Narrative: III. a. 2. B.

With a market–based and customer–focused plan, the Workforce Development Boards continue to refine and improve West Virginia’s structure for aligning core and optional programs under WIOA and other available resources to realize the state’s vision and achieve its goals.

The State WDB works diligently to promote alignment and collaboration across core programs. The Core Partners and all required partners are represented on the Board and attend meetings. The WDB is focused on promoting greater connections between workforce development boards and community organizations

There are numerous examples of specific collaborations among partner programs beyond the high level strategic and planning efforts taking place through the interagency work group and State WDB including:

• DRS works extensively with education partners including Local Education Agencies (LEAs) to coordinate the provision of pre–employment and other transition services for students with disabilities.

• WIOA Youth service providers coordinate with LEAs, adult education agencies, county human service offices, county assistance office income maintenance caseworkers, EARN contractors, juvenile justice and local law enforcement agencies, local housing authorities, DRS, economic development entities and other community and faith–based organizations to ensure participants have access to all the services they need to be successful in training activities and find employment. • WIOA Youth will be notified of opportunities to co–enroll in the TANF program and will also be referred to the Adult Education program as appropriate.

• The braiding of WIOA Title I–B funded programs with other youth–directed state and local entities allows comprehensive services to be offered to all eligible low–income populations under WIOA. Available TANF funding will continue to support WIOA year–round services and summer employment activities.

• Applicants for Title II funds are required to describe how they will align services with local workforce development plans and how they will coordinate with other available education, training, and social services in the community. Alignment with LWDB’s goals is required for funding.

• Perkins postsecondary providers assist job seekers in identifying their interests and abilities and aligning these skills needs to training and financial resources to assist with training. Training is linked to the state’s high–demand jobs and is designed to lead to credential attainment. Both credential attainment and high–demand jobs alignment assist job seekers in securing employment with family–sustaining wages.

• The state co–enrolls all trade–impacted workers in the WIOA Dislocated Worker program to ensure that all individuals receive the full range of assistance available to dislocated workers.

• The office of Adult Education will work with representatives from Office of Institutional Educational Programs (OIEP), the WV Department of Corrections(DOL) and other education stakeholders to identify best practices to support the requirements of Section 225 of Title II.

• OIEP is working closely with CTE, CTCS, DHHR and WVDE and other partners to align its Career Pathways and reentry initiatives with on–going efforts in the workforce and education systems. These partnerships can provide opportunities for offenders to enhance skills and earn post– secondary credentials.

• The MACC is an integrated data platform that links human service, workforce and wage record data to measure the outcomes of workforce development programs and identifies the supply of skilled workers in relation to employer demand.

• DRS continues to build new and strengthen existing partnerships with the Department of Corrections, regarding increasing and improving the agency’s involvement in re–entry employment training to assist individuals with disabilities in the correctional system.

• WorkForce West Virginia will establish and participate in partnerships with other agencies and programs that are focused on combating veteran unemployment. WorkForce West Virginia recognizes that the emerging needs of veterans and their families are unique. Eligible veterans are entitled to priority services. Public Law 107–288, Title 38, U.S. Code and State Legislation mandates that qualified veterans receive priority in all employment and training programs including: Referral to jobs and job training programs; Counseling, testing and job development assistance; Eligibility determination for tax credit programs. Co–enrollment of veterans in core partner services will be a priority.

• West Virginia Division of Rehabilitation Services strives to align its activities and services with other agencies, including WIOA partners. Because West Virginia Division of Rehabilitation Services provides services under an Individualized Plan for Employment (IPE), many alignment activities occur on the individual consumer level. West Virginia Division of Rehabilitation Services’ Client Services Manual Section 2501.3 requires VR counselors to assess and utilize, if appropriate, any third party comparable benefits and services. Furthermore, the Client Services Manual Section 3502.13 allows West Virginia Division of Rehabilitation Services consumers to request the VR counselor to participate in the arrangement and coordination of services not included in the IPE if those services are available from third party resources without cost to West Virginia Division of Rehabilitation Services and the VR counselor determines that the services would be appropriate to assist the individual in securing employment. One example of this alignment occurs with West Virginia Division of Rehabilitation Services consumers that choose to receive four–year and/or community college training; consumers must utilize grants and other non–loan resources prior to West Virginia Division of Rehabilitation Services providing financial support.

• West Virginia Division of Rehabilitation Services is mandated not only to coordinate services and resources with comparable services and benefits providers, but also to collect and report these data (any involvement with a comparable services benefits provider in relation to 33 service categories) to the federal Rehabilitation Services Administration at the individual consumer level. The collection, monitoring, and evaluation of these data allow West Virginia Division of Rehabilitation Services to ensure coordination and alignment is taking place across the state.

Also, to ensure mandatory partners remain aligned and are actively involved in the progress of this plan, West Virginia has included the following statute in state code.

WV State Code: §5B–2B–9. Coordination between agencies providing workforce investment programs, local workforce Development Boards and the Executive Director of Workforce West Virginia

(a) To provide ongoing attention to addressing issues that will build and continually improve the overall workforce investment system, the Workforce Investment Interagency Collaborative Team is hereby created. The team shall be the single state interagency source for addressing issues or concerns related to building and maintaining the most effective and efficient implementation of the federal Workforce Investment Act and the overall workforce development system in West Virginia. The team shall focus on how best to collaborate between and among the state agencies directly involved in workforce investment activities and shall develop a strategic plan to that end. The team shall serve as a forum for the board to seek information or recommendations in furtherance of its responsibilities under this article. Workforce West Virginia is the entity which shall convene the team at least monthly and shall provide administrative and other services to the team as the team requires.

(b) The team shall consist of members from each agency subject to the reporting provisions of section five of this article. Each agency shall appoint two representatives to the team consisting of the chief official of the department or division and the official within that department or division who is directly responsible for overseeing the workforce investment program or activities at the state level. A designee may be selected to represent a member appointed to the team: Provided, that the designee has policy–making decision authority regarding workforce investment activities including program and fiscal issues. The team members have authority to make decisions on behalf of the agency at the level required for the team to address issues and advance system improvements.

(c) The team shall coordinate the development of a self–sufficiency standard study for the State of West Virginia. The self–sufficiency standard is to measure how much income is needed for a household of a given composition in a given place to adequately meet its basic needs without public or private assistance. Beginning on the first day of November, two thousand four, and every two years thereafter, this study is to be reported to the Speaker of the House of Delegates, the President of the Senate, the Workforce Development Board and the Legislative Oversight Commission on Workforce Investment for Economic Development.

(d) Beginning the first day of January, two thousand three, in order to lawfully continue any workforce investment activities, any agency subject to the reporting provisions of section five of this article shall enter into a memorandum of understanding with the Executive Director of Workforce West Virginia and any local workforce Development Board representing an area of this state in which the agency is engaged in workforce investment activities. To the extent permitted by federal law, the agreements are to maximize coordination of workforce investment activities and eliminate duplication of services on both state and local levels.

(e) No memorandum of understanding may be effective for more than one year without annual reaffirmation by the parties.

(f) Any state agency entering a memorandum of understanding shall deliver a copy thereof to both the West Virginia Workforce Development Board and the legislative oversight commission.