DULCE DELGADILLO: I am the director Dulce Delgadillo and I'm the Director of Institutional Research and Planning at North Orange Continuing Education. And I'm proud to be a part of the CAEP TAP team here at NOCE, where we provide support to all consortia across the state. Today we will be presenting on a leveraging-related funding resources within your California Community College non-credit programs and how you could potentially partner with other organizations, nonprofits, or your K through 12 partners to really provide those services to our non-credit adult ed students. 

We're going to go ahead and get started. We have a lot to cover today. We're really going to dive into the four main funding sources within the context of the California Community Colleges for leveraging funding. And then we'll jump into a really high-level discussion with some great resources at our local level at North Orange Continuing Education, who have been doing this work of leveraging-rated funding for quite some time. So I'm excited to share that. 

Let's go ahead. And There we go. So if you can please in the chat just introduce yourself, indicate how you define braided funding, and rate your level of braided funding expertise on a scale of 1 being a novice and to a 5 being an expert. We are a research department, so we love data. We love self-reported data as well. So if you could please help us just putting that into the chat, introduce yourself, indicate how you define braided funding. We know as talking out to the field, people define this very differently in different ways, shapes, and forms. And rate your level of braided funding expertise on a scale from 1 to 5. 

Now I'm going to hand it over to one of my colleagues, Andy. And he's going to go over some community practices. 

ANDY PHAM: Hi, everyone. My name is Andy Pham. And we're the CC TAP team. I'm just here to tell you to remember to be courteous to everyone and respect everyone's opinions. We're here to share our opinions and be collaborative and be comfortable with others, other's opinions as well, and being open to new ideas and different views, as well as making a comfortable space for everyone to chat here. Thank you. 

DULCE DELGADILLO: Thank you, Andy. Now we'll hand it over to Lisa, Dr. Lisa Mednick Takami. 

LISA MEDNICK TAKAMI: Good morning, everyone. Thank you, Dulce. Thank you, Andy, for contextualizing gracious spaces. We begin our agenda for this morning, if we could just move our slide. There we go. We'll briefly cover our session objectives. We're going to look at four different braided funding streams and then specifically how those braided funding models are used here at NOCE. We have saved time for question and discussion. And then we will have our closing activities. 

Here are our objectives. We're going to be taking a quick high level overlook at Perkins. We owe it to strong workforce and student equity and achievement. We'd like to introduce you to the California Community Colleges compendium of allocation resources. We'd like you to have an opportunity to really get a sense of how rated funds are used at our campus and potentially at yours or potentially those that you may have known of or thought of identifying with in terms of future. And finally, because as Dulce said, we are a data department, we are very interested in how we measure outcomes for different reading streams. Next slide, please. 

And I'll turn it to Chandni for a quick housekeeping. 

CHANDNI AJANEL: Hello, everyone. Just a reminder that this meeting is being recorded. This recording and the PowerPoint slide deck are going to be released on the California Adult Education website once they're remediated. And we ask you to please fill out the survey at the end, we really value your feedback, and we use it to improve our webinars. Thank you. 

LISA MEDNICK TAKAMI: Thank you, Chandni. Before we get started, I would like to make sure that I welcome not only our participants but our state leadership at both California Department of Education and the California Chancellor's Office. While I'm not entirely sure everyone, who is on we want to acknowledge also our colleagues at the CAEP TAP office. It is the collaboration between CDE and the California Community Colleges and our integrated CAEP TAP office, which allows us to serve the hundreds of thousands of students in the state of California. 

Here is a definition of braided funding. You'll see the source at the bottom of the slide. It refers to two or more funding sources to coordinate and support total program cost. Revenues need to be allocated and expenditures tracked carefully by these funding sources. And there are a variety of cost allocation methods, which I hope our esteemed colleagues may share a little bit at the high level of how that's taken care of. Next slide, please. 

These are the four major funding sources we'll be taking a look at for non-credit programs-- Perkins, WIOA II, strong workforce, student equity and achievement. Next slide, please. So Perkins, this is the first of our two federal funding sources. We are in Perkins V since 2018. These are funds to fund primarily CTE and secondary community colleges, technical colleges, and area CTE schools with the goal of preparing youth and adults for post-secondary education and careers with an emphasis on technical knowledge, employability, and rigorous content. Next slide, please. 

So you have two divisions, higher ed and specialized public secondary school. And you have a couple of resources. Again, these resources would be available to you after today. This is a terrific resource at the bottom of the slide-- the Perkins Collaborative Resource Network. We encourage you, if you're interested in learning more about Perkins to check this resource. Next slide, please. 

A few of the Perkins requirements, including a count of students served annually disaggregated by special populations, here you have a few-- veterans, low income, justice impacted. There is a needs assessment of student performance outcomes required every two years. We always align with labor market needs through demonstrated data. And the reporting for the community colleges is done through NOVA and for CDE through the PGMS, Program Grant Management System. Next slide, please 

Second, WIOA II, another federal source. WIOA stands for Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. Title II is the adult education and Family Literacy Education Act. It is the principal source of family funding for adult ed programs in a four-year grant cycle. There are not a lot of community colleges that are REO funded, but they are certainly some. It is growing. And we will probably discuss that in a different webinar. 

