GROWTH TRANSITIONS, INC. DBA MAHER & MAHER

Moderator: Morgan EasterMay 25, 201612:49 p.m. ET

Operator: This is Conference: 163910146.

(Wendy): ... just to download from the WorkforceGPS finance side.

At present – sorry about that. I don't know if you could hear that.

All of you are muted and we will be inviting you a little bit further down the call to unmute and engage and conversation as well.

Initially, our guest presenters will engage in a lively discussion providing background information on effective partnerships and real world examples of lessons learned from partnering, which has lead them to integrated service delivery of programs. Then as I said, we want to hear from you, you can ask your questions, share your experiences with partnering, comment or add to something you've heard. So be an active listener and be prepared to time in.

I wanted to get started by introducing the speakers to you today. And I'm calling them raconteurs or women who are skilled in relating stories interestingly.

I will start first with Rebekah Lashman, who for the past year, eight years, has been Senior Vice President for Research, Regional and Sector Strategies at the Commonwealth Corporation in Massachusetts. She is the principal author of today's resource "Partnerships in Workforce Development Practitioner's Guide,” which is attached to this call registration on the ION and you can download your own copy. It is also posted under resources on WorkforceGPS.

Rebekah is joined by Patricia Crosby, who is Executive Director of the Franklin Hampshire Regional Employment Board for Greenfield, Massachusetts and she's been in that role since 2001. And under her very

capable 15-year leadership, the board has been awarded high performing workforce board status by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. And she has helped to develop sector partnerships and health care renewable energy, energy efficiency and manufacturing. And interestingly, she came to the board from the Community College System, where she helps a lot initiative and tech preps school to career and vocational gender equity.

And joining Patricia, are two of her active partner members, Judith Roberts is the Executive Director of the Literacy Project, a lead Adult Basic Ed provider for the Franklin/Hampshire region. And Judith leads a Literacy Project that has served Western Massachusetts since 1984. And Alyce Stiles, who is a Dean – Congratulations, Alyce – as of this month of Workforce Development and Community Education at Greenfield Community College.

And I also wanted to note that (Terry Sylvester) had hopefully signed on for the call today. She's a Northeast Regional Coordinator for (ACTE) at the U.S. Department of Education.

So, let's get the ball rolling here. Patricia, could you provide us with a little bit of information about the Franklin Hampshire Regional Employment Board so that we have a little contexts?

Patricia Crosby: Sure. So I'm just making sure you can hear me, yes.

(Wendy): Yes.

Patricia Crosby: OK. So, the Franklin Hampshire REB is one of 16 Workforce Boards in Massachusetts. We're located in the Western part of the state. Geographically, we're the largest in the state with 50 communities over 1400 square miles, but we're all region. So, we have a workforce that's smaller than many at 134,000.

We've been involved in building partnerships for the last 15 years and longer I say and we've worked in the areas of health care manufacturing and renewal energy and energy efficiency. Our key partners really are the Community College and the Adult Education partners in the community. Judith at the Literacy Project is one. The Center for new Americans with the (inaudible) is

another one. And then of course Alyce is on the line from Greenfield Community College.

The initiative – the one we're most currently in growth in right now is the manufacturing initiative and we probably work on that in, well, theories and sustained work since 2012. We actually had some early starts before that. We've been doing health work in the health care area between those partners, probably back to 2004 or '05 I think.

And I think that with just a lot of emphasis into using the grant resource to get the program started but then making sure it's a partnership that has to stick and lasts. And I'll stop there.

(Wendy): OK, great. Thank you.

And Rebekah, for those folks across the country who aren't familiar with the Commonwealth Corporation, could you give as a little bit of background about your organization and then how you connected with the Franklin/Hampshire Board and then finally just an overview of the guide, you know, how we got written and how the folks listening might think about using it.

Rebekah Lashman: Sure. Hi, everybody. This is Rebekah Lashman. So, Commonwealth Corporation is what we call in Massachusetts a quasi-public entity. We're charged with supporting the state office of Labor and Workforce Development in building capacity across the state in Workforce development, we do that in a bunch of ways, we have a particular emphasis on supporting partnership development to develop and support initiatives that partner community-based organizations, education institutions and regional employers to meet the needs of those regional employers with either low-wage, low-scale adults or at risk youth. We do grant-making for the state to support partnerships and program development and testing and we do research to understand where implement trends are going. And then use our grant resources to support programming that addresses those employment trends.

And again, directs the programming to populations that are not going to get access to jobs without significant support.

Patricia and I think, (first cut), we know each other in kind of a deeper way when Commonwealth Corporation was managing a U.S. Department of Labor grant called the (state) energy sector partnership initiatives. So, this would have been right in the kind of the just (performance) with the reception. That was fun.

And I became really fascinated by and impressed by the way Patricia and her partners at the local level taught about partnership and taught about sustainability and engage businesses and their program planning and design. And then we've had the good fortune to have funding resources that Patricia and her Partners have used very effectively around range of other industry sector needs and Patricia talked about some of those.

(Wendy): OK. And how did that – could you tell us a little bit about the guide and ...

Rebekah Lashman: Sure.

(Wendy): ... how you'll encourage the folks listening could maybe access and use it?

