The Employment and Training Administration (ETA), U.S. Department of Labor, announces the availability of approximately $15,000,000 in grant funds authorized by the Section 169(c) of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act for Round 3 of the Workforce Pathways for Youth grant program.
Donor Name: Employment and Training Administration
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 05/19/2023
Size of the Grant: up to $2,000,000
Grant Duration: 36 months
Details:
This grant program, operated by national OST organizations, will expand workforce development activities in OST organizations across the country that serve youth living in rural areas during non-school hours. The goals of the grant program are to:
- expand age-appropriate workforce readiness programming through national OST organizations and their state or locally operated affiliate organizations and ultimately scale up these efforts;
- promote increased alignment between OST organizations, workforce development programs, and school systems, including alignment with dropout reengagement and recovery programs in order to create or strengthen a systems approach to OST and work-based learning experiences for youth; and
- coordinate across workforce development, schools, and OST in order to provide work-based learning experiences, occupational skills training, and unsubsidized employment placements to increase opportunities for youth, particularly those at risk of not completing their high school education, to gain the skills needed to be successful in post-secondary education and employment.
The purpose of this program is to increase alignment between the workforce development system, schools, and OST programs and leverage the roles, responsibilities, resources, and expertise of these three entities in order to expand work-based learning opportunities, job training and career pathways for youth living in rural areas.
Allowable Activities
The applicant (OST organization) will be responsible for: funding locally-operated OST organizations that will implement workforce-focused OST programming; providing coordination among the OST, education, and workforce system-partners; monitoring progress of the implementation of programming and delivery of services; developing a process for scaling up and sustaining effective programming across its network of affiliates after initial funding expires; and ultimately sustaining and beginning to scale up effective programming with additional affiliates by leveraging existing WIOA and other workforce funding streams.
These five grant activities may take many forms, both in-person and virtually, including the following:
- Conducting work readiness and career interest assessments, including using innovative technologies, such as virtual platforms or gaming technology to assess abilities, aptitudes, and interests in careers and to promote learning;
- Providing labor market and employment information about in-demand industry sectors or occupations available in the local area such as career awareness, career counseling, and career exploration services;
- Providing paid work experiences, including internships, pre-apprenticeships, and Registered Apprenticeships;
- Providing incentive payments to youth for recognition and achievement directly tied to grant-funded activities, such as completion of a training or work experience and/or successfully achieving a program goal;
- Providing staff time to develop relationships and agreements with employers;
- Developing mentoring activities;
- Facilitating industry-specific engagement and support with industries that are growing or experiencing increased workforce demand;
- Providing supportive services for participants that are necessary to enable an individual to participate in OST activities funded through this grant. Supportive services are a routine part of high-quality workforce development programs, and evidence shows that they contribute to participants completing programs, particularly those from underserved communities, which leads to opportunities for advancement into better jobs. Supportive services can include, but are not limited to, childcare, transportation, food, mental health counseling, legal assistance, financial counseling, referrals for drug treatment, provision of work tools or work clothes, and needs-related payments/emergency cash assistance; and
- Combining academic, career, and technical instruction with work experience, allowing youth to develop industry-specific workplace competencies, skills, and knowledge.
Grant activities may also include the following to assist the grantee in implementing, scaling up, and sustaining effective workforce-focused OST programming:
- Working with partners to monitor progress of efforts and develop plans for scaling up and sustaining effective workforce-focused OST programming;
- Working with partner organizations to design customer flows and implement common referral and service delivery practices;
- Collaborating with WIOA Youth program partners, school partners and others to create training materials and toolkits on how to operate workforce-focused OST programs;
- Developing sustainability plan that outline the roles and responsibilities of each partner in order to leverage expertise and resources;
- Covering costs of tools and technologies that may be needed to assist in scaling up and sustaining programming;
- Providing technical assistance and professional development to OST staff; and
- Providing staff with resources needed to implement programming specifically in rural areas, such as covering transportation costs, broadband access and technology needs, and purchasing or leasing of equipment necessary to implement the program
Funding Information
- Estimated Total Program Funding: $15,000,000
- Award Ceiling: up to $2,000,000
Period of Performance
The period of performance is 36 months with an anticipated start date of 08/01/2023
Eligible Applicants
The following organizations are eligible to apply:
- Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education
The applicant must be a national OST non-profit (501(c)(3)) organization, as required by Congress, that proposes to serve youth from rural communities that have been historically underserved and marginalized. This includes, Black, Latino, and Indigenous and Native American persons, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and other persons of color; members of religious minorities; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) persons; persons with disabilities; and persons otherwise adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality; in addition to youth with barriers to employment including, but not limited to, foster youth, parenting youth, homeless youth, and youth with justice system involvement.
For purposes of this FOA, a national organization is defined as an organization that has affiliates operating in at least three states. Note that while the organization must be a national OST organization, the applicant has the option to select the geographic scope (statewide or multi-state; please refer to section 1.I.B: Program Authority, Geographic Scope) in which it chooses to operate this grant. An OST organization is a non-profit that operates a supervised program that young people regularly attend when school is not in session. This can include before- and afterschool programs on a school campus or at facilities located outside of a school campus such as academic programs (e.g., reading or math focused programs), specialty programs (e.g., STEM, arts enrichment), and multipurpose programs that provide an array of activities.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