You see, there are the federal office that oversees WIOA. And you see at the bottom, the eligibility for funding with a link that you can then check out for discussion and possible consideration at your campus. Next slide, please. 

So what's the purpose of WIOA? I'd like to draw your attention to these three objectives-- to support adults obtaining knowledge and skills necessary for employment and self-sufficiency, support adults obtaining necessary education and partners in the educational development of their kids, and helping adults to complete secondary education or its equivalent. All things that are inherent within Vision 2030 and things that we'll be talking about quite a bit more as non-credit is really gaining traction within our system. Reporting is done through TOPSpro Enterprise for both agencies, including community colleges, K through 12, and others. And at the bottom is a link for WIOA Ii resource guide. Next slide, please. 

I'll now turn it over to Dulce who will cover state program funding sources. Dulce. 

DULCE DELGADILLO: Thank you, Lisa. So now we're going to talk a little bit about the Strong Workforce Program. This is a state categorical funding that's handed over through the transfers office. It was created in 2016, so it's been around for quite some time, almost a decade here. And it was really with the intent-- it was created with the intent to create a million more middle skill workers, so really focusing on that workforce pathway. 

And so it really focused on these seven target areas that looked at student success, really aligning career pathways with what the labor market needs were. And this regional coordination and funding was really where this began to-- we started looking at and seeing these regional coordinations and consortia around this type of work, specifically focusing on workforce and adult education and non-credit. 

So it was really exciting. And I know several of you are familiar with it. But if you are not, we do have a link down there. There are several resources available through the State Chancellor's Office through the Strong Workforce. Sorry, let me get to this one. Here we go. 

In regards to the eligibility for funding, it's really an annual recurring investment. So it's being handed over through the career technical education all through 116 California Community Colleges. There is another side of a strong workforce, which is the K through 12. Thank you, Ute or sorry, I saw that Ute was putting in the Perkins one. But there is also a K through 12 strong workforce. 

And so we encourage you with-- if you're a community college serving non-credit students and you're partnering with your K through 12 in your consortia, really have a conversation as to what are those opportunities for potential collaboration and potential leveraging of both of those resources at a consortium level look like to best serve our students. But within the context of this conversation, because we are talking about leveraging resources within the California Community College system, we'll really be focusing in on the California Community College Strong Workforce funding pipeline. 

If you want to know a little bit more about the K through 12 Strong Workforce, we did include a link on the bottom. And again, like I mentioned, I encourage you with your consortium partners to really have a discussion as this is one of the funding sources that can be leveraged by the majority of the partners within the consortia. 

The next one we're going to do a quick overview is the Student Equity and Achievement Program. This is a program that comes from a long time ago. And it really consolidated three programs that were previously implemented by the State Chancellor's Office. That was SSSP, also known as Student Success and Support Program. We had the basic skills initiative, and then we had student equity. 

And in 2018, the State Chancellor's Office really grabbed all three of those funding sources and merged them into the Student Equity and Achievement Program. And so that's really what you're seeing is in implementation now. 

It requires colleges to implement and really look at equity gaps through this guided pathway framework to really address the pathways that students need to take in their educational plans. There is a requirement to be able to have a student equity plan. And this is very data-driven. You are looking at constantly at your numbers around how are you closing equity gaps among your students that are disproportionately impacted. 

So there is a requirement around colleges to develop detailed goals and measurements. If you are under-- if you are interested in knowing a little bit more about student equity, I encourage you to also explore that link at the bottom that really dives into where student equity is now and its evolution over the last couple of years. One thing to note is that standalone non-credit institutions don't necessarily have direct access to Student Equity and Achievement Program. And so therefore, it really calls for a partnership with the credit side or with your credit partners and seeing how you're able to leverage those students. 

If we want to address student equity issues, we know that we have those equity gaps among our non-credit students. And so what a best way to address gaps right at the foundation and at the entry of that pathway for our students. 

In addition, there are some funding conditions and requirements. So similar to other state funding sources, this is being allocated for specific need and therefore, is requested to be spent in a specific way. It is allocated at a district level. And so therefore, those pieces that I just shared about partnering with your credit partners at a district level is going to be really critical for you to be able to leverage some of that funding within your noncredit programs and potentially supporting your consortia at a holistic level. 

The Student Equity Plan is adopted at the governing board. And so it there's a plan, and it goes through the shared governance process. So it's very much a California Community College initiative, where there's plans, it's data-informed, and it goes through the shared governance process. You're looking at a specific type of components within the data and that is specifically your demographics. 

So you are disaggregating data by race, ethnicity, by other types of student services. Are they a former foster youth? Or are they a student with disabilities? Are they a veteran student that may need some additional supports? So this would be also a great opportunity to start digging into your adult and non-credit student data as to what do these populations potentially look like within those programs. 

