 OTAN, Outreach and Technical Assistance Network. Well, welcome everyone. It's one o'clock and on our agenda, it's time for the MOU for the AJCCs and we'll get into all those acronyms soon. My counterpart, Catherine Peacock. Catherine, are you unmuted? Not yet. I think you need to unmute. Okay, I think I am now. Okay. And then I'll drive the slide deck. Catherine's gonna do the first part. I'm gonna do the middle and then Catherine will do the last part and then we'll bring in our panelists. We're already here. We have Marianne Prankey from Glendale Community College who is co-located at the Verduco One Stop and then we have Adele McClain who's with the Apple Valley Adult School, also connected with her local One Stop and Local Workforce Development Board. So they will have a nice discussion at the end of this after we go through the slides and you can ask questions and we can have discussion. So we look forward to that and we thank them for coming on today to help us out. Okay, with that. Okay, I guess I'm on. Hi. I'm trying to, one second, Catherine. Well, there we go. It's a little delayed on this slide. Go ahead, Catherine. Okay, so we're gonna go first through the AJCCs and I'm assuming everyone understands what that means but I'll go over it. It's the American Job Centers of California. They're centrally located throughout the state of California and they have a variety of services. So what is an AJCC exactly? Well, it's a one-stop shop for workforce services and it provides a comprehensive range of no cost employment and training services for not only students, but for employers and job seekers. The AJCC is a network of local, state and public organizations offering a variety of services. They have a very, very cool website that I would encourage all of you to visit and have your students visit. And I'm sure we'll hear from people about how their students have been visiting from our panelists. Okay, I think I'm ready to go on to the next slide. Okay, they're types of AJCCs and one type is the comprehensive and this provides access to all required American Job Centers of California partner programs and that includes Title II. The programs, services and activities with at least one title, one staff, physically present. No, that's not exactly true. Sometimes they're present. You have to see if that person is present. Okay, next slide. Okay, and the affiliate. And the affiliate AJCC provides access to one or more AJCC partner programs, services and activities, for instance, Title II. And the specialized associated with either a comprehensive or an affiliate AJCC and addresses specific needs of dissipated workers, youth or key industry sectors or clusters. Okay, we can go on to the next one. And how many titles does it include? Well, one, two, three and four and we are Adult Education and Family Literacy Act and that's what we are usually referred to. A E F L A slash Title II. And they have a lot of information on the website that I would really encourage you to peruse. I mean, for instance, their newsroom has announcement constantly that are really, really helpful. Okay, we'll go on to the next one. I'm glad this is going very quickly and I can see the slides. Thanks, Neal. Okay, requirements. I'm telling you, it has surgery on Monday. So, oh, it was hippie. Okay, requirements of an AJCC partners. First, provide access to its programs or activities. Use a portion of its funds to support infrastructure and to provide career services. Enter into a memorandum of understanding and we'll go through that wonderful piece of literature soon with the Local Workforce Development Board or the LWDB. Participate in the operation of the AJCC delivery system consistent with the terms of the MOU and provide representation on the state and local WDBs as required and participate in board committees as needed. Again, find a lot of this information on the website. Okay, let's just, now over to you, Neal. Thank you, Neal. That's kind of over. Thanks, Catherine. So, purposes of the MOU, it's not just because we wanna do some paperwork and make your lives miserable. It's actually a requirement of receiving federal funds. The America's Job Centers of California and the Local Workforce Development Boards are required to certify their AJCCs every three years. So, they're in the process this year. I think it starts in January 2024, the certification process. So, these MOUs are very important to their system and are required as part of the federal funding. So, as it says here, the purpose of the memorandum of understanding is to establish the roles and responsibilities of the Local Workforce Development Board, the Chief Elected Officials, and the American Job Centers of California Partners, which are adult education programs, in relation to the operation of the America's Job Center of California Delivery System. So, that includes local discussion and negotiation to ensure successful integration and implementation of partner programs. And all required partners must be included in the MOU. So, if you haven't seen an MOU, you will see a lot of language about products and services that are required and we'll get into this. And you will also have maybe an additional MOU or what they call an umbrella that delineates some of those services you're gonna provide. And in some cases, the attachment might include like a spreadsheet or a worksheet that shows the breakdown of maybe referrals or whatever services you're providing or collaborations with your AJCC. So, moving on to the next slide. Here are some types of MOUs I kind of talked about. There's a separate partner agreement, which where the Local Workforce Development Board in agreement with the chief elected official