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<br />Exhibit A <br /> <br />INTRODUCTION <br /> <br />The mission of the Santa Ana Workforce Investment Board's Youth Council is to provide a <br />comprehensive integrated system to enable youth, particularly those most in need, to acquire the <br />necessary skills to successfully transition into and compete in the labor force and to further their <br />education and training. On February 17,2005, the Santa Ana Youth Council unanimously voted <br />to adopt the Employment and Training Administration's Vision for the Delivery of Youth <br />Services. Although our mission and services currently focus on serving youth in need, the <br />approval of the Vision for the Delivery ofY outh Services further defmed our mission to target <br />"youth programs focus(ed) on serving the neediest youth, with a priority given to out-of-school <br />youth, high school dropouts, runaway and homeless youth, youth in foster care, court involved <br />youth, children of incarcerated parents and migrant youth." This project is intended to serve <br />youth in foster care and/or youth emancipated from the foster care system. Our goal is to further <br />develop and support a partnership with the fosterl emancipated care system. <br /> <br />STATEMENT OF NEED <br /> <br />Description of Issue <br /> <br />Although the Santa Ana Youth Council has successfully served the youth of our City, the need to <br />outreach to foster and emancipated youth is evident when you consider the great need within our <br />city boundaries. Santa Ana ranks first in foster youth residency. A September 2005 data query <br />shows that there are a total of 84 foster youth between the ages of 14 and 21 residing in Santa <br />Ana. In addition, there are 116 emancipated youth residing in Santa Ana, of whom, none exceed <br />21 years in age. These numbers do not include homeless emancipated youth and foster youth <br />that have been returned to their biological parents but remain under the Juvenile Court <br />supervision. <br /> <br />The Santa Ana WIBlYouth Council will dedicate the High Concentration of WI A Eligible Youth <br />Funds to foster/emancipated youth not engaged by the traditional WIA system. The Santa Ana <br />Youth Council will increase access to WIA services by collaboratively working with <br />Orangewood Children's Foundation, a SOl (c) 3 organization located in Santa Ana. Established <br />in 1981 the Orangewood Children's Foundation with its mission to end the cycle of child abuse <br />by providing innovative programs focus on: Prevention, Care, Emancipation and Public <br />Awareness, has served thousands offoster and emancipated youth in Orange County. <br /> <br />Description of Target Area <br /> <br />Our experience has demonstrated that foster/emancipated youth do not access WIA youth <br />providers in our Youth Service Provider Network (PY 05/06 YSPN providers include: Santa Ana <br />WORK Center, La Familia, Taller San Jose, O.c. Conservation Corp and O.c. Children's <br />Therapeutic Arts Center) system in great numbers. Our records indicate that less than 1% of the <br />total WIA youth enrolled were foster youth. Foster/emancipated youth however, do seek out <br />services from agencies that are familiar to them while they are in the foster care system. For this <br />reason, the Foster Youth Liaison Project will deliver services at the Orangewood Resource <br />Center. The Foster Youth Liaison Project will provide WIA universal services (non-registered) <br /> <br />I <br />