ORANGE COUNTY CONSERVATION CORPS (2) - 2009

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Orange County Conservation Corps Santa Ana Workforce Investment Board -The Youth Service Provider Network Request for Proposal PY 2009/2010 but are not limited to, Corrections, Probation, and various Social Services agencies, both public and nonprofit, such as Olive Crest. Therefore any staff member attending a meeting with other agencies or provider networks (i.e. Corrections, Probation, Social Services Agency) in other parts of the county will be recruiting for all OCCC programs including Santa Ana WIA. It is not uncommon to get a referral from someone who attended an event or meeting outside of Santa Ana but passes the information on to family/friends/co-workers that live in Santa Ana. B. MAIN PURPOSE OF PROGRAM 7. Indicate what the program will accomvlish and how it fits in with WIA goals. OCCC's Organizational Purpose is to empower youth and young adults to become self-sufficient members of their community. The OCCC accomplishes this by offering various programs that provide opportunities for educational, professional, and personal development that will provide the necessary skills to develop and maintain a positive work ethic and provide a lasting foundation to enable youth to enter the workforce and be successful, productive, members of society. 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. The approach also creates 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 that job 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 that they have the time and support to overcome the multiple barriers they face to becoming lifelong learners, trainable, employable, and self-sufficient members of society. 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 go 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 seeking better employment post-corps. With this philosophy, the OCCC program will accomplish the following: • Provide jobs for 15 Santa Ana youth as they are hired by the OCCC to complete OCCC work projects; • Meet/exceed the WIA outcomes for entered employment or education, credential attainment, and skill gains as outlined above in the RFP; Page 6 of 21