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Announcing The BAYTAY Workforce Initiative

New Ways to WorkbyNew Ways to Work
February 15, 2021
in Press Releases

Improving Employment Outcomes for Systems-Involved Youth in the Region

Recently launched, the California Opportunity Youth Network (COYN) launched the BAYTAY Workforce Initiative in partnership with New Ways to Work, John Burton Advocates for Youth, and Pivotal through the support of philanthropic partners the Tipping Point Community and the Walter S. Johnson Foundation. The objective of the initiative is to expand workforce opportunities for transition-age youth involved with the region’s foster care, juvenile justice and youth homelessness systems by identifying the barriers these youth are currently facing, discovering and supporting implementation of innovative strategies, and advancing policy and programmatic changes. We intend to build on the work led by the Los Angeles Opportunity Youth Collaborative (LA OYC) and City of Los Angeles, and supported by the seven workforce boards in the region, to better serve these systems-involved youth and young adults.

Key Activities

  • Working with the California Workforce Development Board (CWDB) and the U.S. Department of Labor (U.S. DOL) to finalize the federal waiver submitted by the state to increase access for systems-involved youth to programs and services funded by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA).
  • Forming and engaging the BAYTAY Workforce Partnership, a regional collaborative consisting of workforce boards, their public partners, community-based organizations and others.
  • Conducting a scan of quality youth workforce practices drawn from Los Angeles and around the country.
  • Developing a Core Practice Model to support systems involved youth engagement and success in the youth workforce development system.
  • Providing implementation support for selected Bay Area workforce boards and their partners, including waiver adoption and implementation of the Core Practice Model.

How To Get Involved

To support the project and advance local workforce board adoption of successful and innovating strategies, COYN is developing the BAYTAY Workforce Partnership. The BAYTAY Workforce Partnership will leverage the combined expertise and connections of the region’s youth workforce leaders to elevate the priority of young people within the workforce system and achieve far-reaching systems improvements and reforms that have the potential to transform the career trajectories and lives of systems-involved youth and young adults.

Partnership, please contact Sean Hughes with COYN at sean_hughes@caloyn.org. The BAYTAY Workforce Initiative Improving Employment Outcomes for Systems-Involved Youth in the Region

New Ways to Work

New Ways to Work

For over five decades, New Ways to Work has effectively provided technical assistance and capacity building with people and organizations across the country to help communities better prepare youth and young adults for bright futures. New Ways draws on a history of building systems that support transitions for the economically disadvantaged, those in foster care or engaged in the criminal justice system, those with disabilities or those who are simply out-of-work and out-of-school and need better opportunities to succeed.