And so really what's really focused at the student equity and achievement level is closing those gaps again and serving the needs, so that they can be successful in their academic pathway, whether it's through the non-credit to credit pathway or non-credit to employment pathway. 

So talking about data, we're going to dive into-- so who is actually being counted for the outcomes associated? So like we mentioned earlier, a lot of these initiatives are tied to outcomes. How did these students persist throughout the programs? Were they successful? Did they receive a certificate? And did they-- were successfully placed into employment? 

And so what you see here is a crosswalk across what all of these initiatives that we talked about and who has counted for those outcomes. Now not necessarily who is being served,. so I do want to clarify that, because you could be serving many individuals. But what you see here is that they are specifically looking at outcomes for individuals who have received 12 hours or more of instruction. So those are the students that you're really going to be looking at for those outcomes. 

That aligns with CAEP, aligns with Strong Workforce, aligns with WIOA. And for student equity and for Perkins, we're really looking at enrollment data. Are they just enrolled in those courses? And so that's going to be your student population. So this is really important to understand. As you start exploring these potential funding sources, who is going to be counted towards those outcomes? 

And finally, a great resource that I encourage you to go ahead and dive into, I'm going to warn you, it is not a small document, but it is a very helpful document. It is called the Compendium of Allocation and Resources. This is a great resource. It's down at the bottom, even if you just want to Google it right now. It will list all of the California Community College funding sources and their allocations. 

If you are at a California Community College and you're like, I have no idea how much my college gets for student equity. Guess what? You can go into the Compendium, and it will tell. You that information is publicly available and is annually released through the Compendium. You want to know how much your institution or your district gets from strong workforce? That is another source. So I encourage you to dig in, find your institution, find the institutions within your consortiums, and start having conversations as potentially what are some partnership opportunities across these initiatives. 

Now I'm excited to hand it over to our panelists, who are going to show us what this looks like in practice and the ground. And I'll hand it over to Lisa. 

LISA MEDNICK TAKAMI: Thank you, Dulce. I would also just remind everyone about that Compendium. It's only been around for a couple of years. And it's kind of a Bible in terms of learning more about these various funding sources allocations, eligibility, and those kinds of things. 

We are so delighted to welcome our esteemed colleagues Lorri Guy and Raine Hambly. Lorri serves as program coordinator for Disability Support Services. Raine serves as Associate Dean I of CTE, both here at North Orange Continuing Education. Welcome, Lorri and Raine. 

We're going to ask you to unmute, so that we can go into our first question around braided funding. And we'll go Lorri, Raine, Lorri, Raine to keep things simple. Lorri, if you could start by sharing what braided funding sources does DSPS use and what mechanisms do you use to monitor spending and progress from multiple funding sources. 

LORRI GUY: Yes. Hi, everyone. Good morning. And thank you for having me. So this question is-- I could go on for quite some time with all of the different funding sources that we utilize in DSS, so I'll just name the main ones. 

NOCE general fund funds a lot of our instruction and our counselors. Our instruction is also funded through extended day and educational assistance classes. We obviously have our DSPS allocation. And then we really rely on a lot of outside agencies to apply for grants and funding to allow us to provide the many programs and services that we offer through DSS. 

So one of our main partners is the Department of Rehabilitation. We have about five grants through the Department of Rehabilitation. They fund our Workability III program. They fund our CSP program, which is our newest program that helps to bring students from subminimum wage to competitive integrated employment. They also fund our college to career program and DOR services grant, which is for educational coaching and transition counseling. 

And so of course, they don't fund 100% of these programs. We braid that funding with the NOCE general fund and with the DSS allocation. We also work very closely with the Regional Center of Orange County, who funds our day programs, our WISE program, and then our educational coaching program titled IVES. We also leverage funding through them through what's called Competitive Integrated Employment Payment Points. So when a student obtains employment and holds it for 30 days and then six months and then one year, we get payment benchmarks to support those initiatives and support getting our students to work. 

We also have a grant with the Orange County Transit Authority that funds our mobility program, which is our enhanced mobility for seniors and disabled. And then we, of course, work very closely and have a lot of funding from the California Adult Ed program that funds a variety of our faculty and classified positions. Some examples including teaching, counseling, job development, transition counseling, student service specialists, et cetera. 

We have also leveraged funding in the past from the State Council on Developmental Disabilities. We don't currently utilize funding from them. But they used to fund job coaching for WISE, and we work very closely with them on a lot of different projects and initiatives. So we're close to contact when funding does become available. 

And then finally, we've also used funding from Equity. This used to fund our coaching. And then we were able to leverage funding from the Department of Rehabilitation. Once we piloted the program through Equity, we were able to go to the Department of Rehabilitation with a lot of successful data that in turn had them fund for a wider range of students basically than what Equity was able to fund. 

LISA MEDNICK TAKAMI: Lorri, thank you so much. Could you just break down the acronym WISE for our audience? 

