U.S. Department of Labor: Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), Indian and Native American Program – Employment and Training Grants

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), Indian and Native American Program – Employment and Training Grants are intended to support employment and training activities for Indians and Native Americans throughout the United States. The purpose of the program is to support employment and training activities for Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian individuals in order to: a) develop more fully the academic, occupational, and literacy skills of such individuals; b) make such individuals more competitive in the workforce and equip them with the entrepreneurial skills necessary for successful self-employment; and c) promote the economic and social development of Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian communities in accordance with the goals and values of such communities.

Amount: A total of $62,000,000 is available to award up to 176 grants. Approximately $49,000,000 will support Comprehensive Service Program (adult; CSP) activities, and the remaining $13,000,000 will be for Supplemental Youth Services (SYSP) that will be awarded to those grant recipients that serve Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian youth living on or near Indian reservations and in Oklahoma, Alaska, and Hawaii. This program currently funds grants ranging from $14,803-$5,525,686 for the CSP and $1,006-$2,885,909 for the SYSP. Funding amounts will be based on a funding formula provided in the WIOA regulations at 20 CFR 684.270 and 684.440 (online at: http://bit.ly/2qN41LC).

The funding amounts vary depending on the number of Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians who are unemployed and/or living in poverty in a geographic service area. To get an understanding of how geographic areas relate to funding, applicants can compare the funding amounts in the link provided in the Executive Summary with the grantees’ geographic service areas located at: https://www.doleta.gov/dinap/cfml/CensusData.cfm. For example, under the “2000 Adult Census” link, the Inter-Tribal Council of Alabama serves 63 counties in Alabama with 760 unemployed and 3,273 low-income Indians, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiians residing in these counties combined. For this geographic service area, the Inter-Tribal Council of Alabama received $261,106 in PY 2017 adult funding.

Eligibility: Entities that have legal status as a government or as an agency of a government, private nonprofit corporation, or a consortium whose members all qualify as one of these entities. These entities include: federally recognized Indian tribes; tribal organizations; Alaska native-controlled organizations; and native Hawaiian-controlled organizations; Indian-controlled organizations serving Indian and Native Americans; a consortium of eligible entities; and state-recognized tribal organizations.

Note: A new entity (which is not an incumbent grantee) must have a population within the designated geographic service area, which would receive at least $100,000 under the funding formula found at § 684.270(b), including any amounts received for supplemental youth services under the funding formula at § 684.440(a).” Notwithstanding this requirement, applications that do not meet the funding threshold may still be considered if the Grant Officer offers — and the applicant accepts — additional geographic areas to its application. Formulas are available in the guidelines published at: http://bit.ly/2qN41LC.

The formula at § 684.270(b) is:

• One-quarter of the funds available will be allocated on the basis of the number of unemployed American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian individuals in the grantee’s geographic service area(s) compared to all such unemployed persons in the United States.
• Three-quarters of the funds available will be allocated on the basis of the number of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian individuals in poverty in the grantee’s geographic service area(s) as compared to all such persons in poverty in the United States.

The formula at § 684.440(a) is: Supplemental youth funding will be allocated to eligible grantees on the basis of the relative number of INA youth between the ages of 14 and 24 living in poverty in the grantee’s geographic service area compared to the number of Indian and Native American youth between the ages of 14 and 24 living in poverty in all eligible geographic service areas.

Link: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=303761

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