Los Angeles Workforce Development Aging and Community Services

LA County Leverages Launchpad to Support Small Businesses during COVID-19

Los Angeles Workforce Development Aging and Community Services

LA County Leverages Launchpad to Support Small Businesses during COVID-19

Workforce Development Aging and Community Services (WDACS) Logo
Workforce Development Aging and Community Services (WDACS), provides the community of Los Angeles County a multitude of resources for its residences; including workforce development, community services, services for aging and older adults, community & senior centers and human relations. LA County WDACS, a Launchpad client since 2018, is committed to Los Angelinos by elevating their quality of life, as well as bringing together employers and job seekers -- developing and strengthening human relations and workforce management throughout the community and overall county.

Key Products Used:


✓ Common Intake
✓ Case Management
 Business Services

 Portals
✓ Grant Management
 Marketing



Project: Disaster Help Center Application

Challenge: 
LA County WDACS didn't have an efficient way to track Employer Engagement in Los Angeles County.

When COVID-19 hit the Los Angeles community, businesses flooded in with calls expressing great concern that they were going to have to furlough their employees and were worried about their livelihood. Similarly, the employees themselves were anxious that they would soon be laid off. LA County WDACS had previously been monitoring and tracking businesses through countless spreadsheets that had no data tracking tools. This left them in dire need of a more immediate robust system to track all of the businesses coming in and asking for assistance. 

Solution: 
Launchpad Creates a Form to Intake Critical Information to Help Job Seekers and Employers with COVID-19 Disaster Relief Intake & Assessment Application.

Leveraging their existing Launchpad platform, WDACS was able to quickly add a Disaster Relief application to intake affected businesses and job seekers and track community needs. 


Based on the information inputted into the form, it would adjust accordingly through conditional logic and capture data on the respective job seeker or business. The true power of the form lied within the power of the analytics. WDACS was now able to see exactly how many businesses were reaching out and for which reason. 

Ultimately, the Launchpad form empowered LA County WDACS to be able to refer each business appropriately to whichever respective services they needed as well as providing clear, actionable data they needed during the crisis. 

Project: Business Assistance Grant Management Application

Challenge: 
WDACS didn't have a grant portal that provided for all their urgent needs and 
COVID-19 response

WDACS needed a portal that could help all businesses in LA County easily apply for the funding. They also needed a system that would facilitate robust tracking measures in order to see how well these businesses were being assisted. 

Solution: 
Launchpad Creates a Portal which Aids 150 Businesses with Emergency Grant Funding.

LA County WDACS had the data they needed to be able to make decisions on awarding businesses financial assistance by utilizing the grant management application based on the information businesses were able to provide on themselves and their respective hardship. 

REDF, a community based organization that was managing the distribution and tracking of the grants, was able to access the system as well. They received the data and monitored the program by being able to see exactly how the funding was being utilized.  

LA County WDACS was also able to track the businesses that were getting the funding after they received the grant  --utilizing the Launchpad product in its entirety. WDACS leveraged Launchpad to deliver $500,000 in COVID-19 emergency grants, from the California Department of Labor to Los Angeles County Businesses.