Department of Labor March 28, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL), Employment and Training Administration (ETA), announces the availability up to $5 million for grants to eligible Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs) that have demonstrated successfully the ability to form working partnerships with grassroots faith-based and community organizations (FBCOs). Grassroots FBCOs may include faith-based and community organizations, minority-led or immigrant-led non-profit or community development organizations and/ or other small non-profit organizations. This grant will build upon successful ETA grants from program years (PY) 2001 to 2004 that focused on the use of intermediaries and WIBs to build partnerships between FBCOs and local One-Stop systems. The WIB will develop and implement an 18-month project to encourage the formation of long-term contractual and non-contractual partnerships with FBCOs that meet an unmet community need related to hard-to-serve populations (e.g., ex-offenders, limited-English, welfare-to work, etc.). This investment supports and complements the President's High- Growth Job Training Initiative. The foundation of this initiative is the creation of partnerships to work collaboratively in the development of solutions to the human resource challenges facing our growth industries, while developing maximum access for American workers to gain the competencies they need to obtain good jobs. These partnerships include the public workforce system, business and industry, education and training providers and economic development principals. ETA is investing in demonstration projects in twelve high growth/high demand sectors that include advanced manufacturing, automotive services, biotechnology, construction, energy, financial services, geospatial technology, healthcare, hospitality, information technology (IT) & IT business-related services, retail, and transportation. This solicitation is designed to extend the partnership invitation to FBCOs through the direct involvement of our nation's Workforce Investment Boards. This grant also complements ETA's ongoing sectoral employment research and evaluationsi.e., identifying workforce needs and opportunities within a local or regional industry or cross-industry occupational group while retaining a focus on economic performance and competitiveness. FBCOs can discharge a significant community role in assisting Boards by bringing new entrants to the job market that can be trained and equipped to meet emerging and evolving industry needs. Each applicant Board will identify up to three businesses or industry sectors to collaborate with the Board and FBCOs within the local One- Stop system to provide jobs for qualified employees from the identified geographic areas.