may enter into agreements which each partner or groups of partners. So, that could consist of an umbrella MOU. The umbrella MOU addresses issues related to the system, its CEO and it's all its partners. It also allows partner programs to focus on service delivery. And like I said, that could come in if you're co-located, you could be providing services there. If you're affiliated, you might be providing services at your school, but you have this MOU that describes that partnership and maybe some referrals that you're going to be doing. It also facilitates transparency and the flexible agreement. So, moving on to the next slide. So, major components of a memorandum of understanding are how you share customers, how you share services, and if you are located at the AJCC, how you share costs. So, local boards must work with all required partners in their local area to develop an agreement regarding the operations of the local systems. So, like when Catherine showed all those titles, you have title one, which is the local workforce development boards and the AJCCs. You have title two, which is us, which we've been talking about all this morning. Carolyn went over the grant, the WIO2 grant, that's title two. And then title three is the employment development department, what they call employment services that they offer. And that's Wagner-Pizer and kind of the labor exchange. So, that supports CalJobs. So, if you're familiar or if you've heard the system CalJobs, that's where all the job postings in the state go up and EDD manages that. And then title four, which Catherine mentioned, are rehab services and rehab centers around the state. So, let's do a quick quiz. And let's see. So, how does your agency partner with your local AJCC? And so, what I want you to do, Melinda, is this okay if we do it in the chat? The responses? Absolutely, yes. Okay, so you can answer with one, two, three, four, five or let's say you just do student referrals, you just put one in the chat. If you don't know, just put zero. So, please go into the chat and answer this question. How does your agency partner with your local America's Job Center of California? And you can select the numbers that are appropriate. You can select zero if you have no idea. If you have other, you can put the number five and then with a brief explanation of what that other is. So, let's give you a few minutes to post that in the chat and we'll take a look at it and see how you're doing. And I'll kind of narrate as we go. Some people aren't sure. Oh, we've got a lot of responses here. Okay, so let me, let's see. So, one to three. So, student referrals, training, workshops, registration, intake, all of the above. Some people are referrals and training, referrals and training, registration. One person has shared administrative costs. That's Kelly. That's interesting. We don't really see too many of that. Janice also has a shared administrative costs. Great. Let's see. And then some people, same thing with Carolyn has all four and then the other people have maybe registration and intake, training. Oh, very good. So, let's see if there's any others here that we missed. Okay, and then others. This is from Marianne, one of our guest speakers. She has co-enrollments, paid internships, externships and supportive services. So, nice to add that in there. Thank you, Marianne. Let's see if, and then Angelica has co-located under five. Great. Okay, and then Maria didn't explain her five. Sarah is co-located on her other. Adele, who's our other guest speaker, Apple Valley has an additional MOU as a connection site. Hmm, interesting to hear about that. All right. So, we have some people with shared costs, onsite rep and scholarships, interesting. All right. Wow, that was a lot of sharing going on there. You wouldn't be surprised of just the numbers you put in there that informed us about what's happening at your local AGCC. I was expecting a lot of not sure or unknown, but a lot of you are familiar with that connection so that was surprising, but I'm glad you guys are connected. Okay, let's move on. See if I can get this slide deck going. There we go. Okay, so just a little bit more information on shared customers and services. The MOU should clearly delineate the responsibilities of each MOU partner. So, when we say MOU partners, just not adult education, you will see a lot of other partners. You'll see maybe Department of Social Services at the county level. You could see community-based organizations along with community colleges or adult schools. You might also see some other local services, nonprofits, things like that. And when we get into the panel discussion, I'm sure they'll have a lot more examples of partners that they work with. So the responsibilities of MOU partner when it comes to helping plan, develop, and implement the local system. So some of the delineation responsibilities that you'll see in a memorandum of understanding are the services you're providing and to whom, the best way to serve the local population through effective partnerships, referrals, and cross-training. And a lot of you already mentioned that you are working with them and you are doing referrals and probably some cross-training there too if you're co-located at a comprehensive site. So that's great to see. So I'm gonna go on to the next slide. And then shared costs. And some people mentioned shared costs. So each America's Job Center of California partner that carries out a program or activity within an AJCC, meaning on-site, must use a portion of their funds available for their program and activities to help maintain the AJCC delivery system, including proportionate payment of infrastructure costs of the center. And that's