Supporting Statement: Career Pathways for Youth (CPY)

Funding Opportunity Announcement

Career Pathways for Youth (CPY)

Supplemental Justification

Supplemental Supporting Statement A: Justification

This request seeks OMB approval under the Paperwork Reduction Act for the unique information collection requirements in the Career Pathways for Youth, or “CPY,” Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). The Employment and Training Administration (ETA), U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), announces the availability of approximately $20,000,000 in grant funds authorized by section 169(c) of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), Public Law 113-128, Dislocated Worker Demonstration Projects for the pilot grant program, Career Pathways for Youth (CPY). Dislocated Worker Demonstration Grants (DWDGs) are discretionary grants awarded by the Secretary of Labor (Secretary) under section 169(c) of WIOA, which authorizes the Secretary to carry out demonstration and pilot projects relating to the employment and training needs of dislocated workers.

DOL continues to recognize the importance of summer and year-round employment opportunities to build the work experience of in-school youth (ISY) and out-of-school youth (OSY). In previous years, DOL and the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued a joint guidance letter that encouraged networks of state and local youth providers along with Public Housing Agencies to develop summer jobs programs for disconnected youth that provide employment, educational experiences, and essential skills, most recently in 2014.¹ The public workforce system provides services that assist disconnected youth with career guidance, job training, and work experience, including summer employment. Youth might also receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) services to support their employment.

The CPY grants are designed to provide resources to Local Workforce Development Boards (LWDBs) to expand and enhance existing summer employment programs and work experiences throughout the year for eligible youth and to implement innovative practices. The grants will require partnerships between LWDBs and local summer employment programs, employers, school districts, re-engagement centers, and other community partners to provide services to eligible youth that assist in the development of work experience and entry into career pathways. CPY grants are also intended to strengthen the alignment of partnerships under WIOA, in which LWDBs and partners collaborate to expand capacity to serve youth entering the workforce.

The Department anticipates awarding 10-11 grants of approximately $2,000,000 each to LWDBs. Up to 30 percent of the grant award can be used to pay for participant wages.

The target populations to be served are ISY, including those at risk of dropping out, and OSY dropouts, who are new entrants in the workforce, including youth workers with limited current or past work experience, ages 16-24, in high-poverty, high-crime communities. Work experiences to be provided include summer employment opportunities and part-time year-round employment for ISY and up to full-time work experience opportunities throughout the year for OSY.

The grant period for these projects is 24 months, which will allow time for 2 summer employment cycles and one full academic calendar year for ISY. The grant period will also allow sufficient time for work experiences throughout the year for OSY and part-time year-round work experiences for ISY, as well as other activities that will assist them to move toward jobs in career pathways in existing or emerging occupations.

Applications will include the following information collections: 1) Form SF-424 “Application for Federal Assistance,” separately cleared under OMB control number 4040-0004, 2) Project Budget, 3) Project Narrative, and 4) Attachments to the Project Narrative.

Electronic availability:

This grant solicitation is available on the grants.gov Web site. Based on past DOL experience, the Department anticipates 75 percent of responses will be submitted electronically.

Small Entities:

This information collection will not have a significant impact on a substantial number of small entities.

Assurances of confidentiality:

These grant solicitations do not offer applicants assurances of confidentiality.

Special circumstances:

This FOA implicates no special circumstances.

Burden:

Based on past experience, the DOL expects to receive approximately 65 applications from an equal number of respondents.  The ETA estimates public reporting burden for the information collection to average 20 hours per response for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining needed data, and completing and reviewing the collection of information.

65 applications x 20 hours = 1300 hours.

The DOL has increased the October 2014, average hourly earnings in the professional and business services industry of $29.29 per hour by 40 percent (total $41.01 per hour) to monetize this burden.  See The Employment Situation—October 2014, DOL, Bureau of Labor Statistics, http://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/empsit_11072014.pdf at page 32.

1300 hours x $41.01 = $53,313.00

The DOL associates no other burden costs with this information collection. In addition to the application, each grantee will be required to submit quarterly financial, performance, and narrative reports to the ETA. Those information collection requirements will be cleared under a separate control number.

Total burden: 65 respondents, 65 responses, 1300 hours, $0 other cost burden.

Supplemental Supporting Statement B: Statistical Methods

This information collection does not employ statistical methods.

1 http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ofa/resource/hhs-dol-and-hud-issue-joint-letter-encouraging-summer-youth-employment-efforts

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