[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 105 (Wednesday, June 2, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 29672-29691]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-13920]


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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Employment and Training Administration


Office of Job Training Programs; Workforce Investment Act; Title 
I, National Programs: Youth Opportunity Grants

AGENCY: Employment and Training Administration, Labor.

ACTION: Notice of Availability of Funds and Solicitation for Grant 
Applications (SGA).

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training 
Administration, announces the competitive grants to be awarded under 
the Youth Opportunity initiative. Part I of this announcement provides 
the legislative authority and provides background information on this 
initiative; Part II provides instructions on the application submission 
process; Part III describes the Youth Opportunity Grant initiative; 
Part IV describes how to apply for urban and rural grants; and Part V 
describes how to apply for Native American grants. This announcement 
includes all of the information and forms needed to apply for Youth 
Opportunity Grants.

DATES: The closing date for receipt of applications is September 30, 
1999, by 4 p.m. eastern standard time. No exceptions to the mailing and 
hand-delivery conditions set forth in Part II of this notice will be 
granted. Applications that do not meet the conditions set forth in this 
notice will not be considered.

ADDRESSES: Applications must be mailed or hand-delivered to: U.S. 
Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, Division 
of Federal Assistance, Attention: Yvonne Harrell, Reference: SGA/DFA 
99-015; 200 Constitution Avenue, NW., Room S-4203; Washington, DC 
20210. Your application should specify on the cover whether you are 
applying for an urban, rural, or Native American grant. Areas that are 
not EZ/ECs are urban if they are located in metropolitan areas as 
defined by the Census.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Fax questions to Yvonne Harrell, 
Division of Federal Assistance at (202) 219-8739. This is not a toll-
free number. All inquiries sent via fax should include the SGA number 
(DFA 99-015) and a contact name and phone number. This announcement is 
also being published on the Internet on the Employment and Training 
Administration's Home Page at http://doleta.gov. Commonly asked 
questions and answers regarding these grants will also be published on 
the ETA Home Page. Award notifications will also be published on the 
Home Page.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Part I. Authority

    Section 169 of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998. Regulations 
applicable to this Act are at 20 CFR parts 660 through 671, published 
at 64 F.R. 18662 (April 15, 1999). Regulations specifically applicable 
to Youth Opportunity Grants are at 20 CFR part 664, subpart H 
(Secs. 664.800-664.830).

Background

    The Nation's overall unemployment rate is near its lowest level in 
almost 30 years, but there continue to be serious economic inequalities 
and pockets of poverty in this country. Youth living in inner-city and 
rural areas with poverty rates of 30 percent or higher face 
considerable barriers to succeeding in life. The employment rate for 
out-of-school youth in high-poverty areas typically is less than 50 
percent. In our country's largest urban school districts, less than 50 
percent of each year's entering 9th grade class graduates four years 
later. Many of these out-of-school youth are at risk of becoming 
permanently lost to the legitimate economy. The labor market is simply 
not working for these youth.
    The Youth Opportunity Grants authorized under Section 169 of the 
Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998 significantly increase resources 
available for serving youth growing up in high-poverty urban and rural 
areas. The Department of Labor (DOL) envisions that these new resources 
will be used as a complement to the Job Corps, School-to-Work, formula-
funded WIA programs, Department of Education programs, and other 
programs funded at the Federal, State, and local level to help youth 
make the transition to adulthood. We expect through these grants to 
develop high-quality programs that help individual youth find better 
jobs and increase their educational attainment. In addition to these 
positive outcomes for individual youth, we also expect to achieve 
community-wide impacts in increasing youth employment rates and 
educational attainment.

[[Page 29673]]

    The Youth Opportunity Grants also offer a chance to build improved 
systems for serving youth. Planning and implementing these grants will 
require local areas to think geographically in targeting resources; to 
coordinate more closely with the public school system, juvenile justice 
system, the private sector, community-based organizations, and existing 
programs providing services to youth; to retain dedicated staff over 
several years; to develop high-quality programs based on best 
practices; and to provide follow-up services to youth for a longer 
period than previously required by employment and training grants. A 
primary goal of Youth Opportunity Grants is to put systems in place 
that will be sustained after grant funds cease and result in long-term 
improvements in our capacity to serve youth.
    Grantees must assure that youth with disabilities have physical and 
programmatic access to programs operated with Youth Opportunity funds, 
and that programs include extensive and targeted outreach to ensure 
that eligible disabled youth are served under these initiatives.
    DOL also requires that grantees ensure that young workers placed by 
their programs receive on-the-job occupational safety and health 
training, and that employers guarantee that jobs provided are in 
compliance with all appropriate State and Federal labor standards, 
including child labor.

Part II. Application Submission Process

    This part pertains to ``ALL'' eligible applicants (Workforce 
Investment Boards, SDA administrative entity receiving JTPA formula 
funds, and Native American, JTPA section 401 or WIA section 166 
Grantees).

What Should My Application Consist of?

    You must include both a financial and a technical proposal. An 
original and three (3) copies of the application must be submitted. The 
application will consist of two (2) separate and distinct Sections: (1) 
The Financial Proposal, (2) the Technical Proposal. Your application 
must specify on the cover sheet whether you are applying for an urban, 
rural, or Native American grant. Areas that are not EZ/ECs are urban if 
they are located in metropolitan areas as defined by the Census.

What Information Should Be Included in Section I--The Financial 
Proposal?

    Section I must include your Financial Proposal which consists of 
the required forms listed in Appendix ``A'' (Cover Sheet, Application 
for Federal Assistance, SF424 and the Budget Information Sheet). Do not 
attach any documents on top of the ``Cover Sheet''. This sheet must be 
the first page of your application package. The ``Budget Information 
Sheet'' must reflect the 12-month initial grant period. The budget 
include on a separate page a detailed breakout of each proposed budget 
line item. For each budget line item that includes funds or in-kind 
contributions from a source other than grant funds, identify the 
source, the amount, and any restrictions that may apply to these funds. 
You should reserve funds in the budget for staff development and travel 
to training conferences. Also include in this section a two page 
Executive/Project Summary, and the letter from the Governor designating 
your area as eligible for award if you are not an EZ/EC. The Federal 
Domestic Assistance Catalogue Number is 17.249. This number must be 
placed in Block # 10 of the SF424.

What Information Should Be Included in Section II--Technical Proposal?

    Section II of your application will contain your ``Technical 
Proposal'' which should address the grant requirements identified in 
Part IV for urban and rural grants and Part V for Native American 
grants. Technical proposal must be limited to 30 double-spaced single-
side, 8.5-inch  x  11-inch pages with a 1-inch margin. The text type 
must be 12 point or larger. Attachments must not exceed ten (10) pages. 
Applications that do not meet these requirements will not be 
considered. Each application must include the Checklist provided as 
Appendix B. NO COST DATA OR REFERENCE TO PRICE SHALL BE INCLUDED IN THE 
TECHNICAL PROPOSAL.

May an Application Be Hand-Delivered?

    Applications should be mailed no later than five (5) days prior to 
the closing date for the receipt of applications. However, if 
applications are hand-delivered, they must be received at the 
designated place by 4 p.m., Eastern Time on the closing date for 
receipt of applications. All overnight mail will be considered to be 
hand-delivered and must be received at the designated place by the 
specified time and closing date. Telegraphed and/or faxed proposals 
will not be honored. All applications that fail to adhere to the above 
instructions will not be honored.

What Happens if an Application Is Delivered Late?

    Any application received at the office designated in the 
solicitation after the exact time specified for receipt will not be 
considered unless it:
    (1) Was sent by U.S. Postal Service registered or certified mail 
not later than the fifth calendar day before the closing date specified 
for receipt of applications (e.g., an offer submitted in response to a 
solicitation requiring receipt of application by the 30th of January 
must have been mailed by the 25th); or
    (2) Was sent by U.S. Postal Service Express Mail Next Day Service--
Post Office to Addressee, not later than 5 p.m. at the place of mailing 
two working days prior to the date specified for receipt of 
application. The term ``working days'' excludes weekends and U.S. 
Federal holidays. The only acceptable evidence to establish the date of 
mailing of a late application sent by U.S. Postal Service registered or 
certified mail is the U.S. postmark on the envelope or wrapper and on 
the original receipt from the U.S. Postal Service. Both postmarks must 
show a legible date or the proposal shall be processed as if it had 
been mailed late. ``Postmark'' means a printed, stamped, or otherwise 
placed impression (exclusive of a postage meter machine impression) 
that is readily identifiable without further action as having been 
supplied and affixed by an employee of the U.S. Postal Service on the 
date of mailing. Therefore, applicants should request the postal clerk 
to place a legible hand cancellation ``bull's eye'' postmark on both 
the receipt and the envelope or wrapper.
    The only acceptable evidence to establish the date of mailing of a 
late application sent by ``Express Mail Next-Day Service--Post Office 
to Addressee'' is the date entered by the post office receiving clerk 
on the ``Express Mail Next Day Service--Post Office to Addressee'' 
label and the postmarks on both the envelope and wrapper and the 
original receipt from the U.S. Postal Service. ``Postmark'' has the 
same meaning as defined above. Therefore, an applicant should request 
the postal clerk to place a legible hand cancellation ``bull's eye'' 
postmark on both the receipt and the envelope or wrapper.

How May I Withdraw an Application?

