Meetings & Minutes

Youth Transitions minutes 7/17/08

July 17, 2008:

Minutes:

Maine Jobs Council – Youth Transition Committee Meeting notes: July 17, 2008 Attendees: Garret Oswald, Craig Larrabee, Lora Downing, Nigel Norton, Jeanne Paquette, Meridith Greig, Linda Smith, Debbie Bechard. Garret Oswald presented an overview of Workforce Investment Act (WIA) incentive polices. o Of the $9 million that the state of Maine receives, 90% is directed to service provision; 10% is discretionary o Maine currently uses approx $550,000 of the discretionary funds for the statewide computer system used for WIA reporting. o Incentives are used to move and develop the work of the MJC within special parameters. Local Workforce Investment Boards (LWIBS) receive incentives if 17 performance measures are met • Only one LWIB in Maine (of 4) met the performance standards and benefitted from the additional incentive dollars. • Because Maine standards were not met, the state could not access additional incentive dollars totaling approximately $900,000. • $230,000 is the approximate total of unused and rolled over incentive funds in consideration. o Currently, LWIBs use an RFP process to award funds…this is not likely to change. Garret has proposed that the various MJC Committees recommend policy (prior to the next MJC meeting on Sept. 19) that would identify appropriate benchmarks that may be supported by incentive funds. • MJC Policy goal -- Identification of 6 (or so) benchmarks by which EVERY workforce development & delivery organization is measured, leading to the determination of which are succeeding or failing in serving customers (businesses or job seekers, including disadvantaged youth, adults and dislocated workers. o Currently, a number of different standards of measure are used, and quality is difficult to determine. o In Maine, within a 3 year goal period, DOE and partners (DOL, DHHS, ME university system, community college system, etc) will reconcile compatibility between/among various internal and external databases. As related to the youth programs, systems are being considered that track both in-school and out-of-school youth. o Pennsylvania is among a number of states that have ID’d benchmarks and use consistent standards to measure outcomes of youth in Job Corps, CTE, community college, etc. o YTC should consider that in addition to youth, WIA funds support older and displaced workers, people with disabilities, women and apprentice programs. It is hoped that funds will support an increase in the number of women in non-traditional jobs.

Craig proposed a conference call for the YTC members before the 9/19 MJC meeting to discuss what single benchmark the Committee would like to recommend to the MJC. Deb will follow up with members to schedule a date and time.

Linda presented an update on the PEP grant’s progress. First, we were funded! Second, there will be five (not six) events. Linda will send an email out to all the event developers (LWIB and MACTE) asking them to cc Committee members as they work on the events. And she’ll send out a sign-up sheet to the Committee members so they can “register” to attend one or more events.

Notes submitted by Debbie Bechard, JMG.