April 2022

Dislocated Worker and Federal Adult Programs

New Staff

Enock Kakuuku BBA, MSA joins the Dislocated Worker team as a Grants Coordinator effective March 23, 2022. Over the past 3 years, Enock has served as a Grant Coordinator within the Adult Career Pathways Program supporting multiple programs including Pathways to Prosperity (P2P), Southeast Asian Economic Disparities Relief, Minnesota Women and High-Wage, High-Demand, Nontraditional Jobs (WESA), Adult Support Services, newly legislatively funded programs such as the African Immigrant Community Economic Relief program. Prior to joining DEED, Enock managed Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and National Institute of Health (NIH) federal grants for more than 10 years, serving diverse and under-resourced populations. Outside of work, he enjoys spending time with his family, listening to audio books, gardening and watching movies. He has a Master of Science Degree in Accounting, and a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree in Accounting.

CLIMB WF1 Activities

Question from the Field:

Please provide an update on CLIMB WF1 activities and whether these activities are exempting individuals from engaging in required job search for Unemployment Benefits? What needs to be done by counselors/participants to ensure this exemption is applied to their UI benefits? (These activities and exemptions were impacted by COVID-19 UI benefit extensions)

Per the CLIMB Policy:

Impact of CLIMB on Participant’s Unemployment Insurance Benefits (UI)

Involvement in CLIMB allows a participant to start his or her own business, earn wages from that business and collect UI benefits at the same time. This impacts the participant’s UI benefits in the following ways:

1. The participant’s requirement to search for unsubsidized employment is waived. This allows the participant to focus on creating a business.

2. The cap on the number of hours the participant may work per week is waived. Many participants spend more than the average work week on their business.

3. Any income earned from the participant’s business does not impact their UI benefits. The participant may retain money earned from the business as well as their weekly UI benefits.

4. Any income the participant makes outside of their small business (i.e. working retail part-time) DOES need to be reported and their weekly benefit will be adjusted accordingly.

Opening a CLIMB activity in WF1 triggers a different UI benefits request process for the DW participant. Participants in CLIMB answer a different set of eligibility questions for their weekly UI benefits based on their entrepreneurial activities and not a search for unsubsidized employment. Due to this requirement, counselors or case managers must open the CLIMB activity in WF1 by the close of business of the Friday of the week the counselor and participant agree on this activity. UI will contact the individual to discuss how to fill out the required weekly online report. If a participant calls UI and they are not entered into WF1, they will not be able to fill out the CLIMB UI weekly benefits form.

The participant must apply for UI, even if they are receiving severance benefits. However, if they are enrolled in CLIMB, UI will not contact them about their CLIMB UI reporting until their severance benefits have run out.

Other Things to Note:

• UI applicants on the CLIMB program while receiving regular UI benefits are not required to take job offers. Their path to reemployment is to build and work their business.
• However, this is true only while receiving regular UI benefits. Once that person starts receiving any federal (PEUC) or state/federal (EB) benefits, the rules change. The individual may still be on CLIMB for DW purposes but is no longer exempted from other UI requirements such as work search, deductibility of earnings from self-employment, or the 32 hours work limitation.
• CLIMB participants are now requesting their payments online or on the automated phone system. Paper forms are no longer being used.
• A weekly report of new CLIMB participants is run from WF1 and provided to UI and UI then contact the individuals with instructions on how to apply for benefits.
• Questions about CLIMB can be directed to Rita Apaloo at apaloo@state.mn.us

Federal Disclosure Language

Question from the Field:

How do service providers follow the Federal Disclosure Language format provided in the March 2021 Partner Express when there is a mix of both federal and state funds and different funding levels for each (i.e. WIOA DW & State DW or WIOA Youth & MYP)? Also, what if service providers are in transition from spending one program year grant to the other, where providers are finishing spending PY20 grant funds but have also started spending PY21 grant funds simultaneously?

National and Regional Office have confirmed that this is a requirement, and we cannot bypass it. To make things easier, we suggest charging the development of any outreach promotion/materials to 1 grant versus multiple ones.