specified in the WIOA Act. In fact, if you're familiar with the grant application, or maybe it's the grant budget. Quick question. Oh, was that directed at us? I don't think so. Alinda, was that just an oopsie? I think that was an oopsie, Neil. Go on ahead. Neil, this is Jim though. You do have a couple of questions in the Q&A. Do you and Kauffern want to wait until you get to the end to address those? No, we can adjust them now. I wasn't monitoring that, so go ahead, Jim. No problem. Yeah, we can get to them right now. Okay, we have one question. Does an MOU include compensation? Compensation, like workers' compensation or? That is from Janice. Maybe Janice, can you maybe unmute yourself real quick and maybe just, oh, here we go. She's referring to cost of teachers and sites. Oh, I see. So I was just gonna go over this. So according to WIOA, you're limited to 5% admin on your shared infrastructure costs. So let's say you have a grant of, I don't know, maybe $100,000. So 5% of that, which is $5,000, that's the limit that you can contribute. You can't go over, if you're using WIOA, two funds, you know, AFLA funds, the literacy funds that Caroline and Jim were talking about this morning. You are limited, and if you do go over, you have to get permission or approval from your CDE consultant to go over that 5%. And that 5% not only includes the shared infrastructure costs, but it also includes other administrative costs that you might be taking on object code, you know, 1,000, 2,000, 3,000, 4,000, et cetera. So you have to be careful on your shared costs and you don't go over that 5%. Also, if your administrator is going to conferences and training, that is also part of that 5%. So keep that in mind as you're negotiating those, that shared costs. And to Janice's question, usually it's infrastructure costs going towards the comprehensive site. So the adult school would be paying for space and maybe utilities and whatever shared infrastructure costs are negotiated at that AGCC. It wouldn't be coming back to you as compensation of teachers and supplies and support staff and classified. It's usually going towards the comprehensive site if that's kind of what you were asking. Yes, Janice responded exactly. Okay, great. All right, that's a good question because yeah, you have to have both eyes open when you go into these partnership relationships and you're establishing an MOU. You do have some limitations as far as how you're gonna pay those shared costs. So just keep in mind that 5% threshold and if you are gonna go above it, you should talk to your CED consultant before doing so or you could be having some unallowed costs when you do your budget if you didn't get that prior approval. So you'll see it in the fine print when you do your first expenditure claim report, Q1, which will be coming up for you I think next month or the end of this month or something like that. You'll see at the bottom, you're restricted to 5% on your admin. And so if you do have admin in your budget, it'll keep a running total of how much admin and then it'll keep the percentage. So the consultant will see if you're below or above that 5% and then that will determine one of the factors in approving your expenditure claim report. So just keep that in mind and maybe have that open line of communication with your CDE consultant. Okay, our next question now and who should we contact to get an MOU for Workforce Development Board? Do they have a sample or do we need to create an MOU? No, the local Workforce Development Board is the keeper of the MOU and they make sure they get all the signatures of all the partners. So it's a requirement. So like I said at the beginning, they're going through a certification process. And so in order to be certified to offer services to the region, they have to make sure they have MOUs with all their partners and the appropriate signatures. So they should have that on file. So what I would do, if you don't have anybody at your site that has connections with the Local Workforce Development Board, I would reach out to them. But let's wait for the panel discussion. I'm sure Marianne and Adele will have some tips on if you're new to this, what's the best way to reach out to the Local Workforce Development Board and start that MOU discussion and negotiation if you choose to maybe take it a step further and maybe be on site or something like that or getting more information. So let's revisit that in just a little bit when we bring our panelists on. Okay, we got just a few more. I'm a bit confused about the difference between an AJCC and a Workforce Investment Board. Okay, so the Workforce Investment Board, which is now called the Workforce Development Board is kind of like the overarching governance for the region. And there's like, I forget how many Workforce Development Boards are. There might be like 40, 49, 45. Yes, so I was close. I was almost in the bulls. All right, thank you, Marianne. So there's 45. And so they've run that and then the America's Job Center of California, they go into a competitive process to see who will offer the services for the Local Workforce Development Board. And so that Local Workforce Development Board and their chief local official or chief elected official will make that decision of who's going to be the local operator or the American Job Center of California operator. And so that's the difference. That AJCC could change quite a bit depending on what's going on at your Local Workforce Development Board. Sometimes you'll have the same provider at the AJCC for a long time and sometimes they'll go out to bed and you might get a change in that. But we'll see what Marianne and Adele have to say about what goes on at