National Network of Sector Partners Offers Free Virtual Conference to Address Barriers to Employment

The Insight Center for Community Economic Development hosts the National Network of Sector Partners (NNSP), a free virtual conference on sector initiatives and other workforce models for individuals with barriers to employment. The Insight Center for Community Economic Development is a national research, consulting and legal organization dedicated to building economic health and opportunity in vulnerable communities. The conference features workshops, interactive discussions and networking opportunities with leading practitioners, policy-makers and researchers about important policy and practice lessons from the sector field.

The conference will feature four tracks addressing the most relevant topics for sector initiatives today:

• Sector Initiatives and Career Pathways: Sector initiatives customize solutions for multiple employers and increase access to good jobs for low-income individuals. Career pathways connect progressive levels of basic skills and postsecondary education, training and supportive services to optimize the progress and success of individuals. 

• Sector Initiatives and Registered Apprenticeships: Sector initiatives, with their strong connections to employers in target industries are well-positioned to incorporate registered apprenticeships into their services. Registered apprenticeship is an important and effective component of the potential education and training services the workforce system can use to address the needs of businesses, job-seekers, and incumbent workers.
• Improving Employment Outcomes for People with Criminal Records: Sector initiatives have the opportunity to influence employer practices by increasing awareness of the challenges that people with criminal records face in the labor market, as well as helping to connect this population with jobs for which they are qualified.
• Sector Initiatives and Youth: This topic gives the opportunity to learn from youth-serving sector initiatives about the innovations and effective strategies they use to help young people gain employment and develop in their careers.

Participants encouraged to participate in this conference include:

• Community college, public workforce, and community-based workforce development leaders seeking examples of the most effective program models
• Government representatives, policy-makers, researchers, and advocates seeking examples of supportive policy
• Business and labor leaders invested in building a skilled workforce

The conference will run December 2 to December 12. To register and learn more, visit the website.

Performance Partnership Pilots (P3) Program Enables Strategies to Improve Outcomes for Disconnected Youth

The Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education released a notice for funding opportunity for The Performance Partnership Pilots (P3) program. Authorized by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014, Division H., Section 526 (the Act), the P3 program will provide $7.1 million total to ten pilot sites to test outcome-focused strategies to achieve significant improvements in educational, employment, and other key outcomes for disconnected youth. The Act defines ``disconnected youth'' as individuals between the ages of 14 and 24 who are low-income, and either homeless, in foster care, involved in the juvenile justice system, unemployed, or not enrolled in, or at risk of dropping out of, an educational institution. Outcomes are the intended results of a program or intervention. An outcome can be at the participant level, such as in employment retention, or at the system level, such as in improved efficiency in program operations. The program requires grantees to use new flexibility to blend existing Federal funds and to seek waivers of associated program requirements.

Eligible applicant: An application must be submitted by a lead applicant on behalf of a partnership that involves all public and private organizations (including non-profit, business, industry, and labor organizations) that will participate in pilot implementation and governance. The lead applicant must be a State, local, or tribal government entity, represented by a Chief Executive, such as a governor, mayor, or other elected leader, or the head of a State, local, or tribal agency.

To learn more, join the representatives from Federal agencies as they present the details of the Notice Inviting Applications (NIA) on P3, including application requirements and selection criteria, for potential applicants. The conference call will occur December 1, 2014, 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. EDT. Details and additional contact information are also available on grants.gov.

Deadline for Notice of Intent to Apply is January 8, 2015. Note: Submission of a notice of intent to apply is optional. Deadline for Transmittal of Applications is March 4, 2015.