Announcing Recent Federal Access Center Support for Applications to the Economic Development Administration’s Good Jobs Challenge

We’re excited to announce our support for two projects in coal-impacted communities for their applications to the Economic Development Administration (EDA)’s Good Jobs Challenge (GJC). Through this initiative, the EDA plans to make 5-8 awards totaling $25 million to support regional workforce training ecosystems. Successful projects will train and place workers in jobs that align with the Department of Labor and Commerce Good Jobs Principles, and will advance a key technology focus area to make their region more competitive in a given sector.  

The Just Transition Fund is proudly supporting projects led by the following organizations:

• • Maine Technology Institute and the Maine Forest Bioproducts Advanced Manufacturing Tech Hub: 
    • This project will strengthen the workforce in economically distressed regions of Maine by focusing on bolstering apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship models in forestry, manufacturing, and trades.

• • National Center for Therapeutics Manufacturing (NCTM), a member of the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station
    • NCTM and their partners seek to establish a regional certification, the Texas Regional Industrial Biomanufacturing Certification (TRIBEC), to enable workers to enter a promising career path in biomanufacturing.

Through our Federal Access Center, we help coal communities overcome barriers to accessing federal funds – high matching requirements, time-intensive application processes – and leverage historic amounts of available funding to strengthen local economies. If you are working in a transitioning coal community and need assistance applying for federal funds, please fill out this brief inquiry form to get started.