Rebekah Lashman: Sure. So the guide came about, so Commonwealth Corporation, as I said, is kind of all about partnerships. And so over the past eight years that I've been here and even before, I actually worked for a workforce development board, workforce investment board for 12 years before that and partnership work.

We started to learn some things about how workforce development partnerships work and didn't work and what seemed to be kind of necessary elements to support effective partnerships and so we thought it might be helpful to write down what we have learned.

So, Commonwealth Corporation is what you called to be Commonwealth Corporation took some examples of some partnerships and programs. We've worked it throughout years. We also get bunch of other research and came up with some suggestions that organizations and individuals, who (were) at the beginning or in the middle of partnership work, it might find it useful. So, the guide, it really is organized us. Our resource guide, it's not intended for

people to have to read from page one to page (inaudible) 300 or whatever it is. It's broken up into sections. If you go to pages 10 and 11 of the guide, you'll see that there's kind of an orientation to the guide. So you can (ditch in) to a chapter with topics that make the most sense to you and then at the end of each chapter and at the end of the guide, there are specific resources, both very short kind of summaries and tips and then also planning templates and meeting management templates and program-designed templates that folks can take and adapt to their use.

So we found that people really do use pieces of the guide as it makes sense to them and then they adapt it – they adapt the resources for their own purposes. But, again, (our land) is really workforce development partnerships but you'll see a stranger there, that's just in general about what makes a good effect of partnership regardless of whether it's a workforce development partnership or some other kind.

(Wendy): And Rebekah: You just gave us a perfect segue into our first question that we're going to have our raconteurs. Oh, yes, (inaudible) for saying that.

What are the foundational elements of good partnerships?

Rebekah Lashman: So, only are the few that we've seen and that we talked about in the guide and then I do think it'll be really interesting to hear Patricia's and Alyce's and Judith's experience with this.

We really feel that it's very important that each member of a partnership has a clear role. Role, that they're carrying out in the partnership or the organization is carrying out, has made specific commitment. It could be a time, it could be a money, it could be of other resources. And really importantly has articulated what his or her organization wants to get out of the partnership. And then it's pretty important that the individuals who are serving on the partnership have decision-making authority for their organization, at least in the context of the work there, the role of their (playing) on the partnership.

We think it's pretty important that one member of the partnership is designated at having a role for convening and facilitating the partnership and this goes not to be a very formal structure but that if there isn't somebody

whose job is to gather people when they need to be gathered, whether it's physically or by e-mail or by phone, you know, irregular communications, it just doesn't happen.

And in particular, there needs to be somebody who's paying attention to data collection and communication. And then finally, that all of the members have arrived at some consensus on the mission of a partnership, why the partnership exists in the first place. The objectives, what are specific process and outcome measures the partnership will use to know whether they're making progress against their objectives that there's work plan for the partnership and that there's some agreed upon decision-making process, even if it's just – there's a lead and the lead is going to make decisions after consulting but the folks have no – no one have agreed to how decisions will get made.

So, I think I'll stop there just on those pieces and maybe ask Patricia your thoughts.

Patricia Crosby: Yes. Thank you, Rebekah. And that's it. That's a great list. Some of the things that I had jotted down were to – for members of a partnership to really make an attempt to understand each other's individual mission and what are their principal interests are that they're bringing to the table and then work at a plan to address those goals.

I also try to make a clear distinction between when we're asking for partnership and when we're asking for a partner and when we're asking for support, because those are two different roles. If you're going to call the entity of partners, they have to be a true partner in the effort. And what that means? At least to my next point, which has to do with early engagement, so, you know, you don't (met) by the project and then go looking for people to support it unless that's all that you're looking for is general support.

When you're beginning a project or thinking of beginning a project or starting to see an issue or a need. That's when you should be collaborating with your community agencies and your employers and having conversations long before an (R.T.) even comes out. And if I (inaudible) – getting involved in that sort of early engagement with each other, you have a longer time to

understand what each other's needs and principle interests are and what it would take for them to be true partners.

(Wendy): OK. Judith or Alyce, do you have anything to add?

Judith Roberts: Well, you ask for stories? Can you hear me? Judith Roberts.

(Wendy): Yes.

Judith Roberts: Oh, no. OK. Let me ...

(Wendy): We can hear you, Judith. We can hear you.

Judith Roberts: Oh, you can.

(Wendy): Yes.

Judith Roberts: So, I think maybe this is more of a story of a collaboration that was successful but we always feel like Patricia and Regional Board have our back, sort of. They have the interest of the Adult Basic Education community, which includes the Tech Prep programs and ESL programs in the region. And we had our ESL program in North. We're very widespread geographically. So that can be really, really challenging for us.

But the career center comes out to some of the regions that we're in, which is super helpful. And maybe you can say, "How this happened?" But we have to focus on health care in our region because that's the biggest employer and the need for Certified Nursing Assistance is almost to the point of dyer according to the employers because we have an aging population here, (inaudible) is very old.

And so, Patricia organized a class for CNA, Certified Nursing Assistance, at the Career Center in North Hamp and that was taught by Greenfield Community College. Is that right, Patricia?

Patricia Crosby: Yes.

Judith Roberts: And so our ESL program run a Bridge to that, which the A.B. students also attended and the ESL students attended at the ESL classroom. And then our students were able to go to the training at the Career Center, come back and meet with their teachers to help with explaining concepts and vocabulary because health care, as you know, has its vocabulary, whether you're a native English speaker or any (taught) speaker.