LORRI GUY: Absolutely. It's for Work Skills Independence Socialization and Education. And that's our day program that serves our students with disabilities. And they come and work in the program for five years. It's a cohort model. And so that's our day program through the regional center. 

LISA MEDNICK TAKAMI: Fantastic. Were you finished before I pass it over to Raine. 

LORRI GUY: I didn't answer all parts of the question. So just to quickly respond to how we track and measure, all of our budgets and allocations are loaded into Banner and then individual budgets are exported into Excel, which gives us total budget, year-to-date expenditures, faculty and staff and employee costs, which really allows us to monitor. 

And then finally, this is something that I believe Dulce could speak more to but we are moving towards vision-aligned reporting, which is qualitative and quantitative data that helps to paint a picture of how successful we are with services provided and dollars spent towards those services. 

LISA MEDNICK TAKAMI: Excellent. Thank you, Lorri. And we'll hand it over to Raine. 

RAINE HAMBLY: Sorry, I muted myself real quick. Yeah. So for career technical education, most of the funding sources are a lot of the ones that Dule had mentioned. So for us, we have access to Perkins funding. We do get our own allocation, because it does-- so your student headcounts, which is what they base your funding allocation on, does include non-credit CDCP students as well as credit. So that's always something to look at. 

I did hear from a school not that long ago that was not getting access to some of the funding from SWP, Strong Workforce and Perkins, and it was because they weren't-- they had said that they weren't getting funded based on their non-credit students and head counts and programs, but the community colleges do. So whatever comes to your college, even if you're separated, because we're independent, right, so we're our own separate site of just non-credit, but your college if it has a mix of credit and non-credit. And you have non-credit CDCP career technical training programs. Part of the funding that they do receive is based on your student numbers as well. 

So it is definitely something to have a discussion and look at, because that is an allocation that should also pass down in some way to I think non-credit programs. It's always a smaller portion, right, because we do have a smaller piece of the pie that's coming to us. And so for NOCE, we do get the smallest portion of our Perkins. But we do have access to that. So for our funding, we look at that we have local strong workforce, which is sometimes multiple years happening at the same time because they do overlap the allocations for that. 

We also are part of our regional Strong Workforce funding. So within the Orange County region, we have been able to establish that NOCE is also eligible to participate in any of the regional projects that come through. And we also can apply for regional projects if we want to be the lead, which I do currently serve as the lead on one of our work-based learning projects for the region. So we have those three funding sources. 

We also have recently delved into the CAI grants, which is the California Apprenticeship Initiative. So if you're looking at doing pre-apprenticeships, apprenticeships, or you already have them in place and you're looking to grow them, that is another funding source that you would want to look at for that particular program. And then again, we have CAEP and general fund for ours as well. 

And it looks like time. So if you have questions later, I can talk to you even more about how we do more of that braiding with those for those particular funds. 

LISA MEDNICK TAKAMI: Sorry. Can you speak very briefly about the monitoring of the spending? 

RAINE HAMBLY: Oh, yeah. Sure. So for us, we put it all on the table. We have a work group that looks at this. And we put all of our funds on the table as we're getting ready to apply each year for the funding that we want to spend. And we always look at, what are the outcomes for each of those particular funding sources? What are their main goals for them? Because sometimes they do change as to what the Chancellor's Office or that funding source is asking us to really target. And so we look at that. 

We also look at what you can and cannot spend funding on, because that's probably the most important thing to look at. And then once we do that, then we decide what our goals as a whole division are. And we have our faculty from all disciplines that are able to join us. We have district resources. We've had our advisory boards. We always ask them, what is the need for those particular groups? And then we determine what projects we want to do. 

And then we kind of plug them in. So we determine, this fits best with strong workforce, this fits best with Perkins or with our CAEP funding. And we recently were able to hire out of our CAEP-- portion of our CAEP and general funds, which is a braided position. Our director of grants an economic and workforce development. And so that person now is the one who oversees all the monitor and spending and progress of our programs to ensure that they're actually happening each time and working with the faculty and staff to have make sure that everything's happening and that all the reports are coming in and that we're not misusing any of the funding as we go along. 

I think having that person or a person that kind of helps oversee all of the projects at one time is really helpful, especially if you are going to braid. Because if you have different people seeing it, there is a chance that you're going to overlap. And you're spending, and you're going to spend here and spend here, and you're going to be like, oh, shoot, we just spent in two different pots for the same project. 

LISA MEDNICK TAKAMI: Perfect. I appreciate your highlighting that distinction of duties. So let's go ahead to the second question. We'll go back to Lorri. And Dulce is going to advance our slide. Thank you so much. So second question, Lorri, how would you recommend finding and applying for funding streams that may support your program area? And then how do you recommend using these multiple funding sources in tandem to meet your program's needs along the lines of what Raine said to the end of question one? 

