Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 AmeriCorps Seniors Workforce Development | AC 11 04 22

Opportunity Information: Apply for AC 11 04 22

The Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 AmeriCorps Seniors Workforce Development grant opportunity is a discretionary funding program from AmeriCorps (CFDA 94.017) designed to help adults age 55 and older overcome barriers to employment and move into professional, skilled labor, or paraprofessional careers. The underlying idea is that service and volunteering can do more than meet community needs: it can also function as a structured pathway for older adults to build current, marketable skills, earn certifications, expand professional networks, and receive mentoring that supports job placement and longer-term career success after service ends. In practice, the program funds demonstration-style projects that combine meaningful service roles with intentional workforce development supports, positioning service as both a community benefit and a career development bridge.

The opportunity is rooted in the reality that older workers often face unique challenges when changing careers or reentering the labor market after time away. These challenges can include limited access to training aligned with today’s job requirements, lack of employer support, age bias or discrimination, and perceptions that older applicants are less viable candidates. AmeriCorps Seniors is using this funding to test and expand approaches that directly address these barriers by pairing service opportunities with targeted training, credentialing, and post-service mentoring and job support. Applicants are expected to clearly show how their project will recruit and engage people 55 and older and then move them along a pathway that leads to employment outcomes, not just volunteer hours.

A key feature of this competition is that it includes two programming tracks. One track is specifically tied to public health careers through a partnership with Public Health AmeriCorps. Projects in this Public Health Careers Track should both respond to local public health needs and advance health equity while creating pathways for older adults into public health-related roles. The second track covers all other career pathways and is intended for workforce development programming outside the public health focus. Applicants must choose the track that aligns with their proposed career programming, with public health-focused proposals routed through the Public Health Careers Track and all other career programming applying through the non-public health careers track.

Eligible applicants span a wide range of organizations and government entities, reflecting the program’s community-based nature and its interest in cross-sector workforce solutions. Eligible entities include state, county, city or township governments; special district governments; independent school districts; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; public housing authorities and Indian housing authorities; and nonprofit organizations, including both 501(c)(3) nonprofits and nonprofits without 501(c)(3) status (in both cases, other than institutions of higher education). The funding activity categories listed for the opportunity are broad, covering business and commerce, community development, disaster prevention and relief, education, employment and training, environment, food and nutrition, health, and income security and social services, which signals that projects may be rooted in many community contexts as long as the core workforce development purpose for older adults is central and well supported.

From an applicant perspective, the program is looking for proposals that treat workforce outcomes as a deliberate end goal and can explain the full pathway from recruitment to service placement to skills development to employment. That typically means describing the service assignments older adults will perform, the specific training or certifications they will earn, the mentoring and wraparound supports they will receive, and how the project will connect participants to employers or job opportunities in the target sectors. While the notice does not specify an award ceiling or expected number of awards in the provided excerpt, it does identify the opportunity as a grant competition administered by AmeriCorps, with an original application closing date of February 1, 2023, and a creation date of November 4, 2022.

• The AmeriCorps in the business and commerce, community development, disaster prevention and relief, education, employment, labor and training, environment, food and nutrition, health, income security and social services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 AmeriCorps Seniors Workforce Development" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 94.017.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2022-11-04.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2023-02-01. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education.

Apply for AC 11 04 22

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