Lisa Mednick Takami: You are in leveraging braided funding opportunities for non-credit CAEP program development. Please grab a cup of coffee, or tea, some water on this Friday. We'll be getting started momentarily. I'm Dr. Lisa Mednick Takami.

I have the honor to serve as director of CAEP TAP at NOCE. I'm going to go ahead and get started by introducing my team. We're joined by Dulce Delgadillo, director of the Office of Institutional Research and Planning at NOCE, and our team Chandni, Jaspinder, Rye, Will, and Sherri.

I would like to acknowledge CAEP state leadership from the Chancellor's Office, Dean Gary Adams, Program Lead Mayra Diaz, our special guest, apprenticeship lead, Dr. Sabrina Lopez.

And I would also like to acknowledge our CAEP state leadership, Mr. David Stang, who's the director and program lead at CDE, Diana Bautista, and our immediate colleagues, our partners at the Sacramento County Office of Education, Renee Collins, Madeline Gonzalez, Holly Clark, Wendy Exzabe, and Muamong Vue

And with that, we will go ahead and get started. We are so excited that you're here with us this morning. Whether you are an adult school, a community college, an ROP, we're really here to talk about the creative ways in which there are different sources of funding available that can be both braided and blended, and really thinking about outside of the box on how to use your CAEP funding, as well as these other funds that we're going to be talking about, both federal and state to support your programs, your courses, and the nearly 700,000 adult learners that we serve in the State of California. And as the integrated CAEP TAP, we are pleased to support you in that endeavor. Next slide, please.

OK, if you can please put your name and your affiliation in the chat. We always like to know who is in the room. We had a strong response to this topic, which we did for the first time in 2024. And we did not do it last year. And we've had some additional funding sources come along that we're going to be highlighting today. Next slide, please. I'm now going to turn it over to my colleague Jasper Drupal, who will go over housekeeping for us. Thank you.

Jaspinder Uppal: Thank you, Lisa. Just a few housekeeping items. This meeting is being recorded. Please note that AI note takers are currently not allowed. And the webinar recording and PowerPoint will be released on the Cal Adult Ed website following its remediation.

And to please fill out the survey at the end. We value your feedback and use it to improve our webinars. And then next slide, please. A friendly reminder that we want to cultivate a gracious space for lively, respectful, and professional discussion. That's it. Thank you, Lisa.

Lisa Mednick Takami: Thank you, Jaspinder. Next slide, please. Here's our plan for today. We've gone over our welcome and introductions. I'll be reviewing our session objectives momentarily.

As I said, we'll be talking about braided funding streams. We are delighted to have Dr. Sabrina Lopez with us from the Chancellor's Office, who will be speaking about the California Apprenticeship Initiative, a very important funding source, as we work towards that goal of 500,000 new apprentices by 2030.

We have left time for your questions and answers. We have a robust set of links for resources. And of course, we are always available to you after today's webinar. Once we have concluded and the webinar has been remediated, it will be posted on the Cal Adult website, as you've heard.

But in the meantime, if you have questions on today's content, please feel free to reach out to any of us at NOCE or our partners at SCOE for questions because we are-- we have, for example, one of our close colleagues, Maryanne Galindo, not able to join us today, has already requested the recording. And it is published and put on the website for that purpose. Next slide, please.

Here are our learning objectives. I will be honest with you that we are having some technical issues. And I am on my phone because my laptop is updating. So I'm just taking a look at the font, which is a little bit small here.

So we are going to be reviewing common braided funding sources-- Perkins, WIOA II, Strong Workforce, Strong Student Equity and Achievement, sometimes referred to as SEA. We'll be touching on ELL health care pathways in the California Apprenticeship Initiative.

We hope that you will be able to gain familiarity with, not only the California Community Colleges Compendium of Allocation Resources, but we've also included the link to the WIOA II current RFA, which is due October 6 and is for the years '27 to '31.

And then, finally, we want to be able to show you a little bit how students in various programs or funding streams, how those outcome measurements are taken. And Dulce will be speaking to that point. Next slide, please.

Dulce Delgadillo: This is my slide. Hi, everybody. Good morning and happy Friday. So if you were with us two years ago, we were really talking about braided funding. And ever since then, we've actually updated this. Urban Institute actually has a great definition and some great resources.

