Narrative: III. a. 2. A.

Strategy 1 - Utilize Partnerships to Provide High-Quality Customer Service

Strategy 2 - Create Sector Strategies

Strategy 3 - Develop Career Pathways

Strategy 4 - Leverage Leadership from Core Partners to Move Forward on Missouri Goals

Strategy 5 - Create Environments that Foster Local Partnerships

Strategy 6 - Devote and Reallocate Resources that Generate Partnerships

____________________

Strategy 1- Utilize Partnerships to Provide High-Quality Customer Service

Missouri Job Center Activities

The strategic framework for Missouri’s workforce system includes the following:

1. Integrate Services to Better Serve Customers

a. Missouri’s Job Centers (MJCs) and partners continue to move to true integrated service delivery for all customers.

b. The Adult, Dislocated Worker, Youth, Adult Education and Literacy, Wagner-Peyser, Vocational Rehabilitation, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program partners commit to a strengthened partnership so customers can easily reap the full benefits of the workforce system.

c. MJCs and partners utilize an integrated customer flow process that responds to customer needs.

d. Missouri partner staff focus on the service function and not on silo programs.

e. MJC staff work with customers to provide a variety of options for career pathways, to include job matching, individual assessments, career guidance and counseling, registered apprenticeships, on-the-job training, short-term as well as postsecondary opportunities.

f. Enhanced opportunities are provided for the customers of the Adult Education, Vocational Rehabilitation, and TANF to be easily co-enrolled in the Wagner-Peyser and/or the Adult programs, so customers can benefit from comprehensive workforce services.

g. Title II, Adult Education and Literacy (AEL) programs utilize co-location for in-person referrals, common partner referral forms and electronic referral methods to provide individualized service braiding. All AEL service providers must review information on MJCs and other partner services to participants during enrollment. AEL service providers must also track referrals in the statewide data system. Additionally, the statewide AEL program guide contains a template referral form. AEL programs utilize partnerships in many ways from co-location of service delivery, co-enrollment in all WIOA partner programs, staff cross-training and sharing resources including assessments and other tools. It is expected that AEL service providers will promote co-enrollment to meet student needs.

h. Integrated programs such as Scholars@Work provide co-enrollment opportunities for students to earn wages, gain workplace readiness and obtain their high school equivalency simultaneously. Local AEL service providers continue to find creative ways to integrate student services with WIOA partners.

2. Lean Processes and Streamline Service Delivery by Removing Bureaucratic Barriers and Waste 

a. In order to serve customers better, reserve staff time for value-added service delivery, and make integrated services a reality, Missouri’s partners continue to actively work to streamline requirements and alleviate bureaucratic barriers. Missouri continues to look for opportunities to remove unneeded paperwork, move to paperless files whenever possible, reduce unnecessary documentation and reporting, and ensure all policies and requirements support integrated and efficient service delivery. 

b. Missouri partners focus on quality service delivery with compliance as a necessary responsibility. Local partners continue to streamline their own policies, procedures, and practices. Missouri follows state policy regarding customer eligibility and data system management. 

c. The Department of Social Services (DSS) Work and Community Programs has partnerships with internal and external agencies and divisions to assist clients in obtaining family supporting employment. This includes receiving and tracking referrals from the Family Support Division (FSD) Information Centers (call centers) and the FSD Resource Centers. This formalized process includes Child Support, Responsible Fatherhood Programs, Vocational Rehabilitation, Division of Youth Services (DYS), Foster Care Programs, Community Service Block Grant (CSBG) contractors,  and Department of Corrections. The referral process is assisted through scripts provided to call center staff speaking directly with clients. This scripting helps guide the conversation with next steps, allows staff to collect pertinent information, and pass this knowledge on through the formal referral process. The call center staff can access this employment-related scripting and referral system easily and quickly with the click of a button. The Work Engagement staff make calls to people referred to the Missouri Work Assistance program and new SNAP recipients. The DSS Work and Community Programs is building strong partnerships with the local WDBs and is developing referral processes for Foster Care and DYS clients into Youth programs. The DSS Work and Community Programs are strategizing on the outcomes of the Missouri National Guard Foundation Report, developing referral processes from other SkillUP providers to the MJCs and the Registered Apprenticeship program. The DSS Work and Community Programs continues to engage in system innovations that improve the lives of Missouri citizens and reduces intergenerational poverty. The DSS Work and Community Programs and DOC continue to engage in a multitude of projects that impact shared clients. In addition, the DSS Work and Community Programs conduct bi-annual convenings focused on creating SkillUP partnerships through local planning. The DSS Work and Community Programs has relationships with community colleges, Community Action Agencies, community partnerships, various foundations, and representatives from the federal government.

