AmeriCorps

The Los Angeles Trade-Technical College/AmeriCorps Early Childhood Education Literacy Program is a nonprofit organization that is part of the National Service Program of AmeriCorps Corporation designed to provide students of all ages and backgrounds with education awards in exchange for a year of service. The program has been in existence since August 2000. Students work with local schools and childcare centers to tutor children from low-income and limited English speaking families, preschool through fourth grade.

Child Development Center

The Child Development Center, which provides childcare while parents attend classes, job training and/or work, serves children between the ages of 2 and 5 during the day. Evening child care is available for children between 3 and 12 years of age from 4 to

9 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Childcare is free for income eligible parents and nutritious meals are included.

The Center is staffed by teachers trained in early childhood education, and student assistants and college lab students work with the staff to provide an environment that is developmentally appropriate for young children. In recent years the Center has experienced growth due to the development of the Child Development program, a State Preschool Contract that enables student/parents to receive free childcare, and the availability of CalWORKs funding. The Child Care Food Program provides free breakfast lunch, snacks and dinner for children at the Center. Limited facilities for toddler care in the surrounding community also has been cause for an increase in applications for attendance.

Continuing Education and Community Services Center

The college's Continuing Education and Community Services Center provides noncredit education at no cost for learning new skills and gaining knowledge by offering continuous registration throughout the year for classes such as Preparing for Citizenship, Basic Skills English, and ESL.

Continuing Education provides an alternative to traditional college education for students wishing to learn new skills an acquire knowledge.

Counseling / Personal Development

Counseling provides services to assist students in successfully completing course work leading toward their educational objective. Counselors help students make informed decisions in selecting a career in a vocational, academic or transfer program. Personal counseling helps student with personal, family or other social concerns when the assistance is related to the student's education. Personal Development classes are offered by Counseling faculty to assist students with career planning, college survival and interpersonal relationships. In recent years the department has seen an increasing numbers of GAIN/CalWORKs students and students who are returning to school during the downturn in the economy for re-training or upgrading skills.

Disabled Student Programs and Services (DSP&S)

The services provided in the Disabled Students Resource Center by Disabled Students Programs and Services (DSP&S) are designed to minimize the effect a disability may have on a student's academic, social and cultural performance while attending the college. The active campus DSP&S office provides varied services, programs and classes to support disabled students, including specialized counseling, priority registration, assessment, parking elevator keys, special accommodations provided by interpreters, tutors, test proctoring readers and note takers, materials in alternate media format, liaison with instructional staff and with the State Department of Rehabilitation, and basic classes for the hearing impaired and learning disabled. DSP&S networks with 80 to 90 Department of Rehabilitation Counselors, and assists students to comply with their regulations and procedures -- for example, completing book and supply lists. In recent years the DSP&S population has doubled, with more referrals to the college from outside agencies, and the program now serves approximately 1,130 students. More psychological and visually impaired students are expected, and these populations traditionally require more time and assistance than other populations. The two populations who have seen the most increase are the Psychological and Learning Disabled (LD), and the State has mandated new testing batteries for LD students that have increased the assessment process time to ten hours per student. New laws have required the college to purchase and use new equipment to produce materials in alternate media and to provide on-campus real-time captioning.

English as a Second Language (ESL)

English as a Second Language (ESL) courses are designed for the student whose native tongue is not English. Students who enroll in ESL courses generally use ESL classes as an entry point into the college, taking these classes before they take other college classes. They enroll to help survive in an English-speaking world, to help as they train for employment, for personal enrichment or sometimes because taking ESL classes is a requirement of the GAIN/CalWORKs program. It is expected that enrollment in ESL will increase at a faster rate than the college as a whole, both in the mid term (five years) and the long term (ten years), due to the increasing percentage of non-English-speaking households in the county - recently reported to be 54 percent.

EOPS/CARE

Extended Opportunity Programs and Services (EOPS) and Cooperative Agencies Resources for Education (CARE) are designed to supplement existing college programs and to provide assistance to financially and educationally disadvantaged full-time students.

EOPS provides academic and basic skills student scholarships and cash grants to eligible students. The EOPS program is involved in a multitude of activities to increase the number and percentage of students who are affected by language and social needs as well as economic disadvantages. A strength of the program is its monthly high school recruitment events at local public and private high schools, correction facilities, adult schools, occupational centers, the Department of Social Services, recreational centers, local churches and the YMCA. The program makes every effort to recruit students who represent the global population by providing brochures and other printed materials about the program in other languages such as Spanish, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Korean and Russian.

The CARE program provides assistance with child expenses during study hours, counseling, educational and personal development workshops, access to community resources, meal tickets and transportation assistance.

Financial Aid

Financial Aid processes both federal and state financial aid for students. The office also administers the college work-study program, the BOGG program and the Federal Perkins Loan Program, and processes both campus and outside scholarships. Financial Aid employees assist students with completing Financial Aid applications. In recent years, the availability of new technology has allowed the office to work towards a more efficient, paperless process.

