SANTA ANA PUBLIC LIBRARY (6) - 2014

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3. Youth with Disabilities: The library has had a successful association with serving as a work experience site for the Santa Ana Unified School District's Special Education Program Youth. The Transition Center has agreed to continue to refer youth with disabilities to the Seeds to Trees Academy (please refer to Letter of Intent from SAUSD Transition Center). Youth with physical disabilities will be welcome in the program, as will youth with mild learning disorders. Youth with severe cognitive disabilities will find the educational components of the program too demanding. With space in the program limited, it is necessary to offer the training only to those who can benefit from it. D. Describe your recruitment plan that will fulfill the requirement of enrolling 100% of Youth by the 2nd quarter of the program (December 31, 2014). Recruitment and outreach for the program will occur at the start of the grant cycle 7/1/2014. Prior to the start of the program, the library TeenSpace staff will promote the upcoming "Seeds To Trees" program during its Summer Volunteer Institute program which annually recruits over 120 summer volunteers, many of which are WIA eligible, and it's Probation Youth Community Service program which has an average annual participation of 40- 50 youth on probation. In addition to recruiting from its pool of WIA eligible summer volunteers, staff will also make presentations at Orange County FYO (Foster Youth Outcomes) meetings, CASA (Court Appointed Social Advocates) meetings and at local Santa Ana High Schools, to recruit candidates for this program. In addition to Foster Youth, Probation and Youth with disability referrals, the Minnie Street Family Resource center has agreed to provide referrals of interested participants to our program as well. We will begin accepting notices of interest in the "Seeds To Trees Academy: Digital Media and Information Technology Institute" in May 2014 ( refer to attachment W for recruitment flyer), and distributing and accepting applications including gathering all documents required by the Service Navigator to determine youth WIA eligibility in July 2014. Once youth eligibility is confirmed, youth will be hired as Work Experience employees (WEX). It is anticipated that all this will occur in the month of August, 2014 in anticipation of the certificate and courses which simulate a college semester. The ambitious goal at this point is to have already recruited and enrolled at least 23 (76 %) of total 30 youth participants planned in the program. During this phase, all student interns will also take a TABE assessment test to determine their basic skill level. E. What are some of the barriers that the Youth populations face? Basic Skills Deficiency: Among the youth served by the Santa Ana Public Library, there are a number of barriers associated with poverty preventing the achievement of short and /or long term goals. The most common barrier as concluded by the TABE test is basic skills deficiency. Student results indicate that a majority of students are performing at or below an equivalency of 8.9 grade level. These students often have difficulties in the completion of their education, since they are likely to fall behind in semester credits and in turn eventually drop out of high school. Poor Work History: Students with poor work history are at least 19 years of age and have never had a full -time job. As students continue to search for opportunities in a competitive job market, they have fewer opportunities with limited education and work experience. Many of the youth do not have reliable transportation to and from school or to the place of employment. As a result it causes an attendance and /or punctuality issue. Many of the students do not have professional clothing readily available for employment interviews or professional events. These barriers are often setbacks for students. High School Drop -Outs/ Lack of High School Diploma /GED: A significant number of youth in the community of Santa Ana come from economically disadvantaged families. Low socio- economic status often leads to a number of barriers impeding student success such as educational underachievement , higher likelihood of high school dropout, offender, teen parent, and welfare dependency. Latino students comprise a majority of EXHIBIT A