Narrative: III. a. 2. C.

Representatives from Adult Education and Literacy (AEL); Career and Technical Education (CTE); Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP); Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF); Community Service Block Grant (CSBG) Vocational Rehabilitation (VR); Wagner-Peyser (WP); and Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Adult, Dislocated Worker, and Youth programs (Title I) work collaboratively to develop a process that will facilitate smooth referrals between and among the various one-stop partner agencies. This integrated service delivery model expects that each partner holds their staff accountable for knowing enough about each available service in order to give an individual the information they need to make an informed choice. If a partner is unsure of an agency to refer customers to, the partner may make a referral to the local Missouri Job Center (MJC). 

This model ensures that partners are providing high-quality, customer-centered services, including supportive services, throughout the workforce system. It brings together workforce development, education, and other human resource services in a seamless customer-focused delivery network that enhances access to services. Long-term employment outcomes are improved for job seekers as partners administer separately funded programs in compliance with their individual statutory requirements while continuing to provide a set of integrated streamlined services to customers.

• 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 II: 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. AEL classes provide individuals the opportunity to acquire the basic skills, which are necessary to function in today’s society. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) AEL utilizes both traditional and modernized instruction often delivered in conjunction with workplace readiness, training, and retraining programs. Missouri’s 28 Title II programs have over 170 physical class sites around the state. Using MOLearns, Missouri’s statewide high school equivalency virtual learning platform, in addition to a plethora of virtual options, AEL programs can reach students in remote areas as well as those in populated areas even if they are without transportation. 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. DESE AEL works together with all WIOA partners to identify and address statewide barriers and address the basic and secondary educational needs of citizens and employers.
   
• Missouri partners are researching ways to maximize limited resources and reduce duplication of services where possible.
   
  The new strategic framework for Missouri’s workforce system includes the following:
   

1. Integrate Services to Better Serve Customers 

a. Missouri’s workforce system continues to move beyond mere partnership to true integrated service delivery for all customers. 

b. The Title I, AEL, WP, VR, and TANF program partners continue to strengthen partnerships so shared clients have access to the full benefits of the workforce system. 

c. Enhanced opportunities are provided for the customers of AEL, VR, and TANF partners for easy enrollment into Title I and WP programs allowing customers to benefit from comprehensive workforce services.

d. Enhance processes by using data-driven information to ensure eligible participants in CSBG programs will be identified and referred to employment or education based programs in their area, controlling for unduplicated services across state and local partnerships. 

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

a. Missouri strives to provide customer-focused quality services to allow staff time to focus on service delivery rather than bureaucratic processes. Missouri continuously pursues avenues to streamline processes, remove bottlenecks, and breakdown organizational silos. Missouri is consistent and progressive in taking measures to limit waste by utilizing electronic filing systems when possible and identifying and eliminating unnecessary paperwork and outdated practices.   

b. Office of Workforce Development (OWD) continues to focus on monitoring quality service delivery and compliance as a necessary responsibility. Local partners continue to streamline their own policies, procedures, and practices and follow required state policy regarding customer eligibility and data system management.

• All WIOA partners mutually agree to make services available to participants referred by another partner. The partners mutually agree that regardless of which partner initiates services, it is the shared responsibility of all partners to contribute, as appropriate, to the success of a participant’s career pathway.
   
• 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. 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.
   

Missouri consistently explores avenues to collaborate on carrying out respective partner programs. Missouri Rehabilitation Services for the Blind (RSB) was a member of the Employment First State Leadership Mentoring Program (EFSLMP) Missouri Vision Quest Employment Initiative (MOVQ) team along with the Department of Mental Health, Missouri Vocational Rehabilitation, OWD, and the Veterans Administration. This workgroup paved the way for the coordination and alignment of high quality customer-centered services to individuals, specifically those with the most significant barriers to employment. 

The EFSLMP/MOVQ team made many strides in collaborating to develop integrated, competitive employment within Missouri’s workforce. The team’s goals were centered around increasing participation of individuals with disabilities in the workplace by ensuring individuals who want to work are provided the opportunity, training, and supports that build on their individual strengths to achieve career goals. Since inception, the team accomplished many collaborative efforts including in-person workshops in St. Louis, Columbia, and Kansas City utilizing subject matter experts to communicate effective job development strategies. Other accomplishments included holding stakeholder summit events with keynote speakers to introduce each agency or department to Employment First and developing guides for human resource units on hiring veterans with disabilities.

The DSS Work and Community Programs continues with a client-based focus by ensuring internal and provider staff receive training to assist with understanding long-term poverty, biases, and barriers. Current trainings available to staff include: Below the Line-Understanding Poverty, Dealing with Mental Anxiety, Domestic Violence Training, Executive Function, Executive Function Skills and Stress, Introduction to Mental Health First Aid, and overcoming barriers. The themes of these trainings prepare internal staff to provide exceptional customer service while leading the conversation to favorable outcomes resulting in participation in employment training programs. These trainings are shared with other partners. The DSS Work and Community Programs continues research through the Missouri National Guard Foundation to determine overarching barriers in various locations in Missouri and engage with local organizations on strategic planning. Research on how other states and organizations assist clients with employment needs and best practices will be shared with partners, local providers, the federal government, and other stakeholders that may benefit. The DSS Work and Community Programs continues program monitoring to ensure clients are able to achieve expected outcomes, determines if providers are consistently delivering supportive services, and ensures clients have a clear employment plan they understand. The DSS Work and Community Programs collaborates with other Department of Social Services divisions including the Family Support Division, Youth Services, and Children’s Division to determine opportunities to assist families, reduce intergenerational poverty, and create linkages for client employment and training opportunities.