So just a heads up, at the end of this, we have compiled a full document that lists several-- all of these funding sources, but also additional resources that you are able to go and dig into and really find out, hey, are there partners within my regional consortia that are already receiving these funds or that are potentially eligible for these funds?

And so what are we thinking about doing with these funds? So there's two approaches that really-- institutions that we are aware of. There's braided funding and there's blended funding.

So braided funding, essentially, is taking each of those funding streams, but each funding source continues to be tracked. So we typically know this as allowable fiscal.

Allowables, what is allowable for this grant? What is allowable for spending this money? Is it specifically for student services? Is it specifically for basic needs? Is it specifically for-- what's it called? Is it specifically for addressing housing? So very specific and you are tracking that versus what blended funding is, it's essentially taking multiple.

So you're still looking at multiple sources, but you're really putting them into a pot. And you're saying, I'm able to use this pot of money to be able to provide these sources or these services. And I'm not necessarily tracking every single dollar that's attached to every single service because it's not necessarily tied.

So it could be-- and you'll see this with WIOA or with Perkins. I think those are two. Both of those are very much focused with the CTE realm and all of instruction. So it's not just student services, but it's also your instructional costs associated paying for your instructors.

So really thinking about what does both of these mean in terms of when you're looking at your funding sources and what you are trying to figure out how to provide those services. Distinguishing between I'm braiding funding or am I blending funding.

And so, really, what we're looking at, we're not looking for one source of money. It's not going to be that one source of money is going to fund my entire program. It may be like that, but I'm really asking you today to put on a lens and a hat of, what are all of my options of pots of money that I am able to do to comprehensively provide educational pathways for my adult learners?

And so we know-- if you've been in this field long enough, you know that these funding sources come in and out. And what ends up happening is that, typically, there isn't one funding source that is supporting our adult learners across the beginning, all the way to the end.

So really, as we go and dig into all of these resources and how do you access them, I want you to also think about your partners and who you're partnering within with your regional consortia. And perhaps they're accessing this money. And how can we bridge those pathways with these funding sources for our adult learners.

So why do we do this? Exactly this. We don't want to rely on one single funding source. We had a big scare last year. So if you were part of WIOA, that was definitely a very scary moment. And so we don't want to completely rely and have one funding source. So it's always a good idea to make sure to diversify where those funding sources are.

It also allows you to build comprehensive services around the needs of your adult learners. So what we're going to see is that, especially, within some of the federal services, and some of the community college ones, and even for strong workforce, you're looking at that it allows for certain types of services, for instruction within certain programs.

And so you're able to really piecemeal together a wraparound, especially since lately what we have seen is a lot of funding also tied to addressing external factors, just such as homelessness, food insecurity, transportation, childcare needs. So how can we best support our students with these funding sources?

Being able to coordinate just the educational, the workforce, the transition and the support services. Also being able to leverage resources across different agencies and systems. So we recognize that not everybody within the consortia may be eligible.

So in our resource, we actually have a piece that says, what is the eligibility and the criteria to be able? So again, if your agency, specifically, is not able to fit that criteria or that eligibility, are you partnering with an agency that does fit that criteria? And are you able to come together to build these pathways?

It's also reduces duplication because you're having conversations and you're not doing one CTE program, and you're mirroring another CTE program, and the students are confused or they're not sure which one to go to.

It also encourages strong partnerships. Again, bringing those partnerships to the table to have those conversations in a much larger umbrella way of saying, OK, how can we build these programs and get our students from point A to their goal, which may vary. And how can we support each other?

Because the reality is that you're going to have partners that are going to build different types of bridges for your adult learners. And you're going to want to be able to leverage that.

Funding sources for your DSS may come from Department of Rehab, whereas funding sources for your CTE are going to be your Perkins, potentially your strong workforce.

And it's also really scaling promising practices, distributing cost appropriately around funding. So ensuring, again, that we are maximizing those partnerships, maximizing those funding opportunities to really make that pathway as seamless as possible for our adult learners. All right, now, I'll go ahead and hand it over to Lisa. Is she back on?

Lisa Mednick Takami: I am back on. Can you hear me.

Dulce Delgadillo: Yes.

Lisa Mednick Takami: OK, good. So here are the major braided funding sources in serving adult learners that we'll be talking about today. Bear with me as I'm on my phone because the updates came about 15 minutes later than they told me they were going to.

