Of course we are going to mention the YouthBuild grant in our highlights. How could we not?!?!? It’s an excellent resource to help low-income young people learn construction skills by building affordable housing and other community assets such as community centers and schools. Additionally, there are two more excellent funding opportunities from the USDA. The Food and Agriculture Service Learning Program aims to increase access to school meals for low-income children, while dramatically improving the quality of these meals by fostering higher levels of engagement between local farms and school systems. The second opportunity, the Rural Cooperative Development Grant, its main objective is to improve the economic condition of rural areas by assisting individuals or entities in the startup, expansion or operational improvement of rural cooperatives and other business entities.
Employment and Training Administration
Grant Title: YouthBuild
Grant Info: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=305338
Details: The Employment and Training Administration (ETA), U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), announces the availability of approximately $85 million in grant funds authorized by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) (Pub. L. 113-128) for YouthBuild.
Under this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), DOL will award grants through a competitive process to organizations providing pre-apprenticeship services that support education, occupational skills training, and employment services to at-risk youth, ages 16 to 24, while performing meaningful work and service to their communities. In addition to construction skills training, YouthBuild applicants may include occupational skills training in other in-demand industries. This expansion into additional in-demand industries is the Construction Plus component, a priority in this grant competition.
In Fiscal Year (FY) 2018, DOL hopes to serve approximately 5,250 participants during the grant period of performance, with approximately 85 projects awarded across the country. Individual grants will range from $700,000 to $1.1 million and require a 25 percent match from applicants, using sources other than Federal funding.
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Grant Title: Food and Agriculture Service Learning Program
Grant Info: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=305770
Details: Food and Agriculture Service Learning Programs are intended to increase the knowledge of agriculture and improve the nutritional health of children and to bring together stakeholders from the distinct parts of the food system to increase the capacity for food, garden, and nutrition education within host organizations or entities, such as school cafeterias and classrooms, while fostering higher levels of community engagement between farms and school systems. The initiative is part of a broader effort to not only increase access to school meals for low-income children, but also to dramatically improve their quality.
Business and Cooperative Programs
Grant Title: Rural Cooperative Development Grant
Grant Info: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=305739
Details: The primary objective of the RCDG program is to improve the economic condition of rural areas by assisting individuals or entities in the startup, expansion or operational improvement of rural cooperatives and other business entities. Grants are awarded competitively on an annual basis to Rural Cooperative Development Centers who in turn provide technical assistance to individuals and entities.