    Applications may be withdrawn by written notice or telegram 
(including mailgram) received at any time before award. Applications 
may be withdrawn in person by the applicant or by an authorized 
representative thereof, if the representative's identity is made known 
and the representative sign a receipt for the proposal.

[[Page 29674]]

Part III. Youth Opportunity Grant Initiative

What Is DOL's Vision of the Youth Opportunity Initiative?

    At DOL, the vision of the Youth Opportunity Grant Program, and all 
of its other youth programs, is to assist all youth, particularly those 
out of school, to acquire the necessary academic, technical, and 
workplace skills and work experience to successfully transition into 
adulthood, careers, and further education and training. The Department 
envisions a ``youth movement,'' involving partnerships with local 
education agencies, the private sector, post-secondary institutions, 
community-based organizations, and foundations. As well, we will be 
promoting public awareness of the Department's commitment to America's 
youth.

What Are the Objectives and Goals of the Initiative?

    The Workforce Investment Act specifies that Youth Opportunity 
grants are to be used to increase the long-term employment of youth who 
live in empowerment zones, enterprise communities, and high-poverty 
areas. Currently, both the employment rates and the educational 
attainment of youth in these areas are very low. DOL expects to achieve 
individual positive outcomes in job placement and retention, high 
school completion, and college enrollment. By serving large numbers of 
youth in target areas, DOL also expects to achieve community-wide 
impacts on employment rates, high school completion rates, and college 
enrollment rates.

Am I an Eligible Applicant for These Grants?

    You are an eligible applicant for these grants if you are a Local 
Workforce Investment Board (or, in areas that have not yet made the 
transition to Workforce Investment Boards, the administrative entity 
that receives formula funds for a local service delivery area (SDA) 
under the Job Training Partnership Act) serving a community that meets 
one of the following three criteria:
    (1) The community has been designated a federal Empowerment Zone or 
Enterprise Community (EZ/EC) by the Department of Housing and Urban and 
Development or the Department of Agriculture under section 1391 of the 
Internal Revenue Code of 1986;
    (2) If the State has no federally designated EZ/EC, the community 
has been designated by the Governor as a high poverty area; or
    (3) If the State has one or more EZs or ECs, the community is one 
of two additional areas in the state that the Governor has designated 
as eligible to apply for funds under this grant program. Such 
communities must meet the poverty criteria for EZ/ECs set forth in 
section 1392 (a)(4), (b), and (d) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.
    You may also apply for a Youth Opportunity Grant if you are a 
Workforce Investment Act section 166 (JTPA section 401) Native American 
Grantee and the community that you serve meets certain criteria. Part V 
of this grant announcement, which deals specifically with Native 
American applications, lists these criteria.

What Are Applicant Restrictions?

    Under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995, section 18, an 
organization described in Section 501(c)4 of the Internal Revenue Code 
of 1986 which engages in lobbying activities shall not be eligible for 
the receipt of Federal funds constituting a award grant or loan.

How Large Should the Target Area Be?

    We recommend that you make your entire EZ/EC the target area for 
this grant, except for the largest urban EZs with populations of over 
70,000. For these large EZs, we recommend that the target area be 
limited to a population of 70,000 and be among the poorest areas within 
the EZ. In the interest of fairness, we recommend that Governors follow 
EZ/EC population criteria in designating areas other than EZ/ECs as 
eligible for these grants. Thus, we are recommending that (1) cities 
with populations of over 700,000 have target areas limited to 70,000 
people; (2) cities with populations of less than 700,000 have target 
areas limited to 50,000 people; and (3) rural areas have target areas 
limited to 30,000 people.

Do Target Areas Need To Be Contiguous?

    For EZ/ECs that are not contiguous, local boards can submit the 
entire EZ/EC as the target area or a sub-part of the EZ/EC. For areas 
that are not EZ/ECs, we recommend that the target area be contiguous. 
Having contiguous areas will make it much easier for sites to operate 
their projects. Further, for areas that are not EZ/ECs or are part of 
EZ/ECs, the target area should follow existing and meaningful 
geographic, labor market, neighborhood, and economic borders as much as 
possible. Following service area demarcations that are meaningful to 
the local neighborhood will increase a project's chances of affecting 
community-wide change.

How Large a Grant May I Apply for?

    Cities serving a target area with a population of 70,000 can apply 
for a first-year grant of up to $12 million. Cities serving a target 
area with a population of 45,000 to 70,000 can apply for first-year 
grants of up to $8 million. Cities with target areas with a population 
of less than 45,000 and rural areas can apply for first-year grants of 
up to $5 million.

What Is the Grant Period?

    Grant awards will be made for an initial period of one year, with 
up to 4 additional option years based on the availability of funds and 
satisfactory progress towards achieving the goals and objectives of the 
grant. If the grant is extended to the third and fourth years, the 
grant will be reduced to 75 percent of the initial grant amount. If the 
grant is extended to the fifth year, the grant will be 50 percent of 
the initial grant amount.

What Is the Expected Number of Awards?

    We expect to award approximately 25 and 30 grants. Grants will be 
distributed equitably among local boards and entities serving urban 
areas, rural areas, and Indian reservations based on factors such as 
the poverty rate in these areas, the number of people in poverty in 
these areas, and the quality of proposals received.

Can DOL Migrant Worker Grantees Apply for These Grants?

    Separate funds have been authorized for new projects to serve youth 
from migrant and seasonal farmworker families, and these funds will be 
competed separately. Youth from migrant and seasonal farm worker 
families can be served in the rural projects funded under Youth 
Opportunity Grants, and we encourage sites to include services to such 
youth in these proposals, but Local Boards rather than Migrant Worker 
Grantees must apply for these grants.

How Will Applications Be Reviewed and Selected?

    The Department will screen all applications to determine whether 
all required elements are present and clearly identifiable. These 
required elements are discussed in the application process in Sections 
IV and V and are summarized in Appendix B ``Application Checklist.'' 
Failure to include all required elements will result in rejection of 
the application. Proposals will be reviewed by an independent panel 
including both federal staff and peer reviewers. Site visits will be 
made

[[Page 29675]]

to finalists. We will put more weight on site visits in this 
competition than we have in any recent grant selection process, and 
expect to meet with all key local partners during these site visits. 
The panel recommendations to the Grant Officer are advisory in nature. 
Final award decisions will be based on the best interests of the 
government, including consideration of geographic and urban/rural 
balance. The Grant Officer may elect to award grants either with or 
without discussions with the applicant. In situations where no 
discussions occur, an award will be based on the applicant's signature 
on the SF424 form, which constitutes a binding offer.

Will There Be Technical Assistance Conferences?

    Technical assistance conferences will be held at the following 
times and places:

June 15:  Washington, DC at the Hilton Washington Embassy Row Hotel, 
2015 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20036 (202-265-1600)
June 16:  Chicago at the Westin O'Hare Hotel, 6100 River Road, 
Rosemont, Illinois 60018 (847-698-6000)
June 23:  Denver (for Native American grants only, see Section V)
June 24:  Los Angeles (location to be announced on the DOL Home Page)
June 29:  Atlanta (location to be announced on the DOL Home Page)

    For general information and up-to-date information regarding these 
technical assistance conferences, please call 703-299-1680. You can 
register for one of these conferences by fax at 703-299-4589 or by e-
mail at [email protected]. To register, please include the following 
information: Full name, Title, Organization, Address, Phone, Fax, E-
mail, number of participants, and which conference you will be 
attending. Please identify any special needs. You will need to make 
hotel reservations on your own. Please call the above number for 
information on the hotels in which the technical assistance conferences 
will be held.

Who May Be Served Under These Grants?

    These grants can serve all youth who live in the target community 
who are not less than age 14 and not more than age 21 at the time of 
initial enrollment. We are looking for proposals that address the needs 
of both in-school and out-of-school youth. We expect that the largest 
share of funds from these grants will go towards serving out-of-school 
youth, with some grant funds and many complementary activities going 
towards decreasing the dropout rate and increasing the college 
enrollment of in-school youth. Project operators should take care not 
to give incentives for in-school youth to drop out of high school to 
participate in any programs offered here.

What Are Allowable Uses of Grant Funds?

    The allowable uses of grant funds are described in the activities 
authorized at sections 129 and 169(b)(2) of the Workforce Investment 
Act, and at 20 CFR 664.400 through 664.620 of the WIA regulations. 
Allowable activities include intensive placement services and follow-up 
services. (Specific examples of all allowable uses of funds, including 
intensive placement services and follow-up services are described in 
detail later in this announcement.)

What Restrictions Are There on the Use of These Grant Funds?

    The restrictions described at section 181 of the Workforce 
Investment Act and at 20 CFR 667.260 through 667.268 of the WIA 
regulations apply to the use of these grant funds.

Will There Be a Planning Period for Sites After Grant Award?

    We understand that it will take sites that have been awarded grants 
some time to hire staff, formalize partnerships, and locate and 
renovate operating space. We will work with sites and provide technical 
assistance from the beginning of the grant period to help sites avoid 
start-up problems and get off as fast a start as is possible. Most 
likely, sites will be able to start some components of their projects 
fairly quickly, and then gradually introduce other components.

Will DOL Conduct an Evaluation of This Initiative?