Effective Referral Activities

Missouri’s goal is to have an efficient and effective network, which allows both job seekers and businesses to access all of their needed services in the state workforce system regardless of their agency access point.

The Service Design and Delivery Committee, comprised of all WIOA partners, continues working together to improve their referral processes as they are tasked with ensuring seamless service delivery throughout the workforce system. Partners have committed to collecting referral data for their customers. Quality referrals are assisted by the development and utilization of Missouri’s Services Navigator (mo.servicesnavigator.org), an interactive web-based site system to assist agencies to provide effective referrals. The navigator provides up-to-date information on services available and is searchable by location, category, and keyword. 

The Service Design and Delivery Committee is researching the ability to create an online referral system that will collect relevant customer information and direct them to services they may be eligible to receive. The system is intended to help customers find relevant services, collect referral information for referral tracking and co-enrollment, and provide a baseline education to new staff on services available in the state.

Designing and implementing a formalized co-enrollment system that operates with the established data management systems of core and combined state plan partners is challenging. The Technology, Data, and Outcomes Team continues to address this issue. The following are some examples of how co-enrollment is occurring among programs.

• OWD has developed an overarching co-enrollment policy for their stakeholders. Additionally, each local workforce region is required to include their own written referral policy in their local plans.
• DOLIR makes all Unemployment Insurance (UI) claimant referrals to OWD, who in turn pre-registers claimants for services.
• All participants in the RESEA program are co-enrolled into Wagner-Peyser services.
• OWD staff provides meaningful assistance to each UI claimant to provide information about their claim process and to educate them on job center and partner services.
• Title I and Title II collaborate to provide an exciting opportunity for co-enrolled participants to attend adult education classes concurrently with employment and employability skills training through a program called Scholars@Work. This allows WIOA youth earn a paycheck while pursuing their high school equivalency, which addresses both immediate and long-term career needs.

Co-enrollment is monitored through OWD’s compliance unit and also by partners through the one-stop certification process. In order to meet the requirement to provide a direct linkage from the MJC to each required partner’s services, Missouri will hold all MJC staff accountable for knowing enough about each available service in order to give an individual the information they need to make an informed choice. Following the development of the Missouri Services Navigator, the Service Design and Delivery Committee provided cross training and encouraged partner staff participation on local interagency teams.  

OWD requires MJC staff to document every referral including the method of referral and subsequent follow-up. Each referral must include an initial assessment (to the degree information can be shared), listing of services already planned, and the service requested of the organization receiving the referrals.

Partners have committed to using the Missouri Services Navigator to provide meaningful referrals to the local job center and increase staff knowledge of any other available and applicable service providers.  

There are additional partner-based activities used to align the combined partner programs. Examples include: 

• The DSS employment and training programs require an assessment and employability plan with steps to self-sufficiency, which is monitored for compliance on a regular basis.
• The DSS Work and Community Programs utilize OWD’s case management system, MoJobs, for the SkillUP program, which allows job center and WDB staff to have a “full picture” of the client services.
• The DSS Work and Community Programs staff regularly attend partner events to coordinate and explain the available employment and training programs and other wrap-around services offered through DSS such as SNAP, Cash Assistance, child care and CSBG services.
• Title II is currently working with all WIOA partners to market Title II services to any clients needing educational services as well as researching improved ways to provide information and services.
• Title IV VR is actively participating with all local WDBs through disability subcommittees and working as a disability employment resource.

The JVSG Program’s primary activities are designed to remove barriers to employment in addition to standard Wagner Peyser activities.  These activities include assessing the qualified individual to determine the needs to be addressed, creating a plan of action on how to address those needs, referrals to partnering agencies and programs for support, and continuous follow up to ensure the individual is successful.  Services are provided one on one, either in person or virtually, and can either be accessed at the MJC, or if a transportation barrier exists, the staff can travel to where the qualified individual is located.  Referrals and co-enrollments to programs such as WIOA for financial and training supportive services, Department of Veterans Affairs Veteran Readiness and Employment for education and certification opportunities to improve employment prospects, and Homeless Veteran Reintegration Programs for individuals that are homeless or at risk of homelessness are critical to the success of the program. 

