NIMHD Science Education Initiative

The NIH recognizes a unique and compelling need to promote diversity in the biomedical, behavioral, clinical and social sciences research workforce. The NIH expects efforts to diversify the workforce to lead to the recruitment of the most talented researchers from all groups; to improve the quality of the educational and training environment; to balance and broaden the perspective in setting research priorities; to improve the ability to recruit subjects from diverse backgrounds into clinical research protocols; and to improve the Nation's capacity to address and eliminate health disparities.

The intent of the FOA is to support educational, mentoring, and/or career development programs for individuals from health disparity populations that are underrepresented in the biomedical, clinical, behavioral, and social sciences to facilitate the development of a nationwide cohort of scientists and a multi-disciplinary national pool of health disparities investigators with necessary skills to conduct health disparities research in a diverse range of settings. Fundamental to achieving the goal of this R25 program are targeted research education programs that provide research career awareness opportunities, mentoring experiences and information dissemination to increase the number of highly trained scientists in various scientific areas to address the Nation’s biomedical, behavioral, and clinical research needs that are relevant to the mission of the NIMHD. Expanding curriculum driven educational opportunities and developing capacity are essential to assure success in alleviating health disparities. Public education and outreach efforts are also appropriate science education activities to achieve the goals of this FOA. An applicant's submission must focus on only one of the following research education program core areas listed below:

a) K-12 Science Education Initiative.

b) National High School Youth Summer Initiative.

c) Mentoring and Career Development Initiative.

d) Health Professions Research Capacity-Building Initiative.

e) Outreach and Information Dissemination Initiative.

Link to Full Announcement

http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-MD-11-004.html

Clean Energy Workforce Education Conference

The 4th National Clean Energy Workforce Education Conference will be held in Saratoga Springs, New York from March 8-10, 2011.

The 2011 primary conference sponsor is the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). The Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) is the primary organizer.

IREC provides this update for the workforce community.

Bringing the promise of clean technologies to market starts with a qualified workforce. Training opportunities have proliferated over the last few years and now we have the opportunity to take a hard look at what instructional strategies and curricula have worked best and what still needs to be done.

Conference speakers will look at industry competencies and how they need to be built to insure a flexible workforce with transportable skills; how to balance classroom and field experiences; introducing clean energy technologies and careers to high school students; integrating new clean energy skills into existing trade programs; and what labor market studies are telling us. This will be a fast-paced conference covering many critical and emerging issues.

On March 8, 2011 a series of technical, hard-to-find, and thought-provoking workshops will be held. The Conference will be on March 9 and 10 with over 80 presentations (*)

If you are involved with training the clean energy workforce or planning to, this is an event you don't want to miss.

The special conference hotel rate of $128/night (single/double) is available until February 18, 2011.

Conference Program (Plenary Sessions and Workshops)

Registration Brochure

The President's Proposed Budget: Workforce-related funding

Establish a Competitive Early Learning Challenge Fund. $350 million to establish a new, competitive Early Learning Challenge Fund, administered by the Depart­ment of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services, for States that are ready to take dramatic steps to improve the quality of their early childhood programs. The Early Learning Challenge Fund builds on the Administration’s initiatives to expand Head Start and improve its quality through competition.

Reform Elementary and Secondary School Funding by Setting High Standards, Encouraging Innovation, and Rewarding Success.

• Bringing the Race to the Top (RTT) reform to school districts, with a focus on cost-effective reforms that improve student achievement in an era of tight budgets.

• Continuing the Investing in Innovation program to test, validate, and expand ef­fective approaches to student learning and launching the new “pay for success” bonds that provide funding only after results are achieved.

• Expanding educational options by helping to grow effective charter schools and other autonomous public schools that achieve posi­tive results and give parents more choices.

• Providing significant funding for School Turnaround Grants to help States and school districts turn around our Nation’s lowest performing schools.

• Eliminating 13 discretionary programs and consolidating 38 K-12 programs into 11 new programs that emphasize using competition to allocate funds.

Prepare 100,000 STEM Teachers Over the Next Decade.

$80 million from the Department of Education to expand promising and effective models of teacher preparation in STEM

$20 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to launch a new teacher-training research program called Teacher Learning for the Future

$20 million for an overarching, comprehensive science and technol­ogy workforce program at NSF

Open the Doors of College to More Ameri­cans.

Introduce into the Fund for Improve­ment of Postsecondary Education an evidence-based framework, enabling the Fund to become a postsecondary “Investing in Innovation” program that will test, validate, and expand effective ap­proaches to improving college access and comple­tion and educational productivity.