GAIN/CalWORKs

CalWORKs (California Work Opportunities and Responsibility to Kids) is a job-training program that provides welfare-to-work services to students who receive Temporary Aide for Needy Families (TANF, formerly AFDC). CalWORKs offers education, training, employment skills and career education to assist students to become gainfully employed. Services include vocational training, adult basic education, GED preparation, English as a Second Language, intake/orientations, counseling, case management, work study, work experience, on-the-job training, career education, personal development/life skills, job development, job readiness, mentoring and post employment services.

Formerly operated solely as the GAIN program, the program now serves County Department of Public Social Services GAIN referrals (6-12 months) and Self-Initiated Participants (SIPS 18-24 months) amounting to over 3,500 students each year. GAIN/CalWORKs classes, which also are listed under various departments, are funded by TANF and offered based on current labor trends and industry needs. They include short term classes and programs that lead to certificate and associate degrees programs such as Child Development, Keyboarding, Microcomputer / Data Entry, Floral Design, Network Cabling, Fiber Optics, Introduction to Culinary Arts, Introduction to Baking, Certified Nurse Aide, Home Health Aide, In-Home Support Services and Customer Service, Adult Basic Skills, GED Preparation, ESL and Vocational ESL.

School Relations / Middle College

High school students receive advisement and counseling via the Steps Ahead Program for high school students, which includes the Middle College program, Saturday Academy, Saturday Learning Center and Afternoon College. As secondary school budget cuts and overcrowded classrooms drive more students to seek a secondary education at the community college level, Middle College and similar programs have become more popular. Based on a growth rate of more than 200 percent for the 2001-2002 school year, it is projected that K-12 enrollment will grow at least 25 percent in the next five years.

ILP and ESTEP

The Independent Living Skills Program (ILP) and the Early Start to Emancipation Preparation Program (ESTEP) are closed programs with participants 16 to 18 years of age or 14 to 15 years of age, respectively, referred by the Los Angeles County Court system or by the Department of Children and Family Services. The goal of ILP is to help foster youth develop skills that enable them to locate jobs, manage money, and survive as productive citizens outside the foster care system. The goal of ESTEP is to motivate foster youth to begin preparing early for their eventual release from the foster care system and to identify academic and life skills needing enhancement. Los Angeles Trade-Technical College offers a series of classes and workshops for students enrolled in both programs. This makes the college a primary service provider to the largest foster youth population in the state, and funding has increased each year since the programs became permanent in 1993. In recent years new laws and regulations have increased the number of participants the college is contracted to serve (youth 19 through 21 are now eligible for additional services to help prepare them to live independently).

Learning Skills

Learning Skills helps students develop competencies appropriate for college courses. The college-wide program focuses on individualized, self-paced, computer-assisted instruction courses, subject-linked courses, instructional resources, and tutoring to help students in reading, vocabulary, spelling, grammar, basic math and study skills. Learning Skills works with DSPS to provide courses and to identify students with learning disabilities. In the future, the program will adapt to changes such as the addition of electronic classrooms that will offer flexibility of use from lecture to interactive technology.

Matriculation

The Matriculation Plan ensures and promotes student success by providing programs and services designed to maximize awareness and access to information that can enhance opportunities to succeed. Services include Basic Skills assessments, assessment summaries recommending courses and making referrals to campus resources, walk-in web/on-line orientations, bilingual staffing and an "Early Alert" program.

PACE

PACE (Program for Accelerated College Education) is a unique two-year, 60-unit undergraduate college program developed for the working adult to meet the requirements for a degree in Liberal Arts.

Puente Program

The Puente Project aims to increase the number of educationally underserved students who enroll in four-year universities, earn degrees, and return to the community as leaders and mentor to future generations.

Student Employment Center

The Student Employment Center provides job seeking skills workshops and support services. Staff members refer students to part-time and full-time employment and provide placement services for those completing program requirements. They establish links between the college and the business community to increase business and community awareness of college programs, and develop job leads and internships for students and graduates. The staff sets up on-campus interviews for students and graduates, host annual job fairs and conduct classroom presentations on job seeking techniques. Increases in the unemployment rate cause the number of students and graduates utilizing the Center to increase, and changes in technology often require employees as well as job seekers to seek additional services. As employers become more interested in paid internships and work-based learning activities, the Center will see an increase in workload referring students to these types of programs.

Teach Project

The Teach Project is a unique way for individuals to continue working, attend college full time, and attain their teaching credential.

Veterans, Selected Reservists, National Guard and Eligible Dependents

The College is an institution of higher learning approved for veterans, selected reservists, National Guard and eligibledependents. A large number of these individuals are currently enrolled and the College encourages students to take advantage of the benefits available.

Wellness Center

Under the direction of a licensed physician, the College operates a Student Health Center/ Wellness Center offering emergency assistance, preventative health care education, bilingual health presentations, health and wellness counseling, selective health screening and several other services. The Wellness Center also provides short-term psychological services by licensed professionals, referrals, and mental health related workshops.

The Future

As the number and strength of these programs attest, Los Angeles Trade-Technical College has a strong tradition of responding to the needs of disadvantaged and underserved student populations.
The college has made a commitment as it moves forward to continue serving these populations, to enhance programs and services whenever and wherever possible, and to actively explore the emerging needs of new constituent groups as they are identified.