Strategy 2 - Create Sector Strategies 

Sector Strategy Activities 

Missouri recognizes effective sector-based strategies require an openness to a new way of doing business and new levels of cooperation among stakeholders in workforce, economic development, and education. This expands efforts to ensure that the entire state is developing and implementing a more systematic and streamlined approach to sector strategies, while allowing regional flexibility in service design and delivery. 

Tools developed after the passage of WIOA, including Talent for Tomorrow, Best in Midwest, and Missouri Job Centers of the Future enable regional teams to achieve a shared vision of building a talented and skilled workforce that meets employer needs and spurs economic growth.

Strategy 3 - Develop Career Pathways 

Career Pathway Activities

The Talent for Tomorrow, Best in Midwest, and Job Centers of the Future feedback clearly indicated that Missouri must look for new and flexible ways to provide opportunities for career pathways. The merger of the Department of Higher Education with the Division of Workforce Development broadened the scope of services to not only include postsecondary career pathway attainment, such as online learning, but also to connect other participants with more nontraditional paths. These include registered apprenticeships and work-based learning, customized and supported employment, and short-term, industry-focused credential training. Employing these new sector strategies are intended to provide more opportunities for job seekers to enter the market sooner and with the right preparation needed for the employer.

Missouri’s career pathway model focuses on the job seeker and the employer. Partners using sector strategies meet employers’ needs by providing qualified candidates for available positions. Job seekers use the information to determine which career cluster has the best opportunities for finding self-sufficient employment and the pathways available to reach their goals.

Education and training are paths to better careers. There may be customers who need to have concurrent and in some cases consecutive sessions of education and skill attainment with employment. Missouri advises and encourages customers to manage their own careers with information on what services are possible. Missouri also offers multiple entries and exit points for customers so they can access additional education, training, skills, and employment until they reach a self-sufficient career. 

All partners are committed to support the efforts of the other partners by ensuring that their services are available to the referred participants. It is agreed that once an individual is on a career pathway, it is the responsibility of all partners to contribute as appropriate to the participant’s success along the pathway. 

Missouri’s examples include: 

