The Employment and Training Administration (ETA), U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), announces the availability of grant funds authorized by Section 169(c) of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act for the Workforce Pathways for Youth grant program.

The purpose of this program is to increase alignment between workforce and OST programs and expand job training and workforce pathways for youth and disconnected youth including soft skill development, career exploration, job readiness and certification, summer jobs, year-round job opportunities, and apprenticeships.

Program Goals

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;
• Promote increased alignment between OST organizations, workforce development programs, and school systems, including alignment with dropout reengagement and recovery programs;
• Increase opportunities for youth, particularly those at risk of not completing their high school education, to gain the skills needed to be successful in higher education and employment; and
• Ensure all services provided are clearly linked to employment opportunities through the use of business engagement and labor market information (LMI) data.

Funding Information

• Estimated Total Program Funding: $10,000,000
• Award Ceiling: $5,000,000
• Award Floor: $3,300,000

Geographic Scope

Applicants may choose one of the following geographic scopes: local/regional, statewide, or national scope. If applicants choose the local/regional scope, they must implement the project in at least two separate local/regional areas.

• Local/regional means serving a part of one state or a contiguous area that includes multiple sites that may cross more than one state;
• Statewide means serving an entire state or multiple non-contiguous sites within one state;
• National means serving three or more states in multiple locations across the country.
• The service area does not need to be contiguous.

Program 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 systems 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;
• ultimately sustaining and beginning to scale up effective programming with additional affiliates by leveraging existing WIOA and other workforce dollars.

Eligibility Criteria

• Eligible applicants:
  • Grants under this program will be awarded to national OST non-profit (501(c)(3)) organizations with local affiliate networks. For purposes of this FOA, a national organization is defined as an organization that has affiliates operating in at least five states. An OST organization is a nonprofit that operates a supervised program that young people regularly attend when school is not in session. This can include before- and after- school programs on a school campus or facilities off of a school campus such as academic programs (e.g., reading or math focused programs), specialty programs (e.g., sports teams, STEM, arts enrichment), and multipurpose programs that provide an array of activities.
• Required partners:
  • The applicant must also include the following organizations, in the quantity specified below, as required partners on the application for each service area identified.
  • A minimum of one organization involved in administering the workforce development system established under WIOA (29 U.S.C. 3151), which are limited to State Workforce Development Boards, Local Workforce Development Boards, and Indian and Native American entities (as outlined in Section 166 of WIOA) (29 U.S.C. 3221);
    • A minimum of two employer partners, or one industry/trade association that represents employers;
    • A minimum of one State or Local Education Agency (including high schools and school districts) or an alternative education program.
• Optional partners:
  • While the required partners reflect collaboration between secondary education, employers, and workforce development, they strongly encourage applicants to collaborate with other partners that can support and advance the work of the project. These include, but are not limited to, organizations functioning as workforce intermediaries, labor-management organizations, community-based organizations, training providers, and service providers; other organizations to support outreach and training activities, such as: industry-led training organizations, industry intermediaries, unions, or educational organizations; Small Business Development Centers; American Job Centers; community organizations that provide social support and/or wrap-around services; YouthBuild programs; Job Corps centers; WIOA Youth programs; Standard Recognition Entities (SREs); foundations and philanthropic organizations; and federally-funded youth-serving programs.

For more information, visit Youth Grant Program.