Buffalo’s American Rescue Plan Act Spending Proposal allocates $7 million for partners to develop workforce training and talent pipeline development programs for City of Buffalo residents.
Donor Name: City of Buffalo
State: New York
City: Buffalo
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 11/22/2022
Details:
This project is designed to engage non-profit workforce development organizations with the local employer network for the purpose of developing a talent pipeline training model that connects prospective employees with employers who will provide them jobs at the end of the potential employees’ training. The goal will be to both transition workers who were in low-paying jobs in sectors that were sensitive to the types of disruptions caused by the pandemic into higher-paying and more stable employment and provide individuals who have had difficulty finding employment a better quality entry-level position from which they may be able to build a long term career around.
Funds are intended to support the development of workforce development programs that fund innovative ways to streamline the hiring process for training participants at the completion of their program and develop new talent pipelines to meet emerging employer needs. This may be accomplished by using funds to attract national programs to Buffalo that have expertise in these areas or initiating a new workforce development program based on best practices that have worked in other cities.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
The goal of this funding is to help residents secure a better economic (and therefore healthier) future through better paying employment. The KPIs have been developed to ensure that this goal is being met.
Awarded projects will have to demonstrate their ability to:
- Enroll approximately 100 residents during each program year
- Provide training to enrollees that will lead to some kind of certification, accreditation, or other widely recognized credential that will help them secure employment earning at least $18.50/hour or $38,000/year
- Provide retention counseling and other services as may be necessary to ensure program enrollees complete the program and suffer no more than 15% enrollment attrition
- Identify employers that have made a commitment to hire participants upon completion of their training program in a sufficient enough capacity to result in 85% of participants who complete their training are employed within 40 days of their departure
- 80% of enrollees who complete their program should still be employed six-months after their original date of hire (they may not necessarily have to be employed by the same employer who initially hired them at program completion)
Awarded projects will have to demonstrate their impact in the intended communities of service by:
- Ensuring that 100% of enrollees are City of Buffalo residents
- Recruiting 85% of program enrollees from census tracts where 75% of residents’ incomes are below the City of Buffalo’s median income
- Recruiting 50% of program enrollees who only have a high school diploma or equivalent and 10% of enrollees who have less than a high school education
- Developing an outreach strategy that specifically targets women of color and residents who live in neighborhoods identified as High
- Need in the latest Priority Needs Ranking Map.
- 90% of enrollees should experience an increase in pre-enrollment annual income
For more information, visit Skills-based Job Readiness Program.
