Dol Awards $25.9 Million In Grants To Help Veterans Find Jobs
More than 20,000 veterans will receive training to find good jobs thanks to 95 grants totaling $25.9 million from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL).The grants were awarded under the Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Workforce Investment Program (VWIP) and the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program (HVRP).
The grants are in addition to other programs the DOL offers including the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, which protects the jobs and benefits of servicemen and women returning to civilian life.
Funds are awarded on a competitive basis to state and local workforce investment boards, local public agencies, and nonprofit organizations, including faith-based and community organizations, which have familiarity with the area and population to be served and can administer an effective program.
The VWIP grants help veterans from targeted groups overcome employment barriers and ease their transition into unsubsidized jobs. Through these programs, veterans receive skills assessment, individual job counseling, labor market information, classroom or on-the-job training, skills upgrading and retraining, placement assistance and crucial follow-up services.
The Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS) expects the VWIP grants to provide training for 5,500 veterans, resulting in 3,200 finding jobs. Veterans receiving assistance under these programs may also be eligible for services under other Workforce Investment Act programs for economically disadvantaged or dislocated workers.
To help homeless veterans, 69 current programs have received second and third-year funding in the amount of $16.6 million. Nine new grantees have been awarded $2.1 million. HVRP expedites reintegration into the labor force of homeless veterans with barriers to employment.
The grants provide homeless veterans with occupational, classroom, and on-the-job training, job search help and job placement assistance, including crucial follow-up. VETS expects more than 9,000 homeless veterans to enter employment as a result of these grants.
Grantees under both programs network and coordinate their efforts with various other local, state, and federal social-service providers.
HVRP has been recognized as an extraordinarily efficient program and is the only federal program that focuses exclusively on employment of veterans who are homeless.