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Orange County Conservation Corps and Youthbuild Santa .4na Workforce Investment Board Request for Proposal The You[h Service Provider Network PY 2005/2006 work ethic and provide a lasting foundation to enable youth to enter the workforce and be successful, productive, members of society. Indicate what will the pro-tram accomplish. The OCCC's approach to employability teaches teamwork, cooperation, and a positive work ethic by utilizing work projects that are beneficial to the community and the environment and by creating an atmosphere where corpsmembers have the chance to develop on an educational, professional, and personal level. This long term, holistic approach to working with youth assists them in overcoming the multiple barriers that most at-risk youth have in their lives. Without a holistic approach, youth may complete a short term training course, earn a valuable certificate to get a job, but not be able to maintain thatjob due to their inability to deal with personal issues that cause them to have poor attendance and/or not be productive in the workplace. While short term training programs and workshops have a place in youth and workforce development, a more long term, holistic approach is needed by many, and especially the neediest, youth to ensure they have the time and support to overcome the multiple barriers they have to become life long learners, trainable, employable, and self-sufficient. The majority of the neediest at-risk youth the Youth Council is committed to serving and which the OCCC serves basically need to learn how to work and Qo to school. For various reasons these youth have not been able to stay in school and/or maintain employment. Sometimes the OCCC is the first job for some of the youth that come to the OCCC. Therefore, OCCC is not a short term, quick fix to the issues associated with the neediest youth but a 6-12 month comprehensive program with various components and strategies designed to guide and support youth into being employable, trainable, self- sufficient adults. OCCC support services and paid work experience help corpsmembers stabilize their lives and help them deal with the many issues they face on a daily basis so they can first maintain their employment and education program at the OCCC. Once OCCC corpsmembers become stable and are able to maintain employment and education at the OCCC they can then focus on furthering their education, improving their work skills, and seek better employment post-corps. With this philosophy the OCCC program will accomplish the following: • Provide jobs for 23 Santa Ana youth as they are hired by the OCCC to complete OCCC work projects; • Meet/exceed the WIA outcomes for entered employment, retention rate, earnings gain, credential attainment, customer satisfaction, and common measures outlined above in the RFP; • Youth who are unemployed and out of school will become employed by the OCCC and enrolled in the OCCC Charter School to earn their high school diploma; • Provide "soft and hard" occupational skills training needed to complete OCCC work projects (i.e. landscaping, construction, recycling); • Corpsmembers will lean to apply these "soft and hard" skills training to other work and school opportunities post-000C; Page 7 of 22