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Page 5 of 9 Roseville, Saint Paul’s North End, and Saint Paul’s East Side, where most refugees from Burma in 176 Minnesota live. KOM’s location is also less than 4 miles from Roseville Adult Learning Center (RALC) 177 where many of KOM clients attend our training programs. KOM has partnered with RALC for the last 178 7 years to co-develop contextualized career training programs to support refugees and immigrants 179 interested in advancing their careers. KOM partnered with RALC to make training programs more 180 accessible to lower-level English speakers who do not qualify for traditional programs and help 181 English learners advance college and credential attainment without having to spend their financial 182 resources on remedial coursework. 183 184 While most of KOM’s clients are residents of Saint Paul, KOM served 50 Roseville residents in the past 185 year, 8 of which participated in our career training programs. The costs for providing services varies 186 from $3,600-$9,500 per participant depending on the program track participants decide to pursue. 187 KOM is interested in utilizing the Roseville ARPA grant to support our Transportation Logistics 188 training program, which has seen considerable growth in interest from both jobseekers and employers. 189 190 Impact of COVID on organization 191 Karen and Hmong people had the highest COVID-19 transmission and mortality rates in Ramsey 192 County (Coalition of Asian American Leaders). In 2020, KOM provided over 3,200 “on-call” 193 appointments (in place of walk-in hours) for 900 families to address needs related to employment, 194 financial assistance, distance learning, accessing PPE, and much more. KOM also partnered with the 195 Minnesota Department of Health to create Karen-language materials about COVID-19 and coordinate 196 vaccine clinics. Three years later, we are seeing the impacts of the pandemic on refugee communities, 197 including challenges finding stable, living-wage employment; youth academic and behavioral 198 challenges; limited childcare access; lingering health problems; and the compounded grief and trauma 199 of losing loved ones. This has resulted in increased demand for KOM’s services. 200 201 KOM has been fortunate to increase our annual budget and reserves over the past three years due to 202 increased grants for COVID-19 relief in 2020 and contracts for employment and youth services. 203 However, after a surge in 2020-2021, KOM saw individual gifts and grant funding drop by 19% in 204 2022 compared with the previous year. We are concerned that COVID no longer feels urgent to most 205 donors, but the effects are still evident in the communities we serve. 206 207 KOM also had much higher than average staff turnover in 2021 and 2022. Most staff who resigned 208 cited burnout from working through the pandemic and/or challenges with childcare as the primary 209 factors for them to leave. We have successfully filled all open positions, but the level of employee 210 turnover, combined with funding gaps for workforce development programs, caused significant 211 disruption to our programs over the past two years. 212 213 Lastly, changes in the labor market have required us to overhaul some of our employment training 214 programs to better meet employer needs and participant interests. Coming out of the pandemic, many 215 people are seeking jobs with higher wages to meet the rise in living costs and more flexible scheduling 216 to accommodate their families. KOM created the Transportation and Logistics training in 2022 to meet 217 these participant interests as well as a heightened demand from employers for workers with these skills. 218 219 Use of ARPA grant funds 220 KOM has developed cross-sector training for 6 Career Training Pathway programs (Healthcare, 221 Construction, Interpreting, Transportation Logistics, and Manufacturing) and a youth career 222 exploration program (for youth 14-24 years old) What’s Next in partnership with RALC. KOM has 223 been able to build in financial literacy and 1:1 financial coaching by partnering with LISC and stipends 224