So we'll first be talking about the federal funding Perkins, Carl Perkins, and WIOA II. Then we'll be talking about state funding through the Chancellor's Office, the Strong Workforce Program, which we refer to as SWP, Student Equity and Achievement Program, which we refer to as SEAP, a little bit about the ELL Healthcare Pathways Initiative. And then delighted to have Dr. Sabrina Lopez to share with us about her area and the California Apprenticeship Initiative. Next slide, please.

OK, so first about Perkins. I know that we probably have a number of you who are very familiar, but because of our turnover within our CAEP ecosystem, we never want to assume that folks may not be new and may not be aware of some of these.

So Perkins is a federal CTE funding source. We are in Perkins V. And you'll see some background information on it. Essentially, it supports secondary and post-secondary CTE programs and programs of study, develop students' academic knowledge, technical skills, and employability skills, things that are right up our non-credit alley, and supports pathways aligned with state, regional, and local workforce needs, and recognize post-secondary credentials.

So along that blending, braided funding distinction that Dulce made this morning because in our last webinar, we talked about, well, if you have one position that is funded by multiple sources, how do you account for that?

And we talked last time about the fact that all of those need to be accounted for by percentages. Today, we're talking-- we're stepping back a little bit and looking at how can we blend these sources, not necessarily for one position but across programs. Next slide, please.

OK, eligibility. Perkins V supports eligibility secondary and post-secondary CTE providers, including those serving adult learners. Section 131 for secondary-- high school districts, charter schools, county offices of education, and other eligible secondary providers. Section 132-- post-secondary adult schools, ROCPs, community colleges, and other eligible post-secondary CTE institutions. Next slide, please.

Post-secondary programs, as I mentioned, support technical skill attainment and recognized credentials, leading to employment or further education. For California Adult schools and our ROCP section 132 allocations are based on eligible economically disadvantaged adult CTE enrollment.

That's important because when we are reaching out and requesting technical assistance, we work with all sorts of districts. So for example, in Northern California, we've done quite a bit of work with community college districts that are basic aid.

That means they receive no state funding because it is a higher property tax area. So they probably would not-- if there's an adult school in the Silicon Valley area, they probably would not qualify for Perkins. Next slide, please.

All right, Perkins V requirements. One more slide. Annual performance reporting with outcomes disaggregated by required special populations. Comprehensive local needs assessment or CLNA at least every two Years Addressing performance program quality, labor market needs, and equity, and access.

For colleagues who are engaged with Perkins-- and I remember this as far back as when I was working at LA Harbor College, there is a lot of reporting that goes with Perkins, but it is a very trusted and long standing funding source.

CTE programs must demonstrate labor market alignment for California Community College programs. And they must meet at least two of three criteria-- high skill, high wage, and in-demand programs.

Reporting varies by recipient, so community colleges will be reporting into NOVA. Adult schools will follow CTE reporting requirements and applicable systems and forms. Please feel free to put any questions that you may have about Perkins or any other funding source in the chat. Next slide, please.

OK, WIOA II. We learn from our colleague Sherry this week something important, which is that we had thought that most adult schools are WIOA funded. We now understand that that is not the case.

And we also know that there are adult schools in consortia areas, such as Victor Valley, that have joined together, smaller adult schools joined together and apply for WIOA funding together.

And so we want to just highlight that idea. If you are currently a small adult school that is not WIOA funded, now that WIOA funding is stabilized, at least for right now, is there an opportunity for you to pair up with other adult schools in your consortium for the purposes of applying for this RFA?

It is the largest federal investment in adult education and literacy, awarded in California through a four-year competitive cycle. The WIOA grant is-- our funding is run out of the CDE department-- CDE department. Excuse me, I've got things popping up on my little screen here. And as I said, it's in California. It is administered by CDE.

Eligible providers-- adult school and LEAs, community colleges, nonprofits, libraries, quite a number of agencies. Applicants must demonstrate effectiveness in adult education and literacy. I see that the link that I had added for the RFA didn't make it onto the PowerPoint deck. So now that my computer is updated, I will drop it into the chat after I have handed it back to Dulce. Next slide, please.

All right, why is this important? Well, we know that the purpose of AEFLA is to build literacy, education, and workforce skills needed for employment and self-sufficiency to become full partners in their children's educational development.

So this would be the parents of school-age children, for example, who don't speak English. And I used to work with a lot of those families and accompany them to their children's parent-teacher conferences. And so we are-- really, we often talk about an education that we are not transforming individuals' lives, but we're transforming families' lives.

