Babaamaajimowinan (Telling of news in different places)

DEED Awards Grants for Youth and Adult Support Services

I am pleased to announce that DEED has awarded 18 grants totaling $787,200 in SFY 2020 to fund support services for youth, and three grants totaling $172,800 in SFY 2020 to fund support services for adults. The percentage of funds awarded to youth and adult focused projects reflects the percentage of youth/adult funding requests submitted to DEED.

DEED received nearly $5 million dollars in funding requests for SFY 2020, and only $960,000 was available for Support Services grant awards in the SFY 2020 funding cycle.

Grants focus on individuals from low-income communities, and/or young adults (ages 14-24) from families with a history of intergenerational poverty, and/or communities of color. Job preparation and training, internships, financial literacy, and academic and behavioral interventions for low-performing students are some of the services available to participants.

DEED adult support grants also focus on individuals from low-income communities and communities of color, but participants must be aged 18 or older and not currently enrolled in high school. Adult support grants provide employment preparation, job training, internships, financial literacy, and job assistance to fathers.

As part of the competitive grant improvement process we rolled out earlier this year, the team of reviewers, who represented both DEED and community organizations, read and scored each proposal for both grant programs. This was no small task, as DEED received more competitive requests for funding than we could fulfill. And this year, we set out to allocate more funding across the state; include new service providers, who target their services to individuals with multiple barriers to employment; and as part of our equity goal, ensure services are available to serve communities of color and new immigrants. I want to acknowledge and thank everyone for their work, especially those from across the state who gave valuable feedback and input to the process.

The twenty-one recipients of Support Services grants are listed below, pending contract finalization and financial review. I look forward to working with these organizations over the next year on programs that provide support services to eligible Minnesotans.

See details about the recipients on the DEED Developments blog.

--Deputy Commissioner Hamse Warfa

 

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