December 14, 2004
10 am - 12 pm – EBAYC
NOTES
Attendees:
Mai Quach
Brendan Leung
Chris Shaw
Deb Goldberg
Deb Montessinos
Porthira Chiim
Carl Pascual
Junious Williams
Fred Blackwell
Sandra Chapin
DeLinda DeLeon
David Kakishiba
Suzie Smith
Fred Blackwell gave a quick run down of the upcoming transition and assured everybody that we were in extremely good hands with Deb Montessinos, the soon-to-be acting site team leader.
Carl read through the agenda and stated the purpose of the FES meeting as being a means to gather information, articulate boundaries, and figure out how to incorporate these things into the first draft of the work plan that is due Friday, December 17 th.
Brendan mentioned that the AECF wants to do a Work Force Systems Scan of Oakland and the deadline is in March.
Junious also mentioned a Gap Analysis that the AECF wants each of the sites to do as well.
Fred talked more about the work plans stating that this is the second year that the LSAC has been doing work plans for the various work road map for the year and ensure that we are achieving the right level of synergy and coordination for the upcoming year. The work plans will also:
Possible Work Plan Elements:
Brendan presented a potential garment sector manufacturing project that the Oakland Advisors is developing that we should consider partnering with. The project will pay employees about $12.00 an hour with fringe benefits. They anticipate hiring about 100 employees within two years and to eventually develop a sewing consortium of about 300 employees within a few years.
Brendan also discussed a project underway in Wisconsin that the FES work group should consider whereby we would use Food Stamp dollars and partner with Community Colleges to serve the neighborhood with regard to employment training and opportunities. There are two issues that we would need to consider.
1) There is a formula based on the number of people in the area using food stamps
2) Part of the dollars are also unlimited and require a 40% match
He stressed that we could potentially use a match from the local Community Colleges to target the Sewing Industry in the LSA.
I. Work Plan Projects Being Considered
a) Construction Training Program/YEP
David K. discussed how the Construction Program was first developed and how it will unfold if all goes as planned. Last Spring, EBAYC did a survey of residents and found that many were interested in the construction sector. EBAYC then developed an initial concept of the project that would focus on serving the LEP and non-English speaking residents of the LSA who possibly don’t have a GED or are over the age of 30. Typically training programs are funded with a focus on youth and adults often are left out of the loop. Since the idea was conceived, they convened two research meetings, with about 40 participants in each, and Michelle Clark, with YEP, facilitated. The residents questioned about whether or not YEP could handle the language capacities and age differentials, but said during a debriefing that overall they were willing to try.
There are State EDD funds available that are targeted specifically for this kind of project and there is a January 6th deadline that will be met by Michelle and David working together to get something in place for submission.
Comments:
Brendan voiced concern that the wage paid to residents in the training program might be problematic depending on the funding source.
David commented that in terms of the Union vs. non-union issue they feel they will have that covered. Residents would need a GED to become members of the construction union and many of the participants cannot achieve this. Many of them are also a bit to old to take part in the apprenticeship program that is required to become a union member. He said he felt confident that there will also be some youth that will participate as well and they will be much more viable as union apprentices. He also mentioned that Michelle is also interested in partnering with Lao Family, or another lead organization, to better implement the project.
b) Oak to Ninth Community Benefits Agreement
David discussed the Oak to 9th project and the need for a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) with Signature Properties. Signature Properties has an exclusive option to buy from the Port of Oakland and they are in the ERI process right now and will be in a position to acquire the property by January 2005.
There is currently a coalition of local CBO’s. Labor Unions, and the OCO whose goal it is to negotiate and sign a legally binding CBA between the coalition and the developers. The agreement would include provisions to set aside a certain percentage of local residents for hiring, jobs for retail space, and a certain number of affordable housing units as well. The size of the property development plans are for 3100 units and about 200K square feet.
c) EITC Campaign
The EITC campaign is already getting off to a start this year with the LSAC partners including EBALDC, LAO Family, SACDC, CCDI, and the Unity Council. EBALDC is targeting about 150 returns for 2005 and 20 IDAs as well during the next 12 months. In all, the LSAC partners expect to complete about 400 returns in 2005.