So completing a secondary education or its equivalent and transition to post-secondary education is another way in which WIOA helps support English language learners, as I've already mentioned, and improving those proficiency and potentially becoming citizens.

The reporting for WIOA II agencies is through TOPSpro Enterprise. So CASAS TOPSpro Enterprise. Again, if you have any questions about WIOA II, please feel free to reach out to us or our partners at SCOE. Next slide, please. And with that, I will pass it back over to Dulce, go off of my phone and rejoin everyone in just a moment. Thank you so much.

Dulce Delgadillo: Thank you, Lisa. All right, so let's shift gears a little bit and actually talk about braided funding into practices. So Strong Workforce is a really good example of how we could do this. So Strong Workforce is actually-- it occurs both in the K through 12 and the community college system.

So the K through 12 system is designed to strengthen this career education and pathways, connecting to post-secondary education and to employment. So on the community college side, Strong Workforce is really supporting the career technical education and then those regional workforce needs.

So there's a distinction. There's a K through 12 and a community college version of this. So for those of us who are serving adults, the opportunity is to stop looking at both of these systems as independents. Really, an adult learner may interact with an adult school with a non-credit program, with a credit CTE program, and eventually with an employer.

So the funding doesn't necessarily have to follow that learner as one pot of money. But really, what we're trying to build, again, is that comprehensive pathway for our students as they're transitioning from these systems, again, in partnering.

So if you're thinking, well, I don't qualify for this or I'm not sure how to tap into the K through 12, we have a resource for you that shows you the list of those who received strong workforce money in the last fiscal year.

So you can see that list and say, hey, I may have potentially some partners available within this funding pot. And again, thinking about that lens, is it blending, where we are providing comprehensive services and we can put these funding sources into one pot of money? Or is it braiding where we're going to have to track these because each of these funding sources is tied to a specific need, whether it be instructional or service oriented?

And what we see here, specifically, within Strong Workforce is it is instructional. It is mostly instructional, not like how we'll see with Student Equity. And so that's where braiding really becomes very powerful because you have different partners that can fund different allowable pieces of the pathway while still collectively building one coherent experience for the student.

Again, that is the goal. Our adult learners aren't just being touched by one funding source, whether it be on one side of the house of K through 12, or adult school, or even the community college side for non-credit or credit. So let me see. Hold on.

So here's your eligibility criteria for funding. So K through-- community college, the community colleges apply for this. This is specifically-- there is several data components that are a part of this.

Within the regional-- this is also a regional approach that we have. So we have Orange County Strong Workforce region. And so what we find is that we have to also do a lot of labor market.

So it's very much this pot or these-- the components of the student journey would be impacted by this funding source if they were interested in partnering with getting a job. So you would be partnering with potential employers. Resume building, so being able to support those type of career support systems. Let's see.

And then also, the funding is actually split up between California Department of Ed and Chancellor's Office. So they both administer-- community colleges, Chancellor's Office actually, specifically, releases out Strong Workforce community colleges.

But one of the things that you'll also see, I had mentioned, it is a regional approach. And that makes sense because we are trying to get our students through and then into the field of the employers of the field.

So those partnerships are very critical when we're partnering with our employers. But you got to also think about those partnerships in that beginning of that pathway or as they're making those leaps through the system. Oh, so really quick.

So when you think of both K through 12 community college K through 12 Strong Workforce or community college, look in the compendium, you're going to find we actually release out who are the K through 12 that got the Strong Workforce K through 12.

And in the compendium, you will see the Strong Workforce. But really, what we want to identify is how can we partner with all of those individuals or within our region.

And so that is one example that we saw of instructional. Let's shift gears a little bit, again, and pivot to from career pathways to student support services.

So we know that another layer-- it's not always going to be that they can't access those courses, or that education, or that instruction. But it's also about onboarding, counseling, and planning, transition support, and other services that are going to help these students navigate and ultimately persist and complete at the end of the day.

So that's where a funding source like Student Equity, which is the Student Equity and Achievement Program, becomes really important within your California Community College system.

And so really thinking about, again, if we have students that are transitioning from adult school over to the community college system or even vice versa because they are looking-- and we do have that. We have students transitioning and going from non-credit and potentially accessing a CTE specific adult school program.

So what does that look like? What does those support systems look like? Because again, ultimately, what is the goal? We're having the student complete that goal.

