-: So I'm Carrie Lemon, and I'm the director
of the LA Compact, at the Los Angeles Area
Chamber of Commerce.
So my role is in the education and workforce
development division of the LA Chamber, and so we really
try to engage youth and system leaders in order
to improve education outcomes, in order to improve
the regional economy of the LA region.
The initiative that I work on is called
the LA Compact, it's a collaborative initiative
to ensure that all students in LA graduate from high school,
complete post secondary education, and have pathways
to sustainable jobs and careers.
The LA Compact was really founded in this belief
that no single institution can solve the complex
challenges facing our region, and we have
some very big systems and institutions in Los Angeles,
so LA Unified School District is the second
largest school district in the country,
LA County by itself is the largest county
in the United States, we also have the largest
community college district and a host of four
year universities, and the idea behind the LA Compact
is that all of these institutions from early childhood
through workforce and higher education, need to come
together to work collaboratively to figure out
what are the barriers to students persisting in education,
and how do we work together to break down those barriers
and improve outcomes.
So one example is, we have an initiative working
with transition age foster youth.
So LA county has also the largest population of foster
youth in the country, so one study found that in LA County
50% of foster youth aging out of the system
are unemployed in their first four years, and their
average wages are less than $30,000 over four years,
cumulatively over four years.
They also do not go on to higher education,
so about half of them enroll in community college,
but ultimately only about two to 4% ever complete a degree,
so we're really, our systems are failing to prepare
these youth for self sufficiency in life.
So one of the issues that we've been working on
is trying to ensure that these youth have access
to paid work experiences at a very early age.