the local level and what kind of changes we're seeing there or maybe it's just status quo and you're just kind of getting people up to speed but the same partners have been always been there. So we'll find out about the local flavor, what's going on locally that maybe can inform that question that you had. Okay. And then next question. Shared cost only works one way, correct? So if AJCC staff is at our adult school sites they don't compensate us. We only pay if we are at an AJCC. Well, it depends on if your site is the comprehensive one stop. So I don't know. I think it depends on the setup. If you're the comprehensive site then they would be paying you for infrastructure costs. And I'm not sure how that works with an affiliated site but if they're having staff located at your site I don't know. I would check to see if there is that discussion for infrastructure costs. But I think it might only be with the comprehensive site. I'll check maybe Marianne or Adele have a little more information on that shared cost. Does it only go one way to the comprehensive site or if you're affiliated and you have co-located staff how does that work? You guys have any input into that one? So it is one way in that if any adult education partner is co-located with either an affiliate site or a comprehensive site, then they have to share in the cost. However, it is not required the other way around. So if we are co-located with a partner then we don't necessarily have to share in the cost. We can and that can be negotiated but we're not mandated to do that as opposed to we're mandated to charge if they co-locate with us. Okay, thanks Marianne. I believe if you're not co-located there are no costs. San Bernardino is huge, but don't take any co-locations with the Title II providers. To that end I would also say that they did discuss with us on the last round of funding what the infrastructure cost might look like. And once they saw the Title III partners saw what Title II partners actually get there like nevermind because they literally their income is like 10 times what ours is for the same kind of client face forward hours. And that, but I think that the cost analysis was very helpful because they understood what we're doing a lot with a little and we're willing to refer everybody to them because it helps both of us. Great. Thank you, Marianne. Thank you, Adele. Appreciate that info. Any other questions, Jim? I think you already addressed this one, Neil. It's from Michael. Do you have a boilerplate MOU that you could share that we could use as a baseline in our discussions with our local AJCC partner? You know, what I would suggest you do is your CDE regional consultant might have a good example because when we do our FPMs, I know we'd look at, you know, a variety of MOUs and we have to see if it meets our requirements. And so there might be one they could share or an old one, you might also somebody at the local workforce development board might have a sample or something like that that they could share. There might even be something on maybe one of our websites but I would check with your CDE consultant first before you dive into local politics and asking for stuff and we might be able to help you with that. Okay, I think that was it for the actual questions right now. Okay, thank you, Jim. Sure. Okay. And then lastly, service costs are identified and I kind of went over this in WIO as section 134, C2 as applicable to each program consisting of career services, individualized career services and follow-up services. So at the AJCC, they delineate the type of services that they're offering. So all that is spelled out in the Workforce Investment and Opportunity Act there. Okay, and then our last quiz, that doesn't mean we're over but this is our last quiz. So same instructions, just put the number and if you choose seven, let us know what the other is but what services do your America's Job Center of California partners provide? So select any of the seven and if something's not listed there, type in what other is. If you don't know, just put not sure or zero, whatever works. So, and I'll look at the chat as we get through. So some people are just some individual like job training, services for the disabled. Some people have all six. Some people just have information referrals and job training, career guidance. Others are all of the above, all of the above. Most of it childcare included, interesting. So it looks like there's a lot of services being provided that you're aware of. Some cases, maybe just the job training and career guidance. Some people are unsure. Some people have very comprehensive sites. I'm just looking for any others. That maybe they could extrapolate on. And then Mary, I wanted to add difference between workforce development boards and workforce investment boards. The workforce investment board was established under the Workforce Investment Act. And then in 2014, the Workforce Investment Boards became Workforce Development Boards under the new Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, WIOA. So if you haven't been around that long, you wouldn't remember the transition from WIOA to WIA to WIOA. But thank you, Mary Ann, for putting that in there. And then Mary Ann List, one of the others is Rapid Response, Layoff Aversion and a bunch of other things that she doesn't have time for. Yeah, that's part of the Title I funds that go through the Local Workforce Development Board is that Rapid Response. There's a lot of funding that goes through to help off when plant closures and things like that or projects that they're working on to help local employers. So there's a lot more involved. And then Eric shares, his other is tuition for job