LORRI GUY: Yeah. So I think that probably the most important thing that I can share today is to have a clear understanding of what services you want to provide prior to trying to secure a funding source. I think that that is crucial. It's really important to have a clear idea and then identify the funding sources, because many services can be funded from different pots of money. Once you know what you want to do, then you have a clear idea of where you might find the funding. 

Like for us, it would be regional center, DOR, State, Council, Strong Workforce. I think awareness is heightened when sources do come around. And sometimes funding sources will provide more resources, if you have agreed to braid with other sources. So I think to answer your question part B, how do you recommend using multiple funding sources, again, having a clear idea of who funds what part of the program and services. 

So I can give an example. Our college to career program is funded through our Department of Rehabilitation as well as the general fund, because we provide instruction and we provide workforce services under that program. So that would be an example. 

LISA MEDNICK TAKAMI: Perfect. Thank you so much. Raine, number two. 

RAINE HAMBLY: Yeah. And I kind of delve into some of this. But I think it's also important to think about your needs but like, what you already have access to and making sure that you don't over apply. I think I would also recommend as part of this question and thinking about where you're applying from because like we just had that with this CAI grant, so the apprenticeship ones. And we're actually looking to start about five apprenticeship programs and change our one pre-apprenticeship-- we'll not change it but create an apprenticeship off of it. 

And we decided not to actually apply for this next round of CAI funding because through our Strong Workforce local, we already had enough funding to plant the seed and get it started with our advisory boards and all of that. And so for us, we didn't want to overtax, having too much funding come in that we couldn't then properly spend. And so we're leveraging our Strong Workforce in hopes that now the next round of CAI will actually have that program to a level where we can expand it and build upon it and use-- apply for funding that way, because I think strategically that's more important to have that later funding than it is the beginning funding. And we were able to cover that elsewhere. 

But I also think when you're looking at your multiple sources-- and Lorri kind of touched upon it-- is your partnerships. So for I-BEST, which is one of our programs, which is the Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training, where we have our ESL division and our CTE division work together in tandem to help our students get through a CTE program while fully supporting their learning their language skills at the same time, one of the things that we did was ask ESL, hey, do you have funding to help pay for that second instructor which is the ESL instructor in the room while they're teaching? And they said, yeah, we do. 

So it was kind of like-- because I don't know what funding other divisions have. So sometimes even having those conversations. And when you build those partnerships, seeing what funding they have, too, to see if you could braid even amongst different divisions and departments. 

LISA MEDNICK TAKAMI: Yes. I'm reminded of a couple of things that you said during your response, Raine. The first is for our funds, where we are dealing with our carryover compliance. And so I think the point that you made about being strategic in how we approach rated funding is very important. And also through our CAEP collaborations and our regional consortia, what you said about the partnerships and collaboration to make best use of the braided funds that are available to us, certainly, makes a lot of sense. So with that, let's go ahead and move on to question number three. 

Thank you, Dulce. So our last question, what challenges-- Lorri, this will go to you first. What challenges has your program faced in leveraging braided funding, given the different complexities we've already talked about? And how have you worked to resolve these? 

LORRI GUY: So sometimes funds go away. Sometimes the funding source ends, and that means that sometimes services go away. There's not really a good answer for when something is funded and the resource goes away. But I think that it's crucial to stay in close communication with your funding sources and see if they provide opportunities for amendment or augmentation. 

A problem that exists is that a lot of the funding sources don't account for the cost of living and position increases. So for example, through Department of Rehabilitation, you're awarded your grant for three years. And then after the three years, it renews, but it doesn't necessarily increase unless you apply for an augmentation or unless you apply for re-allotment funding or different sources that can again braid with what you already have. 

So I think it's really crucial to stay in close contact with the funding sources but also be in areas that you can advocate for your cost of living increases. So for example, we go to the California conference called CAPED. Workability 3 and DOR are always present at that conference. So really advocating with our peers for cost of living increases and advocating for models that need to be redesigned. 

And then finally, another problem that exists is that many of the funding sources want to provide startup dollars and then have you find other sources for continued funding. So I think that it's crucial to braid, which is what we're talking about right to make sure that you have the funding sources to offset that issue. 

LISA MEDNICK TAKAMI: Right. That makes sense. And I know through the three questions, several times, both of you have talked about general funds and then these braided funds, these categoricals, and how that braiding and all the accounting for all of that needs to be done with a lot of intentionality. So Raine, we'll turn to you for question number three. 

RAINE HAMBLY: Yeah. I think, for us, the biggest challenge is because a lot of the grants that we deal with have similar outcomes and similar types of areas, it's really just learning and knowing like where we can spend money and can't spend money. Recently, Strong Workforce said that we could no longer spend funding towards helping our students get industry certifications. But Perkins started allowing it. So-- but before, it was the opposite, right? We could do it through Strong Workforce, but we couldn't do it through Perkins. 

So it's always just continuing to look at any changes that they have in the guidelines for spending, because that's typically where we'll hit a fence is we think we have a plan, and then all of a sudden, they'll say, well, you can't spend on this any further. And then we're like, OK, great, who else can we use to-- or what other funding pot can we use to cover that particular area? 

