than everyone has a different answer.
• The staff who are implementing your controls are generally NOT the staff who get to go to conferences and learn all the latest rules and practices. That means it's imperative that you take back what you learn and use it to train your staff.
• "Because we've always done it that way" is never the right answer.

For ordinary taxpayers out there, last Sunday's Parade magazine had an article with a section called "Don't Worry About Audits." Ruiz-Jones says we shouldn't worry either, but we should be prepared.

California's Prison to Employment Plan

Prisoner reentry is a hot topic in California, given recent legal action, the passage of AB 900 - "The Public Safety and Offender Rehabilitation Services Act of 2007," and the embarrassingly high rate of recidivism.  The "Reintegration of Offenders: Prison to Employment Plan" session at the CWA conference was moderated by Scott Silverman, the Executive Director and founder of the wonderful program in San Diego, Second Chance.  Panelists included Mimi Budd, a member of the Governor's Rehabilitation Strike Team, Matt Powers and Ed Clark of the CDCR, and Barbara Halsey, ED of the CA Workforce Investment Board.

The focus of the session was on the Strike Team's December 2007 report, "Meeting the Challenges of Rehabilitation in California's Prison and Parole System."  Based on a successful model in Texas, Project RIO, the report details what appears to be a comprehensive approach, including assessing individuals' risks for re-offending, assessing needs, developing individual case plans, delivering a host of programs, measuring progress, preparation for re-entry, reintegration through collaboration with community providers, and follow up.  Appendix B provides a flow chart of California's logic model.

A quick look at the CDCR's statistics show that as of midnight on March 5, the total CDCR population is almost 320,000, including those in custody and those on parole.  Dr. Joan Petersilia, the Chair of the Governor's Rehabilitation Strike Team, cites California's recidivism rate as 70% within 24 months, nearly twice the national average.  While the CDCR does offer some education and programming, only a fraction of inmates access these services and they are not comprehensive.

What kind of resources will be available for these efforts?  According to the panel, about $5.5 million is available for next year, but they are hopeful that additional funding will become available from the feds and other sources.  At a very reasonable cost per participant of $5,500 (to use a round number), that would serve a whopping 1,000 inmates.  It's going to take a lot more than five and a half million dollars to even begin to address the needs of ex-offenders, which include issues of substance abuse, lack of skills, education, and housing, and learning and other disabilities.  But we need to do it for all of us - at a fiscal cost of $40,000 per PERSON per year to incarcerate someone, not to mention the human capital cost, we can't afford not to.

Workforce Development Professionals of the Year

Congratulations to Julie Castro-Cardenas and Sandy Barba, both of the Santa Ana W/O/R/K Center. They were named Workforce Development Professionals of the Year today by the California Workforce Association,for  creating and implementing a summer youth employment program that served 110 young people last summer. They created the program, developed worksites and curricula in one short month, all while were each was in the third trimester of pregnancy.

In accepting the award, Sandy said, "There is truly a purpose in connecting the youth to the resources they need to become successful." 

Julie pointed out that more than 200 people came through their doors and they served them, although only 110 met the requirements for the program. Now they they both have small children, she said, "It is rewarding. It is a lot harder, but in the end we realize why we do what we do, now that we have our own children." 

Mo' Money

Lynora Sisk and Melissa Ochoa of California’s Employment Development Department presented a workshop on grant writing for state solicitations that provided some good reminders on how to go after grant money. Among their tips:

       - Data, data, data! Although they candidly admitted that they do not have time for fact  checking, a compelling proposal uses clear and concise facts to make its case.

       - Make sure you read the solicitations carefully - they can tell when an old proposal has been dusted off and re-submitted.

                        

     - Good expository writing counts – when you lay out your strategies, make sure they relate back to the target populations and challenges that you identified. Keep it tight. And make sure your budget numbers add up.

    - While they haven’t set any benchmarks for cost per participant, the reviewers will compare your cost per to the other proposals they received.

    - Follow instructions, which includes the set up and length of the proposal and the deadlines.

In these budget times, everyone is hungry to find additional funding, and there is less money out there than there has been in the past. Make sure you keep these tips in mind to maximize your chances for success.

The Likeability Factor

Paul Clayton helped to kick off CWA's 2008 Spring Conference with a couple of sessions, including one entitled "How to Foster Teamwork in Your Organization."  He had lots of interesting things to say about the importance of likeability.

We all know them - the coworker who doesn't get along with anyone, or the client who can't keep a job despite having all the necessary technical skills.  According to Paul, of the three things needed for a good team member - work ability, dependability, and likeability, likeability is the most important.  This obviously applies to our clients as well.  Employers will overlook shortcomings in skills or experience for a candidate that they like on a personal level, but will come up with every reason not to hire someone who rubs them the wrong way.

What makes someone likeable?  And can it be taught?  According to Paul, five qualities constitute someone's likeability:

Sociability/friendliness  (Smiling, making eye contact, being non-judgemental)
Relevance (Listening, sharing experiences but not in one-up-manship, putting yourself in another's shoes)
Understanding (Validating what the other person is saying, treating their problems as your own, not making them feel wrong or stupid)
Authenticity (Being genuine, not putting on a front, not being scripted)
Trust (Being honest and compassionate, doing what you say you will do, being there for others)

Check out Paul's website - it's got downloadable copies of his presentations and his book.
Or to read more about likeability, check out "The Likeability Factor" by Tim Sanders.

March Madness, workforce development style

We're less than one week out from... the California Workforce Association's annual Spring Conference in San Diego. (Yes, and also from the first round of March Madness.) 

If you're there, I hope you have a chance to drop by my workshop on Friday morning at 9 a.m., a Web 2.0 Survival Guide. We'll focus on ways workforce development programs can use blogs, podcasts, YouTube, MySpace and other low-cost web 2.0 tools to manage programs and serve participants, in an era of shrinking budgets.

I'm also delighted to announce I'll have some help blogging this year's conference, providing a Northern California one-stop perspective. Racy Ming has ten years experience in education and workforce evaluation and program administration. She's currently manager of the Marin Employment Connection, the one-stop in Marin County, CA. She is also chair of the board for the California Re-Entry Program at San Quentin. A San Francisco native and Stanford alum , Racy hopes her men's basketball team  makes it to at least the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA tournie.

See you in San Diego!

The California Workforce Association's Spring Conference is less than two weeks away. As usual, Virginia, John and the gang have lined up a terrific series of workshops, speakers and plenaries, including an all-day training session on the hottest new tool around: activity based cost accounting.

The theme this year is Survival Guide, "survival" being something all of us in workforce development are all too focused on these days.

I'll be at the conference, offering a Web 2.0 Survival Guide workshop on Friday morning at 9 a.m. We'll learn about ways workforce development agencies and organizations are using web 2.0 tools to do their work more effectively while lowering costs. Hope to see you there!