training programs. And Adele says vouchers or access to technology or devices. And then Alejandra mentions his supportive services such as bus passes. Great, all right. So thank you for sharing again, quite a lot of information there. And let's see, last slide here, I think before we turn it over to Catherine, some other shared services. And I think people mentioned this, we have initial intake, we have identification of services, assessment of needs, referrals to other AGC partners, and then appraisal of basic skills and business services. And I know the adult schools do a lot of appraising and assessment and identification of appropriate services and initial intake. So that's why when Adele was talking about how valuable the adult ed providers are in this system, I think the other partners are blown away about what we offer and how cheap we are to what we offer. We don't cost that much. Okay, and then lastly, the non-personal costs necessary for physical operation of the AJCC, and this would be those infrastructure costs. You know, we were talking about if you're co-located at a site, you would be contributing to rent and maybe utilities or maintenance equipment. And then if there's shared technology that would also be included. Access and accommodation must be included in the budget in ensuring physical and programmatic access to the American Job Center of California by individuals with disabilities. And we did notice in the question, a lot of people do have specific services for individuals with disabilities. So that was nice to see that people are recognizing that as well. Okay, and then lastly, review and updates to the MOU must be reviewed and updated at least every three years. That's part of the certification process that I told you about, that the local workforce development boards and their centers are going through right now. I guess the employment development department has a workforce directive out for comment that will give them instructions on how to update their certification that's every three years. And that would include those MOUs as well. And then the infrastructure cost agreement must be reviewed annually. And also lastly, infrastructure costs can only be paid for funds available. And this is what I talked about earlier, the 5% for local administrative expenses or from non-federal resources that are cash in kind or third party. So if you exceed that 5%, you can always use non-federal resources if you have them available. And you can do in kind or something like that or third party contributions or cash. So that's part of that negotiation with your partner. Okay, I'm gonna turn it over to Catherine for the remaining slides and then we'll open up the panel discussion. Okay, I'm back. Can you, so strategic co-enrollment. The US Department of Labor commenced a national work group in order to collaborate on getting a better understanding of co-enrollment strategies. California participated in the work group and committed to creating a co-enrollment guidance in order to align service delivery with concepts and visions found in the OWA. The OWA places a strong emphasis on planning and implementation across multiple partner programs to ensure alignment in service delivery. Strategic co-enrollment can increase program on participant success, maximize resources, enable greater efficiencies in service delivery and align services with regional sector pathways. This system must serve as an all-inclusive access point to education and employment programs that provide demand-driven skills attainment, especially for those with barriers to employment. Co-enrollment, if we can go, let's see. Am I, did I skip this one? Okay, co-enrollment key concepts. First one is integrated service delivery. Establish and participate as an integrated system of partners to share common goals with services offered by multiple organizations for a seamless participant experience. The focus is on clients or target groups who have complex needs that require services for multiple partners. Okay, all right, increased access ensures any participant, especially individuals with barriers to employment who enter an AJCC have access to partner programs, services and activities where they are eligible, including physical and programmatic access as described in the OASection 134-D. Continuous improvement, create a delivery system that is focused on process improvement and challenges the status quo. I kind of don't know what that means. I think it just means, you know, have an easy system that students find easy and that you find easy in order to help students. Partnership, I mean, I think this is the main point. Align goals, outcomes and resources with all local partners in the AJCC system to leverage resources to provide a higher quality and level of services. Katherine, I think on the continuous improvement, the local AJCCs and the local workforce development boards also have a SIP process that they have to go through. So they have a continuous improvement program that they have to complete every year and have targets like we do for WIOA too. So very similar. I'm gonna go on to the next slide then. Yeah, that makes sense, thank you. The goal is a common intake and this reduces the paperwork required for an individual to provide and complete during intake. And it may include authorization to release information that allows partners to share and enter information in their respective case management systems. Streamlines data sharing and supports the tracking of referrals, co-enrollments and outcomes and helps people with multiple barriers access coordinated services. All right, thank you, Katherine. My favorite part, you're welcome. All right, so now I'm gonna stop