I'm not suggesting that you have every funding source pay for everything. It's really about braiding. It's going to require intentionality and a deep understanding of what are the requirements tied to each of these funding sources.

So SEAP is going to be one of those that's going to really help with the onboarding, with some of the counseling. It was established in 2018. And if you're familiar with the community college side, it actually evolved from these three initiatives that were student success program, our basic skills initiative, and student equity into the student equity and achievement plan.

And it's really-- its focus is about eliminating equity gaps. And we have many, many calculations. Something that you'll hear here is disproportionately impacted. And so that's just a fancy way to say that the gap between certain groups of students in student outcomes is significant.

And much of our goal is, in order for us to be able to close that gap, we need to understand that gap and what does that mean. And so a lot of this work has been anchored around student services. All right. Let me see.

So there are certain requirements again. All colleges need to maintain a Student Equity Plan. There's measurable goals, strategies, activities. Again, there's a lot of the monitoring that's happening. How do these actually impact some of those outcomes or those services? And so there's a whole reporting outcome associated with that.

It is ongoing categorical. So we went ahead and put it into Ed Code. So it is categorical. And your funding actually goes to the district. So I want to make something very clear. Non-credit programs, as a standalone, do not qualify to apply for Student Equity funds.

So what I am suggesting is that you find the compendium. You find how much pot of money there is amongst your partners within your consortia. And then you go make friends. You go make friends, and you go buy coffee, and you go buy treats, and you have a conversation because that's what we have to do.

As non-credit, as standalone non-credit, we have to be at the table at the district level to negotiate and say, hey, non-credit students, you're talking about equity? Let's talk about non-credit students.

You want to close gaps? Let's talk about non-credit students. And not just that within your community college, but you're really an arm and an extension that can help support build those bridges from both the adult schools and vice versa. Going back and forth. All right, I'll go ahead and transition it over to health pathways.

Lisa Mednick Takami: Thank you, Dulce. So I've been trying to keep up with questions in the chat. So we did want to mention that ELL Healthcare Pathways Initiative, this was $130 million allocation.

It is administered by an inter-agency team which includes CDE, the Chancellor's Office, the Department of Labor, and the Department of Health and Human Services, I believe.

For those who have received this funding, both adult schools and community colleges within our consortia, there have been three rounds of funding for a total of 130 plus million dollars. We're in round three, which was awarded this summer.

I bring this up because you may be amongst those who are the ELL grantees today. And we are hopeful that there may be a subsequent round. We are in the very early stages. Dean Adams announced at the CASAS Institute that he'll be going to the Department of Finance because as he says, the data associated with this program really sells itself.

I also want to give a shout out to our colleagues that are hosting the first ELL Healthcare Pathways convening in Irvine on September 17. We will be very excited to meet with the grantees and others who will be attending to learn more.

And as I said, we are currently in round three for years '26 to '29. This is very exciting-- $55 million allocated towards developing regional hubs of excellence for the allied healthcare fields.

And so because we're in the very early stages of that, we don't-- we have just the one slide on this, but we did bring it up because when we did this webinar in 2024, ELL was just getting off the ground. And it has really done just tremendous work over the last couple of years. Next slide, please.

And with that, I'm so pleased to welcome Dr. Sabrina Lopez, who is the apprentice lead at the Chancellor's Office. And she's going to be talking to us about the California Apprenticeship Initiative. Sabrina.

Sabrina Lopez: Good morning, everybody. Thank you so much for having me today. My name is Sabrina Lopez. Again, and I am the apprenticeship lead with the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office. I'm also joined today by my colleague Dalbir Singh, who's the program manager for our team as well.

So I'm happy to join today to provide a brief overview of the California Apprenticeship Initiative, or the CAI grant and the role of the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office, the role that we play in supporting apprenticeship innovation across the state. Next slide, please.

The California Apprenticeship Initiative represents a significant statewide investment in expanding access to apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship opportunities. The Chancellor's Office administers the CAI grant program through the Workforce and Economic Development Division using Proposition 98 funding.

At its core, the CAI grant program is intended to help California build new apprenticeship pathways in industries and occupations in non-traditional sectors, which include all occupations outside of the building, construction, and fire trades.

One of the areas that we particularly focus in is in innovation, especially in priority and emerging industries, and in sectors that have historically been less represented in apprenticeships.