In addition, $50 million in 2012 and a total of $1.3 billion over five years in performance-based funding to institutions that successfully enroll and gradu­ate high-need students and enable them to enter successful employment.

Bring Competition to and Encourage New Approaches for Job Training.

Nearly $10 billion for Workforce Investment Act programs, which match unemployed people with jobs and give individuals with skill gaps the training they need to secure family-sustaining employment. The Administration will work with the Congress on a reauthorization bill that streamlines service delivery and breaks down program silos, better meets the needs of employers and regional econo­mies, holds the system accountable for serving all workers and job-seekers well, learns more easily from experience, and promotes innovation and reform based on what works. Recognizing that the best ideas often come from the bottom up, the Budget establishes a Workforce Innovation Fund that, paired with broader waiver authority, will encourage States, regions, and localities to break down barriers among programs, test new ideas, and replicate proven strategies for delivering bet­ter employment and education results in a more cost-effective way.

Establish New Economic Growth Zones. To bolster economic rejuvenation in hard-hit ar­eas of our country, the Administration proposes a new Growth Zone program that will deliver ex­panded tax incentives for investment and employ­ment and a more streamlined access to Federal assistance to 20 areas facing economic distress, but showing clear growth potential. Replacing the Empowerment Zone program, the Growth Zones will include a mix of rural and urban areas that will be selected through a national competi­tion that will judge their competitive strategies and their need and ability to attract investment and growth.

Unemployment Insurance (UI). The eco­nomic downturn has severely tested the ad­equacy of States’ UI systems, forcing States to levy additional taxes on employers, which undermines much-needed job creation. To provide short-term relief in these States, the 2012 Budget provides a two-year suspension of State interest payments on their debt and automatic increases in Federal unemploy­ment insurance taxes. At the same time, to encourage States to put their UI systems on firmer financial footing so they can better re­spond to future economic conditions, begin­ning in 2014 the Budget increases the maxi­mum wages subject to unemployment taxes to $15,000, a level then indexed to average wages.

REDUCTIONS

--Reducing funding for the Senior Community Service Employment Program and moving its function to the Administration on Aging to consolidate senior services and provide them more effectively.

--Cutting funding for the Teacher Quality Block Grant by close to $500 million and the Career and Technical Education (CTE) program by more than $280 million, shifting resources to initiatives more focused on re­sults.

--Eliminating 13 discretionary Department of Education programs and consolidating 38 K-12 programs into 11 new programs that emphasize using competition to allocate funds, giving communities more choic­es around activities, and using rigorous evidence to fund what works.

--Reducing funding for the Community Devel­opment Block Grant by 7.5 percent or $300 million.

--Cutting the Community Services Block Grant program (CSBG) in half and transforming it from a formula-based program to a competi­tive grant program for Community Action Agencies.

To see the President's full budget proposal click here.

Walmart Foundation "Beyond Jobs" program

[from Philanthropy News Digest]

The Walmart Foundation has announced a $2.5 million grant to Goodwill to expand its Beyond Jobs program, which helps single mothers find employment, succeed in the workplace, and permanently support their families.

The grant will enable Goodwill to launch the program in Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Los Angeles County, and New York City. In addition to job training and placement, the program creates personalized plans that outline what participants need to do to keep their jobs, advance in their careers, and ensure long-term financial stability for themselves and their children.

“Walmart Foundation and Goodwill Assist Single Mothers.” Walmart Foundation Press Release 2/08/11.

Department Announces February 14 Web Chat on FY 2012 Budget Request

Feb 11, 2011

Secretary Solis and assistant secretaries from Labor Department agencies will host a live Web chat to discuss the department's fiscal year 2012 budget request on February 14, beginning at 1:30 p.m. EST. A transcript of the chat will be posted on the department's website as soon as the chat has ended. Other budget documents, as well as a video recorded by the Secretary, will also be available on the website.

If you would like to If you'd like to submit questions in advance, please send them to webmaster@dol.gov with "Budget Question" in the subject line.