So, it was just – and now, we have in our GED program (a numbers) for women, who has passed the Certified Nursing Assistance, are working and have come back working at nightshift and are coming back to us in the morning to work on getting their HiSET because you don't need a HiSET, high school equivalency, you don't need that to be a certified nursing assistant. So, it was just a beautiful synergy of these four different partners working together the ESL, the HiSET program, DCC and Regional Employment Board.

(Wendy): Judith, that is an excellent example of how you brought together four entities to accomplish a common goal of meeting a sector workforce need.

Judith Roberts: And prior to that, we rely on the regional employment board to connect us with employers, so prior to that, Patricia had convened a round table with a bunch of nursing home owners, employers who told us about the need and we've been able to play some of our students with some of those employers. And it's been ongoing, you know, that I'm just giving you one example but these trainings are offered by Greenfield Community College ongoing. And it's an important career pathway in our area.

(Wendy): All right. Thank you very much.

Alyce Stiles: And this is Alyce from Greenfield Community College. And just to kind of take you back on what both Patricia and Judith have said about understanding each other's mission and particularly how aligned we are with supporting each other's mission. So, Patricia had highlighted that because we are so rural and spread out, we have so many smaller employers for each of us as organizations to be calling on employers and trying to engage them. What do you need for out of your employees? How can we help you? How can we

support each of our individual populations? That's really burdensome for our employers.

So, when we come together, we engage them together, they're very busy, busy. They're wearing lots of hats. And so, having all of us together at the table for these sector partnerships has been really well-received because they're seeing the different organizations work together with that common mission. In community college, we have an open access, you know, we have an open door and we want to have education available to anyone who wants to enter. In that said, employers are looking for particular individual who meets certain skills.

So, having the collaboration and the support from our ABE partners to help address and resolve any challenges that might help make that education in them and employment become available to them has been really well-received by employers and helps all of us be able to know our (piece set) and then the hand off so then we can tap into the skills and strengths, you know, for connecting with the employers. So, all of us are trying to place individual students.

(Wendy): Wonderful. I'm going to move us onto the second question. What factor – and you've already touch on this a little bit but I think Rebekah can help us drill down a little bit more. What factors create a win-win among partners?

Rebekah Lashman: Yes, I guess I would have say that Judith, Patricia and Alyce already just made my points for me. But, you know, we see partnerships succeed when each member has a need that be met by participating on the partnership. So, you have Judith talking about (as the) ABE is – a well provider kind of meeting to be able to provide opportunities for her students. Patricia and Alyce are saying we need to be able to meet the needs of local employers.

The, you know, another point is that (met) – that the (inaudible) member's need should be complementary so that they fit together. And finally that that focus to the partnership is an (unaddressing) our problem or our set of problems that no one of the individual organizations can address on their own.

So, again, I think the examples you've heard, you know, basically highlights these points.

But I was thinking, Patricia – yes, go ahead please.

Patricia Crosby: OK. So, this is Patricia. You know, one of the things that I was thinking off in regard to the win-win with that, sometimes when it comes to employer, you may start out with one concept in mind for a project or a partnership and it's not worth their priorities (lye) right at the moment. And sometimes you have to replace that patient to match there.

So, an example I'm thinking of is when we were intent on that we knew here was a need for manufacturing training in worker's entry level in (advancing) our region. And we were focused on how can we put together a training program for adults that will help them get into this area.

What the employers turned out to be really focused on at that time, especially a lead employer here, was on improving the secondary level program so that they could produce more graduates from the local vocational technical schools. So, instead of trying to talk a lot of that, we joined in with him and without the rest o f the employers, who are really focused on improving the lab and the instruction in that secondary program, then we were able to sort of introduce the idea that even if these are too vocational technical schools, it have a full class of graduates every year. It's not going to fill the need you're telling us you have.

So, please work with us now on getting that program available at night, in the evening for Adults, which not an easy thing to make happen but with the – certainly, with the level of employer involvement we had, it did happen. And it happened much more quickly than it could have with what we are trying in that role.

Alyce Stiles: And this is Alyce. On the Community College side, so building on that example, especially sends the equipment was so important to invest in at a vocational school for the daytime and to support that workforce by having it available in the evening and bringing the community college into the conversation so that we could work collaboratively together to be able to

create that evening program and then with (inaudible) specifically to help us identify that we could target an unemployed and underemployed individuals within our region to be able to encourage them to become CNC operators was a real way that we could start with a particular project and program in mind and utilize strong collaborations and partnership to then kind of adjust, kind of the points that Rebekah had (meet) earlier of – we each had specific commitment. And then over different points along of the evolution of this projects and grants, we had those check in points identified for how are we doing, what's changing, what is the new criteria, what's working well, so that's been really helpful with the continuation of program.

Rebekah Lashman: This is Rebekah. I did just want get one more quick thing, which is as you can hear from all of these partners, that focus here is also in long-term relationship building. So, we'd start where it makes the most sense to start, not necessarily with chasing a grant but really with getting to know each other and each partners kind of (have) key interest needs and mission and then kind of figure out how to be opportunistic or focused in terms of resources towards needs.