The goal is to develop models that respond to the actual workforce needs, to connect education and employment, and ultimately to create sustainable pathways for Californians to enter and advance in good paying careers.

CAI grants also help community colleges, k-12 local educational agencies, and their affiliates to bring together classroom instruction, paid work experience, and industry recognized credentials. And that alignment is really at the heart of the Chancellor's Office's approach to apprenticeships.

Within the California Community Colleges, we also encourage opportunities for apprenticeship participants to continue progressing towards college credentials, including certificates, associate degrees, and where appropriate, baccalaureate degrees, all within the California Community College system.

One of the tools that can help make those connections possible is credit for prior learning, or CPL. CPL creates an important opportunity to reduce duplication in learning and help students see their apprenticeship experience not as something separate from college, but as part of their educational pathway.

And importantly, we want those pathways to be connected to the needs of employers. Apprenticeships are most successful when education and industry are working together in preparation for individuals for real jobs and real career opportunities. Next slide, please.

So our investment can support programs at different levels and stages of development, from implementation of a new apprenticeship or pre-apprenticeship model to expansion of an existing apprenticeship program.

For implementation grants, CAI provides grants of up to $1.5 million for three years. For apprenticeship expansion grants, those provide grants for up to $1 million for two years.

CAI also includes additional support for statewide grant administration, technical assistance, program development, and employer engagement in collaboration with our partners from the foundation for California Community Colleges and the launch apprenticeship network.

And finally, equity, sustainability, and scale are all central considerations in how we think about this work. We are investing in programs that can serve learners who might not have traditionally had access to apprenticeships, while also developing models that can be sustained and expanded beyond the initial grant period.

Ultimately, the vision for CAI is to use statewide investments to catalyze innovation, strengthen partnerships between education and employers, and create apprenticeship pathways that can serve lasting infrastructure for California's workforce. Next slide, please.

So to summarize, the CAI grant program uses Proposition 98 funds, which are eligible to directly fund California Community Colleges and K-12 partners. We have seen an annual appropriation of about $30 million per fiscal year over the last several fiscal years.

And of that amount, we have designated a portion of the funds to establish our statewide grantee administration and technical assistance platforms, which have ultimately extended to support all apprenticeships and apprenticeships throughout the state.

All applications, work plans, and fiscal reports are entered directly into NOVA, which is our online grant management platform. We also use the data that we receive in NOVA to highlight outcomes and investments and further advocate for ongoing and expanded CAI funding in collaboration with our government relations and our fiscal teams.

Moving forward, we do plan to release the next round of CAI recipients within the next month. And that will be announced via our Workforce and Economic Development Division memorandum here shortly. Thank you so much.

Lisa Mednick Takami: Thank you, Dr. Lopez. Dulce.

Dulce Delgadillo: All right, so we talked a lot about a lot of initiatives. So we talked about the braiding, and the funding, and how for some of them we know that we can cover certain things and maybe a larger aspect for certain-- if we're going to be braiding, we're going to definitely be tracking if that student equity money is being braided in there.

What are the student services that are specifically tied to that if you're using Perkins. So that's one side and one lens. But the other side that people like me who are directors of research are always looking into for these initiatives is, what needs to be tracked?

So without going deep, dive into the data, that's not what today's point is. But definitely if you are interested in this, let us know because we are definitely in the middle of these type of data pieces.

But really what we wanted to showcase is what are some of the big pieces or data pieces that are typically tracked as part of the requirements for these funding streams.

So we talked about there's some requirements as to what you can spend this money on, but also there's requirements as to what you need to track and continue reporting on a regular basis in order to continue to be eligible for this money.

So for CAEP, we're going to be looking at students that are being tracked with 12 hours of instruction or more. So it's really important that you have-- so you could be using this, but if you're not submitting your students as part of this work, they're not going to be counted.

So it's really critical that you are understanding what are the reporting requirements on top of the fiscal allowables as well. For Perkins, this is going to be your CTE students associated with Perkins eligible. So top codes, CIP codes, anybody? Those are going to be tied to all of those pieces of who gets to be counted for Perkins amongst your CTE students.

Strong Workforce is going to be your CTE students, both your credit and your non-credit as well. Along on the K through 12 side is going to be anybody under 18, I believe, within the career technical pathways.

WIOA, going back to those 12 hours of instruction. So making sure that, again, your hours of instruction are at least within your students. Now, this counts for both adult schools and community colleges.