And so that's, I think, one of the key things. Again, I will say having a single person in charge of making sure that everything is happening as it should is really important as well when you're looking at this. I can't-- I probably can't stress that one enough just because it can get really confusing. 

And I think the last one I would highlight is-- and this has come about in several of our areas. So we have started seed funding for things in CAEP or Strong Workforce or Perkins. So like, for instance, our Career Skills and Resource Center, that started off completely fully grant-funded. And one of the things that we knew is that we did not want to dedicate grant funding solely to that project for the rest of its life. We knew it was a benefit to our students. So what we did is we've been working with Dulce's team to really gather data and help us figure out, is this a benefit? Is it not a benefit? How should we move forward? 

And after several years of us looking at the outcomes and the students and what they were gaining from it, we decided to make it an instructional program. So we were able to convert that into a non-credit open entry, open exit lab, where students can come in and get those services and instruction to help with resume and career stuff, computers, any of those kind of things that they needed assistance with. And so that now has made it self-funded. So I think sometimes even looking at that as can you convert it to something else like a non-credit instructional where it's going to get apportionment funds to now support it is another option to look at. 

LISA MEDNICK TAKAMI: Right. Thank you for highlighting that. And for our audience, we're not talking about apportionment funding today, while we have certainly touched on that in other webinars and we'll continue to do that. But I want to highlight a couple of things that you said, Raine. First, this notion of a dedicated person for compliance, because that's going to look very different depending on the particular campus, institution, and so on. But the need to stay on top of the compliance that both the reporting and the cost accounting, that's very important. 

And then what you were saying about the evolution of programs that they may start as pilots with seed funding from different categorical sources and then may, in fact, convert or evolve into instructional. That would then garner apportionment so really appreciate your highlighting those examples. 

We are actually 4 minutes ahead of time, which is amazing for our webinar. So we will now advance our slide and be able to open it up to a Q&A discussion. There were some questions in the chat that our team has been readily attempting to answer. This is the time that you can go ahead and unmute yourself and/or put a question in the chat. And our esteemed colleagues and the team we'll attempt to answer the question. And if not, you can count on us to research it and be able to get back to you and/or refer to one of the resources in the PowerPoint slides. 

DULCE DELGADILLO: Great. Thank you. Any questions? 

AUDIENCE: Hello. Can I ask a question? 

LISA MEDNICK TAKAMI: Yes. Go right ahead. 

AUDIENCE: All right. Thank you. Good morning all. And thank you so much for a very informative presentation. Our situation is a bit different. So I would like to ask this question. And if you could guide us, I would be much appreciated. We are a community-based non-profit organization located in Los Angeles. We do provide adult education, ESL classes, and preparation for citizenship classes for immigrants and refugees. 

We have a small funding from WIOA Title II, but that's the only funding available for the program right now. But the demand is high, so we are hoping to be able to expand the program. Do you have suggestions for any other source of funding that we would be eligible for? I mean, I'm going to take a look at the Perkins And all other that was mentioned today. But as a non-profit community-based organization, are we eligible to apply for this type of funding? 

DULCE DELGADILLO: As a non-- oh, go ahead, Raine. 

LORRI GUY: No. So the Perkins and Strong Workforce would be specific to the K through 12 and community colleges for applying for that funding. Sometimes, though, the workforce boards do have funding and grants that they get. And they do use some educational providers. So you may want to check your workforce boards, your local workforce boards, and see if there's a way that maybe you could partner with them or if they have any particular grants or funding out there, where they're looking to partner with some educational providers. 

And then the other thing is foundational grants, so looking to foundations. A lot of times, they will-- they're open to giving funding to organizations outside of the community colleges or the K through 12. 

DULCE DELGADILLO: Yeah. And I am unmuted, sorry. The other piece I was going to say, too-- yes, foundations. Thank you, Raine. And your colleges, your community colleges and your districts have foundations as well. And that's also an opportunity for you to be able to start building that partnership and potentially have some money on there as well. 

AUDIENCE: Thank you so much. 

DULCE DELGADILLO: Thank you. Kelly. 

KELLY HENWOOD: OK so I have a very foundational question. And this has actually come up recently at our consortium meeting. So-- and I think I know the answer. But there was questions about and maybe you could talk about to define the difference between allowable and allocatable, because that's something that when people see allocatable, they're like, what does that mean? That should be allowable. And I was like, no, it's a different concept. And I think allocatable is where it gets into the braiding funding concept. So that's like a foundational definition question. 

And then my second question is because-- and I think, Raine, you or somebody else had mentioned it that there are a lot of common outcomes that we're looking at between the different funding streams that have been presented. And so what kind of allocation methodology are best used when you're looking at the outcomes piece of it, since the outcomes are so similar? And I think some of the ideas are processes that are used at North Orange are really great in terms of there are a lot of similar outcomes and then look at this, the projects first, and then look at what's allowed. But I'm just wondering about an allocation methodology using outcomes or head count or something, like, how is that done? 