sharing and we're gonna bring in our two panelists, Adele McLean from Apple Valley Adult and Marianne Prankie from Glendale Community College and let me stop sharing. So now we're back here all together. And so what we wanted to do with our two panelists is you've heard kind of some of the questions that people have asked. We kind of went through the slide deck kind of a high level overview, but if there's anything you can offer or add to someone just starting out or is new to the WIOA to grant and it's a little bit apprehensive about this whole MOU bit and working with their AJCC, maybe just some words, tips and advice that you can offer and that would be great. We'd appreciate it. Sure. I'm happy to get us started. Okay. As far as getting started with the MOU and please do not let the MOU scare you away with this shared cost, because as Adele pointed out, if you're not co-located, there is no shared cost. But even if there is, the workforce boards will negotiate to try to do what they can to make it as easy as possible and also as lucrative as possible for you, your staff and your students. So that is the goal is to have the partners involved. We are a workforce board and by the way, I'm actually a staff to the workforce board and I'm also coordinator of the adult education program here in Glendale. So we're able to work very closely because I wear both hats. So it's easier for me to move students into the AJCC services and the other way around as well. So if you're just starting out I would say that if you are looking at becoming a partner in an MOU, the best place to start is with the executive director of the workforce board and just calling them and talking to them about becoming a partner if you're not already. We should have every workforce board is required to have adult education partner in their MOU in their MOU and we owe a title too is also required. So they can have CAPE, for example, and we owe a title too but there should be enough representation in the MOU and we're mandated to have that MOU as Neil pointed out. So if we do not have an MOU executed then we will not meet our certification and if we don't meet either one of those we will not be eligible for funding. So a workforce board their funding depends on the mandated partners being in place and the certification happening successfully. Thank you, Mary Ann. Yeah, let's hear from Adele. Well, I would say I didn't think of going straight to the executive director. I did when I first started with this I made sure that both myself and our consortium director went to several workforce development boards meetings because I figure we don't know what we're involved in until we know like what's going on at the workforce. So once you show up and you show an interest, believe me they'll start reaching out to you because it's like anything else it's a coalition of the willing and if you show up they figure you're willing because it is a different world. There are different acronyms. I think the biggest hurdle for us is I live in the world of education. So IEP for us means individual education plan for them. It means individual employment plan. Very different things. There's a lot of acronym surfing that you're gonna have to do but they know as little about you as you know about them. So the more you show up the more conversations can be had the more bridges can be built. That is my takeaway from this. We don't have a comprehensive at one location center if you take a look at San Bernardino we're huge. So we have three AJCCs and I'm in the high desert AJCC where they do have a comprehensive center but we're not co-located. So we rely on each other for the referral of clients from more from us to them probably than them to us although they are realizing that they need us more and more as they realize that the high school diploma and or the HSE is an element. I think it's just having those conversations about what your relative benefit is to each other. And with the MOUs I am a little ignorant throughout the state. My assumption is that there are MOUs in place that they are probably copying language from and they're probably public access somewhere. I know I do a lot of searching on our county websites to find out what's going on. You can get on all kinds of emails from the workforce development board and they'll send you basically meetings and agendas and meeting notes and you'll find out what's going on all over the place if you start getting on their mailing list and show up to their meetings. I think in a lot of areas there's only four a year so small room. All right, well thank you Adele. And let's pause there to see if anybody has any questions, you can either type them, Jim or Melinda, what would be the appropriate way for people to ask questions? Put it in the Q and A or do you want them to come off mic or what would be appropriate? I think we've been wanting as much as possible for people to use the Q and A. Melinda can correct me if that's not correct. It helps with video production not to have too many voices. So yes, the Q and A would be, and it gives you all a chance to practice your typing skills. Okay, well if anybody has a Q and A or questions and we'll provide the A, we'll give you a few minutes to think of some questions that you wanna ask and all, let's see, I'll ask Marianna and Adele a question. Let's see. So as far, so neither of you are providing infrastructure costs to your AJCC because like Adele said, you are affiliated but you're not at the comprehensive site. But Marianna, it sounds like you're co-located at the comprehensive site, correct? Okay. Yes, I am. And how we get around using our CAPE funds for cost sharing is that I'm also workforce board staff. So