Narrative: c. 2.

Youth Program Services: The WIOA youth committee is in the process of compiling and formalizing a rec–ommendation to the State Workforce Board regarding criteria that Local Boards will be required to use in awarding grants to service providers for provision of youth workforce investment activities and services, on a competitive basis. Youth Service Criteria: At a minimum, providers must be able to provide some or all of the required ser–vices and activities expected under WIOA, including: providing basic information and referrals to prospec–tive youth participants and ensuring that any youth applicant that does not meet enrollment requirements is provided with referral for further assessment as necessary and referral to appropriate programs; main–taining Out–of–School (OSY) and youth work experience minimum spending thresholds; providing access to all of the WIOA youth program service elements; determining youth eligibility for program services, ensur–ing that you services inform or establish the youth on or along a career pathway, provision of assessments, including assessment of basic skills, occupational skills, prior work experience, employability, occupational interests and aptitudes (including aptitudes and interest in non–traditional jobs), need for supportive ser–vices and need for any of the youth service elements; development of service strategies for each youth par–ticipant that is directly linked to one or more of the performance indicators and that incorporate two or more of the youth service elements; and provision of activities that lead to attainment of a secondary school diploma or its equivalent or prepare the youth for entry into post–secondary education training op–portunities. Local Boards will be encouraged to consider the following qualities when selecting youth service providers: • Program offers service that are age and needs appropriate; • Program involves youth and family members in program design; • Program provides significant opportunity for youth to interact with positive, adult role models; • Program emphasizes responsibility and accountability and holds participants to high standards; • Program has already established relationships with business and community member who play a direct role in the program design and delivery; • Program places a strong focus on youth leadership and civic and community responsibility; • Program ensures accessibility for all youth. Youth Service Elements: The Bureau of Employment Services will incorporate all of the required compo–nents into its monitoring processes to ensure that youth are assessed for and provided with access to each of the fourteen youth service elements and that staff of the providers of those services have the required skills and proficiencies. The one–stop certification process will also include assessment of quality of youth service design and delivery. Over the last three program years Maine has achieved or exceeded all of the required levels with the exception of PY14 in which it failed to achieve the negotiated Literacy Numeracy measure for youth. The following steps are being taken to improve the literacy numeracy rate of Maine’s youth participants: • Best practice sharing takes place on a bi–monthly basis at the Younger Workers Committee meetings. The members of this committee include leaders from Maine’s WIOA youth service providers, Job Corps, Secondary Career and Technical Education programs, Adult Education, DHHS foster youth programs and more. • In addition to this meeting, BES has initiated a regular WIOA youth lead meeting that also takes place on a bi–monthly basis. This team is made up of WIOA Core service provider leads serving youth and includes WIOA youth service staff, Adult Education and Vocational Rehabilitation. Activities for this team include: identifying and sharing best practices, understanding new requirements under WIOA, understanding how core partners work with youth, and brainstorming solutions to challenges. • In identifying a solution to the Literacy/Numeracy gains issue, it was found that youth that are not fully engaged in a group cohort are less likely to come in for post–testing requirements as are homeless youth and youth involved with corrections. One strategy discussed was to incorporate more academics into activities, like work experience (as is required under WIOA), and to do so at a level that is appropriate for the particular youth participant; another is consideration of using incentives that reward youth who stick to and achieve the goals in the service strategy, which must include goals and methods for attaining skills gains and for post–test requirements. • Finally, formal professional development for youth staff has been identified as a critical need for Maine’s system, mainly because staff turnover is higher than ever (many long–term staff are retiring, and the wage levels for entry level youth case managers are not high enough to retain the special talent required of a youth counselor). These teams have also discussed strategies and partnerships to engage more out–of–school youth. A list of partners who refer youth has been identified and shared, the WIOA youth team has also shared a list of formal agreements they have with outside partners who serve the same youth participants. Some team members also sit on the Maine Youth Transition Council, which coordinates services for youth transitioning out of foster care.