LISA MEDNICK TAKAMI: Well, I can try to take on the first part, the allowable versus allocatable, as I understand it. And then I encourage others on the team. Allowable to me is when-- because some funding sources come with an allowable expense list and others don't. So if you have an allowable expense, and you're fitting-- if you're thinking of funding something, in other words, to allocate that, and you are dealing with an allowable list of funds, then it becomes a much easier mechanism. 

However, if you have a funding source that does not have a specific allowable expenses, then you would need to consult with your funding source to determine if it would be allocatable. That's how I would define it. But perhaps others on the team could add to that portion of it. And then we'll get to your second question, Kelly. 

RAINE HAMBLY: Yeah. I mean, because I guess when we're talking to the faculty or the staff that are proposing things, we always just give them a list of what's allowable and not allowable. So we say like, we can't pay for memberships, like personal memberships. We can't pay for a party and wine that's going to happen, and those kind of things. So I guess that's probably just the key part is just making sure that they have that list. 

But then the allocatable part is basically for me that's afterwards. That's what we've allocated towards your specific project. So you submit a request. We've told you what it can and can't be spent for and what the particular outcomes that you need to provide based on that particular grant funding. And then once you submit that application to us, we determine, yes, we're going to fund that. 

But sometimes, you may have asked for like 50,000, and we say we only have 30,000 to get to put towards that project. So we're allocating $30,000 towards that project. And you can spend it based on those areas that you have said you're going to address. So I guess that's how I would, kind of similar to Lisa, define it between the two. 

And then I guess your second question was more like, I guess, when we're looking at funding, are we allocating it based on the outcomes? Is that kind of what you were asking, Kelly? 

KELLY HENWOOD: That, but, yeah, what kind of methodologies are used for that? If you're braiding funding with something and they're similar outcomes between the different funding sources and similar allowable expenses between the funding sources-- what kind of methodology ideas do people have? 

DULCE DELGADILLO: That's a good one. I mean, so because there are-- as much as there are similarities, there are always slight tweaks to the metrics. So I'm going to give you an example. For example, I'm sorry, CAEP is looking at specific top codes for CTE, whereas Strong Workforce is looking at another group of top codes for strong workforce. So although the outcome of employment is measured similarly, those-- the parameters that are being placed into who is being looked at for these outcomes may switch slightly based off of your funding source. 

So what's been very helpful for us as a research department is to provide those counts kind of by grant or by initiative, so these are your counts and your outcomes x, y, and z. This is what they look like on the LaunchBoard. This is what they look like locally. How can we kind of address any gaps that exist and address the good and scale up the-- sorry, address the bad and scale up the good, right? So those pieces. 

But, and then at the same time, you also have to do-- we do some work around the crosswalk of all of these initiatives. And so if you are going to support CTE students, then you're going to support the outcome metrics for Strong Workforce, for Perkins, for CAEP, and for potentially other CTE-focused, apprenticeship-focused initiatives. And so really, it's kind of a process and understanding, OK, who are we looking at locally and who are we serving? Who's being counted? So going back to that slide, who are your students that are being counted for those outcomes? And then when we do invest money into those groups, how does it impact the other initiatives across the program? 

So it's not as clear cut. We do do the work of looking at metrics just for Strong Workforce, but we also have to do the work of looking at it holistically, because, in reality, when you're allocating those resources, and you're funding CTE support, it will be reflected in those other metrics. 

RAINE HAMBLY: And I would just add, too, that when you're looking at it like, obviously, what you can spend on and your metrics is a key part, but also looking at the priorities of each of the projects. So like Perkins just came out with some new priorities that they or themes that they really want us to focus on this next year. So they wanted us to really focus on pathways, dual enrollment, regional partnership development, the CTE teacher and faculty pipeline, and work-based learning right. So like those were their priority areas. 

So when a project comes in, if it meets multiple metrics in different areas, but it may lend better to one of those particular priorities that Perkins has outlined or Strong Workforce or something, then we will tend to just say, you know what, we're going to fund it out of Perkins. So that's why we just kind of throw all the money on the table and where it's coming from, because if you're just looking at outcomes or you're just having somebody submit for one particular funding source, I think it's not as clean actually as the braided model where you're putting all the table-- all the money on the table at one time. 

And then you're like taking whatever projects are important to them that they're submitting to you and figuring out, how can I make that work? And sometimes it may have to split a project, because maybe half of it does fit in Perkins and half of it fits in Strong Workforce. But as a whole project, it doesn't fit in either. So that it has to be split. And so we'll have that conversation with faculty and staff, too, and say we love this project. We think it's going to do great for students. But ultimately, we're going to have to have you write two applications, because we can only fund this portion from our Perkins and this fund from our Strong Workforce. 

But the whole goal and what they wanted to do is still intact and still going to be there. It's just how we're covering that funding. 