    DOL will conduct an evaluation of the Youth Opportunity Grant 
initiative. Grantees will be required to cooperate by providing 
enrollment and participation data and other information, but there will 
be no significant burden on sites for this evaluation. We also may 
require quarterly progress reports.

Part IV. Application for Urban and Rural Grants

What Should I Do if I Wish To Apply for an Urban or Rural Grant?

    Begin your planning process early and include the public and 
private sectors and members of the community. Suggested agencies that 
should be represented in the planning include local youth councils, the 
mayor's office in urban sites and county government in rural areas, 
One-Stop Centers, local employers, high schools and middle schools in 
the target area, EZ/EC Boards, the juvenile justice system, public 
housing agencies, community colleges, local four-year colleges, local 
Job Corps centers, representatives of Job Corps center industry 
councils, community-based organizations, local foundations, and faith-
based organizations. You should also try to get the community involved, 
including youth and their parents or guardians. This is not an 
exhaustive list. Considering how the various components in your project 
will be sustained after grant funds cease should be an integral part of 
your planning process.

What Will Be the Criteria for Award?

    Panelists will rate proposals based on answers to the questions 
which are more fully explained below in this section. DOL is especially 
interested in how grantees will sustain their programs after federal 
funds cease, and plans for sustainment will be a key factor for award. 
For urban and rural grants, the weight for each answer is as follows:
    (1) Need in the target area (no regular points, but up to 10 bonus 
points)
    (2) Project design and service strategy (40 points)
    (3) Management and accountability (20 points)
    (4) Sustainability: Public sector and community partnerships and 
complementary resources (15 points)
    (5) Private sector resources (15 points)
    (6) Dropout prevention plans (10 points)

How Should My Technical Proposal Be Organized?

    The technical proposal must be organized to follow the format and 
answer the questions below. The criteria below will be used to evaluate 
your proposal. Points will be deducted from applications that are not 
responsive to these questions. The technical questions are as follows:
1. What Is the Need for the Project in the Target Area? (up to 10 bonus 
points)
    Provide a good general description of the target area and the 
extent of poverty and other risk factors for youth. Most important, 
provide the population of the area in the 1990 Census, the poverty rate 
of the area in the 1990 Census, and the dropout rate of target area 
high schools calculated by showing the 9th grade enrollment at each 
high school in 1994 and the graduating class in June of 1998. If 
circumstances have changed markedly in the target community since the 
1990

[[Page 29676]]

Census, describe such changes and provide any additional information on 
the community. Also provide an estimate of the number of youth in the 
target community based on the 1990 Census or other information. 
Describe how the area compares with other communities in the city or 
State regarding poverty and unemployment. Describe what the target area 
looks like; its relation to downtown or the center of activity and/or 
commerce; the elementary, middle, and high schools in the area; other 
organizations in the target community that serve youth such as Job 
Corps, One-Stop Centers, and YouthBuild, and the number of youth they 
serve; and other features that will help us understand the area. Also 
provide a map of the target community, with schools in the area 
identified, and the planned location of program activities.
2. What Is the Project Design and Service Strategy? (40 points)
    The Department of Labor is committed to ensuring that several core 
principles underlie an effective youth strategy. These principles 
include: Providing comprehensive services; ensuring the participation 
of caring adults; a commitment to excellence; and guaranteeing long 
term follow-up to all youth participants. We are also committed to 
instilling in youth a sense of personal responsibility and 
accountability for their actions. These core principles must be present 
in all Youth Opportunity Grant initiatives. These principles are quite 
similar to the effective practices common to successful youth programs 
identified by the Promising and Effective Practices Network (PEPNet). 
Information from PEPNet can be obtained from the National Youth 
Employment Coalition at 202-659-1064 ([email protected]).
    Two critical components for ensuring that design requirements will 
be enhanced are: Youth Opportunity Community Centers, where most of the 
project activities such as case management should take place; and a 
core staff of youth development specialists serving as case managers 
who will play a critical role in recruiting youth and assuring 
intensive placement, follow-up, and other identified services are 
provided to youth. Applications must address how these two critical 
components will be provided.
    A. Youth Opportunity Community Center. We expect that Community 
Youth Opportunity Centers and perhaps some satellites offices will be 
set up in the target area. This center must be tied into One-Stop 
Centers serving the target area--either co-located at a One-Stop Center 
or as a satellite of a full One-Stop Center. The youth center must be a 
well-situated place where youth can enroll, receive an individual 
assessment, develop their service strategy, and meet with youth 
development specialists for referrals to job training, intensive 
placement, education programs, the Job Corps, other youth programs, 
follow-up, job development, and other services. It must also be a place 
where youth receive training in basic employability skills, and access 
to program information, referrals, and other youth development 
activities. Applications must discuss tentative locations for such 
centers and satellites. Also be specific about renovations that will be 
needed to establish the center, and the costs of such renovations.
    B. Core Staff. The staff must be of a size sufficient to handle the 
expected demand for services. We expect that typical urban sites will 
have a core staff of 40 to 50 youth development specialists and job 
developers working to place and retain out-of-school youth in private 
sector jobs and to keep in-school youth from dropping out of school, as 
well as up to 10 additional outreach workers actively recruiting youth 
into the program. For urban grants in target areas with populations of 
70,000, we expect even larger numbers of core staff. Rural sites will 
have smaller grants and may wish to have fewer job developers. Grantees 
must hold steady the amount of grant funds for core staff throughout 
the five years of the grant, even though the overall grant funding will 
decline over time. Your plan must also indicate the expected number of 
youth each case worker will be assigned to at a given point in time, 
understanding that, over time, many youth will require less attention 
and new youth can be brought onto the caseload. You must indicate how 
many staff will be working with out-of-school youth and how many will 
be working with in-school youth.
    C. Building a Better System for Serving Youth. Describe in this 
section the gaps in the current system for serving youth in the target 
community. Explain how the services provided under this grant will 
improve this system. Describe your vision of how the new system for 
serving youth will work as opposed to the old system. Also describe 
gaps that will remain, and plans for building capacity so as to 
eventually fill these gaps. The existing Out-of-School Youth 
Opportunity grantees applying under this solicitation should indicate 
how they plan to include and transition their current project into a 
larger initiative funded under the Youth Opportunity Grant.
    D. Program Activities. The framework for serving youth under the 
Workforce Investment Act and in this project must provide for: 
Individual needs assessments; individual service strategies; 
preparation for employment and/or post-secondary education; linkages 
between academic and occupational learning and connections to 
intermediaries; a menu of program elements; intensive placement and 
follow-up services; and access to information and referrals.
    Individual assessments and services strategies. Discuss how you 
will actively recruit youth through various strategies rather than 
waiting for them to apply. Provide a description of the individual 
assessment and service strategy development processes.
    Program elements. 20 CFR 664.410 lists ten elements that must be 
included in all local workforce investment area youth programs. These 
ten program elements can be grouped around four broad themes: (1) 
Preparation for and success in employment (including summer jobs, paid 
and unpaid work experience, and occupational skills training); (2) 
improving educational achievement (including such elements as tutoring, 
study skills training, instruction leading to a high school diploma, 
alternative school and dropout prevention); (3) support for youth 
(including meeting supportive service needs, providing mentoring and 
follow-up activities); and (4) services to develop the potential of 
youth as citizens and leaders (the concept of leadership and youth 
development). In addition, these program elements must incorporate 
preparation for employment and/or post-secondary education; linkages 
between academic and occupational learning; and connections to 
intermediaries for job development assistance. We are particularly 
interested in teaching methods which put learning in a real-world 
context. Applications must describe how each of these program elements 
is present in your project. While every youth does not have to be 
provided each of the ten program elements (with the exception of 
intensive placement and follow-up services), each site must ensure that 
they are available as the services will be provided on an individual 
assessment. Discuss how the array of services will be sequenced, and 
how various activities will be available taking into account the 
different ages, language proficiency, ethnicity, culture, disabilities, 
stages of development, and job readiness of individual youth.

[[Page 29677]]

    DOL expects that the costs for serving individual youth will vary 
greatly--from perhaps $20,000 a year for conservation corps programs to 
less than $2,000 for youth who primarily need job placement. The 
Department of Labor's budget presented to Congress assumes that the 
average cost for serving youth will be $5,000 a year in Youth 
Opportunity Grant funds. The average cost per youth can be supplemented 
with other resources. Applicants can use this average cost figure as a 
guide, but will not be penalized for proposing a different average cost 
figure.
    The program elements can be met in a variety of ways. Possible new 
initiatives which correspond to the required program elements include, 
but are not limited to, the following activities (where we refer to an 
existing program, we have provided a telephone number as well as a web 
site where available where additional information can be obtained):