Judith Roberts: This is Judith from the Literacy Project. And I just want to underscore the importance of what Rebekah said about relationship building because I – and Patricia had said earlier, "Don't wait for an (RFP)." Maybe because they were small or rural, there is not very many of us out here. So, it's easy to identify a person and I feel like Alyce and Patricia are friends and allies of the A.B. Community. And so we have those very important relationships in place and I think there's a trust factor and the trust factor grows out of (good occasion), mutually agreed upon goals and outcomes. And so it's there in place ahead of time.

And I just wanted to share a quick story about a gentleman who came, he was late in manufacturing, worked in manufacturing his whole life, lost his job, went to the career center, they sent them over to the literacy project because he didn't have his GED, they worked with him to provide services at the career center. He came here, worked on his GED, moved on to Greenfield Community College to (first) the foundations of manufacturing and then the

advanced manufacturing. And we just heard that he – we knew he had a job before even completed the course and we learn that he just got a raise.

And so, I feel like the win-win among partners that you talked about, Rebekah, it creates ridge that allows our constituency, the people that we serve to really have a win-win. There's a net that's woven by our collaboration or bridge, maybe a better word as bridge, that allows the people we serve to have a win-win, which is the most important part.

(Wendy): Judith, I think I love the fact that you use those, a net and a bridge, because sometimes you need both when, you know, somebody is (catering) on the bridge, so I really do need a net underneath them to help them connect and that was a wonderful example of how you connected somebody to multiple service providers that we're all working in partnership to integrate a service for this one gentleman.

Rebekah, I'm going to move us to the third question now. What are the key questions to consider when working through program design and implementation with partners?

Rebekah Lashman: It's a sort of dangerous because program design is my favorite thing to talk. So, I'll try to ...

(Wendy): But give us your top three.

Rebekah: Yes, I will. Just one quick thing before I say that, I also know an example that that folks we're just talking about is advanced manufacturing example. As Patricia said, they started with build out (folks) school capacity. They moved on to build out capacity for adults in the region. They realize that they were having to turn some people away from the advanced manufacturing program as it was designed, so then they look for resources to built-in a foundations of manufacturing so that people who weren't quite ready for the higher level could get the foundations work.

So, again, this is very long term work with everybody committed to looking at the data, seeing where they need to – not just make improvement but maybe

build out other aspects of the program so that it's a robust program that meets the residence's needs and meets the employer's needs in the region.

So, the segue of my program design point is in one way, you kind of never done that you're always, you know, always looking at the data to understand what's working and not working and also what needs to be built in.

But maybe more generally, I think, you know, key issues I think through that everybody has to be kind of onboard with is first getting agreement on what problem the program is designed to solve and how the partners will know whether they are making progress, what data it need, how frequently it needs to be looked at, where is that going to come from, you know, whether that program elements or service visits are necessary to solve the problems, really doing an inventory of which of the partners have the expertise to design and deliver each program element or component. If there's missing expertise, how is that going to be resourced? Is it as Patricia said that you're going to find somebody to be a supporter? Or is it being willing to step back a bit and find another partner and really engage that organization fully and thinking through program design. And then kind of (that) everybody deals with this but do we have the resources to carry out the program design? If not, where are they going to come from? And going back again to how we're going to make decisions as we move forward. So that's kind of my reader's digest version.

Patricia Crosby: OK. So, a couple of – this is Patricia. A couple of the things I would add is that we have tried to think long term about these partnerships and it's about building the capacity of each of the entities that we want and need to be involved building their capacity to be responsive into the future.

So, in that, you know, there's a cost to that, there's a time cost. There's, you know, there has to be an investment of resources from each of the partners and there're also needs to the support of each partners to be able to participate that fully.

So, this is an important part of any partnership, it's recognizing that you need to be – you need to share the resources and that you're not trying to build any one entities, ability to standalone into the future that will be much more

effective for your community and your job seekers and your employers if you have built everyone's capacity to continue addressing that particular sector.

(Wendy): OK. Judith or Alyce, did you have anything you wanted to add to (give) specific example?

Alyce Stiles: This is Alyce and I'm thinking about the sector partnerships that we do on our Green Energy side for renewable energy and energy efficiency, and how it's been so important to have intentional ongoing connection. In this case, we find that it's helpful to have engagement from our local employers and then also have connections between our organizations particularly when we have organizational changes. So, sometimes because it is so important to about relationship building, it's so critical that we have the programs and the projects leave on even if we lose some key people who have might have moved on to other things.

So, by having that intentional time locked out on the different organizations have helped bring new people up to speed and then to help have that seamless transition to keep some of the key initiatives going. So with the list that Rebekah had highlighted off, you know, ongoing reflection on what's the challenge that we're trying to resolve? What have we learned? What is the data showing us? How do we continue to move forward and then, you know, obtain resources?

The organizational piece and the hand off between us has been really something that we have to intentionally focus on.

(Wendy): And Patricia, do you facilitate those meetings for all the regions or is that something that happens even more locally at one of the 16 sites?

Patricia Crosby: Well, in our workforce area, I've facilitated many of the meetings at the start, but also (just been) in partnership with community college.

You know, overtime, the (bridge) is not always remained the key facilitator. So, the community college for example now through the funding that is utilizing is supporting a large part of the manufacturing training that's going on in our region and I would say they're more in the leadership role right now.

