A Roadmap for the Future of California’s Expanded Learning Workforce
California’s expanded learning workforce is essential to young people, families, and thriving communities. Every day, youth development professionals nurture belonging, learning, leadership, and well-being. Yet too often, the people who make this work possible are asked to do so without the compensation, career pathways, support, and recognition they deserve.
Driven by a shared belief in the profound impact that fair working conditions and just wages can have on individuals, families, and communities, CalSAC, ExpandLA, and PCY began collaborating in early 2023 and committed to moving beyond ideas and toward collective action. Recognizing the need for a comprehensive approach to addressing system wide challenges, a framework that includes 10 key drivers that are important to building job quality was developed and has guided the collaborative since.
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Funding and Policy: Ensure public resources and policies advance the workforce
Data Collection: Address the lack of an ongoing, comprehensive data collection system to inform policy, funding, and practice.
Recruitment: Identify and uplift new entry points into the workforce and coordinate innovative strategies to build awareness and interest in the field.
Pathways: Clear and accessible avenues that build a steady workforce pipeline, and industry-recognized credentials, and encourage long-term retention.
Training/PD: Flexible, accessible, and relevant education and training aligned with field standards.
Leadership Development: Build and strengthen management and supervisory staff to set the tone, ensure quality and equity, and guide new practitioners.
Organizational Development or Capacity Building: Strengthen the internal operations and culture of organizations to facilitate positive and healthy work environments and an engaged and knowledgeable workforce.
Worker Wellness: Create balanced, sustainable roles that promote wellness as well as address the current strain caused by overwork and secondary trauma.
Strategic Communications: Speak about the field with one, unified voice to build awareness and appreciation for the substantial contributions and impact of the workforce.
Network Building/Convenings: Gather together as a field to track progress, share ideas and resources, and organize collective action.
Through two statewide Summits, deeper and more coordinated partnering on projects, and a half dozen strategy sessions, the collaborative is working toward a future where expanded learning is recognized not as supplemental, but as essential civic infrastructure. We believe that when we invest in the people who nurture young people, workforce dignity, youth success, and community well-being rise together.
Transforming the future of the expanded learning workforce will take all of us.
The future we are working toward
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Why change is needed now
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What will guide this work
As this roadmap takes shape, four commitments anchor the work:
We build collective power
No single organization, region, or strategy can transform this field alone. Lasting change requires workers, employers, intermediaries, higher education, policymakers, funders, researchers, families, and communities moving toward shared outcomes with shared accountability.
We design for excellence
High-quality expanded learning depends on strong preparation, shared standards, continuous learning, and the supports workers and programs need to thrive. Excellence should be designed into the system, not left to individual sacrifice.
We stand for workforce dignity
Workforce dignity means fair compensation, living wages, comprehensive benefits, worker well-being, and sustainable career pathways. It means refusing to build youth success on underpaid and overworked community members.
We center equity and transform systems
We design from the margins, honor lived experience, and believe those most impacted by inequity must help shape decisions. Equity is not an add-on. It is the foundation for the future we seek to build.
A shared roadmap for change
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What we hope will begin to shift
We will measure progress not only by activity, but by structural shifts in policy, practice, and public will. Our path forward includes strengthening foundations now to drive lasting change for the future.
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When we align pathways, embed workforce dignity in policy, design for sustainability, and build collective identity — then expanded learning becomes a stable, respected profession that ensures universal access, thriving communities, and a sustainable, intergenerational workforce.
Join Us in Shaping the Future
This roadmap envisions a future where California’s expanded learning workforce is valued, supported, and able to thrive. It is grounded in a simple belief: building a stronger future for young people and communities requires a stronger, more just, and more sustainable future for the workforce.
Transforming the expanded learning workforce will take all of us. We invite you to join us in advancing that future together! Get involved!