--Pre-employment training emphasizing the development of positive 
social behaviors and then job placement, with long-term follow-up by 
case managers;
--A new alternative school started in partnership with the public 
school system, using average daily attendance funds as a match;
--A vocational training program modeled after the Center for Employment 
Training (CET) (408-294-7849) in San Jose, California;
--A pre-apprenticeship program to train and place youth in construction 
or other trades;
--Training programs to get youth interested in non-traditional 
occupations;
--On-the-job training with local employers;
--A YouthBuild construction training program (617-623-9900, 
www.youthbuild.org);
--A Youth Conservation Corps (National Association of Service and 
Conservation Corps, 202-737-6272, www.nascc.org);
--A work/study program started by the local community college;
--Offering incentives to youth for completing education or training;
--A dropout prevention program in the target area high schools;
--Expanded tutoring and mentoring programs for high school youth, 
including tutoring programs conducted by Sylvan Learning Centers (800-
338-2283, www.educate.com/home.html), Score! Educational Services (949-
363-6764, www.score-ed.com), and Huntington Learning Centers (201-261-
8400, www.tutoringhlc.com);
--Remedial education and GED courses, including those that lead to 
regular high school diplomas;
--A comprehensive sports, cultural, music, dance, art, and drama 
program;
--Expanded work-based learning opportunities for high-school youth, and 
2+2+2 programs with community colleges and four-year colleges;
--The Federal Bonding Program to cover job applicants, such as youth 
without prior work history, who employers may otherwise consider too 
much of a risk to hire (888-266-3562);
--English to Speakers of Other Languages services; and
--An on-the-job mentor training program operated by the local Chamber 
of Commerce designed to build relationships between youth placed in 
work experiences and local employers.
    Leadership development, citizenship, community service, and 
recreation activities. These activities are specifically authorized in 
the Youth Opportunity section of the legislation. DOL expects that all 
sites will place great emphasis on having youth participate in 
community service. We encourage applicants to coordinate with community 
service programs such as AmeriCorps wherever possible. Discuss plans 
for engaging both in-school and out-of-school youth in community 
service projects, and the skills you expect them to learn from these 
projects. Discuss plans for youth development activities, including how 
you will provide training in positive social behavior. For example, 
conflict resolution classes and diversity training can be provided. 
Also discuss peer-centered activities that encourage youth to take 
responsibility for their own lives, and efforts to develop youth 
leadership through activities that build decision-making skills, team 
work, and self-esteem. Comprehensive sports and cultural programs are 
one way grantees can instill leadership and a sense of community to 
participants. Leagues can be started in the target area in several 
sports for both boys and girls. Cultural activities can also be 
provided. Discuss the availability of existing resources such as 
cultural offerings and playing fields in the target area. Also discuss 
whether you will have youth sign a contract describing program rules of 
conduct, mutual responsibilities of enrollees and staff, and expected 
outcomes for each enrollee. Also discuss how you will involve the 
parents and guardians of youth and how you will involve youth in 
advisory boards.
    Intensive placement and follow-up services. As required under the 
WIA youth formula-funded program, intensive placement and follow-up 
services must be provided to every youth enrolled in the program. The 
Youth Opportunity Grant section of the legislation goes further in 
requiring that every youth must receive follow-up services for a 
minimum of 24-months. Describe complementary strategies for placement 
and long-term follow-up activities.
    One-Stop Center linkages. Describe linkages with local One-Stop 
Centers and how these connections will be accomplished. In most cases, 
we expect that the Youth Opportunity Community Center will be co-
located at the One-Stop Center or a satellite of the One-Stop Center.
    Job Corps center linkages. The plan must describe linkages with 
local Job Corps centers, and how these connections will be 
accomplished.
    Access to information and referrals. Project staff must ensure that 
eligible youth receive information on the full array of appropriate 
services available to them and referrals to appropriate training and 
educational programs. Discuss how you will tie into the existing One-
Stop system to provide such information and referrals.
    Serving youth with disabilities. Describe how you will recruit and 
serve youth with disabilities, and how you will assure that they have 
full access to programs under the grant.
    E. Case Studies. To help us better understand how your new system 
will work in serving youth in the target community, describe how your 
project would address the needs of the following youth. Feel free to 
add other details to these examples, and contrast how these youth would 
be served under the old system and the new system you are planning.
    Case Study #1. An 17-year-old who has completed the eighth grade 
has a history of substance abuse and school suspensions due to 
fighting, and has subsequently dropped out of school with a poor 
academic record. This youth has had limited and intermittent work 
experience at fast food restaurants, since the age of 14, but has never 
held any one job for longer than 3 months. This youth lives in a 
household headed by a grandmother who also cares for three younger 
siblings. This youth has had minor brushes with the juvenile justice 
system, but hangs out with other youth and young adults who have 
serious criminal records. This youth has been identified by a school 
counselor as having certain artistic gifts which have never been 
developed.
    Case Study #2. An 18-year-old is a teen mother. She has a learning

[[Page 29678]]

disability, and is not interested in returning to school. Her main goal 
in life is to be able to support herself.
    Case Study #3. A brother and sister have become involved in your 
program through sports activities you provide. The brother is age 19 
and has just lost his job after getting into a fight with his boss. He 
does not do well in school, and mainly he wants to work right now. The 
sister is age 15 and will be entering ninth grade in the fall. She has 
only average grades, but always gets one of the highest scores at her 
school on national standardized tests. She has a lot of energy, but has 
given little thought to what she wants to do with her life.
3. How Will the Project Be Managed? (20 points)
    A commitment to excellence and quality management reflect both DOL 
and PEPNet core principles discussed earlier in this section. You 
should discuss in your answer here how this project will be managed to 
ensure excellence.
    Program Structure. You must provide a diagram to show the sequence 
and flow of Youth Opportunity services. You must show coordination 
between Youth Opportunity sub-grantees and other programs and services 
in terms of recruitment, assessment, and referrals. Also show links 
between the Youth Opportunity program and complementary new activities 
promised by public and private sector partners. You should also show 
links between the Youth Opportunity program and existing services 
available to youth in the target community, including the Job Corps and 
other youth employment, education, and training programs.
    Fiscal Management. Describe the fiscal management systems that you 
have in place. Describe the fiscal management experience of your 
organization. How will you provide fiscal oversight of sub-grantees?
    Staffing Plan. Provide a staffing plan in which you discuss how you 
will select a project coordinator and the qualifications this person 
must possess; how you will recruit and retain quality staff, including 
paying competitive salaries; how you will select staff, with the main 
criteria for selection being their ability to motivate youth and be 
positive role models. We expect that most staff will have attended 
college, so that they can be role models for youth to further their 
education.
    Accountability. Which agency or agencies will hire the case 
managers and other core staff for this project? Describe why this 
agency was selected to be the lead for this project, the background of 
the agency, and current or past projects conducted by the agency. We 
wish to avoid situations in which case managers and job developers are 
spread out over several agencies, with little or no accountability to 
the lead agency. We also wish to avoid situations in which case 
managers are accountable to one agency and job developers to another. 
Where possible, the bulk of core staff should be hired by one agency, 
and then perhaps stationed at different sites. An alternative is to 
divide the target area into three or four geographic segments and 
assign agencies to be accountable for each of these segments.
    Expected Performance Levels. Your application must propose expected 
levels of performance. (The levels of performance will be negotiated 
with the Department before the grant is awarded.) Your plan must 
indicate the number of 14-18 year-olds and 19-21 year-olds you plan to 
enroll during the first year of the project. For 19-21 year-olds, you 
must indicate the number of first-year enrollees who will enter 
unsubsidized employment, enter education or training programs, join the 
military, be retained in employment for six months, one year, and two 
years, and the earnings of these youth six months, one year, and two 
years after placement. For 14-18 year-olds, you must indicate the 
number of first-year enrollees who will attain basic skills, work 
readiness skills, and occupational skills; attain high school diplomas 
or GEDs; and be placed and retained in post-secondary education, 
employment, the military, or apprenticeships. In particular, we want to 
know the overall number of youth who will be placed in jobs, school, 
training, college, and the military. You must also estimate the 
proportion of employers and participants who will indicate satisfaction 
with services received in surveys which you will need to conduct. You 
can also propose other performance measures for the indicators of 
performance described in WIA section 136 to either replace some of the 
above measures or complement them, and we will negotiate the measures 
with you prior to grant award. DOL expects to implement a performance 
incentive system in which the best performing sites receive some 
increases in grant funds, while sites not meeting their goals are 
subject to sanctions. Urban, rural, and Native American sites will be 
judged separately in determining these incentives.
    Role of Local Workforce Investment Board and Youth Council. DOL 
expects that the Local Board, through its Youth Council, will be 
heavily involved in this project and will be ultimately responsible for 
the project's success or failure. We also envision the chief elected 
official being accountable for the success of the project. We also see 
Local Boards taking the lead in helping business leaders see youth in 
the target community as a positive resource and their future workforce. 
How will the Board and Youth Council involve itself in the project so 
that it is responsible for the project's success? How will the Local 
Board provide programmatic oversight? How will the Board hold the staff 
accountable? How will the chief local elected official provide 
oversight and direction? How will the Board work with business leaders 
to promote the sustainment of the project after grant funds cease? What 
will be the relationship between the Board and the One-Stop Center? If 
you do not have a Youth Council yet, you can discuss your plans for 
developing the Council.
    Community Involvement. How will you use your Youth Council to 
involve the community served by this grant? DOL expects that each site 
will set up a community advisory board to participate in the planning 
and oversight of this project. You must discuss what the role of this 
community advisory board will be. You must also discuss how you plan to 
have community residents and families involved in program efforts, 
including sports leagues, cultural activities, community service, job 
shadowing, mentoring, and leadership development.
    Staff Development. You must discuss how you provide initial 
training and offer development opportunities to project staff, 
including educational opportunities at local community colleges and 
four-year colleges and additional training to help support the case 
managers and job developers with the demands of their jobs. Describe 
ways in which existing local resources such as technical assistance and 
supportive services from staff in other youth programs such as the Job 
Corps and YouthBuild can be used and integrated into staff development.
4. How Will You Sustain Your Program and Leverage Other Resources? (15 
points)
    Sustainability. Discuss in this section how you plan to sustain 
this project after grant funds cease. Your sustainment plan must 
include a combination of federal, state, and local public sector 
resources, as well as local non-profit sector resources. Sustainment 
must be built into the design and ongoing operation of the project. We 
are particularly interested in service strategies that can be sustained 
with average daily attendance funds provided through State Educational 
Agencies.

