SANTA ANA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT/ROP

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SuccESSBoaND! PROGRAM FACILITIES SITE AVAILABILITY, ACCESSIBILITY & HOURS OF OPERATION The program will be offered primarily at the ROP Ritchey Center and the comprehensive high schools with senior classes; Century, Saddleback, Santa Ana, Segerstrom and Valley. All these sites and the two continuation high schools (Cesar Chavez and Mountain View) are readily accessible to project youth. They also meet ADA requirements vis-a-vis handicap access. In recognition of the importance of the District's normal academic program and the academic standards which it embraces, Success Bound! program activities will take place outside the normal academic day. Regularly scheduled bi- monthly meetings will take place before/after school (7:00 to 8:00 am and/or 3:00 to 5:45 pm), in the evening (6:00 to 8:30 pm) and/or during lunch that is considered as non -instructional time (11:15 to 11:55 am, 12:15 to 12:55 pm). The monthly evening meetings with adult mentors will take place in either the high schools or local business such as Orange County Teachers Federal Credit Union or Ingram -Micro. These sites and others such as the Santa Ana W/O/R/K Center are accessible in terms of both public transportation and handicapped accessibility. With respect to career training, school bus transportation is available for high school students attending ROP courses (this includes local drop-off points for internship opportunities) for both early and late afternoon classes. The project staff will also assist participants in getting transportation to other activities whenever possible. Prior experience with the CBOC organization has indicated that the adult mentors will also assist participants with transportation needs. EXPERIENCE For many years, the Santa Ana Unified School District collaborated with the Santa Ana PIC and now the WIB in providing CETA, JTPA and now WIA programs. During that time, over 7,300 students have participated in a variety of summer and in -school year programs. While operating these programs, District personnel in the Secondary Enrichment Programs office at the ROP Ritchey Center have developed a positive working relationship with the W/O/R/K Center staff that has now carried over into WIA programs. The Santa Ana Unified School District staff in the Career Development/ROP Department's Secondary Enrichment Programs office is very experienced with youth programs and at -risk populations. This is particularly true with respect to dealing with the data collection requirements of similar types of youth related programs; both those problems encountered in enrolling potential participants and those unique to reporting program completion data. For the past several years, District staff has been successful in recruiting and serving the at -risk population. This is not to say that there have not been problems in the past with recruitment or placement goals going unmet. But staff has teamed from experience and is ready to deal with the real difficulties encountered in the enrollment, placement and data collection processes. This need to always be on a continuous teaming curve was just recently re -affirmed during the 2006/07 program year with the revision of several former procedures regarding case notes and the VOS system. Staff is also well versed in the completion of ongoing Individual Service Strategy documents for each participant, VOS, the administration of objective assessments, etc. The Career Development/ROP Department has literally hundreds of relationships in place with area employers who have experienced success with prior youth program participants. This is particularly true of those paid internship positions utilized in past JTPA programs such as the School Workplace Internship Program, the Arts -in -the -City program and the WIA Success Bound! & Right Start! programs. In addition to these, WIA youth participants will have access to the hundreds of regular ROP internship sites partnered with specific career preparation courses. Paid, non -paid, job shadowing and other related activities will also be accessible to the WIA participants via the Career Centers at the high schools and the CTS lab at the ROP Ritchey Center. The adult mentors form Career Beginnings of Orange County (CBOC) will also be a resource to program participants. ?4