But because they're thinking the same way, we're thinking about sustaining the partnership into the future. Everybody, all these communities, yes, these are still at the table and still included, and their needs are still being sort of attended to.

I want to say something employer partnership if we have time.

(Wendy): Sure.

Patricia Crosby: Because I know we've been talking a lot about community-based organization and educational organization. And this just sort of goes back to Rebekah's first outline of what's required for the framework of partnership.

A lot of a time you can get and we start with employer need upfront. If we can't get critical massive employers together upfront to work with us on designing something, then we've abandoned project because they just don't have the fuel that they need to get started. And they are very good at the beginning of a project but employers will fade away because they don't want to sit around the table and talk about grant, per se, and the goals of the grant, per se, and the objectives, and the measures, and things like that. They don't want to get involved in that part of it. They are happy to have been part of shaping the program but then they want to step back.

And I think the trick has been as we've continued, is to teach them engaged in the ways they do want to be engaged. Keep them engaged in meeting perspective applications, keep them engaged in helping us find instructors for the training, keeping them on careers panels, coming in to the program and presenting, and surely at the end, a career fair. But not waiting until the end of the career fairs. Finding sort of speak (find) for employers to be involved all along. and then sometimes you can find. And then going to them for specific information you need such as on curriculum revision or feedback on, you know, applicant's profiles and the ideal applicant's profile.

We have to learn to really go out to them and visit their sites and not always be expecting them to show up for what I would described, often can be more of operation's meeting. Partnership is sometimes better supported by willing to go out and (meet) where they are.

(Wendy): OK. Excellent.

Rebekah Lashman: This is Rebekah, and I just want to say, I love that point. Early on in my career, I got dinged by a founder who would come and visit our partnership meetings and say, "Well, where are the employers?" And I would say, "You know, they're our partners. They just don't want to participate, like coming to meeting. They participate in other ways." And the monthly meeting is not the best way to engage them and I think I've learned from the experience that, you know, it's really our job to think about the best way to ask our partners the best way to engage them and the best way to work with them and adapt the partnership models for them.

(Wendy): OK. And both Patricia and Rebekah used a critical word, and that was "engage,” because I think we moved to the part of the call where we want to engage some of you who are listening in and have been listening to this conversation.

So this is your opportunity to make a comment, share an observation, ask a question of any of our presenters. So if you'd like to do so, please press pound six to unmute your own line, tell us who you are and where you're from and what your question or comment is.

(Ed Spheres): This is (Ed Spheres) of Fort Worth INC, can you hear me?

(Wendy): Sure, go ahead, (Ed). Thank you.

(Ed Spheres): We had a little question about how you're using your funding to do some of these and are you getting a good AEL as far as with new AEL (civic models) coming out? Are you getting a good bid of collaboration with ESL, (IETs) that are partnering this with some examples like that that you kind of speak to?

(Wendy): OK.

Patricia Crosby: This is Patricia. I know that in our health care bridge project and now in our manufacturing initiative, we have a too small but I hope useful amount of fund that we contract out to the Adult Ed providers. And it's time that – its funds

they can go to underwrite the extra time of their teachers and learning more about a particular industry area and developing curriculum modules that will help to introduce student to those areas, meeting with the teachers, who are in the training program, to get a sense of what the training environment is like or the education environment is like. So that's one of the things we do. Judith, you may have more to add on that?

Judith Roberts: What's the question about the integrated education and training fees?

(Ed Spheres): Yes, to a degree. We're trying to build better ways to facilitate our career pathways and transition targets. And so we're trying to find creative ways to partner with our current partner, the community college as well as, our workforce partners to develop ways of supplying student for (deliberants). It's not so much finding the funding but how are you using the funding? Because we can fund a good bit of it, but it's just a matter of what programs are you using with that middle to high level ESL student is also in a training program that would allow for them to be considered an (IET). Because of the new (ESL) civics finding, you have to have (IET) component in order to use those funds. So, we're trying to get models that we can do that with some of our partners up on our consortium.

Judith Roberts: So we're in the same situation. We don't have the answer because this is new to us as well. There are, you know, there are some programs, some training programs that the (part) entry is too high so they don't, you know, we can't – they don't work as part of the (IET) programs but I would say that we have more questions and we do answers about at this time. Are you in Massachusetts?

(Ed Spheres): No, I'm sorry. I'm at Fort Worth Independent School District in Fort Worth, Texas.

Judith Roberts: OK. All right. So, it's a national requirement because WIOA is a Federal Act, so I wish I had better answers for you. We are looking at various states and seeing how they're doing it and, you know, starting to dip our toe in the water but it's a new initiative Massachusetts is just kicking it off for our new Fiscal Year, Fiscal 2017 starts on July one.

(Wendy): (Ed), that's perfect example of a question to post on the ION Peer Learning Group Integrated Partnership Discussion Board because that will get you outreach across the country. And, you know, Judith, you could go ahead and post it, and respond, and in that way, that conservation and that question might bubble up some answers for you.

Judith Roberts: I mean, programs all across the country are facing this, you know, how do we do it? How do we make it work with the resources and the partnerships that we have?

(Wendy): OK. Excellent. Thank you, (Ed). Does anybody else have another question or comment? Remember to press star six and introduce yourself. OK. Well, I've got a question I can ask and maybe someone wants to join in.