Join the Web Chat

Reintegration of Ex-Offenders – Adult Program Grants

The Employment and Training Administration (“ETA”), U.S. Department of Labor (“Department”), announces the availability of $11.7 million dollars to serve adult ex-offenders returning to their communities. The Department expects to award approximately 10 grants of approximately $1,170,000 each for a 27-month period of performance. Grants will be awarded to faith-based and community organizations (FBCOs) to provide pre-release and post-release services to ex-offenders returning to high-poverty, high-crime communities. These services will include job training and employment preparation, mentoring, and assistance connecting to supportive services such as housing, substance abuse programs, and mental health treatment. Specifically, the employment component of the grant will focus on the development of employment opportunities in in-demand occupations, including emerging “green” jobs. Applicants must describe their community’s need for reentry services and the degree to which reentry is an issue; describe their program’s design to provide services to adult ex-offenders that will result in employment in in-demand industries, including “green” jobs; and provide evidence of partnerships with the criminal justice system, local Workforce Investment Boards and One-Stop Career Centers, the local public housing authority and other providers of housing services, and mental health and substance abuse treatment service providers.

Recipients of these grants will be non-profit faith-based and community organizations (“FBCOs”) that are located in or have existing staff presence in the high-poverty, high-crime area to be served. This grant focuses on high-poverty, high-crime areas that are heavily impacted by a large proportion of ex-offenders returning each year and which experience high rates of recidivism. A single application may be submitted to serve multiple sites. However, applicants must demonstrate that they have an existing organizational presence in each of the identified geographic areas to be served. The application may not be for more than $1,170,000, with additional funding for multiple sites coming from other leveraged resources if DOL funding does not fully cover the cost of operating a multi-site grant. Previous recipients of RExO – Adult grants are eligible for this solicitation.

Link to Full Announcement

SGA-DFA-PY-10-10

Grant Competition Is About to Heat Up for Community Services Block Grant Grant (CSBG) and Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Recipients

[reposted from "Grant Writing Confidential"] February 6th, 2011 · by Isaac Seliger

Cuts to Federal discretionary spending are coming, whether at the larger percentages proposed by congressional Republicans, more modest levels offered by the Obama administration or more likely somewhere in between. An opinion piece in today’s New York Times highlights this new reality: “The Easy Cuts Are Behind Us” by Jacob Lew, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Between the political euphemisms and doublespeak, Mr. Lew actually lifts the curtain to offer several specific cuts to be proposed in the administration’s soon-to-appear FY 2012 budget, including the following two which have significant implications for thousands of nonprofit and public agencies across America:

* Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) Program: The CSBG Program has been around since 1981 and provides formula grants for the nation’s 1,086 Community Action Agencies (CAAs)—AKA “Community Action Programs” (CAPs) for those of us old enough to remember their inception in the original 1965 War on Poverty. States also receive CSBG funds, which are distributed in areas not served by a CAA.

In most states, CAAs are nonprofit organizations, although in California many cities and counties have absorbed the CAA into their bureaucracies. CSBG formula grants are the lifeblood of CAAs because the CAA only has to exist and file reports to get the money. While most CAAs receive a plenitude of other nominally competitive grants (e.g., Head Start, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), Weatherization, etc.), CSBG forms their financial bedrock. In larger cities and urban counties, CSBG block grant funds are sometimes made available to nonprofits through local RFP processes. Thus, CSBG funding is a big deal, albeit somewhat hidden from popular consciousness because most civilians and all reporters don’t have a clue that it exists. Here’s what Mr. Lew said about the administration’s plan for CSBG:

The president is proposing to cut financing for this grant program in half, saving $350 million, and to reform the remaining half into a competitive grant program, so that funds are spent to give communities the most effective help.

That’s right, a 50% cut—and making the CAAs compete for what’s left! Instantly, every CAA will be fighting with each other for the scraps of the CSBG program. This means that each CAA will have to get a lot better at grant writing, not only to get their piece of the shrunken CSBG pie, but to find other funding sources to make up the slack. The local nonprofits at bottom of the CSBG food chain will be in even in more dire straights, as many will lose a sure source of annual funding. As Snagglepuss says, Heavens to Murgatroyd!.

* Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program: The CDBG Program was created in 1974 and consolidated a slew of then-existing HUD discretionary grant programs into a single formula block grant to “entitlement communities,” which are more or less mid- to large-size cities and urban counties. Like CSBG, states also receive CDBG funds for use in smaller cities and rural counties. While entitlement cities and counties use CDBG funds for all kinds of public programs, most also make sub-grants to local nonprofits through annual RFP processes. The mechanics for all of this organizational walking-around money are five-year Consolidated Plans and their daughter Annual Action Plans, prepared by entitlement entities. CDBG funds not only pay for a lot of municipal and county administrative overhead and pet programs but also fund thousands of nonprofits. Although somewhat competitive through the Annual Action Plan process, lots of nonprofits have come to view their annual slice of CDBG pie as automatic.