• Scholars@Work: Scholars@Work is a multi-agency alliance that delivers solutions for WIOA youth with multiple barriers to employment. Title I and Title II collaborate to provide an exciting opportunity for co-enrolled participants to attend adult education classes concurrently with employment and employability skills training. As a result of this program, WIOA youth earn a paycheck while pursuing their high school equivalency which addresses both immediate and long-term career needs. Through stipends for financial barriers, supportive services, individualized coaching, and training, youth can earn the equivalent of a high school diploma and persist along their career pathway simultaneously.
• Title I programs are developing new initiatives to expand apprenticeship opportunities for Adult, Dislocated Workers, and Youth such as new contracts with labor organizations and local employers to develop apprenticeship opportunities.
• In addition to training services, Title I & Title IV partners have work-based learning programs such as on-the-job training, apprenticeships, and work experience, which offer customers the opportunity to combine education, training, and employment services. MVR and RSB support career pathways by providing a variety of services to students, youth, and adults with disabilities. Additional services may include assistive technology, case management, and post-employment support to provide job retention.
• Title II local AEL service providers must employ a designated staff person as their student advocate. These specialized team members connect students with combined and required partners, local employers, and postsecondary institutions. Upon enrollment into AEL, local programs must communicate services provided by MJCs and other combined partners to all students and make referrals where appropriate. Co-location with WIOA partners is the most efficient conduit for referral; however, all local AEL programs must have a referral system when co-location is not possible. Thirty-five percent of Missouri’s AEL service providers are community colleges providing a direct pipeline to postsecondary education for students.
• With a strong emphasis on employment retention, local AEL programs deliver services to employed students and incumbent workers. Local AEL program staff counsel students on an individualized education plan and assist them with career pathway exploration using labor market information and assessments. Workplace literacy education encourages employment retention and incumbent worker classrooms create promotional opportunities. Missouri’s AEL programs utilize WIOA partnerships to support workforce programming, cross-training of staff, and employer engagement.
• Among Missouri’s most common barriers to self-sustaining employment are the lack of a high school diploma, basic skills and literacy deficiency, and the lack of English language skills. Missouri’s AEL classes provide individuals the opportunity to acquire the basic skills which are necessary to function in today’s society. DESE AEL utilizes both traditional and modernized instruction often delivered in conjunction with workplace readiness, training, and retraining programs. DESE AEL works collaboratively with all WIOA partners to identify and address statewide barriers and address the basic and secondary educational needs of citizens and employers.
• TANF, SNAP, CSBG, RSB, VR and OWD partners provide supportive services that assist workforce customers with overcoming barriers to begin career pathways.
• TANF funds allow the Title I partners to provide subsidized employment to youth between the ages of 14-24 that are at or below the 185% poverty level.
• The DSS Work and Community Programs offer customers access to computers in their local offices to complete job searches using the workforce site, jobs.mo.gov. For TANF (cash benefit) recipients and Able Bodied Adults without Dependents, this activity is counted toward meeting their employment and training monthly hour requirements.
• SkillUP is offered by the local WDBs, which receive referrals from job center staff who conduct Wagner-Peyser activities. In addition, the WDBs will receive a listing of SNAP clients who visited a job center to streamline processes and conduct outreach.
• The DSS Work and Community Programs require an assessment and employability plan, with steps to self-sufficiency. This is monitored for compliance on a regular basis.
• The DSS Work and Community Programs administers the Jobs for America’s Graduates Program, which focuses on students with barriers graduating high school and entering postsecondary school, the military, and employment. This program is a high school elective. High school staff are aware of the SkillUP program for referrals that allow for continued wrap-around services and short-term training funding for eligible students.
• The Excel Centers offer the ability to gain high school diplomas and industry certificates. Clients who are also enrolled in SkillUP or Missouri Work Assistance (MWA) receive supportive services and case management from their case manager.
• SkillUP and the MWA program coordinate to ensure that TANF clients are recruited and engaged in healthcare training in high demand occupations such as Certified Medical Assistant, Certified Nurse Assistant, Certified Medication Technician, Pharmacy Technician, Phlebotomy Technician, Community Health Worker, Patient Care Technician, Medical Coding, and Hemodialysis Technician.
• DOC coordinates with a variety of entities through a client-based approach that includes Career and Technical Education programs to develop new career pathways for justice-involved individuals.

Strategy 4 - Leverage Leadership from Core Partners to Move Forward on Missouri Goals 

Missouri Public Workforce System Council, Steering Committee, and Subcommittees

Missouri guides the core and combined state plan partners in developing the vision, goals, and activities for the state’s workforce system. Each core and combined partner is committed to consistent messaging toward aligning programs and share Missouri’s strategic vision and goals. Missouri initiated a state-level Memorandum of Understanding, which illustrates the state’s values working together as a workforce system. The Steering Committee provides a direct line of communication between core and combined partner leaders allowing for open communication taking place in a timely manner.

Subcommittees were created to focus on aligning core and combined state plan partners and strengthening workforce development activities. The subcommittees are Service Design and Delivery; Employer Engagement; Youth Services; Technology, Data, and Outcomes; and One-Stop Certification. Areas of focus include:

• Service Design and Delivery: Programmatic descriptions for quality referrals and follow-up and assistive technology services

• Employer Engagement: Services to employers, sector strategies, and labor market information
• Youth Services: Referrals and service delivery, customer flow, cross training, braiding through career pathways, and sector strategies for minor youth
• Technology, Data, and Outcomes: Data sharing and reporting performance measures
• One-Stop Certification: Establish criteria and procedures for local WDBs to use when certifying one-stop centers

Strategy 5 - Create Environments that Foster Local Partnerships

Missouri participates in several issue-specific, national cohorts. These include topics on co-enrollment, employer engagement data and disability services. This gives Missouri the opportunity to showcase strong partnerships and work closer together on specific projects, share outcomes, and apply knowledge gained from cohorts at the local levels.

Missouri fosters local partnerships with meetings and conferences to connect core and combined state plan partners, required partners, and additional partners, as well as other stakeholders.

