California Forward

Programs: Performance and fiscal governance: this program advances fiscal, governance and policy reforms that reduce poverty, increase economic opportunity, enable urban renewal and environmental restoration in california's distinct regions. It also works directly with county and school district officials to transform how they design and execute cost-effective approaches to significantly improve results for californians in struggling schools or involved in the criminal justice, social service, mental health and substance abuse systems. Ca fwd's partnership with riverside county produced a comprehensive set of recommendations for improving the management of criminal offenders in the county correctional system. The recommendations have the potential to reduce costs and improve results. The recommendations were endorsed by department leaders and approved by the county board of supervisors. The recommendations are now being implemented with ca fwd's assistance. Ca fwd has a similar partnership with san bernardino county, where a detailed analysis of the jail population has informed and inspired a number of initiatives to improve services to reduce unnecessary incarceration and recidivism. Ca fwd's partnership with the ca school boards association worked with 17 school districts and county offices of education to develop and deploy best practices for using local planning to improve community engagement, school cohesion and academic results. Ca fwd, as the managing partner of the ca economic summit, coordinated civic and business involvement in a statewide task force to improve career technical education in ca's 113 community colleges. Comprehensive recommendations were unanimously adopted by the state board of governors, embraced by the governor and enacted by the legislature as the new $200 million strong workforce program. Ca fwd is working with regional civic organizations to implement the recommendations to strengthen pipelines from education to employment. Ca fwd, as managing partner of the ca economic summit, organized action teams and regional consultations that culminated in the 2017 economic summit, which produced a comprehensive roadmap to shared prosperity. The plan documents progress made toward meeting three "one million challenges" related to workforce housing, workforce development and water infrastructure development, and identified specific goals for the coming year. State lawmakers and executive branch leaders are involved in many aspects of the summit to understand how they can effectively support job creation, workforce and community development and better management of natural resources.

nonpartisan electoral and political process and governance:this program is working with state and county officials to improve the administration of elections and enforcement of ethics requirements, with a focus on using data technology to improve efficiency, transparency and accountability to voters. Ca fwd co-convened a group of stakeholders to identify ways to improve transparency and ethics rules related to campaign finance, gifts and lobbying. Ca fwd assisted the state's ethics commission to initiate a review of the state's political reform act to identify ways to streamline and clarify language to improve understanding and compliance. Ca fwd documented the state of political reforms in states across the nation to help catalyze a network of reformers who could benefit by exchanging information on strategies and tactics.

public engagement and participation: the purpose of this program is to promote greater and more effective civic engagement by californians statewide through public education through outreach and websites, deliberative polling and tracking the outcomes of public programs. Ca fwd worked with its regional partners to develop and distribute news content on the challenges and innovations associated with economic development, social equity and environmental sustainability. Ca fwd worked with its school district partners to understand and deploy effective public engagement strategies to improve their community plans. Ca fwd worked with its government partners in san bernardino county to connect efforts to improve the community correctional system with a network of community organizations working with formerly incarcerated persons. Ca fwd helped to plan and participated in a statewide conference on offender re-entry into communities.