Again, I won't dive into how we're reporting these, but it's either through your MIS, or TOPSpro for enterprise. That's where you're entering those hours. So for both WIOA and for CAEP, that's where it's being captured.

For Student Equity, it is specifically looking at community college students, OK. I encourage you, if you are in a room, please remind people, noncredit students are community college students. So how are we leveraging these resources in these spaces where we are supporting students?

If we have students transitioning from adult schools into the non-credit program, do you have a counselor specifically for those students? Do you have a counselor that is specifically working with the adult school students to be able to help them transition?

Or vice versa, is there a counselor on the non-credit side that is helping identify a viable CTE pathway for the student? And how are they receiving that guidance?

ELL Healthcare Pathway is very specific to English language learners within the healthcare pathways. And CAI, again, going back to the land of apprenticeship. So just a couple of things. We definitely have webinars on diving deep into some of these. So let us know if you are interested. All right, let me see.

OK, so some resources for you. All right, so we're going to go ahead, and hand over, and be sharing a document. I think maybe Chandni if we could actually drop it in.

But pretty much what this document is going to have, it's going to have a list of all the resources, links, and descriptions. It's about 10 or 12-- I think it's about 10 or 12 pages. Don't be scared. There's a lot of information in there. We wanted to give it all to you.

And so one of those resources is the compendium. So this is something that was released, I think, about four or five years ago. It was extremely helpful. So this is within the California Community Colleges.

So this is going to be your Strong Workforce. WIOA is not on here. We do have the WIOA link. Strong Workforce link, I think, is also a separate link and Perkins as well.

But anything that is within the community college realm, you will find. It will show you how much money was allocated in that year, what is the purpose of the money, and who qualifies for the money, so what student populations qualify for the money.

All right, so it's a really good valuable resource that you can definitely go ahead and be able to leverage in your spaces when you are having these conversations. Oh, there we go. All right, yes.

So you can go ahead and click on this link. And it will show you several pieces that are going to be-- and I'm actually going to do this really quick because I do want to share it very quickly because I want to show you and walk you through what this is going to show you.

So this is what you're going to see on that link. The purpose of this, ultimately. And remember, wearing that hat. Ultimately, how are we creating a seamless pathways for adult learners? Knowing that within California, they're going to be-- they're going to be engaging with adult schools, with K through 12, with ROPs, with other types of LEAs, with community colleges, with employers. What does that look like?

So we added a piece here about braided and blending, so you can tag into what Urban institute is really-- that framework in which funding is really distinguished. We got links associated with CAEP.

But what I want to point out here is allocation information. You want to know and want to start, exactly, OK, what am I starting with? Or what is the first pot of money? We got allocation. We have the fiscal and program guidance. So if you decide to braid this money or to blend this money, what does that require? What is the eligibility?

We have WIOA. You want to find out how much WIOA the money was being allocated to your agency. We got the link. It's right here, CDE WIOA Title II funding results. You can go in there. You can find out. Again, what is this pot of money that I could potentially tap into or at least I'm able to partner and have conversations with my partners with.

Perkins, we got your funding link right here. Who are my partners here? CDE Perkins releases their funding link every year around-- I think you get the letters maybe around August or maybe even a little later, actually. But again, what are the requirements and who are partners? Do you know anybody on this list? Can you give somebody some coffee? Maybe a $5 gift card.

Strong Workforce, so K through 12. Again, how do I access? How do I tap into this? I saw a couple of messages here. So please contact Chancellor's Office. What is the criteria? How are you able to access it? And how are you able to potentially identify partners within this funding source.

We got Strong Workforce for community college here. We got SEAP. And then this is the compendium that I'm talking about. So this is for California Community Colleges. If anybody knows, if this exists for CDE, let me know. I have dug and dug and dug and I cannot find it.

But this is something that I've really appreciated and has been a great resource for the field, which is all the money that's handed out. So you want to find out how much is being allocated for-- let's see, for your Rising Scholars Program?

You can find out how much was allocated, what's the funding formula, what is the purpose of the fund of the piece. And then you can identify how much money was given to each of the colleges or at least who received that money.

And again, is that partner within your consortium? Are you talking about pathways with those people? All of these are tied to each other in some way, shape, or form.

And going back, our adult learners aren't saying, oh, I'm just being served by one pot of money or by even one agency. And we know that. All right, I'm going to go ahead and go back to my-- to the PowerPoint here.

