Narrative: II. a. 2. C.

Missouri meets it weaknesses and challenges with great capacity for implementation. Key among these is the partnership. Missouri has strongly challenged the workforce development and educational systems in the real vision behind WIOA by including the Social Services agency as a core partner along with the integration driven by workforce, unemployment insurance, adult education, vocational rehabilitation and rehabilitation services for the blind.

This partnership is already evidenced and in place in the form of the WIOA Steering Committee. This work has already made strides in implementation in the form of assembling teams of the appropriate subject matter experts, being inclusive of joint decision making, working through goals and objectives for strategies, and jointly working to collaborate and accommodate the Sector Strategies planning that has been developed and implemented at the local level.

The Steering Committee is also committed to ongoing comprehensive training and sharing the training expertise of each partner. This will provide key capacity development in training of front line staff on such things as: leadership, customer service, performance measures, sector strategies, career pathways and service referral models.

The Steering Committee intends to instill the learning and cultural implications of sector strategies and career pathways into each of the agencies and to react in support of each other in necessary changes to ensure implementation success.

There are over 500,000 Missouri adults over 18 who do not have a secondary diploma or equivalent. Missouri’s AEL currently served 19,565 students in English Language Acquisition (5,023), Adult Basic Education (12,994), and Adult Secondary Education (1,548) in thirty-five (35) local program providers. Missouri’s AEL has an existing budget environment with low chances of securing additional state funds for collaborative efforts, and escalating costs that are not supported through growth in either federal or state funds. Not all AEL classes are at capacity, so it is possible to serve additional customers, but expanding to additional classes would only be possible by reallocating resources away from existing class – reducing that access - or downgrading services currently provided.

Leveraging funding with other titles within WIOA is a best-case opportunity to provide additional services to customers. Secondary funding available to Titles I or IV participants can be used to extend existing Title II funding. For clients coming into Missouri’s Job Centers, if the individual does not have a high school diploma or equivalent, they are to be directed toward available classes in the area from Title II. All Title I classes offered to clients toward an equivalency credential are to be managed through Title II.

The current capacities of AEL are: Missouri has 35 Grant-funded local providers of adult education which funds approximately 250 local class sites across the state.

Missouri requires an AEL teacher have an AEL certification from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and ongoing professional development through their tenure in Missouri. All professional development must be delivered by an approved vendor or through federally approved entities.

Professional Development classes are provided by the University of Missouri’s Missouri Training Institute (MTI) from AEL federal funding. MTI provided 87 workshops to teachers in the July, 2014-June, 2015 fiscal year serving over 1,300 Missouri Adult Education teachers. Many more professional development opportunities are offered online through the federally funded LINCS Community of Practice program.

Face-to-face classes (ABE, ASE, and ELA) at locally determined days and times to maximize customer access.

Online, instructor-led instruction for higher level students called www.molearns.com.

Orientation for each student who enters Missouri AEL, to learn about the program, set expectations, and determine a learning plan.

The TANF brings these examples of capacity to the partnership:

Community Service Block Grants:

Community Action Agencies (CAAs) have approximately 3,000 total staff across all programs including Community Service Block Grants (CSBG), Missouri Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), Head Start, Weatherization, etc.

CSBG has developed significant networks and partnerships within their regions that allow for maximizing their capacity to help individuals attain and retain employment.

CAAs will also begin utilizing extended case management, providing continued support for individuals that become employed, increasing the probability of employment retention and advancement and reducing the chance of TANF re-entry.

SkillUP: From January – June 2016, there have been 3,216 enrollments with the Job Centers. For 2017, while the Job Centers have capacity, there is not additional 100% funding. Therefore, we anticipate fewer numbers as there will be an online call-in system for job searches and other partners who can provide services.

As the leveraged funding for other partners has not begun, we do not have numbers on Food Stamp recipients who may participate; however, we anticipate a total of $2.5 million available in funding.

MWA:

The MWA contractors have the capacity to handle the TA referrals with approximately 165 case managers. As of July 2016, there were 8,167 one-parent families and 519 two-parent families. In July 2015, there were 17,024 one-parent families and 1,833 two-parent families. This decrease is due to Senate Bill 24. While there are fewer families, we do believe those that are still on Temporary Assistance are those that are in the most need for help as they continue to meet their hourly requirement to receive their cash grant.

The Division of Workforce development brings to the partnership a statewide distribution of storefronts in the form of 32 American Job Centers. Last Program Year the system provided services to more than 184,000, jobseekers, composed of many of the same clients from VR, AEL and TANF. While Missouri job centers have a range of different types of staff, in large part nearly each customer service contact or the management of customer service is a certified Workforce Development Professional. The Missouri Association of Workforce Development created the certification process in collaboration with the National Association of Workforce Boards and the University of Missouri.

There are capacity limits and challenges. Like most states across the country, in the current economic conditions, legislative budgets are stretched and the agencies will continue to be asked to perform and successfully integrate under WIOA without additional general revenue funding.

A second major challenge is that both the workforce agency and vocational rehabilitation agency were engaged in renovation and newly implemented case management systems before WIOA was passed. While this is a plus in providing very high quality case management and proficient reporting, it is a major challenge because they are not both yet even completely implemented and now must be concurrently directed toward a planning horizon of integration and even consolidation.

A third major challenge becomes the necessity to integrate reporting, periodic assessment of performance and decision based management data that must be gathered individually and assessed as though they were one system.