Grant Details

This announcement solicits applications for the WORC Initiative for grants serving the Appalachian, Delta, and Northern Border regions. The U.S. Department of Labor has designated the WORC Initiative as a Justice40 covered grant program. Many communities across the WORC Initiative meet the designation for distressed, and thus align with the principles of Justice40. As appropriate, applicants are encouraged to include distressed communities in their WORC applications.

The purpose of the WORC Initiative grants is to create economic mobility, address historic inequities for marginalized communities of color, rural areas, and other underserved and underrepresented communities, and produce high-quality employment outcomes for workers who live or work in the Appalachian, Delta, and Northern Border regions, enabling them to remain and thrive in these communities. The WORC Initiative is designed to address persistent economic distress by aligning community-led economic and workforce development strategies and activities to ensure long-term economic resilience and enable dislocated and other workers in the regions to succeed in current and future job opportunities.

Successful applications will propose projects that demonstrate clear and consistent strategies, activities, partnerships, and results that are built around the three Core Principles that are central to achieving the purpose of the WORC initiative: Promoting availability of good jobs, prioritizing equity, and driving and sustaining economic transformation.

Core Principle 1: Promoting Availability of Good Jobs The first Core Principle of the WORC Initiative is promoting the availability of good jobs, and building, expanding, or improving training programs that provide a skilled workforce to fill those jobs. Generally, a good job helps workers achieve economic stability and mobility, while prioritizing diversity and worker voice.

Core Principle 2: Prioritizing Equity The second Core Principle of the WORC Initiative is equity. For WORC Initiative applications, this means that successful applicants will design programs that prioritize efforts to recruit and improve the lives of historically underserved workers adversely affected by persistent poverty, discrimination, or inequality, including, but not limited to, Black, Indigenous, people of color; LGBTQ+ individuals; women; veterans; individuals with disabilities; individuals without a college degree; individuals with substance use disorder; and justice-impacted individuals.

Core Principle 3: Driving and Sustaining Economic Transformation The final Core Principle of the WORC Initiative is to ensure that the investment in the Appalachian, Delta, and Northern Border regions supports long-term, sustainable economic prosperity for individuals, businesses, and communities.

In addition to the Core Principles listed above, and to ensure that WORC Initiative projects are aligned with existing, community-developed priorities and strategies, successful applicants will clearly describe components, strategies, priorities or other elements of the applicable federal and state strategic plans for the WORC region (Appalachian, Delta, or Northern Border) for which the applicant is applying. The relevant plans for each of the three regional commissions representing the WORC regions can be found here:

• Appalachian Region:
  • The ARC Federal plan: https://www.arc.gov/strategicplan/
  • ARC state plans: https://www.arc.gov/appalachian-states/
• Delta Region:
  • The DRA Federal plan and all DRA state plans: https://dra.gov/funding-programs-states-economic-development/strategic-economic-development-plans-by-state/
• Norther Border Region:
  • The NBRC Federal plan: https://www.nbrc.gov/content/strategic-plan
  • NBRC state plans: https://www.nbrc.gov/content/resources