MANSFIELD — The Area 10 Workforce Development Board, which serves Richland and Crawford counties, has been awarded $300,000 in COVID-19 rapid response funds to be redistributed within the community.
The one-time award comes from the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services, which is asking the board to use the money for outreach to minority-owned businesses and Black male job seekers.
“We’ve never been given an opportunity like this before,” said board chair Jenni Paramore. “It’s such a wonderful time for us to be able to create outreach to businesses, to educators, to make new pathways to employment for the citizens of our community.”
Board Director Teresa Alt said funds could be used for a broad range of purposes.
Some examples Alt cited included supporting business growth or helping businesses adjust to new state regulations. Employers could use the funds for additional hires or employee training. The funds may also be utilized to provide students and job seekers access opportunities for education, training, career exploration or apprenticeships.
“What we’re looking for is someone to bring that specialized outreach services,” she said. “We tried to leave it really broad so that people, agencies and organizations can apply for what they’re best at.”
The board is accepting requests from any individual, business or organization. Those requests and questions should be emailed to teresa.alt@jfs.ohio.gov. The deadline for submissions is July 15 at 4 p.m. The board will review applications and make funding decisions at its meeting on July 21.
The funds become available Aug. 1 and must be spent by June 30, 2021.
Parties can apply together and initiatives involving community collaboration are encouraged. Due to the short turnaround time, the board is not asking for formal applications.
“It’s basically a description of how they intend to use the money,” Paramore said.
Alt hopes the grant will help form new connections between job seekers, businesses and the OhioMeansJobs centers in Richland and Crawford counties.
“We want to use that to build a relationship and create some bridges to underserved populations that haven’t been to our centers or are part of our businesses team,” she said.
Although the parameters for the use of funding were determined at the state level, they align well with recent recommendations from the North End Community Improvement Collaborative.
In its recent publication, The Richland County State of the African American Community Report, the NECIC listed five recommendations, three of which addressed the economic wellbeing and educational attainment of the local Black community.
These recommendations were to increase the labor force participation rate of Black residents, with a strong focus on men; to help non-white owned businesses without paid employees become profitable enough to hire paid employees and to increase the pre and post-secondary educational attainment of Black residents, with an urgent focus on men.
According to the 2017 American Community Survey, Black men in Richland county had a labor force participation rate of 32.2 percent between 2013 and 2017.
The same survey found that 17.8 percent of White residents had a post-secondary degree, compared to 7.2 percent of Black residents and just 5.6 percent of Black men.
A 2012 American Community Survey found that out of 747 minority-owned firms, only 151 had paid employees.
