Serving Youth Under WIA:
Building the New Youth Workforce Investment System
The Workforce Investment Act introduces significant changes for youth programs, including an increased emphasis on out-of-school youth. Attend this session to learn how you will have new opportunities to effectively serve youth using the required ten elements; how to meet performance for both older and younger youth; options for implementing the new mandated menu of services; and what others across the country are doing to implement quality programs.

Designing Your WIA Youth Programs to
Achieve the Youth Performance Measures
The new performance measures for the youth program under WIA have a broader impact than just calculating your performance outcomes. By understanding what they are, how they are calculated, and when the outcomes count, you will be better able to design quality programs which encourage partnership in service delivery, provide the young person with the skills needed for longer-term success in the labor market, and assist you in meeting your outcomes. This session explores many options for designing and delivering youth programs that focus on quality and have quantitative, measurable outcomes.

Creating a Local Benchmarking System for
Younger Youth Skills Attainment
The Workforce Investment Act has new performance outcomes for the Title IB youth programs which will be the measures of success for all funded youth programs. While many of the performance measures can be tracked and documented through employer wage records, the new system requires that benchmarking systems be developed to track and measure younger youth skills attainment. In order to take a "skills attainment" for younger youth, local programs will need to set policy for Basic Education Skills, Work Readiness Skills, and Occupational Skills outcomes. This session will outline what is different from the old JTPA youth competencies, what you must include in your local benchmarking system, and recommendations for designing your local policy.

Turning Summer Youth Activities into Year-Round Programming
The WIA retains the requirement for a summer youth program as part of the overall youth program model. However, it is not a separately funded program anymore. How will you include summer activities as part of the young person's developmental path? What will your program look like? What role does "employment" play? This seminar investigates a variety of options and encourages you to exchange ideas to ensure your summer program is of the highest quality.

Grow Incomes to Meet Performance Measures:
A Program Strategy for Out-of-School Youth
The intent of the WIA for out-of-school youth is to provide long-term, comprehensive services by reaching out to young people who are not currently attached to an educational (school) entity. An effective program design for this targeted population is to create a "labor force attachment" strategy which introduces the young person to the system through a rapid attachment to work. This program design taps into the young person's motivation to "get a job" while providing on-going services to grow skills and to keep youth attached to the system as they progress. This session will introduce you to a program design that starts with work and offers a menu of service interventions designed as solutions to young people's problems as they move through an income progression and assists you in meeting both youth needs and your program performance measures.