[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 143 (Wednesday, July 25, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Page 43616]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-18090]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR


Office of the Assistant Secretary for Office of Disability 
Employment Program, National Technical Assistance and Demonstration 
Center on Preparing Youth With Disabilities for Employment

AGENCY: Office of Disability Employment Policy, Department of Labor.

    Announcement Type: New Notice of Availability of Funds and 
Solicitation for Grant Applications (SGA) for Cooperative Agreements. 
The full announcement is posted on http://www.grants.gov.
    Funding Opportunity Number: SGA 12-06.
    Key Dates: The closing date for receipt of applications is August 
17, 2012.

Funding Opportunity Description

    The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL or Department), Office of 
Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) announces the availability of 
approximately $1.1 million to fund a cooperative agreement to manage 
and operate its National Technical Assistance and Demonstration Center 
on Preparing Youth with Disabilities for Employment (Center). The 
Center will continue to build upon the work of ODEP's previously funded 
youth technical assistance center, the National Collaborative on 
Workforce and Disability for Youth (NCWD/Y).
    The Center will provide technical assistance, training, and 
information to Workforce Investment Act (WIA)-funded youth programs and 
current and former DOL grantees to aid them in integrating evidence-
based effective practices for improving transition results for young 
people with disabilities enrolled in these programs. The Center will 
use the Guideposts for Success as a transition framework and recognize 
that youth, families, educators, workforce professionals and other 
stakeholders must work together to increase employment expectations for 
youth with disabilities. The Center will build capacity within and 
across both generic and disability-specific youth service delivery 
systems to improve employment and post-secondary education outcomes for 
youth with disabilities. To accomplish this goal the Center will focus 
on the following three areas:
    [ssquf] Career Exploration, Management and Planning: Providing 
technical assistance around strategies to improve pathways to further 
education and careers for youth with disabilities;
    [ssquf] Youth Development and Leadership: Increasing the knowledge 
and leadership skills of youth receiving services from a variety of 
systems, enabling youth to become engaged stakeholders and skilled 
contributors to youth serving systems;
    [ssquf] Professional Development: Working to increase the capacity 
of youth-serving systems to provide quality training to staff, which 
will result in improved services and better outcomes for all youth, 
including those with disabilities.
    The Center will work in collaboration with Federal, state and local 
agencies across multiple systems including education, workforce, 
juvenile justice, foster care, transportation, mental health, 
vocational rehabilitation and others on effective practices and other 
issues related to the transition of youth. To improve outcomes for 
youth ages 12 to 24, the Center will utilize social media and other 
electronic tools to influence its target audience of youth as they 
transition to adulthood and the people who support them, including 
their peers, families, educators, workforce professionals, and 
policymakers. The Center will maintain an accessible Web site 
containing online resources and publications and will conduct trainings 
both in person and electronically. The Center will conduct outreach and 
establish and maintain effective working relationships and 
collaborations with a broad range of entities with the goal of sharing 
knowledge and promoting the adoption and implementation of policies and 
effective practices that improve transition outcomes. The Center will 
contribute to ODEP's annual performance measures through the 
development of policies and effective practices, the dissemination of 
this information, and the promotion of their adoption and 
implementation.
    Funding of up to $1.1 million will be awarded through a competitive 
process for a 12-month period of performance, with the possibility of 
up to 4 option years of funding depending on the availability of funds 
and satisfactory performance.
    This solicitation provides background information, describes the 
application submission requirements, outlines the process that eligible 
entities must use to apply for funds covered by this solicitation, and 
outlines the evaluation criteria used as a basis for selecting the 
grantee.
    The full Solicitation for Grant Applications is posted on http://www.grants.gov under U.S. Department of Labor/ODEP. Applications 
submitted through http://www.grants.gov or hard copy will be accepted. 
If you need to speak to a person concerning these grants, you may 
telephone Cassandra Mitchell at 202-693-4570 (not a toll-free number). 
If you have issues regarding access to the http://www.grants.gov Web 
site, you may telephone the Contact Center Phone at 1-800-518-4726.

    Signed in Washington, DC, this 19th day of July 2012.
Cassandra R. Mitchell,
Grant Officer.
[FR Doc. 2012-18090 Filed 7-24-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510-FT-P