Biden-Harris grants $71M for job quality, training, and access

The Facts -

  • Biden-Harris administration awards $71 million in grants to improve job quality.
  • Funding supports 27 organizations across 14 states, D.C., and territories.
  • Grants focus on critical sectors, youth career readiness, and public-private partnerships.


Funding supports 27 organizations serving 14 states, territories, District of Columbia

WASHINGTON

The Biden-Harris administration announced the award of approximately $71 million in grants to improve job quality, expand access to good jobs in critical sectors, and prepare workers for good-paying jobs being created by the administration’s Investing in America agenda.

Funding from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Building Pathways to Infrastructure Jobs Grant Program, Critical Sectors Job Quality Grants Program and Workforce Pathways for Youth program will support 27 organizations serving 14 states and the District of Columbia.

“The funding we’re announcing today advances the Biden-Harris administration’s goal of promoting worker-focused training programs that incorporate industry and worker voices,” said Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su. “The grants will help enhance access to quality jobs for care workers and people in other critical sectors, broaden high-quality job training and career opportunities for youth and strengthen public-private partnerships that prepare workers for high-quality infrastructure jobs.”

The department awarded nearly $38 million through the second round of the Building Pathways to Infrastructure Jobs Grant Program to enable 13 public-private partnerships across nine states to prepare workers for the good-paying infrastructure jobs. The funding announced today – with the $94 million the department announced in September 2023 – is a combined investment of more than $130 million to support the growing demand for a skilled infrastructure workforce.

Through the Critical Sectors Job Quality grants, totaling $13 million, eight organizations will design and deploy programs in 10 states to improve job quality and increase the availability of good jobs in the care, climate resilience and hospitality industries. The round of funding announced today aligns with the Good Jobs Principles developed by the departments of Labor and Commerce and emphasizes improving job quality within the care sector. Three recipients, representing half the total funding, will specifically focus on care occupations, including childcare and direct care workers.

The department also awarded nearly $20 million in Workforce Pathways for Youth demonstration grants to six national organizations that provide workforce development and training programs to youth after school and over the summer. The grants will help the organizations partner with state and local organizations that serve marginalized and underserved youth, ages 14 to 21, including Native American youth. These organizations will provide workforce readiness programming to expand job training and workforce pathways for youth, including soft skill development, career exploration, job readiness, work-based learning opportunities and work experiences.

As the Investing in America agenda continues to create good-paying jobs nationwide, recipients of the Workforce Pathways for Youth, Building Pathways to Infrastructure and Critical Sectors grants will help build an “opportunity infrastructure” in which workers understand what skills they need, have access to the training to develop those skills – without roadblocks or barriers – and are connected to those jobs early.

Recipients of the Building Pathways to Infrastructure Jobs grants

Recipient City State Amount
UNITE-LA Inc. Los Angeles CA $2,000,000
Contra Costa County Martinez CA $5,000,000
Humanmade San Francisco CA $2,000,000
City and County of Denver Denver CO $5,000,000
City of Refuge Inc. Atlanta GA $1,944,883
Jane Addams Resource Corporation Chicago IL $4,789,579
Revolution Workshop Chicago IL $2,000,000
Goodwill Industries International Inc. Rockville MD $5,000,000
Governor's Office of Workforce Innovation Las Vegas NV $1,998,841
Pursuit Transformation Company Inc Long Island City NY $2,000,000
Philadelphia Works Inc. Philadelphia PA $1,999,973
Texas A&M University College Station TX $1,997,570
Workforce Solutions Alamo San Antonio TX $2,000,000
Total Awarded $37,730,846

Recipients of the Critical Sectors Job Quality grants

Recipient City State Amount
Alaska Southcentral/Southeastern Sheet Metal Workers Local Union 23 Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee Anchorage AK $2,415,709
SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West Local 2005 Oakland CA $3,000,000
National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation Washington DC $499,890
Charles Stewart Mott Community College Flint MI $2,971,060
Workforce Development Board of Herkimer Madison and Oneida Counties Inc. Utica NY $398,657
Seattle-King County Workforce Development Council Seattle WA $3,000,000
Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO Seattle WA $500,000
United Way of Dane County Inc. Madison WI $147,384
Total Awarded $12,932,700

Recipients of the Workforce Pathways for Youth grants

Recipient City State Amount
After-School All-Stars Los Angeles CA $3,159,034
STEM Next Opportunity Fund San Diego CA $3,299,928
Bridges From School to Work Inc. Bethesda MD $3,294,240
National Urban League Inc. New York NY $3,300,000
Jobs for America's Graduates Alexandria VA $3,300,000
Phi Delta Kappa International Inc Arlington VA $3,299,998
Total Awarded $19,653,200

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