[[Page 29679]]

Encouraging community ownership and participation in these projects 
will also help promote sustainment. We especially encourage sites to 
commit increasing cash resources during the declining years of federal 
funding to encourage sustainability, and up to five of the 15 points 
under this criteria will be awarded based on the increasing cash 
commitments.
    Other Resources. You must discuss here how you will use Workforce 
Investment Act adult and youth formula funds to complement these grant 
funds, including having a One-Stop satellite center co-located with the 
Youth Opportunity Community Center. You also must discuss the role of 
the public school system, the EZ/EC Board, social service agencies, the 
Parks and Recreation Department, the juvenile justice system, the 
Police Athletic League, police, health service agencies, local charter 
schools, community colleges, four-year colleges, local foundations, 
Boys and Girls Clubs, adult education, YWCAs and YMCAs, 4-H Youth 
Development, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, parents, faith-based 
organizations, community development corporations, and State agencies, 
including State Educational Agencies, and any other potential community 
participants. You should also show linkages with agencies that serve 
youth with disabilities and youth who will be leaving foster care. 
Rural sites must show coordination with the cooperative extension of 
Land-Grant Universities, and with the research and extension of 
Regional Rural Development Centers.
    We also encourage grantees to use the Department of Housing and 
Urban Development's Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) funds to 
help renovate buildings for the new Youth Centers that will be needed 
for these grants. Other possible federal collaborations include 
Juvenile Justice gang prevention projects; the Department of 
Education's 21st Century Community Learning Centers, Kids in Family 
Camp, and Upward Bound programs; the Department of Agriculture's 
Children, Youth and Families at Risk program; Housing and Urban 
Development's Youth Build projects; Welfare-to-Work formula and 
competitive grants; School-to-Work local partnership activities; the 
Job Corps; the Department of Health and Human Services' child health 
and child development programs; the AmeriCorps and VISTA programs; and 
the National Guard's Community Learning and Information Network.
    We are not interested in promises of in-kind commitments 
representing already existing services. Rather, we are looking for 
detailed commitments for specific new activities in the target area. 
These commitments can be either to complement services to 14-21 year-
olds or to serve younger youth or young adults above 21 years old. If 
you have recently received a grant from another agency or started a new 
initiative in the target area, you can discuss this in the proposal--
but be precise about which activities precede this grant and which will 
occur because of the grant. You must discuss in this section how 
supportive services such as child care, substance abuse assistance, 
health services, and mental health services will be made available to 
enrollees through your partners. You must also discuss in this section 
how public sector commitments can contribute to the sustainment of this 
project after federal funds cease. It may be helpful to include a 
flowchart that describes the interrelationships between the various 
agencies and partners described in your plan. Examples of the types of 
public sector commitments we are looking for include the following:

--The Workforce Investment Board commits to use WIA adult formula funds 
and Welfare-to-Work funds for job training and placement in the target 
area, and to opening a One-Stop Center or satellite in the target area.
--The school system commits to starting an alternative school in the 
target community and to use average daily attendance funds, as well as 
funds from this grant, to operate the school.
--The school system commits to a major early intervention and dropout 
prevention program in the target area's elementary and middle schools, 
including home visits, modeled after the program operated by the 
Rheedlen Foundation (212-866-0770, or at www.pbs.org/jobs/
rheedlen.html) in New York City.
--The mayor's office commits to starting a comprehensive after-school 
program for elementary and middle school youth in the target community 
similar to the LA's Best After School Program (213-847-3681) in Los 
Angeles.
--The city commits to using CDBG funds to renovate a building for the 
Youth Community Opportunity Center.
--The Parks Department and the school district jointly agree to develop 
new baseball and soccer fields in the target neighborhood and to open 
school playing fields after school so that a comprehensive sports and 
recreation program can be developed in the community.
--The Police Department commits to increase community policing in the 
target community and an expanded Police Athletic League in the area, 
and the juvenile justice system commits to a new alternative sentencing 
program for youth offenders in the target community.
--The city starts a new program to assist youth leaving foster care to 
make the transition to independence.
--The local school board authorizes the use of school buses for 
transporting youth who participate in after-school training and 
education programs. (Oran MOU with the local Head Start agency to use 
their vehicles during non-Head Start time).
--AmeriCorps commits to financing education awards for a certain number 
of youth in the target area.

    Summary Table of New Initiatives. Your plan should include a 
summary table of the various new initiatives started under this grant, 
numbers of youth to be served by each initiative each year, and annual 
funding levels. An example of such a summary table is provided below:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                               Other
                                             DOL grant       resources
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Job developers/case managers (staff of        $1,800,000  ..............
 50)....................................
Outreach workers (staff of 10)..........         300,000  ..............
Pre-employment soft skills (500 youth @          500,000  ..............
 $1,000)................................
CET training (100 youth @ $6,000).......         300,000         300,000
Work experience (80 youth @ $5,000).....         400,000  ..............
Pre-apprenticeship (200 youth @ $5,000).         500,000         500,000
Local conservation corps (80 youth @             800,000         800,000
 $20,000)...............................
Alternative school (120 youth @ $8,000).         500,000         440,000
Community College 2+2+2 (100 @ $10,000).         500,000         500,000
Futures program in high school (500 @          1,000,000       1,000,000
 $4,000)................................
Sylvan, Score!, or Huntington Learning           200,000         200,000
 Center.................................

[[Page 29680]]

 
College Bound program (400 @ $2,000)....         800,000  ..............
Sports and cultural program.............         240,000         100,000
Transportation and supportive services..         500,000         500,000
Juvenile alternative sentencing program.         300,000         200,000
Gang prevention program.................         160,000         160,000
Renovation of Youth Opportunity Center..  ..............         500,000
Job Corps (80 youth)....................  ..............  ..............
                                         -------------------------------
    Total...............................       8,000,000       6,000,000
------------------------------------------------------------------------

5. How Will You Involve the Private Sector? (15 points)
    You must include in your answer here a description of the local 
labor market in the target area, city, and surrounding region--who are 
the employers, what kinds of jobs are available, the skill requirements 
for available jobs, the employment outlook, the unemployment rate in 
the area, and wage data for the area. You could also discuss the public 
transportation system, and the availability of transportation to jobs 
downtown and in the suburbs. A goal of the project is to expand the job 
horizon of youth to occupations and employers throughout the local 
area.
    Vocational training must be available for a range of occupations 
that are in demand locally and that offer career-track jobs. Identify 
the occupations for which you plan to provide training, the reasons why 
you selected these occupations, how employers will be involved in 
designing the training, and any commitments made by employers to offer 
apprenticeship, work-based learning, or employment opportunities. 
Describe how you will use existing vocational training programs like 
the Job Corps and vocational schools to assist in providing training.
    Discuss in this section the private sector role in your project. We 
are not looking here for vague promises of hundreds of jobs, but rather 
for detailed commitments for specific activities. Explain how you will 
identify potential employers, secure job commitments, and maintain the 
participation of those employers. Discuss new school-to-work 
initiatives that will be started in conjunction with this project, 
including new work-based learning opportunities. Explain the role in 
the project of business representatives on your local Workforce 
Investment Board or Private Industry Council, and the role of major 
Corporate Partnerships or Compacts in your area and the role of the 
Chamber of Commerce. Also discuss possible mutual agreements in which 
the private sector commits jobs or resources in exchange for 
commitments from schools, public agencies, or students. Also discuss 
how private sector commitments can help sustain this project after 
federal funds cease. Examples of possible commitments include the 
following:

--A consortium of major corporations agrees to be partners in the 
project and assign a staff person responsible for coordinating work-
based internships with target area high schools and identifying job 
openings within the corporations for target area youth.
--A firm agrees to be a corporate sponsor of the project and to make 
available its management expertise, advertising department, and other 
resources to the project.
--Local foundations and corporations form a public/private partnership 
to start a college access program for target area youth similar to the 
CollegeBound Foundation (410-783-2905) in Baltimore.
--A corporation adopts a high school in the target community and agrees 
to provide school-to-work opportunities for students and $1,000 college 
scholarships to all youth who graduate with a B average or higher.
--The local Chamber of Commerce recruits small business owners and 
operators to serve as mentors and entrepreneurial coaches for youth 
interested in business operation (including providing apprenticeship 
opportunities).
--A faith-based organization commits to finding mentors for 100 middle 
school youth in the target area.
--A university commits to providing 100 student volunteers for an 
after-school tutoring program in target area elementary and middle 
schools.
--Various community agencies commit to providing part-time jobs for 
youth in the target area.