I'm wondering if those folks out there have lessons that you have learned about establishing and maintaining partnership that someone would be willing to share with us.

Lou Adams: Hi, this is Lou Adams. I'm with the Workforce Innovation Technical System Center, which provides …

(Wendy): Excellent.

Lou Adams: Hi. We're providing assistance to vocational rehabilitation programs around various areas to WIOA and one of those is integrated services.

And so, I'm wondering if you have your team there, if you're panel (of like) a tour story tellers or anyone on the phone is working to do anything around integrated intake process.

Judith Roberts: I love that question because that's another – this is Judith – that's another part of the WIOA agenda and we were just at the state meeting yesterday and – all right. You're not in Massachusetts?

Lou Adams: No, in fact, I was out of San Diego, California ...

Judith Roberts: Yes. Because I think we need all of the mandated WIOA partners. I mean, for my money, I think we need a universal intake form. Is that what you're referring to?

Lou Adams: Something like that. I know Delaware is using their, what I would call, a (talent) bank or their labor exchange process so that when people sign up to look for a jobs at a One-Stop Career Center, there're some questions that they fill out and those questions generate a push from, maybe from vocational rehabilitation, from literacy, you know, from anyone of the core partners, depending on how they ask those questions. So, I'm interested in seeing if there're other models (of state).

Rebekah Lashman: Hi, this is Rebekah.

Judith Roberts: We don't have. (Or so) in taking Massachusetts, I think it's a good – personally, I think it's a great goal to work towards the universal intake that feeds into some kind of overlaid database.

Rebekah Lashman: So this is Rebekah. So I do know that the state is exploring a system that some other states are using that will help them facilitates this. I can't remember the name of it right now. I think it's something that the national association of – what is NASWA, Natural Association of State Workforce Agencies developed in some states are using? I'll be happy to send along the name of it.

I know there is going to be a demo for some of those partner agencies in Massachusetts next week or the following week. So, we don't have anything yet, we're exploring using something that some other states have been using.

Lou Adams: Thank you.

Judith Roberts: Rebekah, if you have – if you know about that resource from NASWA, if you could post on the discussion board that would be very much appreciated.

Rebekah Lashman: Yes. So, I will. I just have to go look up the name because I can't remember it right now, but I will.

Judith Roberts: Right, perfect.

(Wendy): OK.

Alyce Stiles: This is Alyce. In a more manual basis on some of our projects like the manufacturing project that we alluded to earlier, where we have integrated intake system in terms of a career center and regional employment board person side by side with the community college person, getting information about a – this is the training, this is the employer base, is this the right fields for you in just giving that information during those information to potential student. And then they fill out a variety of paper work which isn't integrated, per se, but it allows both entities to be able to then look at the candidates and see our (rough around) services needed. Do they need ESL support? Do we need the hand off with Judith at the Literacy Project or Center for new American? Are they qualified for this training or that training? So, we're integrated in that sense of being both at those steps together.

Lou Adams: That's great. Thank you.

(Wendy): OK. Anybody else? Pound six will unmute your line, you can ask your question or make your comments.

(Barbara Boats): Hello, this is (Barbara Boats) from the State of Delaware (Folk) Rehab Program. The (inaudible) California, San Diego which referring to our job link, which allows (of those V.R.) and employment and training clients to do a resume builder, look for jobs and gets information and be active with both system to make best use of resources available to them in the State of Delaware.

We're also embarking on our second year of preemployment transition services, meeting the needs of the labor market to begin the important work of preparing youth for a variety of different careers and helping them explore both college, prep career planning, work-based learning experiences and trainings that will help them become minimally employable in those fields moving forward post-high school.

(Wendy): All right, thank you. Anybody else? Pound six will get you on the air and a chance to answer your question or make a comment.

(Ann Curwin): Hi, this is (Ann Curwin), from (EFT) Global. We are community-based organization with a lot of partnership across the U.S. And a key factor for us being complementary organizational culture and I think that really helps to strengthen our partnership.

I have a question which is WIOA and integrated service delivery and I'm wondering if the panel could quickly describe the different elements that are mandated for this.

Rebekah Lashman: This is Rebekah. I have to say I'm not an expert on that so I'm going to take a pass.

(Wendy): Patricia or Judith because I know within WIOA, when it mentions integrated partnerships, it is frequently referring to education related partnership. So I don't know if you have insight in that?

Patricia Crosby: I mean I'll describe our One-Stop Career Center and perhaps this is – or the One-Stop Career Center System in Massachusetts in general. We have – those partners are mandated partners and many of them are right here located in our centers. So, you know, we have commission representative that visits the Career Center frequently. The Literary Project, the Basic Ed provider, that's a person who is cited at the Career Center regularly to do assessments. The Older Workers Program that's funded from a couple of different directions has a representative here consistently to work with older workers.

And those are all part of – we consider them all part of our team here. And they're invited to our all staffs meeting. They're in our info sessions. They're part of our career center planning and then they make natural partners when we're developing some new projects that we've often done.

So I feel like – I mean, I – and that's not to mention the, you know, employment service and their veterans reps and all the rest of them. We are genuine one-stop and most of them are in Massachusetts. So that's a great basis for the kind of integrated service delivery system we're talking about.

