Host Jared Asch discusses the importance of childcare for working professionals with Stephanie Shieh of First 5 Contra Costa and Anna Powell of UC Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Child Care Employment. They describe a system in which families face high costs and limited availability, while early educators face low wages, few benefits, burnout, and 20–40% annual turnover, creating structural scarcity that hurts parents, employers, and the regional economy. Contra Costa has several thousand birth-to-five educators, but only about half of children have a licensed slot, and infant/toddler care is especially scarce; a landscape analysis found workforce programs reach about 25% of an estimated 4,000 educators, with limited funding for retention. They highlight local strategies like the Measure X-funded BOOST pilot providing $1,000/month wage increases to 120 educators, Alameda County’s proposed $25/hour wage floor, apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeships, and the need to fund early care and education as a public good amid TK expansion impacts.

In this Capstone Conversation episode, host Jared discusses adult education consortia, accountability, and the role of data with Kim Jones (director, Oakland Adult and Career Education), Shruti Bharat (CEO, Campground), and Paul Rosenbloom (adult education and community college advisor). Kim describes OACE’s long-standing adult education and workforce programs (GED/diploma, ESL, citizenship, and sector training) and its many partners across colleges, K–12 districts, workforce organizations, unions, and employers, emphasizing the difficulty of tracking learners across providers and into jobs. Shruti explains Campground was built to enable secure, collaborative data sharing across networks to support pay-for-performance placement, coordinated services, and stronger outcome storytelling for regional funders. Paul outlines California’s 71 consortia structure, the need to rebrand adult schools, support adult dual enrollment and alumni engagement, and sustain collaboration through disciplined processes and dedicated connector capacity.

Host Jared Asch interviews Kristen Cooper of Grant Management Associates (GMA) about major shifts in the federal grants landscape affecting cities, nonprofits, special districts, and other agencies. Cooper shares GMA’s background and scale, then explains how funding pauses in 2025 created uncertainty that is easing as awards resume in late 2026, alongside unusually short application deadlines that require shovel-ready projects. She highlights a key process change under Executive Order 14332: increased political review of discretionary funding, making legislative outreach and letters of support more important. The conversation stresses a stronger emphasis on measurable outcomes and evidence-based reporting, strategic partnering to strengthen proposals, and careful use of AI—using it for funding identification, deep solicitation analysis, and review tools while keeping humans responsible for narratives, budgets, and technical content.