LISA MEDNICK TAKAMI: Thank you, Raine. So a couple of themes there. So it is just so important to use those resources to stay on top of the priorities for the particular funders and, as Dulce was mentioning, that other part of measuring and demonstrating the outcomes. So I think I hope our audience sees that the process of braided funding is a complex one. And it's one in which, in order to be able to serve our students, there is a need to look at multiple funding sources for non-credit. Otherwise, programs simply would not be able to be funded. 

And we've really sort of touched on some models, but I'm sure you can understand that this is the full-time work of Lorri, Raine, and thousands of other colleagues across our system to be able to pull this off. This is a complex process and one, as Raine described it, that is very iterative and very team oriented in terms of how do we get to solutions, how do we arrive at solutions, and how do we demonstrate outcomes for our students. 

Are there additional questions that we may be able to answer? 

LORRI GUY: I wanted to add one thing as well, though. I think it's really crucial-- I love that CTE has a director over braided funding and grants. I think that that's crucial, someone who understands the contracts thoroughly, because it's really important, for example, in DSS for our workforce programs, we collect data that are our grants don't require of us because it allows us to paint a more thorough picture of what services are being provided, what outcomes are being reached, and that may be the service model needs to be altered or changed a little bit. 

So I think that being very, very well-versed with your contracts and going through them with a fine-toothed comb and finding comparisons between your programs and differences that allow you to advocate for your funding to be altered if it needs to be. 

LISA MEDNICK TAKAMI: Yeah. Thank you for adding that, Lorri. Excellent point. Other questions? We have just a few more minutes on. We have a couple of closing activities that we need to do. So if you have a question, this is your chance. OK, we do have a question coming from Myra. 

We see these director positions be most commonly funded-- or is this a comment, Mayra? Do you want to go ahead and make it? 

DULCE DELGADILLO: Oh, no. It was tied to a question. 

LISA MEDNICK TAKAMI: OK. 

DULCE DELGADILLO: So, yeah, actually, we can talk a little bit about this, but-- so somebody had asked on here about potentially using CAEP funding for hiring someone like exactly what Raine was talking about, a director of grants or braided funding. And so how could CAEP funding be used? 

And so one of the pieces that-- CAEP funding does have specific requirements about the spending, so you would have to tie it to that. So the big picture is here that it's tied to the seven program areas. And so what Myra was distinguishing is that we see these director positions be most commonly funded by the strong workforce or the Perkins funding at the college setting. So that's really important in terms of just what we see overall. 

But again, those-- all of these funding sources and take-- once we remediate this PowerPoint, please take it back to your local institutions and partners, so that you can see how can we use these fundings and how can we braid them together to best support our students. So I want to thank everyone. I want to go ahead because I know we have about two minutes. But thank you, everyone, for your engagement in this great topic. 

I want to encourage you, if you have not yet done so, please sign up for our CC TAP Listserv. That is where we are sharing all of our resources, not just from the CC TAP team here at NOCE, but our amazing colleagues at SCOE TAP, who are also providing webinars, our colleagues at TOPSpro, Jay Wright, who is also providing webinars and our other colleagues at West Ed, who are also supporting this very important work. So please do not hesitate. You can subscribe to the CC TAP Listserv here. 

Or if you are in need of some technical assistance on either the topic that we just covered or anything else related to non-credit data or CAEP, please feel free to reach out. And I will hand it over to Chandni. 

CHANDNI AJANEL: Hi. I will be dropping the link also for the voices from the field. If you have any interest in joining, if you're knowledgeable on any of these areas, I'm going to be dropping that link. Also, if we could go to the last slide, we have a survey that we mentioned earlier. If you all could fill it out, that'd be great. We really appreciate all your comments. And I'm also dropping that link right now. 

DULCE DELGADILLO: All right. Great, Chandni. So really quick, first link is for-- if you want to be part of our join the voices from the field, a lot of our work is grounded in voices from the field and really sharing best practices, because we are all in this together to do this work. So I encourage you, if you have expertise in any of these areas, please feel free to either scan the QR code or click on that first link. 

Again, thank you for joining us today and spending your Friday morning with us. This is our contact information for all of us who are in this work. We have more team members than this. And I want to just give them a shout out to all of the CC TAP team at NOCE for putting this together. 

We are a research department, so please take our survey. We look at it. We digest the data. And we implement your feedback. So please, I encourage you to do that. And that wraps it up for us. So thank you so much for all your time. Please reach out if you have any questions, you have our contact information. And I hope you all have a great rest of your Friday. And again, thank you for all of the work that you are doing at your local levels, at your regional levels, and for doing this work in community. Thank you. 

LISA MEDNICK TAKAMI: Thank you so much. And I'll just add one more thing about the voices from the field. It is the first source for both our K12 partners and our CC partners that we consult when putting together these webinars. So if you have interest, expertise in any of those areas, please do join voices from the field, so that we know to reach out for you. And in partnership with Dulce and the CC TAP team, we wish you a very good day. And thank you so very much for joining us today.