| Campaign for Tomorrow's Workforce Letter Re WIA-OSY RFP |
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| Wednesday, 27 January 2010 14:22 |
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Memorandum
To: DYCD Commissioner Jeanne Mullgrav From: Campaign for Tomorrow’s Workforce Date: January 14, 2010 Re: DYCD WIA-OSY RFP
The Campaign for Tomorrow’s Workforce (CTW) is a coalition of over 40 New York City-based organizations dedicated to reconnecting young adults ages 16 to 24 to education and career opportunities. The Campaign advances policy and programmatic solutions and advocates for the increased investment needed to build and sustain a coordinated, high-quality, at-scale system of programs and services to prepare “disconnected” young adults to succeed in the future workforce.
Youth and young adults ages 16-24 have been the hardest hit age group in the economic recession. Since the recession began in December 2007, 16-24 year-olds have lost 2.5 million jobs -- almost 1/3 of all the jobs that have been lost. While the employment picture for our youngest workers is daunting, community-based programs that are comprehensive, flexible, and can be tailored to meet the needs of young adults, are the most effective at helping out-of-school youth improve their literacy, earn a GED, enter college, and become more prepared to enter the workforce. Public funding must support these types of programs. We have serious concerns that the program model put forward by the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development’s (DYCD) recently-released WIA Out-of-School Youth Request for Proposals will limit innovative approaches and leave out the lowest-skilled youth who are most in need. The OSY program funding provided by the federal Workforce Investment Act (WIA) is a significant opportunity to provide robust services to disconnected youth, particularly those without high school diplomas, who are an overwhelming majority of those eligible for WIA services. We believe that the RFP should be amended in several ways:
Recommendations to Resolve Major Concerns with DYCD’s WIA-OSY RFP
1. DYCD’s RFP for the OSY program should be redesigned to allow programs to provide workforce training and/or college pathways as options for participants, and to offer multiple occupational tracks. Current research shows the importance of educational attainment for young adults’ future prospects. Therefore, it is important to move beyond a vocationally focused approach and make education a core component of the OSY program.
The current recession has heavily impacted young adults, particularly those without a high school diploma. According to the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, 54% of young adults without diplomas were jobless during an average month in 2008, while 40% were jobless for an entire year. Getting someone a high school diploma or GED is worth nearly $325,000 in net fiscal benefits to New York City. The best way to prepare individuals to succeed in the workforce is to build their basic skills toward the achievement of a diploma, GED, and beyond. The U.S. and the New York State Departments of Labor have echoed these sentiments. Despite the Background section of the RFP citing research about the importance of attaining basic skills, the Program Approach put forth by the RFP incentivizes providers to focus on vocational training and job placement, requiring “training in a single occupation.” Under the Youth Development section, the RFP states, “Effective programs would offer services which are personalized and focus on developing the individual strengths and interests of each youth.” This will be best accomplished by allowing programs to meet participants’ interests by offering a choice of training options or college preparation, instead of a single occupation. The federal Workforce Investment Act (WIA) recognizes college as just as important of an outcome as job placement for an out-of-school youth. OSY programs should be equally incentivized to build students’ basic skills, help them obtain a GED, and place them in college, as they should in finding employment for young people. Young people should have equal opportunity to seek employment and career development, or higher education, particularly in a labor market that has few jobs and requires more education than ever.
2. DYCD should direct a portion of its significant OSY resources ($14 million) to target the lowest-skilled disconnected youth and allow for longer service periods. Reports from the NYC Department of Education show that the majority of youth who drop out are low-skilled academically. There are not enough resources targeted for this population, and adult literacy funds that are available are at levels that are too meager to permit the robust mix of services that are effective with young adults. The WIA-OSY program is one of the few funding streams that can be used to serve young people with the greatest needs. Other DYCD programs already target young people who have skills to be more work-ready. The Young Adult Internship Program (YAIP) is designed to provide transitional jobs for young people with the basic skills to enter the labor market. The Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) provides seasonal work primarily for in-school youth during the summertime. The City’s spending plan for its $29 million in youth workforce stimulus funds did not support services for the lowest skilled young adults, either.
Both the federal WIA and the NYS DOL support longer service periods that can help young people with the lowest skills obtain better preparation. Numerous other localities within New York already reserve a significant portion of resources to develop the basic skills of young people in educationally focused programs. DYCD’s other WIA initiative, the In-School Youth (ISY) Program, already allows participants to re-enroll for more than one service period. There is strong empirical evidence that youth can make rapid educational gains in community-based settings when they receive the appropriate services, and this RFP is an important chance for DYCD to apply what has been learned.
DYCD’s OSY RFP should include an option for providers to re-enroll a percentage of participants who enter with low levels of basic skills (at or below 8th grade level) for a second 12-month direct service period. WIA’s performance measures (common measures) support the reporting of literacy/numeracy gains for those who are below an 8th grade reading or math level and we urge DYCD to adjust its performance payment milestones to reflect this. Services for this group would begin with intensive educational services and move to occupational training, GED preparation and placement.
3. DYCD should be less prescriptive and more flexible with the model and partnerships that programs must use in their service provision. For the first time, the WIA-OSY RFP requires providers to form “Strategic Collaborations” with outside organizations to provide at least two of four specified services. While collaboration is valuable and many organizations operate with strong partnerships, others have developed various types of capacity in-house. DYCD should concern itself with the nature and quality of these services, not whether or not they are provided by an outside organization. Similarly, the RFP is too prescriptive about staffing patterns, including the requirement of a full-time staff member dedicated solely to the OSY program. Programs need flexibility to operate the most successful program that maximizes organizational capacity and responds to young people’s needs.
We urge DYCD to embrace a more flexible approach that encourages applicants to design their program and partnerships in the way that will make their program most effective in helping young people reach their goals. This can be done by removing the specific requirements for Strategic Collaborations and particular staffing patterns. Since the OSY contracts are already performance-based, DYCD should invite the expertise of providers to propose innovative programs that will best achieve the defined outcomes. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites           |
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