because I'm workforce board staff, we don't actually contribute to the infrastructure in that way. So if we did, for example, we were holding ESL classes here before the pandemic. And so we had an entire room that we used on a daily basis and we provided access to the computers for all the students and access to our printer for the instructor and access to technology and so forth. So in that case, we receive an allocation of CAPE funds that we use to cover the cost of my coordination and staffing and so forth. And so we used a portion of that allocation that we received from Glendale Community College under a contract, we use that to cover the sharing costs. It was basically like a lease cost. Okay, great. And I know which one of you, or maybe both of you participated, I think a few years ago, we had some pilots on co-location between putting students or clients into CalJobs and also putting that information into TopsPro where any of, I think Marianne, you were involved in that. Adele, were you involved in that effort? My school, just as a practice, we've always put students into CalJobs and have them register with CCC apply. And we don't do it as part of any prescriptive service. We just thought it was a really good idea because then if you're at the AJCC, we can use some very simple data points to see if we're talking about the same person. Just name, you know, birth date, you know what I mean? So that we can say, oh, yes, we did send, you know, Bob Smith over there and do some kind of follow up because that does become a little bit difficult. And Marianne, what's your experience in that co-enrollment field? So we do a lot of co-enrollment and we're very purposeful about that because first and foremost, from the CAPE side, when they're co-enrolled in WIOA-1, we owe a title one, the AJCC people, they're very good at getting that source security number. In particular, if they're gonna be doing a paid externship or a paid internship for the student, then the student is motivated to give them their source security number because they're gonna be on payroll. So once we get that information on the title one side, then they give me the information so that I could enter into TOPSPRO. And so we're able to get those source security numbers into TOPSPRO so that we can track from both sides the base wage data. And so even if we lose track of them, we can still see if they're employed or not. So we also use a lot of the co-enrollments just to add services to our students. So for example, almost all of our students that are in some type of career technical education, we work with the AJCC. The AJCC can even come on site or even through Zoom, be able to outreach to the students and co-enroll them so they can participate in either paid internships or paid externships. And they're on the payroll for the Ferdigo workforce board while they participate in that. The other thing that we did was during the pandemic, that gave us so many good ideas because the workforce board had received so many emergency grants and they could provide supportive services. And we were losing students left and right because their children were at home and so they didn't have childcare and they weren't at school. And many of them, especially our ESL students used to come to class during the time that their kids were in school. But we were able to keep some of the students because we worked with our AJCC and our AJCC provided supportive services and reimbursed them for everything from utility costs to insurance costs to housing costs, childcare was reimbursing them for all of these expenses so that they could stay in continue participating in their courses, whether it was ESL or whether it was a medical assistant program to get them to finish their programs. But they required that the students in order to be eligible for all of these reimbursements, they had to remain in school. They had to remain in our programs and that's how we were able to retain them. So now we're looking at using stipends again to motivate some of our students to complete their programs in particular basic education for example, or the HSE for example, we want them to finish that and so we're gonna try to use stipends for that. We can also use stipends to cover expenses for books, supplies, and other related fees. Parking fees, if there are any, they would cover that some. Great. Neil, we are up to five questions and I think we're pushing up against the clock. So should we try to get as many of those as we can? Okay. Let me, I can go with the first question. So let's see either let's take turns maybe Adele, you do the first one and then Marianne does the second one. So first question is based on what I understand starting the conversation with the executive director find a convenient time from their calendar, convince them to sign the MOU with us, certify us. If not impossible it would be time consuming tasks. By the end of October, we should submit our report. How can we accomplish that goal? Is there any referral we can request from CDE to those local workforce development boards? I don't think it's as complex. Adele, any tips on that? I would say they're gonna be reaching out to you to get the signature because they need your signature. I don't think that you're going to have to reach out to them, but this has been my experience. I'm in a more rural type area. I'll ask Marianne if she has any other input on that. I don't think it's incumbent upon us to do anything with the MOU other than being the recipient. I've never seen it where we are constructing the MOU. We're a part of it, but we're not writing it from scratch. Okay. Neil, I'm gonna interrupt just for a second. Adele, please turn off your