Section 840.90  Form of Grant Applications

a)         The Department will post one or more Notices of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) on the GATA Grantee Portal (https://grants.illinois.gov/portal/) seeking applications from eligible organizations contingent upon available funds.  Applicants shall submit their application materials by the deadlines set by the Department in the NOFO, which will be at least 30 days after the NOFO posting. The Department also may accept applications on a rolling basis with no set deadline.  The Department will post NOFOs to select new Clean Jobs Workforce Network Hubs at least every three years.

b)         The applicants will be required to submit an application package to the Department, which will include the following:

1)         Uniform grant application;

2)         Uniform budget template;

3)         Conflict of interest disclosure form;

4)         Mandatory disclosures form;

5)         Executive summary or similar requirement, which describes the applicant team, geographic regions to be served, partnership organizations, if applicable, the services to be provided and eligible populations to be served, brief description of the training areas or topics that will be delivered, anticipated goals and outcomes of the project, and the grant amount requested;

6)         Budget narrative;

7)         Technical proposal, which describes the program activities and outcomes that the applicant will support if selected and must include the following information:

A)        The applicant team's qualifications and capacity (e.g., capacity, experience and expertise of the applicant and applicant team to administer all elements of the Program).

B)        The applicant organization's documentation of need (e.g., identification of the specific targeted equity investment eligible communities or populations and the barriers they may face, workforce needs in the target communities and expected impact of the proposed project).

C)        A description of the applicant's proposed project plan (e.g., the training program's design and integration of the Curriculum Framework, plan for outreach and recruitment, program goals and anticipated outcomes, plan for delivering barrier reduction services, plan for transitions to employment, and the plan to create a program culture that incorporates core values).

D)        Information demonstrating the cost-effectiveness of the applicant's proposed program (e.g., justification of the main budget expense items and cost per participant, including barrier reduction services, costs of subcontractors and other partners and the ability for the applicant to leverage existing programs to improve cost-effectiveness).

8)         Resumes of existing key program staff and instructors that demonstrate capacity to complete the work outlined in the application.  For key staff and instructor positions that will need to be filled using Program funds, include a job description for each position, including individual qualifications sought for each position;

9)         Partnership agreements between the applicant and its partner organizations for the project. The agreements must detail the entity's information, key staff information, roles and responsibilities associated with the project and dollar amounts for specific services to be rendered;

10)       Memorandums of Understanding from employers who agree to consider hiring program graduates or offer on-the-job training or work-based learning opportunities; and

11)       Any additional information required to demonstrate the applicant's ability to administer a Program or that further supports the information submitted by the applicant for the proposed project.