I think the next step that we want to take under WIOA is even though we are working side-by-side and a lot of it can happen as Alyce said, you know, person to person or annually, it would be nice to have a data system that overlays our system and links us all together that way. So that's what we're looking for ward to. But I think we're pretty integrated in our service delivery right now, although, there's always areas for improvement.

(Ann Curwin): That's all.

Patricia Crosby: Yes, thank you.

(Wendy): OK.

Rebekah Lashman: This is Rebekah. I know I said I'm not an expert and I'm definitely not. But my understanding is less that there are specific services that are mandated to be integrated and more that there are mandatory partners who then need to work together locally just to identify who they're shared customers are and how they will work together to serve their shared customers. Does that sound right, Patricia?

Patricia Crosby: Yes, yes.

Alyce Stiles: And just to kind of meet the needs of local participants and aligning with local employers skills need is my understanding of how that the rules are written.

Rebekah Lashman: Right. And I should have mentioned Greenfield Community College, you know, has the navigator that works on-site at the career center and as part of this Web and Career Center project. So that's another education link that we have.

I think if you have those people working together, then you've got a really strong basis onto which you can build the concept of a career pathway. Our challenge has just been to track a person's progress on that career pathway over time and that's what I'm hoping we'll be able to do in the future. Because, you know, a lot of our programs are short-term. And when they finish a particular training that we've done, that three months training, and then placed in a job, there's a follow-up. But after that, did they ever move

out of that Certified Nurse Aide and go on to become an LPN or a medical office secretary?

That's where if we have a data system that unites us, we'll be able to track that person's progress over time and find out that, yes, they did and that's a success story, or no, and what stops them? You know, we'll be able to see where the barriers came in and how we could have made that more seamless.

(Wendy): OK, thank you. We probably have a time for about one more question so – or comments. So this is your opportunity, pound six to introduce yourself and find out what you want to know or make a comment.

(Carl): Can you hear me?

(Wendy): Yes.

(Carl): This is (Carl) from California. Something that we're talking people in the education side and the workforce side, I wonder whether it might be a good idea to make a list either not here or do this as a project or in another webinar to identify the blind spots that the workforce people have identified in working with education people and the other way around. And to just to kind of identify what the blind spots are that, you know, I wish I had known that people on the other side of the equation, my partner in the education side, is not aware of that or the other way around. Can we – what do you think? Is there any – would be any benefit to kind of hold our experiences and say, "This is a blind I noticed from my perspective in the workforce side." And someone has said, "This is a blind spot I noticed from my experience from – as an educator regarding the workforce side."

I mean, this is kind of ties in with the question that someone had about what we owe as concept of partnership and so on. Just make a list of this of these blind spots might be a very a helpful resource for people to use in working toward – working bit together better.

(Wendy): I like ...

(Wendy): Just a real quick and I'm going to take you up on that challenge and ask you if you could go on to the ION discussions (award) and post that question and see what kind of responses we start lining up. And then go ahead. Was that you, Judith?

Judith Roberts: Yes. It's Judith Roberts and I think what has brought up is really important. I call it gaps in the services and, you know, so that we kind of handing off. A person gets their HiSET in Massachusetts and we, you know, hand them off to the community college for workforce training but, are they really prepared?

And because we have the strong collaboration in place, we're talking about that all the time because I thinks it's, you know, we talk – if call it a net or bridge that we don't want people to fall through the cracks of the gaps in services. So, for example in our state, it's a focus. The community college is open enrollment but you have to get a certain score on the Accuplacer placement test. And in order to go into many trainings and those – that test is not in anyway aligned with our high school equivalency or even the test that our senior high school take. So, you know, that's sort of a gap in the services that we have to really, "No, we get our students ready to taking path to high school equivalency but also to be successful on the placement test the Accuplacer placement test."

And even this morning I was meeting with our ESL director at the Center for New Americans and when students reach a certain fluency level in English Language Skills. They can then come into the ABE Program to prepare to take HiSET test if they need a high school equivalency.

And that hand off, we were working to sort of smooth that out so they don't go into shock when they come into, you know, it's a different kinds of class and the ESL class and its more rigorous and longer hours. And so I think that's what you're referring to some of these gaps in services.

(Carl): I didn't mean gaps in service. I meant blind spot about knowing about the other system, you know, what is there about the educators that is (news) to the workforce people and the other way around. In other words, just create a catalogue of blind spots, that by itself, will help people to realize how the other side live, so to speak.

Judith Roberts: Right. So for example a lot of WIOWA training programs are focused on shorter term outcomes and we have community college ...

(Carl): Good example.

Judith Roberts: Yes, community college partners who have much longer term outcomes. So does that mean you're antithetical and can't work together or does that mean you can support mutual goals, you know, about 5/5 making a good plan to address that? But that is that. That is the kind of a cultural gap that we continue to work on.

(Carl): (Address) and then dealing with that cultural gap or that inconsistency is what I'm talking about, which I think it would be a good step towards promoting better connection between the education system and the workforce system, and of course also the employer system.

(Wendy): Absolutely it is a cultural gap and I love your suggestion and I'm going to honor everybody's time. We are coming close to an hour but it has been a very engaging conversation and I really appreciate everybody that signed in.