video. We're getting some drop packets from you and this is gonna help save you in the room. Thank you. All right, then we have another question and maybe this is whoever knows the area. How can I find out which HACC to reach? I'm in Joshua Tree, which I think is San Bernardino County and some say call Indio, some say call San Bernardino. Should I wait for them to contact me or should I just go ahead and contact them? Any suggestions either of you? I don't think Joshua Tree is in San Bernardino. I think it's in Indio. Okay, so maybe 10, I'm thinking maybe what's that, 1,000 palms or whatever that one is. No, I think it is San Bernardino, I was just there. Joshua Tree is in San Bernardino County, yes. I think so. Yes, I was just there. That was my question who wrote it and yes, we are in Joshua Tree, which is San Bernardino County. I didn't know if we only reached out to our given county. I think you have to, right? I would recommend that you do. If it's San Bernardino County, then they will be reaching out to you. But I promise you, since you're on here, if you'll, I can send you whatever has been sent to me. We haven't gotten anything yet and I can send you the contact information for our one stop operator. Then she'll make sure to loop you in. So I'll just maybe put your email in the chat or maybe Adele will put her email in the chat. I'll put it now, thank you. And then next question, what if students do not want to share their social security number? So first of all, let me just say that it really helps when there is an incentive, which is to participate in a paid work experience. So honestly, our AGCCs just do not have difficulty getting social security numbers. They know that they're gonna go into a paid position. So they have no problem doing that. There's very, very few who have a right to work and have a social security number that would not give it to an AGCC. So they really don't have that problem. If there is someone who does not want to provide it, then the AGCC can still enroll them and issue a pseudo number. So they can do that, but they still have to verify right to work. Now, and there's another question about right to work as well. There are certain services that you do not need a social security number. You do not need right to work. And those are all of the career guidance, the career counseling, those types of services, workshops, all of those that would be free to anybody off the street. There's no eligibility requirement for that. However, if they're gonna go into on the job training, they want job placement assistance. They're gonna go into an apprenticeship or externship or internship. Anything that requires them to be on payroll or will require them to be on payroll, such as job placement, then yes, they do need to have right to work. And they still don't have to give us a social security number. We can issue a pseudo number, but we would have to verify right to work. But again, we're gonna do whatever we can to encourage them to give us that social security number because we can't track employment unless we have that. All right, thanks, Mary. And last question. So sorry if anybody else had other questions. It's Suzanne. He says, we are entering an MOU with our local workforce development board, but it is just the two organizations, the workforce development board will be providing guest speakers, field trips, internships and help with resumes. We, the adult school, are paying for these services. Is this similar to what you are presenting, even though there are no other partners on our agreement? Well, there are some mandatory partners that have to be in that MOU. So maybe this is a different type of agreement. I don't know, Marianne, Rudel, what do you think? This could be just a basic MOU, which is different than the AJCC MOU, possibly. It might be, it might be different. The WREB is providing, seems to be providing all of the services, but the adult school is paying for them. Yeah, Suzanne, if you want to come off mute, maybe. I think with an umbrella MOU related to an AJCC, you're going to see all the other partners. You will see all their signatures. They are mandated. So I don't think what you're describing is the MOU that we would be looking at during a federal program monitoring review for compliance. It sounds like that might be another type of agreement outside of the AJCC MOU. So I would double check that, Suzanne, if you could. With, who do I check it with? I mean, you could talk to your local workforce development board, you could talk to your CDE consultant to see if it passes federal program monitor compliance, or locally just talk to your local workforce development board. The local workforce development board is who I am entering this agreement with. Okay, just ask them, is this the official AJCC MOU because just tell them you're a WIOA too, a literacy provider receiving federal funds, and that you are required to have an MOU with the AJCC. Is this the one that I'm entered into? Or is this something else? And I would like to see all the mandatory partners as part of that MOU. I don't know if Marianne or Adele have any other advice. The only other thing I could think of it being is some kind of connection site MOU. But if she wanted to email me, I put my email in the chat, I would be happy to share both my AJCC MOU and the connection site MOU. So you could compare language to, I'm a sharer. Anything I can share with you, I totally will. All right, all right, we're at time. I really appreciate. So thank you, Catherine, my co-presenter and Marianne and Adele. Thank you so much for the insight and the local knowledge. It's been invaluable. And so we'd love to have you back anytime we're talking about MOUs.