More information about the Stevens Amendment Language was shared in March 2022 Partner Express newsletter.

WIOA Adult, WIOA DW and State DW:

• PY20 Funding will expire on 6/30/22.
  • Submit any modification requests by April 29^th to allow the team time to process.
  • Submit any transfer requests by April 29^th to allow the team time to process.
• PY22 WIOA DW and Adult Planning Allocations were emailed out to local areas. The final numbers will be sent out once we have the final TEGL (est. April).

RETAIN (Retaining Employment and Talent after Injury/Illness Network)

• RETAIN demonstration project tests the impact of early intervention strategies on the stay at work/return to work outcomes of workers who have recently incurred a new injury or illness, or who recently experienced an exacerbation of an existing injury/illness that affects their ability to work.
• MN RETAIN is here to help. Interested individuals and organizations can visit mnretain.com to learn more about the benefits of MN RETAIN and fill out a referral request.
• Help spread the news! We want to serve as many eligible individuals as possible. Please share information about MN RETAIN with your networks. We can provide promotional materials upon request.

Please email all requests, reports, and technical assistance questions to the Dislocated Worker Federal Adult Programs general email at dwfaprograms.deed@state.mn.us

Dislocated Worker and WIOA Adult Performance Updates

Program Year (PY) 2021 Quarter Two (Q2) Performance Outcomes compared to Negotiated Goals

Here are the performance outcome spreadsheets for Total Dislocated Worker, State Dislocated Worker, WIOA Dislocated Worker, DWG, and WIOA Adult programs. These are best when printed landscape, in color, and on 11x17 size paper.

If needed in an alternative format contact amy.carlson@state.mn.us

If needed in an alternative format contact amy.carlson@state.mn.us

If needed in an alternative format contact amy.carlson@state.mn.us

If needed in an alternative format contact amy.carlson@state.mn.us

If needed in an alternative format contact amy.carlson@state.mn.us

• Performance goals based on WlOA negotiated standards for PY2021
• Color Key:
  • Blue are the negotiated performance standards
  • Green means the set goal was met or exceeded
  • Yellow means at least 50% of the goal was met
  • Red means less than 50% of the goal was met
• Served is all participants accessing the program during the actual program year (real-time)
• Getting a Job results based on exiters July 1, 2020 – December 31, 2020 except those exited with exclusion. This indicator measures each exiter's employment status during the 2nd quarter after exiting the program. Formula: Percent of employed exiters divided by all exiters during the reporting period.
• Keeping a Job results based on exiters January 1, 2020 – June 30, 2020 except those exited with exclusion. This indicator measures each exiter's employment status during the 4th quarter after exiting the program. Formula: Percent of employed exiters divided by all exiters during the reporting period.
• 2nd Quarter Median Earnings results based on exiters July 1, 2020 – December 31, 2020 except those exited with exclusionary reason and those showing zero earnings. This indicator measures the median earning during the 2nd quarter after exiting the program.

Credential Attainment results based on exiters January 1, 2020 – June 30, 2020 except those exited with exclusionary reason and those who did not attend credential type training. This indicator measures the percent of participants who received a credential after attending training.                                                    

Cases accessing PY2020 Dislocated Worker (DW) and WIOA Adult (AD) Allocations

Reminder: PY2020 allocations will be expiring on June 30, 2020.

If needed in an alternative format contact amy.carlson@state.mn.us

All cases showing the following funding streams within an open activity will need your attention.

If needed in an alternative format contact amy.carlson@state.mn.us

If the participant will continue receiving a service currently supported by PY2020 allocations after June 30, 2022, a new activity will need to be opened for each service the participant will continue.

Reminder: All Dislocated Worker and WIOA Adult program year formula allocations (small layoff grants/WIOA Adult allotments) remain active for two years.