Back to Mr. Lew, who has this to say about CDBG funding:

While we know from mayors and county leaders how important these [CDBG] grants are for their communities, and are very aware of the financial difficulties many of them face, the sacrifices needed to begin putting our fiscal house in order must be broadly shared, and we are proposing to cut this program [CDBG] by 7.5 percent, or $300 million.

If your agency receives CSBG, CDBG or most any other federal grants, it’s time to ramp up your grant writing efforts, as I have been advising for months. Don’t wait until the cuts take place. If you think grant seeking is competitive, wait a few months, and you will experience what those of us working with grants went through in early days of the Reagan administration, when wholesale cuts in federal funding were made. That round of cutbacks culminated with the demise of the ultimate free federal grant ride: General Revenue Sharing, which started in 1972 and ended with a thud in 1987. Today is Super Bowl Sunday, and like every player on the Packers and Steelers, all we can say is “put me in, Coach.” We’re tanned, fit and ready for the grant writing frenzy that is about to unfold.

My Next Move (for job seekers)

WASHINGTON — Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis today unveiled a new online tool called My Next Move. The tool is aimed at providing jobseekers with information on more than 900 occupations, as well as local job openings and training opportunities in a simple, user-friendly format.

Accessed at http://mynextmove.dol.gov, My Next Move is intended to assist all jobseekers. It may be especially useful for students, young adults and other first-time workers as they explore potential careers based on their interests. The new tool complements the department's "mySkills myFuture" site at http://mySkillsmyFuture.org, which is designed to help those with previous work experience match their existing skills to new occupations.

"This administration is committed to expanding opportunities for all Americans. That includes ensuring all workers — those with years of experience and those just entering the workforce — have the information they need to make informed career decisions and get good jobs," said Secretary Solis. "By leveraging technology in a user-friendly tool, My Next Move will help those seeking career guidance learn more about work opportunities in fields that are of interest to them and that are likely to have job openings today and well into the future."

The new website allows users to search for jobs by occupation, by industry and using the "O*NET Interest Profiler," which matches an individual's interests with suitable occupations by asking 60 questions. Since 2001, the department's Occupational Information Network, or O*NET, has used a 180-question version of the profiler that could be printed out or downloaded to a personal computer. The new, streamlined version is available online for the first time as part of My Next Move.

Users can also search for jobs in three categories: careers with a "bright outlook" in growing industries, jobs that are part of the "green" economy and occupations that have a Registered Apprenticeship program.

Each occupation that a user selects has an easy-to-read, one-page profile, including information about what knowledge, skills and abilities are needed; the occupation's outlook; the level of education required; technologies used within the occupation; and other, similar jobs. In addition, each occupation page includes direct links to local salary information, training opportunities and relevant job openings.

• Listen to the conference call audio (MP3)

Startup America Partnership

[from Philanthropy News Digest] As part of President Obama's national strategy to stimulate economic growth, the White House has announced the launch of the Startup America Partnership, a private-sector alliance that will work to increase the development, prevalence, and success of innovative high-growth firms in the United States.

Funded in part by the Case and Ewing Marion Kauffman foundations, the partnership will marshal private-sector resources to spur entrepreneurship in the U.S., with a focus on three key areas: Acceleration and Scale, Education, and Commercialization. AOL co-founder and Case Foundation chair Steve Case will serve as chairman of the alliance's board, which will include Kauffman Foundation CEO Carl Schramm as a founding member.

To date, more than a dozen firms have pledged support for the partnership, including a $200 million commitment from Intel Capital for new investment in U.S. companies, $150 million from IBM to fund programs that promote entrepreneurship, a $4 million expansion of HP's Learning Initiative for Entrepreneurs, and a $5 million expansion of the Blackstone Charitable Foundation's LaunchPad program. Additional events and programs will be hosted by Facebook, the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, Ernst & Young LLP, the Pearson Foundation, Google, and New Markets Education Partners.

"America's story has been forged in large part by entrepreneurs who have, against great odds, created innovative products and services that have changed the world — and created millions of jobs," said Steve Case. "Our nation once again looks to these creative risk-takers to unleash the next wave of American innovation, and I am pleased that President Obama has made supporting and celebrating entrepreneurs a major priority of his economic strategy. I am honored to chair the Startup America Partnership, and look forward to working with the White House to champion the creation of new start-ups, and help accelerate the growth of speed-ups."

“White House Announces Startup America Partnership to Foster Innovative, High-Growth Firms in United States.” Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation Press Release 1/31/11.