Comments: Junious stressed that there should be food stamp enrollment forms and other benefits information available at VITA sites too.
d) Landscaping Business/LLC
Deb Goldberg with WAGES talked about that project and how we would be going about forming a similar landscaping business with day laborers from the neighborhood in partnership with the Unity Council. There is an existing landscaping company in the LSA who already hires out day laborers to help with his business. He cannot hire them legally but would like to develop a LLC so that eventually the current owner can retire and the workers can own the company through an unincorporated partnership amongst themselves allowing them to work legally regardless of their immigration status. He has been working with Latinos, but they will also look into how this model would fit into the Asian community. After the conversion from sole proprietor to the LLC they expect to provide five jobs to residents in the LLC.
Comments:
Brendan mentioned that Irene Lee at the AECF would like to look more deeply into this as there are currently three MC sites involved in a 6 month prototype looking at how the sites are addressing FES issues with immigrant and refugee families. They will be looking at results, but also using it as a learning experience. He said the FES group should look at this conversion model and if it is successful then some of the other sites could replicate it. Lao Family has also expressed an interest in becoming a learning partner as well in this area. He also said that it would be great to use this model for a child care LLC since the business can be so lucrative. Also, IDA’s could be helpful in the conversion so the LLC members could buy out the original owner for the Landscaping business.
Deb Goldberg added that it is possible to change the model from a collective ownership to more of a board based/democratic model where it would be possible to have about 30 to 40 members of the organization within about 4 years.
II. Work Force System Scan:
The work force system scan is required by the AECF to get an idea of the large scale systems that are impacting the neighborhoods regarding employment and training. This would include CBO’s, the local work force board, community colleges, and adult schools. We would interface with each of these groups and identify any resources and to determine what capacities, infrastructures, systems, and dollars are flowing through that might be coming into the LSA, then engaging the colleges to help with the training.
Comments:
Junious said that we should make sure to get the WIB and PIC much more involved in this process and hold them accountable for their responsibilities. He also added that besides a Systems Scan that the AECF wants a Gap Analysis in all of the indicator and strategy areas so that we can quantify what it would take to close the gap, especially when it comes to the number of people employed and the resources needed to improve those numbers.
Brendan added that the rough estimate is that we will need to employ about 204 residents to fill that gap based on some early estimates he made.
Porthira stressed that we should also make sure that we are aware of the special needs of the high number of refugee with health and mental issues in the LSA. About 30% of the residents in the LSA are refugees and we need to recognize that there are certain strategies that we should undertake to assist these discouraged workers. Many of them can be accessing special social services, but that many do not because they are afraid, or simply do not know that they are eligible or have been wrongfully denied.
Fred added that the specific needs of sub-populations is especially important and we should link that back to the gap analysis.
III. LSA Real Estate Council Debrief
David debriefed about a meeting that some of his residents had with members of the REC. About 12 residents prepared a series of questions regarding projects in the pipeline and guarantees for jobs and affordable housing units. The meeting was short-cut so they are planning on meeting with Lisa soon to talk further. In short, it was clear that there are no projects in the pipeline to speak of.
IV. Health Care Initiative:
Chris Shaw talked about the need for bi-lingual and bi-cultural workers in the health care industry. They will be working with the Unity Council and Community Colleges to develop a core set of training so that residents can work with the Community Health Clinic as interns. The goal is that within a 12 month period that they can develop the curriculum and set up some on-site internships. There is funding from DOL, as well as about 50K from JP Morgan, and about 50K from the LSAC. The graduates of the training will be qualified to be hired and guaranteed internships. The Mills College Language center is partnering with the Unity Council so that about 20 LEP students would go through an 8 month ESL intensive training. There is also WIB and PUC interest as well.
Comments:
Junious stated that there will be new cross site survey data ready in about two weeks that will be very helpful for this project regarding the satisfaction with the quality of health care treatment as residents navigated through the system.
V. Fred’s Comments on Work Plans
Fred suggested that the FES group come up with a list of good activities and try to turn them into strategies as a whole. Also, think about a common framework to track data and outcomes and to collect information about the families that we’re coming into contact with. He said the Unity Council was funded to develop an intake and assessment tool that has the ability to assess the resources coming into the household as well as the skills of the individuals. We should get the Unity Council to share this tool with us as the AECF funded them to develop it.
VI. Next Steps and Future Meeting
A core group of FES members will do the first draft of the work plans for 2005 and have them submitted by Friday then we’ll send out the draft a week before the next FES meeting so people have a chance to make revisions and additions. Fred suggested that we also articulate how we see the work group operating within the work plan and that each of the programs has a dollar amount attached.