    Special Note to Rural Areas: We fully understand that rural sites 
will not have as much access to private sector jobs and partnerships as 
urban sites, and that some extremely poor rural areas may have few if 
any private sector partners with which to work. Rural sites can still 
get full credit under this question if they make the best use of 
private sector resources available. For example, rural sites could 
propose either paid or unpaid internships at small stores or small 
companies in the target area. Rural sites can also substitute public 
and non-profit sector internships and job placements for private sector 
job placements. Rural sites can also propose strong school-to-work 
components, which include work-based learning opportunities and class 
trips to major corporations in nearby cities to expand the career 
horizons of students. Rural sites could also propose school-to-work 
efforts to expand the interest of students in science and technology 
careers.
6. How Will You Reduce the School Dropout Rate and Increase the College 
Enrollment of Youth in the Target Area (10 points)
    Increasing high school graduation and college enrollment rates are 
fundamental steps to improving the long-term employability of target 
area youth. In this section you must present a detailed plan for 
increasing the educational attainment of youth growing up in the target 
community. We expect that local public schools will have the lead in 
developing this section of the proposal, and that the plan presented 
includes new initiatives in target area schools and new collaborations 
with the public, private, and non-profit sectors. Dramatic increases in 
the educational attainment will require new dropout prevention efforts 
in neighborhood elementary and middle schools as well as high schools. 
Given the age restrictions on this grant, new dropout prevention 
efforts in elementary and middle schools must be paid for with other 
sources of funds. Your answer to this question must include both 
efforts paid for through this grant and new complementary efforts that 
are proposed. Your answer must clearly distinguish between what is 
being paid for by the grant and what

[[Page 29681]]

will be provided through other resources.
    Discuss current efforts and future plans for breaking large high 
schools and middle schools in the target area into ``houses'' or 
schools-within-schools. Discuss plans for reducing the student-teacher 
ratio in target area schools. A dropout prevention model that sites may 
wish to consider is the Futures Program operated by the City of 
Baltimore's Office of Employment Development (410-396-1910). In this 
program, entering ninth graders are provided remedial education in 
August prior to starting high school, receive various incentives 
throughout their four years of high school, and have case managers who 
are stationed at their high school. Other dropout prevention models 
include the Rheedlen Foundation's efforts to serve chronic truants in 
elementary and middle schools, the Quantum Opportunity Program 
developed by Opportunities Industrialization Centers (OIC) of America 
(215-236-4500), and the LA's Best After-School Program. Other options 
include hiring additional reading teachers, a new remedial reading 
program for middle school youth, or hiring outreach counselors to work 
with truant youth. Another option is tutoring programs in which high 
school youth, local Job Corps youth, or AmeriCorps volunteers serve as 
tutors for elementary school children. You may also want to introduce 
or expand Communities in Schools programs (703-519-8999) in the target 
area middle schools and high schools. You may also may wish to involve 
private sector educational services such as Sylvan Learning Centers, 
Score! Educational Centers, and Huntington Learning Centers. Grant 
funds can be used to pay for tutoring services for youth ages 14 and 
above, while matching funds would be needed to pay for tutoring 
services for younger youth.
    We would also like local community colleges, four-year colleges, 
and corporations to take on the challenge of increasing the college 
enrollment rate of target area youth. There are numerous ways 
corporations could become involved in such an effort. Baltimore's 
CollegeBound Foundation is a partnership of major corporations and the 
public sector that provides counselors and financial aid to help inner-
city youth enter college. The Chamber of Commerce in Detroit (313-596-
0478) guarantees college financial aid to youth meeting attendance and 
academic criteria. There are also examples of colleges making special 
efforts to serve youth from particular high-poverty areas. Berea 
College (606-986-9341) serves youth from Appalachia; Alice Lloyd 
College (606-368-2101) serves youth from specific counties in Kentucky 
and Tennessee; and Brandeis University (781-736-3500) has a program 
guaranteeing acceptance to youth in certain neighborhoods in Boston who 
meet specified criteria.

Should Letters of Support Be Included?

    You can include letters of support if they provide specific 
commitments. Such letters can increase your score by showing that 
commitments presented in the text of your proposal are serious. Form 
letters will not be considered. We encourage you to have letters of 
support from your chief local elected official and the public school 
superintendent. Letters of support must be included as part of the 10 
page attachment to your proposal.

Is a Letter from the Governor Required?

    If you are not an EZ/EC, you must include a letter from the 
Governor stating that your area has been designated as eligible to 
apply for one of these grants. We encourage State involvement in all of 
these projects and if the State is contributing resources to the 
project, then a letter indicating such support from the Governor would 
show that the State's commitment is serious. We especially encourage 
States to help rural areas prepare their proposals and to contribute 
resources to these grants, as these sites may not have the resources 
available to them that large cities will have. States must be given an 
information copy of all urban and rural proposals when they are 
submitted to the Department of Labor.

What Should Be Included in the Financial Proposal? (Please See Part II)

Part V. Application for Native American Grants

Can I Apply for One of These Grants?

    You may apply for a Youth Opportunity Grant if you are a Workforce 
Investment Act Section 166 (JTPA Section 401) Native American Grantee 
and the community that you serve meets both of the following criteria:
    (1) It meets the poverty rate criteria set forth in Section 1392 
(a)(4), (b), and (d) of the Internal Revenue Code; and
    (2) It is located on an Indian reservation or serves Oklahoma 
Indians or Alaska Native villages or Native groups (as such defined in 
section 3 of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act).

Can DOL Native American Grantees Serving Persons in State-Wide or Urban 
Programs Apply for One of These Grants?

    Except for the provisions pertaining to Oklahoma Indians and 
Alaskan Native Villages, Native American Grantees can only apply for 
projects serving reservations. Native Americans living in cities and 
rural areas outside of reservations can be served in urban and rural 
Youth Opportunity Grant projects and we encourage services to such 
youth in these proposals, but Local Boards rather than Section 166 
Native American Grantees must apply for grants outside of reservations.

How Large of a Grant Can I Apply For?

    Reservations with a Native American population of over 70,000 can 
apply for a first-year grant of up to $12 million. Reservations and 
target areas with a population of 5,000 to 70,000 Native Americans can 
apply for a first-year grant of up to $5 million. Reservations and 
target areas with a Native American population of less than 5,000 can 
apply for first-year grants of up to $2 million.

What Will Be the Criteria for Award for Native American Grants?

    Panelists will rate proposals based on answers to the questions 
presented below. The weights for each answer are as follows:
    (1) Need in the target area (no regular points, but up to 10 bonus 
points)
    (2) Project design and service strategy (40 points)
    (3) Youth development and community service (20 points)
    (4) Dropout prevention (20 points)
    (5) Management and accountability (20 points)
    These questions are discussed in more detail below.

Will There Be a Technical Assistance Conference for Sites Applying for 
Native American Grants?

    There will be a technical assistance conference specifically for 
sites applying for Native American grants on June 23 in Denver. It will 
be held at the Stapleton Plaza Hotel & Fitness Center, 3333 Quebec 
Street, Denver CO 80207 (1-800-950-6070). A block of hotel rooms have 
been reserved. Please indicate to the hotel that you will be attending 
the U.S. Department of Labor-Employment & Training Administration 
conference.
    For general information and up-to-date information regarding this 
technical assistance conference, please call 703-299-1680. You should 
make hotel reservations on your own, but we would also like you to let 
us know you

[[Page 29682]]

will be attending the conference by fax at 703-299-4589 or by e-mail at 
[email protected]. Please include the following information: Full 
name, Title, Organization, Address, Phone, Fax, and e-mail.

What Should My Application Consist Of?

