ETA – Face Forward 2: Empowering Court-Involved Youth Employment Grants

Intermediary Grant Applicants
Eligible applicants include any community or faith-based organization with 501(c)3 non-profit status or any Indian and Native American entity eligible for grants under WIA Section 166. Intermediary applicants must ensure that their sub-grantees are located in areas with high-poverty and high-crime rates. Organizations that received a grant as a result of DOL competition SGA/DFA PY 10-09, SGA/DFA PY 11-09 and SGA/DFA PY 12-03 are not eligible to apply for this solicitation.

For the purpose of this SGA, high-poverty and high-crime rates are defined below:
• High-poverty rate: communities with poverty rates of at least 30 percent (applicants must use American Community Survey (ACS) data to show the average poverty rate of the various Census Tracts included in their target community). For more information, see Section IV.B.3.
• High-crime rate: communities with felony crime rates within the targeted area that are higher than the felony crime rate in one or more adjoining communities (applicants must provide the strategy for determining the high-crime rate). For more information, see Section IV.B.3.

Intermediary Grant Applicants
Eligible applicants include any community or faith-based organization with 501(c)3 non-profit status or any Indian and Native American entity eligible for grants under WIA Section 166. Intermediary applicants must ensure that their sub-grantees are located in areas with high-poverty and high-crime rates. Organizations that received a grant as a result of DOL competition SGA/DFA PY 10-09, SGA/DFA PY 11-09 and SGA/DFA PY 12-03 are not eligible to apply for this solicitation.

For the purpose of this SGA, high-poverty and high-crime rates are defined below:
• High-poverty rate: communities with poverty rates of at least 30 percent (applicants must use American Community Survey (ACS) data to show the average poverty rate of the various Census Tracts included in their target community). For more information, see Section IV.B.3.
• High-crime rate: communities with felony crime rates within the targeted area that are higher than the felony crime rate in one or more adjoining communities (applicants must provide the strategy for determining the high-crime rate). For more information, see Section IV.B.3.

The core project components for these grants include: case management, mentoring, educational interventions, service-learning, occupational training in demand industries which lead to industry-recognized credentials, workforce activities that lead to employment, follow-up activities, and expungement and diversion. The expungement and diversion components will be provided through the juvenile justice system (JJS) and non-profit legal services organizations.

Grantees or sub-grantees of intermediary organizations must collaborate with the local components of the JJS to ensure court-involved youth receive referrals into programs as a means of diverting the youth’s juvenile charge(s), and collaborate with non-profit legal services organizations to provide legal services that assist program participants with expungement.

The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) plans to award four intermediary organization grants of $5 million each and approximately 16 community organization grants of up to $1.5 million each, totaling approximately $44 million, to provide services to court-involved youth between the ages of 14 to 24 that have been involved in the JJS and never convicted in the adult criminal system. Applicants may only submit one application in response to this solicitation. Applicants must choose between submitting an intermediary or community grant application.