ORANGE COUNTY CONSERVATION CORPS - 2008

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Orange County Conservation Corps Santa Ana Workforce Investment Board Request for Proposal The Youth Service Provider Network PY 2008/2009 Santa Ana corpsmembers have: • Graduated with a high school diploma from the OCCC charter school; • Earned scholarships for post-secondary instruction; • Transitioned to full-time employment, gone onto advanced training, and/or are attending some form of post-secondary instruction; • Volunteered and participated in numerous Santa Ana community events; neighborhood clean-ups, Youth Expo, charity events, etc. • Participated at the local and state level to represent youth; Santa Ana Youth Council, CWA state conference, local and regional WIB meetings, local youth forums; • Visited local legislators in Sacramento to advocate for youth. The OCCC has: • Hired and employed more than 500 Santa Ana youth the last 8 years; • Completed numerous work projects to improve and restore several Santa Ana parks portions of Santiago Creek, and the Santa Ana Zoo; • Repaired more than 201ow-income homes/apartments in Santa Ana. Experience Briefly outline all youth programs that your agency has operated during the last 2 nears. While the OCCC has previously added program components like construction training and work experience and programs like Youthbuild, the OCCC has operated the same award-winning youth program for the last 15 years based on state and national models for conservation and youth service corps. Over the years the OCCC has developed and improved on this basic model to provide a comprehensive, structured, program that provides a wide array of work experiences and services that meets the needs of local Orange County youth. The program model stresses the importance of education, occupational skills that lead to employment, leadership development, and post-program follow-up. What kind of experience do you have in incorporating parents vouch and employers into your programs? As mentioned earlier, since -most OCCC corpsmembers are adults and many are estranged from their parents for various reasons, the OCCC does not have much experience with incorporating parents into our program. Unfortunately, most parents of OCCC corpsmembers either do not have the time or have the desire to be involved with the program. Nonetheless, corpsmember success at the OCCC often reunites the corpsmember with their parent(s) as corpsmembers become more responsible, stable, and self-sufficient adults. The OCCC does schedule events throughout the year to involve family members, be it their parents, their wives/girlfriends, husbands/boyfriends, and/or children to promote a sense of family and community into our program. Page 21 of 24