Title
a. Approve and authorize the Director of the Department of Social Services, or his designee, to sign an agreement with Goodwill Industries, dba Shoreline Workforce Development Services for $2,597,172 to continue the Expanded Subsidized Employment (ESE) Program for CalWORKs customers for the period October 1, 2014 through June 30, 2016; and
b. Authorize the Director of the Department of Social Services, or his designee, to sign up to three (3) amendments to this agreement where the total amendments do not exceed 10% of the original contract amount, and do not significantly change the scope of work.
Report
RECOMMENDATION:
It is recommended that the Board of Supervisors:
a. Approve and authorize the Director of the Department of Social Services, or his designee, to sign an agreement with Goodwill Industries, dba Shoreline Workforce Development Services for $2,597,172 to continue the Expanded Subsidized Employment (ESE) Program for CalWORKs customers for the period October 1, 2014 through June 30, 2016; and
b. Authorize the Director of the Department of Social Services, or his designee, to sign up to three (3) amendments to this agreement where the total amendments do not exceed 10% of the original contract amount, and do not significantly change the scope of work.
SUMMARY/DISCUSSION:
Monterey County entered into an agreement with Goodwill Industries, dba Shoreline Workforce Development Services, in January 2014 to implement a pilot program for the Expanded Subsidized Employment training program (ESE), which was a result of the passage of AB 74. This program is one of the Early Engagement strategies designed to impact Work Participation Rates (WPR) for customers of CalWORKs Employment Services throughout the State. The State standard for WPR is 50%.
In the first 6 months of the pilot, 60% of participants successfully transitioned into unsubsidized employment opportunities throughout Monterey County. To build upon this success, DSS has committed additional funding to:
· Increase the number of CalWORKs Customers participating from 56 customers to at least 100; and
· Increase the length of the subsidized employment experience from 6 weeks to 12 weeks to allow more time for customers with significant employment barriers to hone their employment skills prior to transitioning to unsubsidized employment; and
· Add job coordination as part of the program model so that customers are assisted in finding unsubsidized employment the moment their job progress report identifies them as work ready. This piece alone will impact the number of customers that can be served; as more customers transition out into the local job market, space is created for others to begin the ESE program.
DSS has an existing agreement for the pilot program for $513,000 with an effective term of January 1, 2014 through June 30, 2015 with a balance of only $50,983. This new agreement augments the funding for Fiscal Year 2014-15 by $1,141,147 and adds $1,456,025 for Fiscal Year 2015-16. As part of the evaluation of the pilot program's performance, an issue arose as to whether to provide substantial additional funding for the existing program or convert the program to a fully recognized one. Those discussions revealed that the pilot program has been very successful to date and DSS is satisfied with the performance of Shoreline, but that it was probably more appropriate and transparent to permit the existing pilot program to terminate when the current pilot program funding is maximized and to seamlessly proceed with a new agreement that recognized the more established nature and goals of the relationship into the future.
Based on the experiences of the pilot program, it is recommended that the program be expanded and modified to better serve the needs of the County and the recipients of services, that an extended period of performance be established, and that a more realistic budget and funding be included to provide for such performance.
This new Agreement is being sole-sourced because this vendor is the only entity willing and available, with the proven experience and capacity, to provide employment subsidy program services in Monterey County at this time. They operate similar successful programs in Santa Cruz and San Luis Obispo Counties and have established program design, policies, and procedures to expedite the engagement of CalWORKs recipients to meet required work participation hours. Additionally, they have immediate employment positions/opportunities and vocational training programs in retail, customer service, culinary, office, data entry, receptionist, computer/business skills, etc., which means that participants can benefit from immediate opportunities.
Based upon the success of the pilot program, beneficial outcomes for welfare to work customers, and the WPR, DSS is recommending the initial term of the new Agreement be allowed through June 30, 2016.
OTHER AGENCY INVOLVEMENT:
The Auditor-Controller and Purchasing have reviewed and approved this agreement. County Counsel has approved the agreement as to form.
FINANCING:
This agreement is funded by CalWORKs (Single allocation and Expanded Subsidized Employment) funding. Sufficient appropriations and estimated revenues in SOCOO5 are included in the FY 2014-15 Adopted Budget and will be incorporated as part of budget development in FY 2015-16. Approval of this action has no impact on the County General Fund.
Prepared by: Marcie Castro, MA III, x3398
Approved by: Elliott Robinson, Director, x4434
Attachments: Goodwill Industries, dba Shoreline Workforce Development Services agreement
Proposed agreement is on file with Clerk of the Board as an attachment to this Board Report