    You must include both a technical proposal and a financial 
proposal. The technical proposal must be limited to 30 double-spaced 
pages and must be organized to follow the format and questions below.
1. What Is the Need for the Project on Your Reservation or in Your 
Target Area? (up to 10 bonus points)
    You must provide a good general description of the reservation or, 
in the case of Oklahoma Indians or Alaskan Villages, the target area. 
Most importantly, you must provide the Native American population of 
the reservation or target area, the Native American youth population, 
the poverty rate, and the dropout rate of target area high schools. You 
can use the best data available to you including statistics from the 
Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Department of Health and Human 
Services. Dropout rates must be calculated by showing the ninth grade 
enrollment at each high school in 1994 and the graduating class in June 
of 1998. You must also describe what the target area looks like; the 
towns in the area; the elementary, middle, and high schools in the 
area; other organizations in the target community that serve youth and 
the number of youth they serve; and other features that will help us 
understand the area. You must also provide a map of the reservation or 
target community, with schools identified and the planned location of 
program activities.
2. What Is Your Project Design and Service Strategy? (40 points)
    The Department of Labor is committed to ensuring that several core 
principles underlie an effective youth strategy. These principles 
include: providing comprehensive services; ensuring the participation 
of caring adults; a commitment to excellence, and guaranteeing long 
term follow-up to all youth participants. These core principles must be 
present in all youth Opportunity Grant initiatives. These principles 
are quite similar to the effective practices common to successful youth 
programs identified by the Promising and Effective Practices Network 
(PEPNet). Information from PEPNet can be obtained from the National 
Youth Employment Coalition at 202-659-1064 ([email protected]).
    Two critical components for ensuring that design requirements will 
be enhanced are: Youth Opportunity Community Centers, where most of the 
project activities such as case management should take place; and a 
core staff of youth development specialists serving as case managers 
who will play a critical role in assuring intensive placement, follow-
up, and other identified services are provided to youth. Your plan must 
address how these two critical components will be provided.
    A. Youth Opportunity Community Center. We expect that Youth 
Opportunity Community Centers and perhaps some satellites offices will 
be set up on the reservation or in the target area. The center should 
be a well-situated place where youth can enroll, receive an individual 
assessment, develop their service strategy and meet with youth 
development specialists for referrals to job training, intensive 
placement, follow-up, job development, other youth programs, and other 
services. It should also be a place where there is access to program 
information, referrals, and other youth development activities. If 
there is a tribal college on your reservation, this may be the most 
appropriate place to have the center. Discuss tentative locations for 
such centers and satellites and how the proposed Center meets the 
criteria discussed in this paragraph. Also, be specific about 
renovations that will be needed to establish the center, and the costs 
of such renovations.
    B. Core Staff. The staff must be of a sufficient size to handle the 
expected demand for services. We expect that reservations with total 
Native American populations in the 5,000 to 12,000 range will have a 
core staff of 25 to 35 youth development specialists working with 
youth. We would expect even a larger core staff for a larger 
reservation, and less core staff in smaller reservations. Sites must 
hold steady the amount of grant funds for core staff throughout the 
five years of the grant, even though the overall grant funding will 
decline over time. Indicate the expected number of youth each case 
worker will be assigned to at a given point in time, understanding that 
over time many youth will require less attention and new youth can be 
brought onto the caseload. You must indicate how many staff will be 
working with out-of-school youth and how many will be working with in-
school youth.
    C. Building a Better System for Serving Youth. Describe in this 
section the gaps in the current system for serving youth on the 
reservation or in the target community. Explain how the services 
provided under this grant will improve this system. Describe your 
vision of how the new system for serving youth will work as opposed to 
the old system. Also describe gaps that will remain, and plans for 
building capacity so as to eventually fill these gaps.
    D. Program Activities. The framework for serving youth under the 
Workforce Investment Act and in this project must provide for: 
individual needs assessments; individual service strategies; 
preparation for employment and/or post-secondary education; linkages 
between academic and occupational learning and connections to 
intermediaries; a menu of program elements; intensive placement and 
follow-up services; and access to information and referrals.
    Individual assessments and services strategies. Discuss how you 
will actively recruit youth through various strategies rather than 
waiting for them to apply. Provide a description of the individual 
assessment and service strategy development processes.
    Program elements. 20 CFR 664.410 lists ten elements that must be 
included in all local workforce investment area youth programs. These 
ten program elements can be grouped around four broad themes: (1) 
Preparation for and success in employment (including summer jobs, paid 
and unpaid work experience, and occupational skills training); (2) 
improving educational achievement (including such elements as tutoring, 
study skills training, instruction leading to a high school diploma, 
alternative school and dropout prevention); (3) Supports for youth 
(including meeting supportive service needs, providing mentoring and 
follow-up activities; and (4) services to develop the potential of 
youth as citizens and leaders (the concept of leadership and youth 
development). In addition, as required under program design, these 
program elements should incorporate preparation for employment and/or 
post-secondary education; linkages between academic and occupational 
learning and connections to intermediaries for job development 
assistance.
    Describe how you will ensure that each of these program elements is 
present in your project. Although every youth does not have to be 
provided each of the ten program elements (with the exception of 
intensive placement and follow-up services), each site must ensure that 
they are available. In particular, describe the supportive services 
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Supportive services can include, but are not limited to, 
transportation, life skills development, alcohol and drug 
rehabilitation, teen pregnancy prevention, and job retention skills. 
Supportive services need to be limited to 14 to 21 year-olds, but we 
encourage you to find other resources to address the needs of the 
entire family through other WIA funds, Welfare-to-Work Funds, or other 
resources. DOL expects that the costs for serving individual youth will 
vary greatly--from perhaps $20,000 a year for conservation corps 
programs to less than $2,000 for youth who primarily need job 
placement. The Department of Labor's expects that the average cost for 
serving youth will be $7,500 a year in Native American Youth 
Opportunity Grant funds. The average cost per youth can be supplemented 
with other resources. Applicants can use this average cost figure as a 
guide, but will not be penalized for proposing a different average cost 
figure.
    Work experience. Discuss how you will provide work experience for 
youth. In particular, you may wish to establish either a Youth 
Conservation and Service Corps or YouthBuild program, or both of these. 
Conservation and Service Corps (202-737-6272, www.nascc.org) allow 
youth to work on community service and environmental projects. Such 
programs can serve large numbers of youth, perhaps 100 at a time. The 
California Conservation Corps (916-324-4785, www.ccc.ca.gov/frame.ntm) 
is probably the best example of such a program. YouthBuild (617-623-
9900, www.youthbuild.org) teaches construction skills to enrollees 
while they rehabilitate houses and public buildings.
    Career development. Discuss adding new or expanded fields of study 
at the tribal college that would allow youth to get a college degree 
yet still return to work on or near the reservation if they so chose. 
For example, youth getting degrees in forestry and conservation would 
be able to find work for federal land management agencies near their 
reservation if they so chose. We are particularly interested in 
proposals that link new fields of study in forestry and land management 
with efforts to have the reservation become involved in land 
preservation and conservation. One example of tribal involvement in 
conservation is the work done by the Department of Resource 
Preservation in the Pueblo Jemez. We also are very interested in 
proposals that include linkages with state universities in which youth 
would take the first and possibly second years of study at the tribal 
college and then move on to the state university to complete the 
degree. We also are interested in links between land grant extension 
services at State universities and tribal colleges that could increase 
the number of jobs near the reservation in land conservation.
    Job training. Discuss how you will provide vocational training or 
on-the-job training in occupations in demand on or near the 
reservation. For example, job training could be provided in health 
professions or construction. We are particularly interested in 
commitments from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and nearby federal and 
State land management agencies to provide on-the-job training or work 
experience slots. Discuss possible links to nearby Job Corps Centers 
for vocational training.
    Intensive placement and follow-up services. As required under WIA 
section 169, intensive placement and follow-up services must be 
provided to every youth enrolled in the program. Since an increased 
level of funding is available under this initiative for intensified 
follow-up services, the requirement is that every youth must receive 
follow-up services for a minimum of 24 months. Describe complementary 
strategies for long-term follow-up activities.
    E. Case Studies. To help us better understand how your new system 
will work in serving youth in the target community, describe how your 
project would address the needs of the following youth. Feel free to 
add other details to these examples, and contrast how these youth would 
be served under the old system and the new system you are planning.
    Case Study #1. A 19-year-old who has completed the eighth grade, 
has a history of substance abuse, school suspensions due to fighting 
and has subsequently dropped out of school with a poor academic record. 
This youth has had limited work experience since the age of 14, but has 
never held any one job for longer than 3 months. This youth lives in a 
household headed by a grandmother who also cares for three younger 
siblings. This youth has had minor brushes with the tribal justice 
system, but hangs out with other youth and young adults who have 
serious criminal records. This youth has been identified by a school 
counselor as having certain artistic gifts which have never been 
developed.
    Case Study #2. An 18-year-old is a teen mother. She has a learning 
disability, and is not interested in returning to school. Her main goal 
in life is to be able to support herself.
    Case Study #3. A brother and sister have become involved in your 
program through sports activities you provide. The brother is age 19 
and has just lost his job after getting into a fight with his boss. He 
does not do well in school, and mainly he wants to work right now. The 
sister is age 15 and will be entering ninth grade in the fall. She has 
only average grades, but always gets one of the highest scores at her 
school on national standardized tests. She has a lot of energy, but has 
given little thought to what she wants to do with her life.
3. What Youth Development and Community Service Activities Will You 
Establish? (20 points)
    DOL expects that youth development will be a key part of Native 
American Youth Opportunity Grants. Youth development can include 
community service, UNITY (405-236-2800, www.unityinc.org) leadership 
development activities, and sports and cultural programs. Some examples 
of possible youth development activities include the following. Youth 
development specialists from your core staff could serve as the staff 
for these programs.

--The forming of a UNITY Youth Council in which youth identify and 
carry out community service projects. For example, on one reservation, 
youth councils have repaired homes of elders, become Big Brothers and 
Big Sisters to elementary school youth, and helped the Forestry 
Department by serving as guides and tree planting.
--A leadership development program in which youth visit other 
reservations to learn about their culture and tribal governments; visit 
Washington, D.C. to learn about the national government; and tour the 
United Nations headquarters to learn about international conflict 
resolution;
--Computer links to youth from other reservations and other exchanges 
and research projects with elders to help youth better understand the 
history and shared culture of the various Native American peoples;
--A community service project developed by UNITY in which youth help 
promote health on their reservation through a National Fitness 
Initiative;
--A comprehensive sports and recreation program, including baseball, 
basketball, and soccer leagues;
--A 4-H community service project in which older youth tutor younger 
youth; and
--An outdoors group in which youth participate in community service 
conservation projects, and also go on hiking, backpacking, cross-
country skiing, and camping trips.

