Workforce Grants for Cities and Counties

The US Commerce Department (Economic Development Administration) is offering grants to city and county governments through its Community Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) Program. $37 million will be made available for 30 awards. The deadline is April 20. Applications will be evaluated on the following six criteria: 1. Supporting small and medium-sized communities (20%), defined as communities with a population of 100,000 or less. 2. Assisting the most severely impacted communities (20%) in terms of the number of workers in the community that are impacted in connection with TAA certifications. 3. Delivering a high return on investment (20%) in terms of creating and saving jobs, leveraging public-private partnerships, and utilizing best practices in project management. 4. Supporting Regionalism, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship (20%) by strengthening regional cluster strategies and fostering technology commercialization. 5. Supporting Global Trade/Competitiveness (15%) by supporting “high growth/high potential companies” and advancing business clusters with significant export potential. 6. Growing the “Green Economy” (5%) by promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency, “greening” existing processes or functions, and through “green building” (for example, a structure certified under the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) system. For more information, visit EDA's web site at http://www.eda.gov/InvestmentsGrants/CommunityTAA.xml, or read the Announcement of Federal Funding Opportunity pdf: http://www.eda.gov/xp/EDAPublic/PDF/CommunityTAAFFOFINAL2.pdf