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.
Through three 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.
The It Takes All of Us Workforce Campaign is a long-term statewide effort to build collective action around workforce dignity and recognition. The campaign is designed to bring together expanded learning practitioners and providers with leaders from workforce development, labor, higher education, philanthropy, research, policy, and other sectors that have valuable experience and perspective to contribute.
Transforming the future of the expanded learning workforce will take all of us.
Get Involved
Connect, learn, and find solutions. Join the It Takes All of Us: Expanded Learning Workforce Webinar Series exploring pressing workforce issues and practical strategies to help expanded learning professionals thrive. Register once for the full series and attend as your schedule allows. Register here.
Help shape the campaign. Bring your experience and ideas to a leadership committee or policy work group launching in early 2027. Help set priorities, guide early campaign actions, and advance a shared advocacy agenda this spring, including through a workforce-centered legislative advocacy day connected to the CA Afterschool and Summer Challenge in March 2027.
Wear the message. Spark a conversation. Show your support with It Takes All of Us swag, share campaign messages, and invite colleagues to get involved. Help make the case that expanded learning professionals deserve quality jobs, living wages, and opportunities to grow.
Turn momentum into action at BOOST. Join our campaign activation at BOOST in April 2027 to connect with fellow advocates and help build a stronger future for the expanded learning workforce. Make plans to join us.
Save the Date: It Takes All of Us: Expanded Learning Workforce Summit - coming Summer 2028 in Los Angeles!
Key Drivers toward a Stronger Workforce
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.
A Roadmap for the Future of California’s Expanded Learning Workforce
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.
Connect with us
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!
Contact Maria Ramirez, Senior Program Manager - Workforce, to learn more.