[Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:03:44 Really excited to have you all. Here we are, you know, feel privileged to be able to pull you altogether. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:03:44 AR from both of these Grant communities to have some discussion today on effective strategies for attention and completion. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:03:53 You'll hear from us a bit. You'll hear from me each other, and you'll hear from some of your peers on a panel today. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:03:58 That highlights, some promising practices so very quickly we will dive into first an introduction of a participant, support. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:04:10 Continuum that we've created sort of capture. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:04:14 You know various points along our interactions with participants, and we'll really narrow in on those components that are focused on retention and completion. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:04:25 We will then have, as I mentioned, our promising practice panel discussion and then we're going to break out into groups we'll have about 6 groups, so you'll get great opportunity to meet other grantees to have a facilitated conversation by coaches and staff at AI are [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:04:45 about retention and about loss points which we'll define more fully soon. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:04:53 At the beginning of this session to kind of set the context and then we'll have you talk about some challenges and solutions in your group. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:05:02 And then we're going to do a quick breakout deep, brief as we come back, and then recap and look ahead to other activities. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:05:08 So if we go to the next slide. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:05:11 For those who don't know me. My name is Joe. Quick! [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:05:13 I'm a senior. Ca, consultant to Aar and a ta coach for a 4 rural health care crisis, and excited to be with you all today, and to help facilitate this might counterpart Christie. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:05:27 I'll have you introduce yourself. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:05:28 Hi, Christine Montgomery! Joan, I'm senior consultant with AR, and I also serve as a coach to 5. One workforce grantees so excited to connect today. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:05:39 Thanks, trustee, and, as I mentioned, we'll get to meet more of our team with any service facilitators for the workout session. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:05:46 So I'm excited. If you move on to the next slide just a real quick recap of our session goals today, I think you, you know, have seen these before. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:05:55 In our communications about what today's session would be part of first. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:05:58 I wanna mention that this is part one of a 2 part series. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:06:02 So we recognize the complexity of participants, retention and completion, and all that goes into everything from front end assessments of participants to ensure their success to completion of education and training, programming and certification that might be required for positions so today we're we plan to [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:06:22 you know, introduce that participants for continuum and talk about an eventual eventual planning tool and some resources that were creating AI for you all here, promising practices and participant retention and completion across industries and grantee cohorts we'll be discussing as [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:06:43 I mentioned participant loss points. Some challenges. The root causes of those challenges and exploring some solutions together, and that'll actually help us to further develop this tool, to be relevant to you that we'll talk about in a few moments here. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:06:59 And of course we want to explore our various resources and promising practices. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:07:02 We've like some for you already today, and we'll be providing more as we work our way toward Part 2, which will occur in June and build on industrialized the discussions we have today. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:07:15 So, in addition, as I, as I mentioned, we plan to release a set of resources and tools between now and our June session that we'll discuss in just a few moments. If you move on to the next slide. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:07:26 So at Aar we observe and promote inclusive virtual meeting guidelines. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:07:32 So just want to cover a couple of quick, logistical things. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:07:36 Today we intend to engage everyone in the session. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:07:39 We've got a decent size group this morning. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:07:42 So, or this afternoon rather so. We ask that you engage in the chat or in the opening segment and panel. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:07:49 Please ask questions, add additional detail things that you're just and engagement with your peers. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:07:54 There and you'll have an opportunity obviously, to chat with your peers in the breakout sessions. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:08:00 We'll also have an opportunity to submit some questions into the chat during the panel, and if there's anything we don't get to, we can follow up afterwards. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:08:08 Do use your microphones when you're speaking up, join video. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:08:11 If you're able and willing, and make sure to minimize background noise. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:08:15 But otherwise we are all well aware of Zoom and all the tools and resources available to us. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:08:24 We move on to the next slide, so to guide our conversation today and to, you know, add some additional technical assistance tools that we're creating for you all over the next couple of months. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:08:38 Here, we've laid out a participant supports support continuum that details, points of interaction with participants and services that are providing to participants. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:08:50 And so we're going to use that and preview that today to help us focus on those components that relate to retention and completion. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:08:56 So, Jen, if you move to the next slide, we're actually gonna do a quick poll with you all. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:09:01 And what we'd like to hear from you is, has your Grant team established a full plan to improve participant retention training completion, and credential attainment? [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:09:12 Assuming, you know we're fair fair portion of the way through this grant process, so we assume that most of you have done some work here, but our selections are, we've got a plan, and we're happy to share. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:09:27 So we've got something, you know, really set in stone, or we're in the organizing phase, and a draft is coming soon or we've discussed the need. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:09:35 But haven't had the time to address it, or we feel lost. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:09:38 We're not sure where to start. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:09:41 And if we give it just a few seconds here to get a few more responses in. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:09:52 It's like we've got one clear front runner already. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:10:00 Awesome. Okay? So let's go ahead and well, we'll give it a few more seconds. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:10:07 Still quite a few responses coming in. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:10:15 Alright! Let's go ahead and close them and share it out. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:10:23 So it looks like, we've got a fair number that are are saying we've got a plan we're happy to share or moving into that moving into that phase, and a draft is coming soon. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:10:33 But a significant number that have discussed the need but haven't had a lot of time. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:10:36 So really put something together. So I think, you know, in that context, resources and planning tools that we're planning to build out with Dol to release, to grantees will help you with some of that planning and prioritizing some of those critical loss points. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:10:56 Or, you know, critical leverage, critical strategies for attention that that will help. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:11:03 Yeah, help. Lead to completion numbers and the goals that you all are sharing. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:11:08 So let's go ahead and close the poll out to the next slide. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:11:15 Alright. So, as I mentioned, and in leading into our panel, we want to talk about this support continuum concept just a little bit. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:11:25 So you know, the concept behind this is, we were really thinking through you know, what we were hearing for grantees as coaches about, you know various challenges and opportunities to support our participants as they express interest in training as they move through the training, process you know, recognizing that you know there [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:11:49 may be various interventions or supports that are needed along the way to make sure that someone is successful that they graduate from their programs, or, you know, finish their training programs that they achieve the the testing and certification that might be associated, we started thinking about both where are some of the places where [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:12:08 we may lose folks along. How do we identify those? How do we identify actions, supportive services and transition points to make sure that we're achieving success? [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:12:19 And then also you know, what sort of does the life cycle and journey of the Grant participant look like as we're trying to support them toward a successful outcome? [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:12:30 So the support the participants support. Continue on that, you'll see in a moment, is meant to detail that lifecycle of a participant or a learner through not only grants supported activities, but also you know, in the learning environments, of course and through placement and retention on the job [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:12:48 and it includes key participant actions as well as concerations for support from our workforce education and community partners. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:12:55 To ensure success, and, as you'll see, we'll ground ourselves in this continuum and associated challenges and opportunities within the retention and completion portions of the continuum. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:13:08 If you go to the next slide we'll be able to talk about that a little bit more. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:13:11 So on this slide, you see the continuum that we've created, you know not earth-shattering here, but I think you know, really helped us to kind of think through. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:13:20 You know all of the various components of that participant life cycle. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:13:26 Everything, from how we interact with them, from an outreach and recruitment perspective to the intake process, the enrollment process in specific programs of interest for that are leading to critical in demand. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:13:39 Job, as well as the various on ramps that people may have to the industry, to the occupation that that they're focused on as well as training and education program progress. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:13:49 So we really think about this piece. We, you know, had some great conversations internally at our organization with our post-secondary partners, about thinking about the education process through sort of the 75% mark, recognizing that the last quarter of training should really be focusing not only on completing training but also [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:14:07 on setting people up, setting people up for success on certification, on testing that is required, on really connecting with industry and job opportunity. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:14:20 While they're still in their program and transitioning out whether work based learning, experience or whether that's something less formal. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:14:26 And then moving on to placement instead. The job right? [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:14:30 So that's we all know that's their program. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:14:36 Or grant requirements, performance requirements related to placements as well. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:14:40 But then we also think about okay, what can we do both throughout this process and once they're on the job to make sure that they're retaining that job and or upscilling into other other positions? [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:14:50 So another thing. You see here is, we've sort of laid out some participant actions and some system supports and actions below, and you'll see at the end of this presentation we'll hit on very quickly. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:15:02 There's some resources that actually, you know, both help you to think about different supports. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:15:09 And interventions along this participant continuum, but also some resources that inspired us to really think about and create something that we felt would work for for this grant program and thinking about participants. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:15:21 Success. So if you move on to the next slide. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:15:30 It was a little bit of a delay in our slides. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:15:33 Oh, sorry! Yes, I had arrows in there in animations that I completely forgot about so. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:15:42 So I'll mention that what the what those errors pointed out is that you know. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:15:46 Of course, today's session is focused specifically on looking at the thank you for going back to looking at the portions of this continues that focus on training an education program in progress. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:16:01 But also, you know, retention, a long that program piece. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:16:06 Then this fourth one of completion and certification. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:16:09 So again, we're focused today on retention and completion. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:16:12 But we also recognize that there are key steps that are taken in the intake on Ramps and enrollment piece of this participant continuum that are really key to success from a retention and completion perspective. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:16:27 So recognizing that we want to do an assessment of you know any prerequisite or skill gaps that someone has before entering official training, or, you know, doing an assessment of potential barriers that they may have along the way of their education and job placement [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:16:45 and recognizing those right up at the front where possible. So now, if we move on to the next slide, I promise, Jen, that it's time to move on. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:16:55 So I mentioned previously that we're gonna you know, plan to build out additional resources here. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:16:59 And so what the next couple of slides, you know, really try to illustrate for us is that we plan to align those with this. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:17:06 Continuum. So recognizing that, you know, we can outline some potential considerations and components for each point along that continuum as well as various resources and practices to support participants in those portions along the continuum, and then we we also hope to provide planning tools that will help grantees identify not [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:17:29 only those practices that we've collected as part of the tool, but also some planning tools to help you all identify various regional and statewide strategies that are relevant to your grants and refine those that are presented here in the context of your own work. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:17:44 So if we move on to the next slide, we really go from sort of defining those key components and how they may, how they may impact each of our grants outcomes in metric to thinking about those potential loss points challenges and brainstorming strategies. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:18:02 So very quickly before we move into our panel we were focusing our brainstorming. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:18:10 Later in our breakout sessions on potential loss points regarding retention and completion and loss points are those points at which participants may experience difficulty that leads to attrition or dropping out of their training or education program and that might include personal barriers to completing training or education [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:18:28 that require supportive services, or as I mentioned, challenges with completing required exams for certification, or, for you know, passing prerequisite courses, or what many call gateway courses, or gatekeeper courses that are required to getting into a program or attaining the [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:18:49 required math scores, for example, for a role. So so think about today as we you know, we're again, we're gonna focus on the 3 training education program progress, completion and certification. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:19:05 And the intake on rampant enrollment process as we brainstorm those for our sessions today. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:19:13 If you move on the next couple of slides are really focused on just sort of outlining, you know. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:19:20 So we've said we've created this continuum. We're going to ground some of our conversation in it today. But as we build out over the next couple of months it's a great tool for you all to use, we're gonna lean into some research that we have [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:19:34 on hands, promising practices, things that come out of today's discussion to really fill in for you a tool that has specific resources, promising practices and various supports and strategies that support this full account. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:19:48 In our part, 2 session will really continue to dive in and Jenny can move on to the next slide we'll continue to dive into these 3 that we're focusing on now, recognizing that need to spend a lot of time on this it's a it's a really big topic and [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:20:03 ultimately we'll have some tools for you to do some action planning on, you know. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:20:07 What is it we need to improve what lost points and associated, you know, root causes of those loss points. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:20:16 Can we tackle together? We's responsible for that. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:20:19 And how do we move that work forward? So without further ado, we'll move on to the the exciting part of today that I'm really excited to hear from our panelists. And so I'm gonna turn it over to Kristy to lead us into that thank you Christy. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:20:34 Thanks. Joe, Jen. I think you can go on to the next slide so we can start to introduce our panelists. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:20:43 I will mention we are holding this conversation as a 2 part series. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:20:47 Quite honestly, we could probably have a discussion every week about building out pieces of this continuum, and your coaches look forward to having those conversations with you what we're attempting to do today is just you know, mentioned we're just focusing today on 3 components of that continuum and we [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:21:03 will be holding another webinar to continue the conversation, so we appreciate everyone for sharing their ideas and thoughts of what's working, what's not working. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:21:13 And this hopefully, will be a a good place to join together with years, to learn about challenges and even though someone maybe focusing on training programs in a different sector, there may be something you can learn right like we don't always have to look at our exact problem or exact organizational structure to get ideas we can [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:21:32 often find inspiration and through just looking at different approaches. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:21:37 So in that spirit we have brought together 4 speakers today who their bases will be popping up on video in just a moment as well. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:21:48 But we have to rule healthcare grantees, and we have 1 one workforce. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:21:54 Grantee was 2 speakers. So we're they're able to cover different sectors. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:22:00 They're from New York, from Maine and from Georgia. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:22:06 We have the spectrum from rural suburban to Metro, as well covered today, so thank you for joining us we will have that sessions after this, but thank you for kind of kicking off those discussions today. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:22:19 Could we? Just a quick introduction starting on the left side with Jennifer with you? [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:22:23 Just introduce your your name and your role with your grant. [Jennifer McGauley] 15:22:30 Sure. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Jennifer Mcgaughey. [Jennifer McGauley] 15:22:35 I'm the project director for an H. One B rural healthcare grant in Central, and we cover 17 counties, primarily doing direct-care professional training. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:22:47 Thanks, Jennifer. How about Kyle? [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:22:51 Hi everyone! Kyle Olson, I'm a senior coach manager in May, in that coastal counties workforce ink, and I oversee our Weowa programming and discretionary grants, and we cover one third of the state and it's primarily southern main which is essentially half the population in [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:23:13 Maine. The rest is incredibly rural, as you probably could imagine. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:23:16 John and Jeannie. [John McQueen] 15:23:19 Sure. John Mcqueen, director of recruiting for city of Refuge. [John McQueen] 15:23:25 One workforce Grant for it. My primary response responsibility obviously, is recruiting. [John McQueen] 15:23:33 But also I work on our team in with soft skills, training as well as some mentoring to our younger students. [John McQueen] 15:23:43 Jeannie is not with us at this minute. [John McQueen] 15:23:46 She'll be with us, probably in another 1015 min. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:23:51 Excellent thanks, John, thanks, thanks for jumping in, and once when she comes in, we love to hear from her as well just a few housekeeping things for the everyone in attendance, so just to help manage the conversation today, if you're trying to follow along we will be dropping [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:24:08 in the chat. And also it's a challenged meeting. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:24:11 Invite grant profiles, which includes the names of the speakers, their contact information, a quick summary about their grant. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:24:20 Just if you want, reach out to them afterwards. You've got that information at your fingertips also, if you have a question just because we, I think we're at 66 individuals's on the call. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:24:29 Now, if you don't mind for this panel discussion, putting those into the chat, and we will do our best to get to all of those, and that also will be helpful for your coaches. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:24:38 Going forward to see what questions you have that they can have deeper dive conversations, but kicking us off. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:24:44 The first question, and maybe, Jennifer, I'll kick this to you first. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:24:51 What strategies and structure did you grant implement Q and retain participants? [Jennifer McGauley] 15:24:57 Yeah. So our grant began with a mindset really trying to best serve our rural populations. [Jennifer McGauley] 15:25:05 As I mentioned, we cover 17 counties across upstate New York, and so we really wanted to promote more virtual engagement that we could, and we offered our participants the ability to meet with our coordinators virtually via zoom you know, online paperwork and things like [Jennifer McGauley] 15:25:23 that. And we've really seen a great retention in our participants engaging with our coordinators actually coming to me you know, scheduling in person meetings and people not showing up due to transportation issues, or you know the distance that it would require for them to come and meet with [Jennifer McGauley] 15:25:42 us so really using technology has been great and being able to engage with our participants. [Jennifer McGauley] 15:25:50 And we've, you know, used those technology that use the technology to train as well doing our online programming. [Jennifer McGauley] 15:25:58 And so far we've seen really great retention with those who have benefit from an online program versus having to travel to in person. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:26:06 Thanks. Jennifer, yeah, that use of technology and people's comfortability level with it. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:26:17 It's not like that has really been helpful for you. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:26:19 How I'll ask you the same question. What have you found as helpful strategies and structures? [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:26:24 Sure. So this goes back years and years, but we've had a partnership with the adult education centers as well as the community college system. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:26:37 That goes back for years, and in addition to that, Maine is one of the oldest populations, and there's a such a big need for, you know, and building up the healthcare. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:26:55 There's always gonna be be a need for Main to build up those healthcare occupations. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:27:02 So we aligned with our training partners. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:27:06 Naturally and we do a very good job of leveraging resources and staying connected with them, so they know exactly what we do. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:27:15 What services we provide training and all of that. So in addition to that, they're kind of well aware when talking to their students on what we can and can't do and how we partner with not how we partner, how we stay connected to our clients so in addition to that we have the [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:27:44 laptop Loner program. If anybody has any issues with, if they don't have their own laptop, if they have connectivity issues we're flagging that at an early stage and making sure they have that taken care of prior to getting enrolled in a training that's been [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:28:03 a big part of ours, for sure. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:28:07 Thanks, Kyle. I'm noticing a technology trend there, and also starting to hear a little bit about partnerships. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:28:14 John, what has been helpful for you? [John McQueen] 15:28:18 Well, part of our program to help with the retention. [John McQueen] 15:28:23 So we actually implement and have part of the program self skills, training. [John McQueen] 15:28:29 We have found that with many of the employers that we work with as part of our business, they have actually asked or strongly recommended, that there be some type of additional training besides the hardcore you know it training, and so we have implemented self skills training which covers everything from you [John McQueen] 15:28:55 know verbal and written communications, teamwork, adaptability problem solving creativity, leadership, all these other skills that are needed. [John McQueen] 15:29:06 Our students find little bit of a break from the hardcore. [John McQueen] 15:29:10 It, learning that they have in the class. We also have a very robust job placing assistance program which includes mentoring from people who currently work in the industry. [John McQueen] 15:29:27 Each student is assigned a mentor, we host 2 networking events each year, where we invite upwards of 40 different employers to come and meet and greet with our students those 2 events have been really successful, and are keeping the students engaged in you know, have their their overall outlook. [John McQueen] 15:29:51 About the we invite guest speakers, many of them from the Atlanta and Georgia. [John McQueen] 15:29:57 It community. A lot of these are Ctos Sisos's very prominent figures in the area, and then we we just do some fun things, too. [John McQueen] 15:30:09 We, we are our one, it class, we host a captured, a flag event, and we've had picnics and holiday parties. [John McQueen] 15:30:23 Just things obviously, we focus, you know highly on the It training. [John McQueen] 15:30:30 But we try to do some other things just to keep the students engaged and make it more of a community as opposed to just a classroom. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:30:40 I love that child, that kind of person, the whole person approach, and it's it's not very engaging. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:30:47 I love the work community there that you're building, also heard from trends there about partnerships and relying on others in your community. [John McQueen] 15:30:50 Yeah. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:30:56 Come in and make connections and provide some inspiration. [John McQueen] 15:31:01 Yeah. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:31:01 I don't know if anyone has any thoughts on this question from when you started your agreement till now. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:31:11 Are there any lessons you've learned, or things change? [John McQueen] 15:31:17 It was that question directed towards me. I'm sorry, broke up a little bit. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:31:22 That's perfect. John. [John McQueen] 15:31:24 Yeah, well, we've learned a lot, and we've made a lot of changes from the very start. [John McQueen] 15:31:33 I believe our first class was August of 25. Yeah. [John McQueen] 15:31:39 August 2,021. We're now about to start or recruiting for cohorts number 5 in both coding and cyber. [John McQueen] 15:31:50 Some of the changes we made is a particularly to our recruiting process. [John McQueen] 15:31:55 We have a assessments that our students have to take, so we can assess their their aptitude, their ability to be successful in our classes. [John McQueen] 15:32:06 We used to allow our students to do those virtually, or do them at home. [John McQueen] 15:32:11 We have since changed, that we had some suspicions that may be, students were having other people. [John McQueen] 15:32:16 Maybe take those assessments for them. So we now do all that in house. [John McQueen] 15:32:21 We've brought that in the house. We've increased the number of assessments from just basic computer skills, assessments from 4 to 6. [John McQueen] 15:32:32 We now also include a critical thinking assessment that was designed by one of our training partners to really help us assess a students, not just their aptitude or our it aptitude, but also their just how they think, and if it aligns with being successful in in cybersecurity, and [John McQueen] 15:32:57 and coding. So those are 2 of the adjustments we've made in in the open house. [John McQueen] 15:33:03 Or the the recruiting process that hit have really helped us. [John McQueen] 15:33:09 Recruits, students that not only need a program like this, but really have the the capabilities to be successful. [John McQueen] 15:33:20 And such a program, and it has worked pretty well. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:33:23 Yeah, I love those pivots you're talking about there, and speaking of assessments and prerequisites, are others using assessments. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:33:34 Are you finding some particularly more effective than others? [Jennifer McGauley] 15:33:39 So our grant uses an individualized service plan with every student we just kind of have a conversation about what their employment and education goals are short term and long term, and specifically, with that assessment. [Jennifer McGauley] 15:33:55 We really try to identify students that do need those soft skills trainings like John had mentioned. [Jennifer McGauley] 15:34:00 And we have some online programming that allows them to take many courses that help with communication. [Jennifer McGauley] 15:34:08 And job skills and things that certain students might not have as much experience in and need that training before they enter their education. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:34:20 I see nothing in his head as well. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:34:21 Yeah, cause I can agree with all of those assessments that we do, as far as work, history and all of that soft skills is big which John and Jennifer touched upon beyond that one of the kind of a newer thing for us is assessing for 6 on online training because as [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:34:46 we've launched in the past few years since Covid hit is online. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:34:50 Trainings have kind of gone through the, and they're a great option. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:34:55 They allow somebody to be at home, maybe work at night and do very. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:35:02 Can they be successful on it? And that kind of takes? Do you have the technology? [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:35:09 Do you have space at home? You have Internet at home and kind of checking off those boxes before somebody commits and making sure that they're going to be successful in that. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:35:19 And then once we get them in training, making sure, we're checking in more than once a month to say, Hey, how is this going? Is this working out? [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:35:28 Do we need to adjust anything? So that's one addition that we kinda have to add, especially during Covid times. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:35:39 Don! [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:35:42 Oh, sorry you're on. [John McQueen] 15:35:44 Yeah, I wanted to add one of the other things we've added, and has worked very well. [John McQueen] 15:35:51 We actually require our applicants to write a 5 hundred-plus word essay on their why, you know why they want to be involved in this class, why they wanna do cyber, why, they wanna do coding. [John McQueen] 15:36:07 We use that as a an account accountability tool. Later in the program, if we find a student, for whatever reason they may be starting to falter in the program, maybe not give their full commitment you know we'll bring them in. [John McQueen] 15:36:25 We have 2 case managers. [John McQueen] 15:36:31 Each class is assigned a case manager, an account accountability partner, if you will, but having them write that essay really allows us to understand, but also be in a position to remind them, because our one cyber program is not 9 months. [John McQueen] 15:36:47 And so a lot can change in 9 months. That might sort of change your attitude about the program and in finishing the program and graduating, and we're able to remind them, hey, this is why you said you wanted to be in the program the this is your reason for being here and [John McQueen] 15:37:04 we've had some some success with that as well. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:37:10 I think a question in the chat about what is your staff's average casaso for anyone know that off the top of their head? [City of Refuge] 15:37:21 So for Hi, guys, I'm sorry I just joined. [City of Refuge] 15:37:25 I'm Jeannie Ross City Refuge. [City of Refuge] 15:37:27 I sorry we had the stand together organization from across the country here to talk about how nonprofits can collaborate together, and I was over there speaking. [City of Refuge] 15:37:38 But so we have 2 case managers, and it depends on where we are in the courses so you know, we have around 20 in each class. [City of Refuge] 15:37:46 Right now, we're running 2 cyber classes. So that's about 40, and we have one coding class going on. [City of Refuge] 15:37:53 So the 2 case managers, usually one is over cyber and ones over coding, but they definitely share the load of meet with people and they both could take, you know, the spot in another class, if need be. [City of Refuge] 15:38:07 So you know the spot in another class, if need be. So it's, you know. Say, it's 25 c. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:38:12 Thanks, Jeannie. 25 for senior refugees. So Kyle put in the about 35 to 40. [Jennifer McGauley] 15:38:20 I think our caseload across our 3 coordinators is probably about 50 active participants at a time, maybe a little higher than that. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:38:31 Building on that when we had some of the previous peer learning calls, people asked about like the number of participants, some of the speakers were serving, I would put the question to each of you when you're thinking about Grant, applications and you're setting up your budget is there a [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:38:50 thought process around how you're designing the staff to actively that front, to create those relationships. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:39:00 Do those assessments stay in contact? How do you look at staffing your project when when you're booking for the Grant upfront? [City of Refuge] 15:39:11 For us honestly, we were Newbies. We were first time. [City of Refuge] 15:39:16 We never thought we get this to be totally honest. And so our Grant writer wrote it, and I am thankful that she put 2 case managers. I am thankful she put a recruiter and employment specialist because it has been really a good solid team I don't feel like we you know, we have a [City of Refuge] 15:39:30 Scheduler to that helps with. With some of this I feel like she put. [City of Refuge] 15:39:36 I mean, we can't take the credit. She really put the team together. [City of Refuge] 15:39:39 The only thing I and I know that didn't ask this the only thing I thought, and I don't know if the ol does stipends. [City of Refuge] 15:39:46 But we did not put stipends in the program in 9 months. [City of Refuge] 15:39:49 All day long as a really long time for someone to try to to do a program, and, you know, make it through it. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:40:00 Yeah, sometimes for serendipitously getting there through your Grant riders. [Jennifer McGauley] 15:40:02 I also have to credit our grant writer, who has a lot of experience in planning ahead for these type of grants. [Jennifer McGauley] 15:40:12 I think Kyle mentioned his long-standing partnerships between his organization and the community, and we operate very similarly, so thankfully. [Jennifer McGauley] 15:40:19 Outreach and recruitment isn't as difficult. [Jennifer McGauley] 15:40:23 We really focus on the case management and thankfully fine, you know, participants come, fall in our laps more. [Jennifer McGauley] 15:40:29 But I think that allows us to better handle the high caseload that we have per coordinator. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:40:44 But it seems like those case managers are planning a key role and their ability to be there and form those relationships is important building. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:40:52 From there? What are some critical components of effective support systems? [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:40:57 So you know things that help to coach guide, mentor. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:41:02 I think you've spoken to a couple of those already. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:41:04 But are there anything that comes to mind when you think this is critical for our success and retaining and helping me completion? Goals? [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:41:16 I don't mind going first. So from the start, we've implemented case conferencing with our career advisors, program managers and the training providers, especially when we do covort trainings from there. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:41:32 We're able to kind of flag any issues as they are running and bring it down to the individual level, if need be. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:41:43 We're able to notice any trends across our participants. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:41:47 So if everybody's struggling with, you know. X. Y. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:41:52 Or Z. We can address it right there, and it kind of gives every gets everybody on the same page, and you're always meeting with you. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:42:00 Your partners. So you all feel like a team, although you're not from the same organization. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:42:05 You just feel like you're all in. [John McQueen] 15:42:12 As I. Excuse me, as I spoke earlier, we did implement a we have implemented a mentor program we which has worked very, very well, assigning each student a mentor, someone who currently works in the industry. [John McQueen] 15:42:30 We also have tutoring available to our students every day. [John McQueen] 15:42:35 So our students are able to stay up to an hour to 2 h per day. [John McQueen] 15:42:40 One of the teaching, or even sometime an instructor will stay. Students. [John McQueen] 15:42:46 Students can also sign up for virtual tutoring should they need that, and then particularly cyber class, because it is a 9 month class. [John McQueen] 15:42:58 What we have seen. And it's really been student driven is again a community of learning like our students in our one class, they get together every Tuesday for Taco Tuesdays, and a bunch of them will gather at a local restaurant and just sit around chop it up and talk [John McQueen] 15:43:17 cyber many times, students will open up their homes or their apartments for weekends. [John McQueen] 15:43:24 So we see a lot of that again along the lines of community learning and development. [John McQueen] 15:43:31 And that's all been very helpful and supportive for our student body. [City of Refuge] 15:43:35 You know. I think you know we've done some things to John. I mean with that. [City of Refuge] 15:43:42 But like we had a we had a we had a cookout in the fall, and we had everybody, you know. John was cooking Burgers and Ron. [City of Refuge] 15:43:54 My, we particularly find, like right now, our cyber cyber class graduates in May. [City of Refuge] 15:43:59 They're gonna going through this like, is it? Gonna you know, they're just they're over it. [City of Refuge] 15:44:02 In a way, they just want it to end and have their certification. [City of Refuge] 15:44:04 Get a job, and so some of them in late coming, and so we've had to have some serious talks about, you know, finishing finishing well. [City of Refuge] 15:44:12 But I think those fun things just once in a while, bringing donuts in the class. [City of Refuge] 15:44:16 I mean you know, that's not really built into our budget. [City of Refuge] 15:44:18 But we just, you know, at City of Refuge, felt like, well, we need to do that cause. There we have someone dismissed from class recently, and we felt like that class really needed, you know, an opera. So just things. I think doing are meaningful, too. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:44:29 Yeah. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:44:31 Yeah, it. It almost sounds in a way like you are very conscientious of their mental health as well, and that need for belonging or finding a space. [City of Refuge] 15:44:44 Yeah, I think it's really important, especially in the longer. [City of Refuge] 15:44:47 If you know, I don't know how many long programs are, but especially in the long period. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:44:53 That was one of my other questions are the critical components for success. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:44:57 Do they differ between the shorter term trainings, the cohort trainings, and those more long-term trainings. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:45:05 Have you seen any differences? Are they pretty much the same? [Jennifer McGauley] 15:45:08 I think I can speak to that, for our experience. We do have mostly longer term trainings, lots of lpns that are in training for 2 and for us what's been critical is just continued communication between our coordinators and those students and as I mentioned our caseload is a little bit higher [Jennifer McGauley] 15:45:27 I think, and so we found it kind of struggling to have that conditional phone calls with everyone. [Jennifer McGauley] 15:45:34 It's just it's too much time for the coordinators to spend. [Jennifer McGauley] 15:45:37 And so we recently employed a web based texting service, so that we have the ability to send out updates by programming new job opportunities. [Jennifer McGauley] 15:45:48 Anything that we can kind of. Take those. What used to be an email newsletter and turn it into a text because we found that email just isn't effective for us anymore. [Jennifer McGauley] 15:45:59 Our students, and especially populations without easy connectivity and Internet issues. [Jennifer McGauley] 15:46:05 They're just not checking their email often. And we've had great success getting responses through this new texting service. [Jennifer McGauley] 15:46:11 And we did just roll it out this month, so I don't have like full statistics on it. [Jennifer McGauley] 15:46:15 But so far what we've seen has been really promising. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:46:20 I think you're shaking your head as well. Awesome. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:46:23 Yeah, yeah. I'll kinda echo what Jennifer said, because we focus on more longer term training. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:46:32 And I think it kind of speaks to the population that we serve that might come with little bit more barriers to employment might need that extra support. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:46:41 And so some of that intensive training is kind of a lot. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:46:46 In such a short period of time. So it helps with retention, for sure, rather than you know, being too weeks into a class, and being chapters behind and assignments. And you're like, I'm never gonna get caught up. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:47:02 What's the point? [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:47:08 I saw the person in the chat, and if we could, just if you knew this, I'll be talking here. What are your enrollment assistance, goals? How many participants are you expected to enroll per year? [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:47:21 For us, our overall participants serve as 480 over the Grant period. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:47:29 We don't necessarily set the benchmarks per year, but now that we're 2 years into the grant, and halfway through, where, just about at 45%, so we're at a great pace. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:47:45 And as you guys all know, when you start a grant it feels like you're behind for a quarter, and then you finally get caught up. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:47:51 So we're at a really good place right? [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:47:54 Exactly. [John McQueen] 15:47:58 And go ahead. Jennifer. [Jennifer McGauley] 15:48:02 Goal is 5 50 over the period of the grant and we actually are right around 480. [John McQueen] 15:48:09 Awesome. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:48:12 Hmm! [Jennifer McGauley] 15:48:12 We enrolled really fast, and the difficult thing about a grant is waiting to see what those follow up numbers are like, and hoping that we did really well at encouraging people to continue and complete their course, and we're just now kind of having a most of our first group. [Jennifer McGauley] 15:48:27 Of people graduate, and hoping that we can support them through their credentialing and employment. [John McQueen] 15:48:34 And our grants of 4 year Grant. Our goal is 280 people. [John McQueen] 15:48:40 We're roughly about halfway through that grant, and we are on pace with a number of students, and then we're also slightly ahead of pace with graduates. [John McQueen] 15:48:51 However, we are slightly under a threshold or goal when it comes to actual employment. [John McQueen] 15:49:01 A lot of that is because of the recent hiring from across the board in it. [John McQueen] 15:49:06 But overall, you know, we expect that to be lifted within the next 4 months is what we're hearing from employers. [John McQueen] 15:49:15 So we're eager to get back on pace, as far as employment goes, as well. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:49:21 Thank you. Oh, one question as we think about sort of creating a tool. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:49:27 And we think about the breakout discussions that we're going to in just a few moments. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:49:32 You've spoken to this. So my question is, what methods help you effectively track participants. Progress. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:49:40 In a few days I've heard so far. It's just the importance of communication. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:49:44 For internal for management, conferencing, sharing, and identifying trends, also the importance of communicating to participants, and really understanding what their struggles are, or where their trials are outside of communication. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:49:59 Are there other specific ones for tracking? When you start to see a trend? [City of Refuge] 15:50:08 Can you? I'm not sure I understand the question. Sorry? [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:50:11 Yeah, definitely can repeat it. How are you tracking progress of participants? [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:50:15 How are you figuring out your having success? Or if there's a trend of something as sort of a barrier in the way? [City of Refuge] 15:50:24 Well, I mean for us, too, success is gonna be finding that job. [City of Refuge] 15:50:29 But you know, I think there's a lot of little successes along the way, you know from you know, we have a lot of supportive services. We have. [City of Refuge] 15:50:37 We've had students become homeless in the middle of a training and help them with home and with housing. [City of Refuge] 15:50:46 We've had a student have a terrible car accident that we had to help get transportation for. So I think there are a lot of small wins along the way, and you know we've had some. [City of Refuge] 15:50:57 I think John probably talked a lot about recruiting, but you know we try to get better and better recruiting, but we are occasionally gonna have that student that because of the population we serve, it's an underserved population. [City of Refuge] 15:51:10 Can be very manipulated, and can say all the right things in the interviews and past, the assessments, and get include, you know, we find that this really some sort of mental health issue. [City of Refuge] 15:51:20 And we've had 2 cases where it's been extremely difficult and so that's not a win. [City of Refuge] 15:51:28 That's hard, but it's easier if we can get that person to understand that this program is probably not for them earlier on. [City of Refuge] 15:51:33 Then, later, because it can be so disruptive to the rest of the class so, John, can you think of other other [John McQueen] 15:51:41 Cool. Yeah. Sure, Jeannie. So in cyber our students are have the opportunity to obtain 3 certifications. [John McQueen] 15:51:54 So the industry standard, as I understand, is less than 50% of the students will pass a certification exam. [John McQueen] 15:52:03 For example, itf plus on the first attempt are one of our current classes. [John McQueen] 15:52:12 86% of the students passed the first time. That's way above the industry standard. [John McQueen] 15:52:19 And then our most recent class. And they're still in the process of completing. [John McQueen] 15:52:24 But so far 7 out of 7 of our students have passed that itf to, you know, just unbelievably outperform the industry standard. So that's one way. But I think Jeannie's speaks to the very point of are they graduating, and are we able to find [John McQueen] 15:52:45 them. Employment is really that the 2 main goals we look at to see how successful they are. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:52:56 Thanks guys. For Paul Jennifer. Really, anyone who'd like to speak to us? [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:53:03 Are there any warning signs you've noticed? I heard a few examples of homelessness, car accidents? [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:53:08 Are there any other warning signs? You sort of seen throughout the last year? [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:53:13 So where you start to say, maybe we need to engage anything that may be surprised you along the way. [Jennifer McGauley] 15:53:22 I don't know of anything that was surprising, I think really our best asset has been our training partners. [Jennifer McGauley] 15:53:28 Just giving us a heads up of someone stopped coming to class or missed a class or they had their grades are slipping a little kind of like typical signs and education that someone might be struggling and typically our coordinators will reach out and it's something going on at home and [Jennifer McGauley] 15:53:45 it's either something we try to help with or refer them to one of our partners that specifically deals with. You know, child care, transportation, housing, all those supportive services that are really critical for someone to be successful in their program. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:54:03 For us, I would say it's it's tough, right like from the get-go. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:54:09 One of the biggest red flags is somebody just goes to like goes to the program like they don't talk to their career advisor. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:54:18 And you wanna catch it as early as possible. Right so before and upon enrollment, we're saying, you know, there's gonna be parts where where you're sayingling with training, with with a new job, with whatever the important thing is to stay connected with your career advisor because we can [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:54:39 troubleshoot issues as you go. We can work with your training provider. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:54:42 We can work with the employer to make sure it's a smooth transition, so so those type of things, it's just like, be really upfront with your participants and give them a big picture. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:54:58 What it's gonna look like to succeed in this program. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:55:00 And it's not gonna be easy, you know, and then beyond that I'll kinda reiterate what I said before. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:55:07 Case case conferencencing is really important to get everybody in the same room as far as career advisors program managers, training providers to say, you know, is anybody behind? [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:55:20 Is there anything we have to worry about? And then one other thing I'll note, I kind of picked up on is, we did have a situation where one participant was struggling with. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:55:32 I think it was like the teaching style of the professor, and come to find out. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:55:39 We spoke to some of the other students in the class and they're like, Yes, I'm struggling, too. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:55:44 I don't know how to get through it. I feel like I don't get the assignments, and so we worked with a training provider to have all of the students retake the class in the next term, you know, which was like a month, and a half away. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:56:00 So we were able to re-enroll everybody without paying any additional costs. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:56:06 And so this kind of fell on the training provider. It was, we realized, the problem was kind of on their side, and it wasn't the students fault. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:56:14 And so we're able to get everybody back enrolled in that next class, and everyone was successful. [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:56:19 So it's just very important to stay connected with with the training providers, with the students, and everyone. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:56:27 Hello. That example, Kyle. Right? Sometimes. It may not be on the students. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:56:31 Just really getting to the root cause of what's happening we're going to go to breakout sessions in just a moment. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:56:37 But I'd be remiss if I didn't give you an opportunity. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:56:40 Is there anything else here'd like to share, or something that you feel? [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:56:43 Is there, like the most important piece for retention, anything that I didn't ask you? [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:56:50 You want to get out there before we go to Breakout. [City of Refuge] 15:56:53 Well, one thing I wanted to say is, you know, the outcome, so I one of the reasons we have 1 h cyber students talk to these 50 people and tell him the story. [City of Refuge] 15:57:05 Who was a security guard at city refuge up front, and someone came in to find out about the program. [City of Refuge] 15:57:09 And he's like I didn't know they ran that year, and sure enough, he goes and applies for it. [City of Refuge] 15:57:14 And you know he with hired 80,000, and I centre Continental exchange. [City of Refuge] 15:57:18 The runs. A New York Stock Exchange. He's now making over a 100, and he graduated last May. [City of Refuge] 15:57:22 Okay, and he's telling his story. And I'm sitting there listening to him, thinking, this is a true generational impact, right? [City of Refuge] 15:57:31 Truly generational impact, but the cool thing was he was telling a story. [City of Refuge] 15:57:35 He said. Listen! We were the first group. We didn't know if this is going to work. [City of Refuge] 15:57:39 We didn't know if I was gonna get job. Now, these people are in class, and they can, you know, have people have taken the class and they come in and tell their story. [City of Refuge] 15:57:45 And they see that they're actually working so the proof is in the pudding, and it encourages the current students to even work harder, because they know that this actually does work. [City of Refuge] 15:57:55 So I think that you know our outcomes using past students to come in and sorry I get so excited Pat, using students didn't talk to current students. [City of Refuge] 15:58:06 It's also something that you know we didn't have in the beginning. [City of Refuge] 15:58:09 But now we do have, and that should be a part of what we all do right if they can come in and say, Hey, I did this, and it's worth staying up at night, and it's worth getting the homework done because you can get a job, or an internship. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:58:19 We love that past. That's a great example, that of ways to just keep looking for ways to modivate. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:58:27 Jennifer Kyle. Anything else you'd like to share. [Jennifer McGauley] 15:58:32 I think one other small strategy that we use is for healthcare. [Jennifer McGauley] 15:58:38 A lot of the trainings. We are putting people into are not those super super high paying jobs right out of the gate? [Jennifer McGauley] 15:58:42 Unfortunately, so we really try to hit on the coaching of if you get your foot in the door in healthcare, you can keep skill building in there. [Jennifer McGauley] 15:58:50 Is that upward mobility to continue. And, you know, be a nurse, be a doctor, whatever you want, so that's one thing we really employ, too, is just that coaching from the get-go of maybe this isn't where you want to be. [Jennifer McGauley] 15:59:04 But you can get there. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:59:05 Hmm! [Kyle Olson - Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.] 15:59:07 Yeah, I was just looking through my notes. I took a bunch of notes before this, and I think I touched on all the important things. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:59:16 We think he still margin, and just a lot of questions that have come in. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:59:19 I know your colleagues appreciate that. Again, you have their contact information of the panelists. [Christy Montgomery-Jones] 15:59:26 It's attached to his meeting. Invite also been dropped in the chat. So I'm gonna turn it back over to you to get us ready for breakouts. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:59:33 Awesome. Thank you. And thank you to the panelists. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:59:36 Really great discussion and practices shared. So, looking forward to you all, getting an additional opportunity to share your own practices and have some discussion. So if we go ahead and move to the next slide. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:59:49 So what we're gonna do is we'll move you all. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:59:53 Everyone will be randomly moved into one of 6 breakout rooms. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 15:59:56 You will have a facilitator and what we're again what we're hoping that you all will focus on is talking about some of those places where we may lose parts, participants. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:00:07 Along their journey, so potential loss points and challenges, and then turning that around to you, know what are, you know, based on a an understanding of the the root causes of some of those lost points or challenges. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:00:20 What are some potential solutions that you all are are using? [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:00:23 So about 2025 min for a discussion, and once we get back, facilitators are, going to do a really brief report out for all of us. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:00:32 But we'll be sharing some high-level notes from the breakout. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:00:35 So if you go to the next slide. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:00:37 Okay, so so again, we're sort of grounding ourselves in retention and completion strategies kind of thinking about anywhere from that intake process, thinking forward about retention. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:00:52 You know where you know what potential loss points and challenges are there, and the intake process, the training and education process and then, of course, completion and certification so you've got 4 questions that you're facilitators will kind of guide. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:01:08 A conversation through and we'll go ahead and open up the rooms now and we'll see you back at about 25, after the hour for really brief report out. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:01:18 So thank you all. Upgrades! [City of Refuge] 16:01:35 I don't know where to go. [City of Refuge] 16:01:51 Okay. I don't know where to where, how do I know where to go? [City of Refuge] 16:02:04 I don't know where to go. [mleaming] 16:02:13 I don't know if they sent something else out. [City of Refuge] 16:02:16 Hi! I didn't! [Dom Williams - Denver TEC-P ] 16:02:19 Typically speaking, sometimes Zoom just pre assigns them, and I've been in a situation where it doesn't assign everybody. That might be what happened to us. [City of Refuge] 16:02:29 Hmm! [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:02:30 Hi! It's Joe. I imagine, that Marcus, working on the background to get everybody to a room. [Margaret Lamb] 16:02:35 Sign in to assign them into. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:02:37 So yeah. No worries. [mleaming] 16:02:38 Okay. No. Problem. Thanks. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:02:41 The lucky few who somehow didn't make it over to one. [City of Refuge] 16:02:47 That's okay. I'm okay. [Cynthia Brink, Dallas College] 16:02:48 How do we? How do we know that we're not in one? [City of Refuge] 16:02:51 Well, because you and I are just sitting here everything together. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:02:55 And yeah, and in the main room. So Mark will be sending you all to. [Cynthia Brink, Dallas College] 16:02:59 Okay. [City of Refuge] 16:03:00 I'll be wait to be transported. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:03:02 Yes, absolutely. [jenuwine.hannah.r] 16:03:05 Hey? And this is Hannah from Dol. I was in a breakout room and I just wanted them to be able to have like a more, you know. [jenuwine.hannah.r] 16:03:12 Frank conversation. The breakouts without a dol person. So I left the breakout, but I just wanted to hear the report on afterwards. [jenuwine.hannah.r] 16:03:17 So that's why I'm here. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:03:17 Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Sounds great. Thank you, Anna. [jenuwine.hannah.r] 16:03:20 Yeah, of course. [City of Refuge] 16:03:41 Hey, Joe, nice to meet you. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:03:44 It's nice to meet you as well. Thank you again. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:04:06 Market. Looks like they're folks are moving over now. It looks like you're able to do it for someone else's. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:04:17 Okay, great. Thank you. Mark. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:20:11 Sounds like some really good conversation in the breakout groups. I popped around to a couple of them so. [jenuwine.hannah.r] 16:20:17 Oh, that's great! [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:20:19 Yeah, yeah, I think you know, it always helps you when you've got when you've had some folks sit on a panel, because in the breakout conversations themselves. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:20:32 If there's ever a slight moment I feel like they see a little bit of ownership over the the webinar and pop into conversation a little bit more. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:20:38 Which I think is great. [jenuwine.hannah.r] 16:20:39 Yeah, that's a good strategy. [Margaret Lamb] 16:20:43 I put a message up that the the breakout rooms gonna close in 3 min. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:20:48 Beautiful. Thank you. [John McQueen] 16:23:37 This meeting is being recorded. [Mike Benesh] 16:23:44 Hey, John, I have to ask you a question. I used to work on Jackson Parkway, on the West Side down there. [John McQueen] 16:23:46 Yes. [John McQueen] 16:23:48 Yes. [Mike Benesh] 16:23:53 But hasn't changed at all since 1989. [Mike Benesh] 16:23:56 Maybe I should give that away. [John McQueen] 16:23:56 Oh, well, I if you're speaking with me, I've only been in it like since 2,004. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:23:58 Bye. [Mike Benesh] 16:24:05 Oh, okay. [John McQueen] 16:24:06 No, that might be a genie question. She's been here much longer than, but it's not like a place it from your tone that I might not wanna really venture around to. [Mike Benesh] 16:24:19 It was okay in the day. I don't know about now. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:24:19 Yeah. [Mike Benesh] 16:24:21 It was a lot younger than so. [John McQueen] 16:24:21 Oh, okay. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:24:24 I you'll have to connect with each other to to talk about that a little bit further. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:24:29 I appreciate it so, anyway. So let's it's a quick report out. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:24:35 I popped into a couple of conversations that I know there were really great discussion. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:24:39 So we can move forward in the slides. We're gonna have you all just report out very quickly each of the facilitators. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:24:49 And before we turn it over, we're actually gonna launch a poll for folks. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:24:54 We wanna hear from you all moving forward after today's discussion. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:24:59 What are some next steps? You team might explore to improve retention and completion. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:25:03 Recognizing that this is not the first time you've thought about retention and completion. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:25:07 Certainly. So thinking about, you know, after today's conversation, are you thinking about reaching out to your coach for further brainstorming, are there new approaches you heard about, or gaps that that you may map out along that continuum? [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:25:24 So while you are answering that goal we are going to kick into the really brief report outs. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:25:30 And I'm going to start with Gretchen and your group. [Gretchen Sullivan] 16:25:33 I have that feeling, Joe. Okay, real quick. A couple of things that I just wanted to highlight and I know the folks that share these would probably be happy to talk with others. [Gretchen Sullivan] 16:25:43 But when we talked about sort of gaps in completion, one of the key areas in terms of time is in situations where participants complete their training successfully. [Gretchen Sullivan] 16:25:52 But then there is a lag of time before they complete their certification. [Gretchen Sullivan] 16:25:57 And trying to ensure that they actually get to certification, and that can be exacerbated when they have a job lined up, or at the opportunity to enter a job immediately. [Gretchen Sullivan] 16:26:07 Post training. So we talked about some strategies with that. The other kind of bigger picture thing. [Gretchen Sullivan] 16:26:11 I'll mush a couple of things together here that I flag is just grant he's doing really interesting work around mapping available supportive services and wraparound services for participants that are available for partners in the community. [Gretchen Sullivan] 16:26:21 And really tapping into the resources and supports and other services of other grant programs to really try to meet all the needs along the continuum of folks. [Gretchen Sullivan] 16:26:32 So those are just 2 kind of big pieces I wanted to share. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:26:34 Beautiful. Thank you, Gretchen, and moving onto Brittany. [Brittany Lenertz] 16:26:39 Hey, everybody. Yeah. So I think one of the interesting things that came up in our in our discussion with that on the front end, some internal infrastructure. [Brittany Lenertz] 16:26:54 Issues or turnover. You know so many organizations are experiencing turnover of staff. [Brittany Lenertz] 16:27:00 So, if you have turnover of case managers, and there's sometimes a disruption in you know, participant communication. [Brittany Lenertz] 16:27:08 And then also even finding instructors specifically for short term trainings. [Brittany Lenertz] 16:27:15 And then people have to get put on a waitlist, and then you know that waiting time you often have that drop off of part participants, and so looking for ways to really improve and increase that internal infrastructure to make sure things continue well, and then on the other end we also talked about sort of [Brittany Lenertz] 16:27:34 certifications, and both the leg time, but also that sometimes it takes a couple of tries for participants to obtain that certification. [Brittany Lenertz] 16:27:46 And so how do you support them during that? As they're looking for employment? [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:27:50 Great. Thank you, Brittany. Moving on to Erica. [Erika Humphrey] 16:27:54 Sure. Yeah, so. In our room I heard a couple of things that my team members have stated. [Erika Humphrey] 16:28:00 So I'll just state a couple that haven't been so when we talked about experiencing retention issues, it really with the team, it really depends, you know, some. [Erika Humphrey] 16:28:12 It's dir that employment where they lose connection. [Erika Humphrey] 16:28:15 Others. It's right in the middle. It's right before training. [Erika Humphrey] 16:28:18 So you know it. There is no, you know, real theme about when retention happens, and some of the root causes that we talked about were affordable. [Erika Humphrey] 16:28:31 Child care and transportation. Those were the 2 main themes, and just talking you know, we didn't get a chance to talk as many strategies to be able to see. [Erika Humphrey] 16:28:42 You know what can be done when you don't have affordable childcare. [Erika Humphrey] 16:28:47 But we did talk about some apprenticeships in one grantee. [Erika Humphrey] 16:28:51 Talk about that as well. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:28:54 Great. Thank you. Yeah. I think you know, I'm in San Antonio right now on a on a different project, having very similar conversations about with training providers and businesses around some of those barriers, including childcare being a huge issue. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:29:10 So I know that's a key theme for everyone. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:29:12 Let's move on to Wendy. [Wendy Russell] 16:29:14 Hi, yes, interestingly, I had the majority of grantee for one. [Wendy Russell] 16:29:22 Grant and I slept so it was an interesting, serendipitous opportunity. [Wendy Russell] 16:29:28 3 things emerged, one, the importance of setting expectations on those sites right, not only from the training but from the training provider, and how those expectations are expressed, so that there isn't that ties in the second point. [Wendy Russell] 16:29:46 So that there's commitment right? You know, we heard it's one thing to find up and say, yes, this is something I'm interested in, but while they're in the process of getting others signed up for the class just getting paperwork turned in you know well, you said you were interested we [Wendy Russell] 16:30:05 need you to complete this paperwork. So it's a process of not only setting the expectation of this is what you're signing up for, but then committing not only just to getting your paperwork in, but actually committing to complete the course all the way through, and they've had issues [Wendy Russell] 16:30:23 with that where you know, they get started in the course, and then oh, they get offered a job. [Wendy Russell] 16:30:29 Well, you know we committed to complete this course, and it would be helpful if you completed the certification. [Wendy Russell] 16:30:37 You could probably get a better job, but they see the short term when versus the long term view, and then the final thing, which are, you know, friends, one of our panelists brought up was, and it was a conversation that we've all experienced, or they all experienced people br it's [Wendy Russell] 16:30:58 nesty life is messy, and they bring baggage to the course or to the commitment. [Wendy Russell] 16:31:04 Or to their expectation, and life gets in the way. So how do we provide those services and supports for them? [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:31:04 Absolutely. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:31:13 Yeah, thank you, Wendy, and we'll move on to Kristin. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:31:17 And then Jen, we're also gonna publish the results of the poll to you. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:31:21 So you can all see that I know we're wrapping up. So for those of you who have to leave completely understood. We are still recording so we can share that out, but definitely want to get to the last 2 report outs as well, so Kristin will go with you. [Kristin Wolff] 16:31:35 Sure, so we I couldn't possibly summarize in just a minute all the things we talked about so I'll take a half tip from Elaine, from Colorado, who said communications was really important, and and just add to that sort of concrete honest frequent and purpose-driven [Kristin Wolff] 16:31:56 communications with students, subcontractors, partners, and employers, regardless of whether that occurs on the phone or via text, or in contracts or in proposals, and that keeps expectations kind of in line across the project. [Kristin Wolff] 16:32:06 So! [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:32:06 Beautiful. Thank you. Kristin and Jen. [Jennifer Pirtle] 16:32:11 Yes, we had a couple of things that were mentioned. Of course there are many reasons why people don't complete programs, but one of the thing was creating a sense of community when they do online only it's really hard to get that sense of community. [Jennifer Pirtle] 16:32:34 And so the groups wanted to have trainings that have, like an in person component or a where they could build that sense of community. [Jennifer Pirtle] 16:32:42 And you know, wanna continue in the program also having buildable credentials because if we know, people may drop out if they're getting zoom doing anything, you know, they get positions and they just want to start right away. [Jennifer Pirtle] 16:32:59 Then they can have something that gets them started, and then they can move through the course. [Jennifer Pirtle] 16:33:05 The other thing that was mentioned that I thought was really interesting was that a lot of the participants do really well in early levels of the courses phase one phase 2 but then they get really nervous about the upcoming work that is really hard and and so the sense of community and understanding that those are hard but you have [Jennifer Pirtle] 16:33:30 a group with really good. So I thought that discussion was great. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:33:31 Thank you, Jen, and thanks to everybody for sticking around with us for a few extra minutes. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:33:34 I know some of you had to leave no problem at all. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:33:36 So just, very very quickly. We just want to mention that we have linked a few resources in the slide. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:33:42 So far we with those slides. We'll also follow up with a link to our feedback survey. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:33:50 We did also drop that into the chat, so we'd love for you to take it. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:33:54 Now, if you have a couple of moments, but please do do take that. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:33:58 We'll follow up by email with that link as well. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:34:01 If you just advance a couple of slides, I just wanna just as a quick reminder again, we really wanna dive a little bit deeper in, you know. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:34:11 We will have. If you could go to slide 26, it will have resources for you all associated with this continuum to work with over the next couple of months here in advance of the next session. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:34:24 So we're really looking. And just wanna remind you that I think if you advance one more slide. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:34:35 Tuesday, June twenty-seventh, that the part 2 series we know each of the groups are also having other peer learning opportunities. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:34:43 The one workforce and the rural healthcare side but the next time we all come together for a quarterly webinar, we'll be focused again on retention and completion. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:34:51 You'll know more about what the content looks like over the next month or so, and we really look forward to engaging with you again. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:34:58 On June 20 seventh. Look for a save the date or calendar. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:35:03 Hold very soon if you don't have it already. And again thank you to our panelists, thanks to everyone for participating today and really appreciate it. [Joe Quick (he/him) - AIR] 16:35:10 And have a good rest of the day. Thank you all. [John McQueen] 16:35:13 Thank you.