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4. How Will You Reduce the School Dropout Rate and Increase the College 
Enrollment of Youth on the Reservation or Target Area? (20 points)
    DOL also sees efforts to reduce the dropout rate and increase 
college enrollment as critical to Native American Youth Opportunity 
projects. We are also interested in programs to better prepare youth 
for college so that they have a better chance of graduating once they 
get there. We are particularly interested in tribal colleges being 
involved in dropout prevention and college bound efforts, especially 
instances in which tribal colleges in turn are linked to State 
universities or other colleges. We would like to see dropout prevention 
efforts at the elementary, middle school, and high school levels. Given 
the age restrictions on this grant, new dropout prevention efforts in 
elementary and middle schools will need to be paid for with other 
sources of funds.
    Describe how you will reduce the dropout rate and increase the 
college enrollment rate of youth on your reservation.
    Dropout prevention and college bound programs you may wish to 
consider include the following. Youth development specialists from your 
core staff could serve as the staff for these programs. The following 
are some examples of successful youth development programs:

--The Futures Program operated by the City of Baltimore's Office of 
Employment Development (410-396-1910) provides entering ninth graders 
with remedial education in August prior to starting high school; 
students receive various incentives throughout their four years of high 
school; and students have case managers who are stationed at their high 
school.
--The Rheedlen Foundation (212-866-0770) in New York City begins 
serving chronic truants in elementary and middle schools. Case managers 
make home visits to the families of these children, and attempt to work 
with parents and guardians to get children attending school regularly.
--The Opportunities Industrialization Centers (OIC) of America (215-
236-4500) Quantum Opportunity Program combines entering ninth graders 
into groups of 20 or 25, and students stay with the same group and same 
youth worker throughout their four years in high school. Students 
participate in community service projects, receive remedial education 
and tutoring, make trips to college campuses and cultural events, and 
receive stipends and educational accrual accounts based on hours of 
participation.
--Sylvan Learning Centers (800-338-2283, www.educate.com./home.html), 
Score! Educational Centers (949-363-6764, www.score-ed.com), and 
Huntington Learning Centers (201-261-8400, www.tutoringhlc.com) are 
for-profit firms that provide remedial education and tutoring. Their 
programs can be set up both within schools or after school.
--Baltimore's CollegeBound Foundation (410-783-2905) provides 
counselors to let students and their parents know about college, take 
students on visits to college campuses, make sure that students take 
the necessary courses to go to college, take SAT tests, and apply on 
time to colleges and for financial aid. The program also works with 
colleges to get youth accepted, and provides ``last dollar'' financial 
aid if scholarships and loans do not fully cover students needs.
--A program being developed by UNITY takes students on trips to visit 
major corporations in order to widen the occupational awareness and 
aspirations of youth.
--2+2+2 Programs link courses in high school, community colleges, and 
four-year colleges to increase high school graduation and college 
enrollment rates. Such programs could be developed with tribal colleges 
and State universities.
--There are efforts in some communities to turn high schools into 
``high-technology schools'' with the latest generation of computers and 
software and teachers trained in computer technology.
--Bridge projects help youth make the transition from grade school to 
middle school, middle to high school, and high school to college. 
Examples of bridges to college programs include the American Summer 
Bridge program operated by the University of New Mexico (305-277-2611), 
and similar programs at Arizona State University, Northern Arizona, 
Montana State, and Stanford. The Tribal Institute for Business, 
Engineering, and Science also offers such a bridge program.
--The High Plains Rural Systemic Initiative funded by the National 
Science Foundation encourages youth to go into math and science 
careers, and similar efforts could be funded through this grant.
--Communities in Schools (703-519-8999) provide counseling and a 
variety of supportive services to in-school youth.
--State universities could form linkages with tribal colleges to 
guarantee admission to two-year graduates of tribal colleges; exchange 
professors; and share resources, research projects, and supportive 
services available to students.
--On reservations with State-funded public schools, the State could 
commit to additional resources for additional reading, math, and 
science teachers at the elementary, middle school, and high school 
levels.
--Summer Institutes could be set up at tribal colleges to give high 
school youth summer jobs, remedial education, and a chance to become 
familiar with college environments.
5. How Will the Project Be Managed? (20 points)
    A commitment to excellence and quality management reflect both DOL 
and PEPNet core principles discussed earlier in this section. You must 
discuss in your answer here how this project will be managed to ensure 
excellence.
    Program Structure. You must provide a diagram to show the sequence 
and flow of Youth Opportunity services. You must show coordination 
between Youth Opportunity sub-grantees in terms of recruitment, 
assessment, and referrals. You must also show links between the Youth 
Opportunity program and existing services available to youth in the 
target community.
    Fiscal Management. Describe the fiscal management systems that you 
have in place. Describe the fiscal management experience of your 
organization. How will you provide fiscal oversight of sub-grantees?
    Staffing Plan. Discuss how you will select a project coordinator 
and the qualifications this person should possess. Discuss how you will 
recruit and retain quality staff, including paying competitive 
salaries. In particular, discuss how you will recruit the project 
coordinator and youth development specialists, as these will be key 
people for your project. We expect that most youth development 
specialists will have attended college, so that they can be role models 
for youth to further their education. We expect that you will recruit 
widely--either regionally or nationally--for these positions.
    Accountability. Which entity (tribal government, tribal college, 
employment and training department) will hire the youth development 
specialists and other core staff for this project? Describe why this 
entity was selected to be the lead for this project and current or past 
projects conducted by the entity. If you have a tribal college on your 
reservation, the tribal college may be best positioned to be the lead 
agency. We wish to avoid situations in which case managers and

[[Page 29685]]

job developers are spread out over several agencies, with little or no 
accountability to the lead agency. We also wish to avoid situations in 
which case managers are accountable to one agency and job developers to 
another. Where possible, the bulk of core staff should be hired by one 
agency, and then perhaps out stationed at different sites. For a large 
reservation, an alternative would be to divide the target area into 
three or four geographic segments and assign agencies to be accountable 
for each of these segments.
    Your plan must propose expected levels of performance. (The levels 
of performance will be negotiated with the Department before the grant 
is awarded.) Your plan must indicate the number of 14-18 year-olds and 
19-21 year-olds you plan to enroll during the first year of the 
project. For 19-21 year-olds, you must indicate the number of first-
year enrollees who will enter unsubsidized employment, enter education 
or training programs, join the military, be retained in employment for 
six months, one year, and two years, and the earnings of these youth 
six months, one year, and two years after placement. For 14-18 year-
olds, you must indicate the number of first-year enrollees who will 
attain basic skills, work readiness skills, and occupational skills; 
attain high school diplomas or GEDs; and be placed and retained in 
post-secondary education, employment, the military, or apprenticeships. 
In particular, we want to know the overall number of youth who will be 
placed in jobs, school, training, college, and the military. You must 
also estimate the proportion of employers and participants who will 
indicate satisfaction with services received in surveys which you will 
need to conduct. You can also propose other performance measures for 
the indicators of performance described in WIA section 136, to either 
replace some of the above measures or complement them, and we will 
negotiate the measures with you prior to grant award. DOL expects to 
implement a performance incentive system in which the best performing 
sites receive some increases in grant funds, while sites not meeting 
their goals are subject to sanctions. Urban, rural, and Native American 
sites will be judged separately in determining these incentives.
    Community Involvement. How will the tribal government encourage 
community participation and ownership in this project? We encourage the 
tribal government to set up a community advisory board made up of the 
various partner agencies, community residents, and youth to participate 
in the planning and oversight of this project. Discuss what the role of 
this community advisory board will be. Discuss how you plan to have 
community residents and families involved in program efforts, including 
sports leagues and cultural activities.
    Staff Development. Discuss how you provide initial training and 
offer development opportunities to project staff, including educational 
opportunities at local community colleges and four-year colleges and 
additional training to help support the case managers and job 
developers with the demands of their jobs.
    Summary Table of New Initiatives. Include a summary table of the 
various new initiatives started under this grant, numbers of youth to 
be served by each initiative each year, and annual funding levels. An 
example of such a summary table is provided below:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                             DOL grant
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Youth Development Specialists (staff of 30).............      $1,080,000
Conservation corps (80 youth @ $20,000).................       1,600,000
Tribal College 2+2+2 Pre-Forestry Program...............         320,000
Work experience (50 youth @ $3,000).....................         150,000
Pre-construction training (50 youth @ $3,000)...........         150,000
Futures program in high school (100 @ $4,000)...........         400,000
Sylvan, Score!, or Huntington Learning Center...........         200,000
College Bound program (100 youth @ $2,000)..............         200,000
Youth Leadership Program (100 youth @$1,000)............         100,000
Community Service Projects (100 youth @ $2,000).........         200,000
Residential summer program (100 youth @ $1,000).........         100,000
Transportation and other supportive services............         200,000
Sports and cultural program.............................         100,000
Making the high school a ``High-Tech School''...........         200,000
Job Corps (50 youth)....................................  ..............
                                                         ---------------
    Total...............................................       5,000,000
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Should Letters of Support Be Included?

    You can include letters of support if they provide specific 
commitments. Such letters can increase your score by showing that 
commitments presented in the text of your proposal are serious. Form 
letters will not be considered. You must have a letter from tribal 
government and we encourage a letter from the tribal college if one 
exists on your reservation. Letters of support must be included as part 
of the 10 page attachment to your proposal. The closing date for 
receipt of proposals is September 30, 1999. Your application should 
specify on the cover sheet, whether you are applying for an urban, 
rural, or Native American grant.

    Signed at Washington, DC this 26th day of May 1999.
Janice E. Perry,
Chief, Division of Federal Assistance.

Appendices

1. Appendix A--Cover Sheet, Application for Federal Assistance 
(Standard Form 424), and Budget Information Sheet.
2. Appendix B--Application Checklist.

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