Date of Issue:  03/05/2004
	
Office of Issue:  AWI-04-02
	
Reference:  Building Partnerships with Faith-Based and Community-Based Organizations and A New Grant Opportunity for Workforce Investment Boards  - TEN 15-03

STATE OF FLORIDA
AGENCY FOR WORKFORCE INNOVATION

AWI Communiqué

DATE:	March 5, 2004

TO:		Regional Workforce Executive Directors 

FROM:	Lois A. Scott, Program Manager, One Stop Program Support

SUBJECT: 	Building Partnerships with Faith-Based and Community-Based Organizations
and A New Grant Opportunity 

PURPOSE: 
To educate workforce leaders about building new and successful partnerships between the WIA system and faith-based and community organizations (FBCO), and to announce a new grant opportunity for workforce investment boards (WIB) that successfully demonstrate the ability to partner with FBCOs.

Background:
The purpose of the Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (Center or CFBCI), and a key component of the President's Management Agenda for the entire Department, is to remove statutory, regulatory, and procedural barriers that prevent FBCOs from partnering with the WIA system.  In 2001, an audit by the Department revealed that both faith-based and community-based grassroots organizations are often under-utilized as partners in the workforce investment system.  As a result, the CFBCI launched the Touching Lives and Communities (TLC) pilot project in 2003 to bridge the divide between the local WIBs and FBCOs.  This notice requests that states and WIBs utilize the enclosed materials from the TLC pilot project and other studies to incorporate FBCOs into local WIB activities.

With that goal in mind, ETA will offer a unique competitive grant in March 2004 to WIBs that have successfully demonstrated the ability to form working partnerships with FBCOs.  The grant will build upon successful ETA grants from Program Years (PY) 2001 and 2002 that focused on the use of intermediaries to build partnerships between FBCOs and local One-Stop systems.

ACTION REQUIRED:
Disseminate to Regional Workforce Boards and Workforce Associates.

LINK: 
TEN 15-03

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