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June 20, 2008

VIA/WIRED Awards over $1.2 M in grants to
regional workforce and economic development projects

Howell Lee, president of Valley Innovation Alliance (VIA), today announced that over $1.2 million in grants have been awarded to 16 different projects as part of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Workforce Innovation for Regional Economic Development (WIRED) initiative. VIA is the local region created through WIRED, for which Calhoun Community is the local fiscal agency.

According to Lee, the funded projects will in some way impact all 23 counties which comprise the VIA region.  The region is made up of 14 north Alabama counties (Blount, Colbert, Cullman, Dekalb, Franklin, Jackson, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Limestone, Madison, Marion, Marshall, Morgan and Winston) and 9 counties in southern middle Tennessee (Giles, Franklin, Lawrence, Lewis, Lincoln, Marion, Marshall, Maury and Wayne).

 “I commend the selection committee on their work in selecting the projects we funded for this cycle,” said Lee.  “We received 35 applications for some excellent projects and were able to fund 16 of these programs.  The committee had the difficult job of determining which proposals best met the established funding criteria while also considering which would have the most significant impact on our region, and they did an outstanding job in their deliberations and final decisions,” he added.

Grant awards for this cycle ranged from $21,150 - $158,862. Awards over $100,000 went to projects that were regional in scope and serve at least a 3-county area.

Grant proposals were evaluated on several criteria, which included the following: 

Sustainable:  Preference was given to activities that showed potential for sustainability beyond the one-year period of performance and the three-year period of the VIA grant.

Industry-driven:  Projects funded under the Initiative must meet needs of industry.  In the case of programs at the high school or community college levels, projects should also provide STEM skills that will allow students to move into careers in the selected industry clusters.

Replicable:  Successful projects should be replicable to other parts of the region and/or country.

Quantifiable Project Outcomes:  Applicants must demonstrate a results-oriented approach by describing the proposed outcome measures relevant to measuring success and the long-term impact of the project.  Grant awardees will be required to submit quarterly progress reports to the VIA Office based on these performance measures in compliance with US Department of Labor guidelines

Each criterion was valued at 25 points for a total of 100 possible points with five additional points possible for demonstrating active partnerships.(Funded projects are detailed below)

In addition to the 16 recent grant awards,  20  projects listed in the original grant proposal were approved by the U.S. Department of Labor as Jump Start projects funded through the VIA Initiative.   These included awards to Calhoun Community College, the Hudson Alpha Institute for Biotechnology, the Partnership for Biotechnology Research, the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce, AZ Technology, Biztech, Columbia State Community College, Motlow State Community College, Vanderbilt University and South Central Tennessee Workforce Alliance.

The Valley Innovation Alliance (VIA) is a non-profit 501(c)(6) organization covering a 23-county region in northern Alabama and southern Tennessee and is dedicated to maximizing and connecting workforce and economic development  and innovation across the region.

The Workforce Innovation for Regional Economic Development (WIRED) initiative was created last year through a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor with the ultimate goal of expanding employment and advancement opportunities for American workers and catalyzing the creation of high-skilled and high-wage opportunities.

Janet Kincherlow-Martin
Director of Public Relations
(256) 306-2561

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