(a) The Department of Youth and Community Restoration, in partnership with the California Conservation Corps and participating certified local conservation corps, shall develop and establish a precorps transitional training program within the Department of Youth and Community Restoration. This program shall operate within a facility identified by the Department of Youth and Community Restoration, with partnering state and local conservation corps responsible for program content, delivery, and administration. This program shall provide participating Department of Youth and Community Restoration corpsmembers with a training and development program to approximate the experience of serving in a conservation corps, and include opportunities for skill building, job readiness training, community service, and conservation activities. Training shall include, but is not limited to, transferable professional skills known as “soft skills,” social emotional learning, transitional life skills, and conservation jobs skills. Department of Youth and Community Restoration participants who successfully complete program curriculum shall qualify for a paid full-time placement within a local community corps program, and may be considered for a placement in the California Conservation Corps. This program shall be considered for expansion to additional Department of Youth and Community Restoration facilities if effective at reducing recidivism among participants.

(b) The Department of Youth and Community Restoration and the California Conservation Corps shall enter into an interagency agreement to implement this section. The agreement shall include input from participating certified local conservation corps.

(c) This section shall become operative July 1, 2020.

(Repealed (in Sec. 69) and added by Stats. 2019, Ch. 25, Sec. 70. (SB 94) Effective June 27, 2019. Section operative July 1, 2020, by its own provisions.)