Narrative: c. 1.

Criteria identified by the State to be used by local boards in awarding grants to providers of youth services is articulated in policy PY16-03 Youth Service Provider Criteria as follows:

1. For the purpose of identifying appropriate youth service elements and career pathways for each youth participant, the youth provider must be able to conduct an objective assessment of each youth that includes an evaluation of:

• Academic and literacy levels, including English language proficiency
• Pre-employment competencies and employability skills
• Prior work experience and transferrable skills
• Occupational skills, aptitudes (including occupational interests, work preferences, and aptitude for and interest in non-traditional occupations)
• Developmental needs
• Supportive services necessary to successfully participate in all aspects of the youth program
• Barriers to transition to employment or post-secondary education
• Need for each of the fourteen youth service elements
• Need for comprehensive counseling and coordinated referrals to programs and services such as:

Mental health services
Substance abuse counseling
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
Housing and homeless assistance programs
Programs that address juvenile recidivism
Programs providing assistance to individuals with disabilities
Parenting and childcare programs
Programs that provide guidance to youth whose parent/guardian is incarcerated or affected by addiction or mental illness

2. Must show evidence of ability to provide services that are age-, needs-, and ability-appropriate, including provision of suitable accommodations for individuals with disabilities.

3. In partnership with the youth participant, development of youth employment plans articulate goals, benchmarks, activities, and service elements that will launch the youth on a defined career pathway and that will result in the youth meeting or exceeding locally negotiated performance measures. Such plans must include identification of short- and long-term goals, including goals for measurable skill gains, credential attainment, employment, and/or transition to post-secondary training or education.

4. Document active involvement of family members, community service members, and others who play a critical in the youths’ success, as part of program service design.

5. Demonstrate how opportunities for youth to practice leadership and citizenship skills, including providing peer mentoring, project leadership, and community service activities are provided.

6. Demonstrate strong business/employer involvement including specific examples of long-term relationships with employers who provide:
   1. Work experience opportunities that include regular assessment of work readiness and employment competency skills
   2. Opportunities for job shadowing or informational interviewing
   3. Occupationally specific internships or On-the-Job Training opportunities
   4. Practice employment interviews that result in constructive feedback for youth
   5. Adult mentoring
   6. Actual employment opportunities
   7. Apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship opportunities
   8. Participation in youth career exploration events and job fairs
   9. Participation in youth committees and other youth advisory boards

7. Demonstrate an atmosphere of inclusion, appreciation of diversity, and commitment to youth advocacy through examples and anecdotal evidence of such.

8. Demonstrate significant relationships with, and ability to package the services of, a variety of community organizations that serve at-risk youth through formal memoranda of understanding, contracts, or other formal agreements that provide evidence of such relationships, including relationships with Adult Education, Vocational Rehabilitation, the juvenile justice system, DHHS, post-secondary education providers, financial aid providers, employer organizations, and others.
9. Demonstrate the ability to offer work-based learning experiences that stress the connection between academic knowledge and work activities, through provision of examples of work-site agreements.

10. Provide evidence accessible facilities, programs, technology, and ability to provide appropriate accommodations for youth with special needs.

11. Demonstrate ways in which the youth program establishes high expectations for youth participants, including evidence showing most youth participants who enter the program participate in and complete the activities identified on the youth employment plan, and showing the program meets identified performance measures.

12. Documentation of ability to connect youth participants with all fourteen required youth service elements, either through direct provision or through partnerships, MOUs, or other methods, to include provision of:
    1. Tutoring and/or Study Skills
    2. Access to drop out recovery programs or alternative education
    3. Work-based learning
    4. Occupational Skills Training
    5. Education offered concurrently with and in the same context as occupational training
    6. Leadership development
    7. Adult Mentoring
    8. Support Services
    9. Follow-up Services
    10. Comprehensive guidance and counseling
    11. Financial Literacy
    12. Entrepreneurial Skills/ Training
    13. Career guidance and counseling, including provision of local and state labor market information and information about how to prepare to enter occupations that are in demand in the local area and in Maine
    14. Activities that prepare youth for entry into post-secondary education

13. Evidence of employment of professional staff, including requisite credentials and experience and demonstration of a commitment to staff development that prepares staff to deliver the services identified above.