The State of Maine is currently accepting proposals for Strengthening Maine’s Workforce.
Donor Name: State of Maine
State: Maine
County: Selected Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 02/15/2023
Size of the Grant: $10,000 – $200,000
Details:
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought many workforce and education related inequities to the forefront. As the pandemic continues to deepen economic divides and limit educational opportunities nationally, the Maine Department of Education (DOE) has proposed an approach that will empower and equip Maine’s adult education leaders with the resources and support needed to address educational and workforce gaps and provide new opportunities for Mainers that have disproportionately been impacted by the pandemic.
The overall goal is to improve the workforce situations of both eligible individuals and eligible employers by supplementing, enhancing, modifying, or improving access to adult education programs and resources for eligible disproportionately COVID-19 impacted populations (unemployed, underemployed, low income, low literacy level, English language learners, women, people or communities of color).
Under this second RFA, the DOE will give priority to Strengthening Maine’s Workforce applications that connect with MJRP Navigators in the following geographic areas:
- Kennebec County
- Androscoggin and Oxford Counties
- Lincoln, Knox, Sagadahoc and Waldo Counties
- York County
Adults eligible to be served by these Strengthening Maine’s Workforce funds have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 and are defined as:
- People or communities of color
- Low-income
- Immigrants who are English language learners
- People with low levels of literacy
- Women
- The underemployed and unemployed
Funding Information
Grant awards will range from $10,000 – $200,000 to encourage applications with a variety of scope and budgets to meet documented needs.
Eligible Activities
- Collaborating with COVID-19 impacted employers to develop and provide workforce development programming that is intensive, includes required job skills and may include support services to aid in participation and retention and/or industry-specific English language and vocabulary.
- Working collectively with smaller employers to create and provide industry-specific skills training they could not offer on their own.
- Increasing availability and accessibility to English language acquisition programming, including applicable support services with special attention on communities experiencing an increase in immigrant populations.
- Providing innovative solutions to reduce waitlists for English language acquisition classes.
- Expanding intensive workforce training classes to include but not be limited to basic skills necessary to obtain, maintain and advance in employment. Such as interviewing and communications skills and workplace culture.
- Working with employer partners to expand their understanding of other cultures (including immigrants and those from a culture of poverty).
- Increasing access to programming by providing support services such as childcare, participation stipends, earn while you learn, transportation, etc. necessary for participation to remove barriers.
Eligibility Criteria
All Maine School Administrative Unit (SAU) adult education providers as defined by 20-A M.R.S. §8601-A (1)) are eligible to submit bids in response to this Request for Applications. Individual adult education providers, hubs, and/or cross-hubs may join together to submit a collaborative proposal. Such proposals must be submitted by a lead SAU adult education provider that agrees to retain responsibility for setting and meeting program goals, ensuring compliance with state and federal laws and rules as evidenced through monitoring and reporting, and maintaining fiscal controls and records. The applicant adult education provider will serve in the capacity of fiscal agent.
For more information, visit State of Maine.