Title I:

• Continue to hold meetings of stakeholders to address responsibilities, create opportunities for partnering, and enhance strategies for service delivery maximizing participant success.
• Encourage sector strategy meetings where stakeholders discuss data and targeted employment sectors.
• Hosted yearly summits to educate employers on the benefit of hiring job seekers with disabilities.
• Formed NEXUS groups comprised of core, required, and other interested partners in sharing local job opportunities and responding with one voice to area employers.

Title II:

• DESE AEL collaborates with Title I by co-locating at MJCs where possible as well as sharing assessment results and participant barriers.
• DESE AEL joins forces with Title IV to address the needs of students with disabilities through co-enrollment as well as to identify employers eager to hire those individuals.
• Missouri’s Title II local AEL service providers must employ a designated staff person as their student advocate. These specialized team members connect students with combined and required partners, local employers, and postsecondary institutions.
• Upon enrollment into AEL, local programs must communicate services provided by MJCs and other combined partners to all students and make referrals where appropriate.
• DESE AEL promotes and organizes local partnership events to its adult education service providers.

The DSS (TANF and SNAP):

• The Department of Social Services (DSS) created a Work and Community Programs unit to laser focus on the employment and training needs of the hundreds of thousands of clients by concentrating on collaborations, employer needs, and current job openings. The teams engage with local employers to determine workforce needs and what training programs align best with those needs.  The SkillUP program received TANF funding, which allowed an underfunded SNAP employment and training program to provide services to numerous clients who would not have been able to fund their non-credential programs. The DSS Work and Community Programs compares its outcomes to WIOA outcomes to determine alignment opportunities. Providers engage in WIOA cost sharing and assist shared clients through braided funds. The DSS Work and Community Programs staff serve on local WDBs, which allows the DSS to build relationships with the boards, local employers, and other public and private agencies. DSS clients and partners may opt-in to receive employment opportunity, hiring events, and training information straight from the department to their email address or through text messaging. Employers have the opportunity to advertise their hiring events and open positions through these communications at no cost. There are currently 147,000 individuals who have opted in to receive these announcements.    
• Monthly conference calls are held with local MWA/SkillUP and SkillUP providers to gauge program needs and successes, allow partners to share information on their programs, offer technical assistance, provide legislative updates, and share available tools for serving clients and assessing programs.

• The DSS Work and Community Programs and local WDBs coordinate on systems, processes, and referrals to assist DSS clients with available resources they may not know exist.

• The DSS Work and Community Programs attends a variety of conferences and local events including back to school fairs, job fairs, other state agency conferences, veterans events, and homeless events to share information and create collaborations.

• The DSS Work and Community Programs contracted with Mississippi County Caring Communities who subsequently contracted with the Missouri National Guard Foundation to analyze reasons that clients are not engaging in employment, assist with statewide branding, which is also being requested locally, and pilot employability skills classes and the outcomes.

Title IV:

• MVR’s Business Services Team is involved with organizing and attending annual business outreach partner meetings for stakeholders who work with employers and employer engagement. The meetings offer presentations on partner services and employer engagement. The regional breakout sessions create an environment of collaboration.

Strategy 6 - Devoting and Reallocating Resources that Generate Partnerships 

Missouri’s partners dedicate resources to implement WIOA through improved communication and collaboration. 

• Title II allocates resources to each local provider to find successful processes to create direct linkages between core, combined, and required partners, local employers, and postsecondary institutions. Best practices will be shared with all WIOA partners.
• Title III (Wagner-Peyser) allocates resources to provide National Career Readiness Certificate testing.
• Title IV uses liaison positions to specifically focus on partnering with key agencies, including Missouri Department of Mental Health, local Workforce Development Boards, Centers of Independent Living, and the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Office of Special Education. These positions were expanded to include all partners under WIOA and continue to create direct linkages enabling an effective coordination and delivery of services.
• The DSS has set aside funding from the TANF budget for various DOC projects. As projects are initiated, all partners will be invited to discuss resources and grant opportunities allowing for additional projects and programs. The DSS and MVR are collaborating to ensure clients, who are on SNAP, receive SkillUP services reducing the MVR wait list and allowing additional clients to be served. The DSS continues to engage in discussions regarding the needs of employers and clients. The DSS will develop innovative programs and projects and continue discussing regional, systemic, and generational barriers.