A project to assist the National Office of Job Corps in building national strategies for increasing the accessibility of Job Corps programs to limited English proficient (LEP) individuals and improving services and support to Hispanic youth. As part of this effort, BPA will conduct a survey of current practices and develop products and services that support successful implementation of these national strategies. During the first year of this project, which has additional option years, BPA will also develop pilot training materials for improving multicultural communication skills among Job Corps participants and promoting a multicultural environment at Job Corps centers.

In order to better understand the current status of Job Corps centers' efforts to support LEP and Hispanic youth, BPA will design a web-based survey of current centers and off-site contractors, with online data collection to be conducted in close cooperation with the Job Corps Data Center (JCDC). The survey will be designed to capture an overview of barriers to serving these youth and current strategies for addressing these barriers as well as priorities for improving programs for LEP and Hispanic youth.

The BPA team will work closely with and support the efforts of the Job Corps LEP/Hispanic Workgroup in the development of the comprehensive national strategies for LEP individuals and for Hispanic youth. In collaboration with the workgroup, BPA will develop a national strategy for improving the accessibility of the Job Corps program to LEP and Hispanic youth, in addition to strengthening the instruction, training, placement, and support of LEP and Hispanic youth.

Currently there is a known need for material on multicultural communication and cultural diversity to help Job Corps participants prepare to be successful in an increasingly multicultural workplace. BPA will develop and pilot tools and training materials during the first contract year that can be used to conduct topic-specific workshops and/or be built into the Job Corps curriculum on an ongoing basis. The primary focus of these materials will be to equip Job Corps youth with the awareness of cultural diversity and of the multicultural communication skills they will need in order to be successful in long-term employment.