And I'm going to give my colleague, (Brandon Carter), the last the last word so that he can explain how you would access the Peer Learning Group Board for these integrated services Peer Learning Group.

But first, I want to I want to give us special thanks to Rebekah, Patricia, Judith and Alyce for your time and your contribution to this conversation. So, (Brandon), take us out.

(Brandon Carter): Thanks, (Wendy). Hi everyone. This is (Brandon Carter). I'm actually at the National Office of the Employment and Training Administration.

And I just want to let you know I'm so glad to call. You've heard (Wendy) referenced the discussion board. And what we have on the ION Community of practice on WorkforceGPS, which I guess that most of – I'm pretty sure everyone on here is registered through. We created a discussion thread using the title of this call and if you click on the tab on discussion topics on the ION CoP, you'll see "Establishing and Sustaining Effective WIOA-inspired

Partnerships.” You click on that title and it gives you the opportunity to add a new post. That's where we want you all to continue this conversation. This does some question.

I'm sure people didn't get to this conversation that we didn't finish. Please take it to the discussion board because what's happen is, the people that couldn't jump on the call that might have answers to your questions are going to – because you are members of ION, there you're going to get your responses and there you're going time in. And then we also have people that are – federal partners and federal staff that check the discussion boards that probably provide insights to some of your questions. And even if you have comments because what happens is this calls are part of the deep dives.

For the next call, we're going to have a different theme but we expect each call to dive deeper and deeper into the subject matter but theirs only one call per month, so we have essentially two in a half to fours weeks to the next call. The discussion board will be – are kind with – to provide any information and knowledge shared, so please let your voice be heard and check on the discussion board and subscribe to each topics so you get those alert. So when someone does answer, it will provide content and you'll be alerted based on it.

(Wendy): So, (Ed) I want you to be our first poster with your question about blind spot or culture gaps.

(Ed Sphere): Thanks.

(Wendy): OK. Thank you very much. This does conclude our conversation for today. But as (Brandon) mentioned, we will have one in June as well and that will be posted.

Rebekah, Patricia, Judith and Alyce if you could stay the line real quick, if you still are, we'll do it quick recap.

Judith Roberts: Yes.

Rebekah Lashman: Yes.

(Wendy): Exciting to hear all the beeps.

Alyce Stile: Lots of beeps.

(Wendy): Awesome.

Patricia Crosby: I'm trying to find the board.

(Wendy): (Brandon).

(Brandon Carter): So are you on WorkforceGPS on the ION CoP?

Patricia Crosby: Yes.

(Brandon Carter): So you see in blue at the top "Discussion Topic" to go on discussion.

(Wendy): Yes.

(Brandon Carter): And then it is the only thread we have because this was the first call. And if you click "Establishing and Sustaining Effective Partnerships" you can finish and add a post. You should be able to add a post (to get that) if you log.

Patricia Crosby: OK.

(Wendy): Got it Patricia?

Patricia Crosby: I got it. Thank you.

(Wendy): Awesome. All right. Well, I just want to again to give us special thank you, thank you to the four of you. You made this call. You have a great synergy, a great dynamic, excellent examples. I heard people beeping in and out, which I think is normal but I also heard a lot of people stayed on. And (Brandon) and I were excited because people signed in for the discussion and had some excellent questions.

Judith Roberts: That's good.

Patricia Crosby: Yes.

Alyce Stile: Good stuff. We're all trying to figure this new wheel out. So well, there's a few changes, right?

(Wendy): Right. Exactly. To the four of you, do you have any feedback for me and (Brandon) as we charge ahead with this?

Judith Roberts: I like, I thought it was well-organized and I really want to thank Rebekah for all the work on that practitioner's guide. And I just thought it was organized great and I'm glad that there were four of us. I felt like we had different perspectives to offer and different examples that came readily to mind. So thank you everyone.

(Wendy): Well good.

Rebekah Lashman: Yes. This is Rebekah. I agree and honestly it's always really fund for me this year. You guys and frankly – I'm sure talked about the ways you work together. And Judith, the example you give just makes my heart sing so crazy to hear about the success story that everybody have (hand-in). Really crazy.

Judith Roberts: Yes.

Patricia Crosby: Yes. That was wonderful. And it was a perfect example of how folks came together around the common goal and you had a wonderful outcome, a measurable outcome.

Judith Roberts: Yes.

(Wendy): And along the step, you know, he, you know, he stocked his credentials as well. I mean, there were just so many pieces of that example that you could pull out and make out an entire another conversation about.

Judith Roberts: OK.

Patricia Crosby: That was fun.

(Wendy): Excellent. Thank you again and this Peer Learning Groups is off to a wonderful start. Now that the four of you were signed up on ION, you will be getting future e-mails and announcements about our call in June.

Rebekah Lashman: Oh, great.

(Wendy): And now, if you have any idea, you know, and please feel free to join in and we're off and running. Thanks to you.

Judith Roberts: Thank you very much.

Patricia Crosby: Thank you.

Rebekah Lashman: Great.

Patricia Crosby: Bye-bye now.

Rebekah Lashman: Thanks everyone. Bye everyone.

(Wendy): Sure.

Alyce Stiles: Thanks. Bye.

Rebekah Lashman: Bye-bye.

Operator: The leader has disconnected. The conference will be terminated in five minutes.

END