OpportunityTitle: National Center on Leadership for Employment and Advancement of People with Disabilities (LEAD)
AdditionalInformationOnEligibility: III.  Eligibility Information  A.  Eligible Applicants  Eligible lead entities include public/private nonprofit organizations, for-profit organizations, (including, not limited to small businesses), and faith-based or disability-led organizations with relevant experience in technical assistance and policy analysis as they relate to increasing employment and economic advancement for people with disabilities. Such experience must include demonstrated capacity for work at both an individual and systems level, and prior development of deliverables including policy outputs.  The lead entity must document a consortium of additional organizations as appropriate to meet the requirements of this SGA.  The lead entity must have demonstrated experience in technical assistance, knowledge transfer and disability policy analysis at both an individual and systems level and must provide examples of this prior experience in the Appendix.  The lead entity must also lay out in clear detail the specific roles and responsibilities of each additional partner.  Consortium partners should provide a specific expertise vital to achieving one or more of the five target goal areas.   According to section 18 of the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995, an organization, as described in section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, that engages in lobbying activities will not be eligible for the receipt of Federal funds constituting an award, grant, or loan.  See 2 U.S.C. 1611; 26 U.S.C. 501(c)(4).  Funding restrictions apply.
Description: Summary: The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL or the Department), Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) announces the availability of approximately $1.1 million to fund one cooperative agreement to establish the Leadership for the Employment and Advancement of People with Disabilities (LEAD) national center. The Center will seek to improve employment outcomes and promote the economic advancement of people with disabilities by focusing on five strategic goal areas. First, the Center will stimulate and bring to scale innovative practices and solutions-oriented models focused on both sustainable systems change and improved practices at the individual level. Second, the Center will coordinate and provide state-of-the-art technical assistance, training and knowledge transfer capacity to workforce-related federal, state and local staff, grantees, subcontracting entities and external partners on evidence-based strategies and best practices. Third, the Center will translate emerging and successful solutions identified through demonstration projects and research focused on retention and return-to-work issues for individuals with disabilities, particularly mature workers. Fourth, the Center will assist ODEP in the development of policy by performing, upon request, rapid response to policy analysis and policy implementation questions. Finally, the Center will provide real-time accurate information related to disability employment and serve as a central locus and repository of information on best practices and successful employment strategies to both individual job seekers and the systems that assist them in securing, retaining, and advancing in employment. This cooperative agreement will be funded for one year with up to four optional years, pending acceptable performance and availability of funding. 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.
GrantorContactEmailDescription: Grant Officer
GrantorContactText: Cassandra Mitchell &lt;br/&gt;Grants Management Specialist &lt;br/&gt;Phone 202-693-4570