All right, we're going to go ahead and open it up for questions. We got a little bit of time here, a little less than 15 minutes. I want to see if we have any questions.

Lisa Mednick Takami: Yes, thank you, Dulce. And while folks are asking about questions, we also encourage anyone to come off of mic if they would like to share how they have braided or blended funds in their consortium, or at their particular college, or adult school.

I know that Scott Silverman, when he joins us, often will talk about these kinds of models. And this is really an opportunity for us to, not only ask questions, but to also share best practices.

Dulce Delgadillo: Yeah, that'd be great. If anybody has any examples on how you're using some of these funding sources, or if you're braiding any, or if you're partnering with anybody.

Lisa Mednick Takami: Well, while we're waiting for folks who may have questions or best practices, Dulce, is there an example from NOCE that you might share? Because I know we have this come up in conversations at NOCE all the time.

Dulce Delgadillo: Yeah, so we actually receive-- so at NOCE, we are a WIOA school, which is mostly focused within our ESL and our basic skills. And then we also receive CAEP. And we have been fortunate enough to be able to tap into and negotiate, at a district level, to receive some of the Student Equity money.

And so for-- one of the things that we saw, specifically, with Student Equity money is that we saw a huge need around foreign transcript evaluation. And so I believe-- I don't know if Janet is on here, but I believe at one point we did use some and we braided.

We specifically braided that money with-- what's it called, with CAEP money because it wasn't enough to-- we found out-- I mean, for some of these it was up to $500 just to evaluate foreign transcripts. So we outsourced it.

But once we were able to say, hey, this is a student service, this is addressing equity gaps, we fought really hard. Even though, at one point, the Chancellor's Office is, like, we weren't even allowed to submit a student equity plan within NOVA.

We advocated because we said, hey, this is important enough and we want to report out on how we're using this money to support noncredit students. So that has been something that's been ongoing. I don't think we use Strong Workforce. We may use money for-- another pot of money for this.

But we also use translation services. So the same way that somebody has to pay for-- when you're at the hospital and if they don't speak your language, they get on the phone and you're able to get a translator, that is another service that we have utilized as part of it.

And I'm trying to think some other pieces. I know for Strong Workforce, there has definitely been work around just resume building and workshops associated with just, again, resume, job searching, going on to the website to be able to provide those pieces.

So it's really about, what is the need, what does the funding source, what is allowable within the funding source? And then, how can you, almost like a puzzle, piecemeal it to be able to get your student to the next step or to completion, or to be able to continue persisting?

Lisa Mednick Takami: Yeah, so here are a couple of other examples that we were talking about before the webinar started. So Dulce had mentioned that our DSS department leverages funding for the Department of Rehabilitation.

We had discussed with Mayra prior to the webinar that a legitimate use of CAEP funds is to hire a research analyst to be able to help with all of this reporting, particularly if you're an ELL Healthcare Pathways Initiative.

So it was very interesting since I came from the credit side into NOCE, which is a standalone. So when Dulce is talking about how we are able to leverage SEAP funds, Dulce, can you clarify, are those SEAP funds that are allocated to the credit colleges or how do we leverage those as a non-credit provider?

Dulce Delgadillo: Yeah, so the allocation is given at the district level right. And then they allocate-- what you'll see in the compendium itself. Actually, hold on. That's a really good example. So what you'll see-- hold on, let me just pull up-- where's the compendium?

So in the compendium itself, it'll say, OK, this is how much money was allocated. So I'm part of a multi-college district, which means that a lot of times we're having conversations at a district level about how we're going to split the allocation in a methodologically sound manner.

Sometimes it's FTES, sometimes it's student body. For very specific ones, sometimes it's just-- if it's specifically allocated to a school, for this one, specifically, and I think for another DSS one as well, we negotiated that we get a percentage.

So I think it's like 10% or something from each of the colleges. So that's the conversation that you're having where you're needing to go to the district level. Now, if you're a single college district, it may be that you need to have this conversation in your student equity committee.

And have that-- and go to your student equity committee and say, how is the budget being approved? What is the steps that I need to take? And you start going to the student equity committee meetings to start becoming well versed.

The other thing-- I think these resources-- and again, our students are not going to say, oh, that's just this type of counselor. I think counseling and that support structure is another very critical key component for our students that you could use this type of funding for.