The California Workforce Development Board (CWDB), in coordination with the Employment Development Department (EDD), are pleased to announce the availability of up to $10.5 million in Department of Labor, Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) funds to design, develop, and implement projects that will drive equitable recovery with quality jobs and accelerate employment and re-employment for California workers.
Donor Name: California Workforce Development Board (CWDB)
State: California
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline (mm/dd/yyyy): 12/20/2021
Size of the Grant: $500,000
Grant Duration: 19 Months
Details:
The Workforce Accelerator Fund Accelerator supports innovative solutions that accelerate quality employment outcomes for low-income and disadvantaged populations and that have potential for system-wide scale.
Through a combination of seed funding and an initiative-wide support network, Accelerator provides an opportunity for the workforce system to align funding, programs, and services in unique, worker-centered ways. The intent is to bring successful strategies to scale and embed them into the workforce system, ultimately influencing system change. The pillars of Accelerator are:
- Collaboration among partners in the development of service delivery strategies and alignment of resources to better connect disadvantaged and disconnected job seekers to employment.
- Innovation that creates new methods or adapts existing approaches or accelerates promising practices in workforce development and skill attainment.
- System change that uses these sub-grants to incentivize the adoption of proven strategies and innovations that are sustained beyond the grant period.
The goal of Accelerator 10 is to impact economic and racial equity by creating pathways to good quality jobs for workers from disadvantaged or low-income communities. Traditional workforce and education strategies have had an inadequate impact. Even promising strategies lack the speed, agility, or scale needed to accelerate employment for workers desperately in need of good jobs.
Target Populations
Target populations under the Accelerator 10 grant program should prioritize at least one of the following:
- English Language Learners
- Homeless and Housing Insecure
- Immigrants
- Justice-involved Individuals
- People with Disabilities
- Veterans
- Youth
- Other target population(s) in geographic location(s) disproportionately impacted by COVID-19
Project Categories
- New Accelerator Projects: The CWDB will fund new, unique, and innovative Big Ideas that reflect the goals of Accelerator 10 through one or more of the Program Areas, incorporating High Road principles in whole or in part.
- Innovation Impact Projects: Through Accelerator 10, the CWDB will fund applicants who have successfully managed WIOAfunded grant projects in the past. The intent is to invite previous or existing grantees to recast a current or past project to affect the goals of Accelerator 10 through one or more of the Program Areas, incorporating High Road principles in whole or in part.
- Technical Assistance and Support: Through this RFA, the CWDB will fund Technical Assistance and Support activities that aid all Accelerator 10 awarded projects. These activities provide individual and group-based assistance to Accelerator 10 awardees in their projects design, development, and implementation and provide a forum for cross-project communication and peer-to-peer support. The activities can occur during Community of Practice meetings, as described below, or through other means of communication as identified by the Technical Assistance and Support Provider. The Provider will also assist the CWDB in telling the story of Accelerator 10— challenges, opportunities, successes– through the presentation of data, practices, and/or testimonials
Funding Information
The Workforce Accelerator Fund 10 is supported by the California Workforce Development Board (CWDB) in coordination with the California Employment Development Department (EDD) with Department of Labor funding totaling $10,456,412.
Funding amounts will depend on the project category applied for and applicant criteria as outlined below:
- New Accelerator Projects
- Up to $150,000 for applicants who have not previously managed a WIOA-funded grant initiative.
- Up to $250,000 for applicants who have previously demonstrated successful management of WIOA dollars
- Innovation Impact Projects
- Up to $500,000
- Technical Assistance & Support
- Up to $300,000
Grant Term
The Accelerator 10 grant term is 19-months (June 1, 2022 – December 31, 2023) for all project categories.
Eligible Applicants
Eligible applicants for this RFA include:
- Local Workforce Development Boards
- Labor Organizations
- Labor-Management Partnerships
- Public Universities, K-12 Education Entities and Adult Schools
- Community Colleges
- County Social Services Agencies
- Worker Centers/Worker’s Rights Organizations
- Community-Based Organizations
- Business Related Non-Profit Organizations
- Workforce Intermediaries
Note: A for-profit private business or a for-profit consortium of businesses cannot be the lead applicant but can be a partner on the Project Team.
Awardee/Subrecipient Requirements & Responsibilities
The term Awardee/Subrecipient refers to the awarded agency entering into an agreement with the State of California. As the first point of contact for the CWDB, the Awardee/Subrecipient is expected to:
- Be or become familiar with WIOA Title 1, the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 2 (Uniform Guidance), and EDD Workforce Services Branch Directives and Information Notices to responsibly manage the grant program.
- All Applicants must confirm this when submitting an application.
- Have knowledge of the project’s program and fiscal status at all times. This includes but is not limited to: program and partnership activities, the status of individual project teams, participant activities and data, project obstacles, expenditure status, etc.
- Have knowledge, experience, and practice in managing federal contracts and following fiscal rules and requirements.
- Be responsible for tracking and entering participant data in CalJOBS in a timely and accurate manner.
- Maintain active communication with stakeholders and the CWDB, and communicate any obstacles impeding the progression/success of the project to the CWDB.
- Organize and coordinate regional activities (if applicable to the project).
- Collect and report all data, deliverables, and outcomes of the partnership to the CWDB.
- Prepare for compliance monitoring or audits by EDD and/or Department of Labor (DOL).
- Be responsible for Single Audit Requirement if Subrecipient is a non-federal entity that expends more than $750,000 in federal award funds during the program year.
- The Single Audit is a requirement that is separate from compliance monitoring. It is the Subrecipient’s responsibility to perform a single audit on their entire organization. The Single Audit’s objective is to assure the U.S. federal government about the management and use of such funds by recipients such as states, cities, universities, non-profit organizations, and Indian Tribes. The audit is typically performed by an independent certified public accountant (CPA) and encompasses both financial and compliance components. The Single Audits must be submitted to the Federal Audit Clearinghouse along with a data collection form, Form SF-SAC.
For more information, visit Workforce Accelerator Fund.