• PY2020 = July 1, 2020 – June 30, 2022
• PY2021 = July 1, 2021 – June 30, 2023
• PY2022 = July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2024

This means, the new activity will need a PY2021 or PY2022 formula grant selected within them depending on your agencies budget.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION TO KNOW

• All activities with a PY2020 allocation selected within them cannot have a start date after June 30, 2022 and must have an end date no later than June 30, 2022.
• If any participant will continue participating in an activity that is currently showing a PY2020 allocation supporting that service, that activity needs to be copied within their activity detail screen.
  • The new activity will need a start date of July 1, 2022
  • An active funding source (PY2021 or PY2022) will need to be selected within them.
• To help in this funding source transition
  • Amy Carlson will mass close all currently open PY2020 funded activities with an end date of June 30, 2022, which means you will only need to open/copy the old activities. If you want to close the old activities yourself with a date no later than 06/30/2022, that is fine. If you choose not to close them yourself, it will be taken care of for you.
  • This mass activity closure will begin August 1, 2022.
  • If there are cases without other open activities on record showing a different funding source, this mass closure will not work for those cases. Any cases that show they cannot be included in the PY2020 funded activity closure will be emailed to the management team for the COFFR funding the case with direction on how the case manager needs to correct the data.
• Shortly after July 1, 2022, additional funding streams will be added to your dropdown lists for PY2022 allocations. The date these new funding streams will be available is dependent on when PY2022 contracts are in place. Your management teams will be alerted as soon as your agency’s PY2022 funding streams are available in WF1.

Should you have any performance or data entry questions, please contact the State Program Administrator Coordinator for ETP Adult programs, Amy Carlson, at amy.carlson@state.mn.us

Adult Career Pathways

Team Updates

The Adult Career Pathways webpage has been updated! We are excited with the ease of the new site and encourage all Grantees to check it out at https://mn.gov/deed/programs-services/adult-career-pathways/.

Quarterly Report templates are posted to each program page on the ACP webpage. As a reminder, the reports are due the 30^th of the month following the end of the quarter (April 30, July 30, October 30, January 30).

Legislative Direct Appropriation Grants

Pay-for-Performance

The ACP Team has provided additional information for adult pay-for-performance direct appropriation Grantees on our updated webpage and within the Program Operations Guide. We encourage all Grantees to review those resources for useful information. 

Adult Direct Appropriation

Currently, the ACP team is managing 16 adult directly appropriated contracts. With the additional Workforce One options, tracking your participants within the system’s funding stream will assist with accurate reporting. 

Competitive Grants

The ACP team is busy finalizing the last few competitive contracts for SFY22. We anticipate beginning to send out workplan documents for SFY23 in late April as those will begin July 1, 2022.

As a reminder, your organization’s new SFY 22 Funding Streams will not be available in Workforce One until all parties have signed the contract and the finalized/executed contract has been emailed to the grantee.

We encourage grantees to begin preparing for the end of COVID waivers. Please be sure to review the current waivers and reach out to your Coordinator if you have any questions.

The Internationally Trained Professionals RFP was re-released on Feb. 9; proposals were due to DEED by Mar. 28,2022 by 5:00pm (CST). The team is currently in the process of reviewing proposals received and anticipate an award notification on or around April 15, 2022.

The Targeted Community Capital Project awards were announced Friday, March 25, 2022. These funds will provide $17.1 million to non-profits organizations and government entities within Minnesota for capital projects. Projects utilizing these funds must result in providing, increasing, and/or expanding access to economic development, education or workforce development programs or services to underserved communities or economically disadvantaged persons or groups. The ACP team is excited to see these projects begin!

Workforce One - ACP Programs

Two Workforce One training sessions specific for ACP programs were held on Feb. 22 (for Pathways to Prosperity providers only) and Mar. 1 (for all other ACP providers). Both sessions were recorded and are now available for viewing on the ACP Webpage.

SNAP E&T 50/50

Invitations to participate in SFY22 SNAP E&T 50% Reimbursement program have been sent to those organizations who indicated interest on their primary application. If you have not heard from me and are interested, please contact Ann Meyers at ann.meyers@state.mn.us.

MN Family Resiliency Partnership (formerly known as Displaced Homemaker Program)

A Request for Proposal was released Monday, April 4 to the DEED Grants and Contracts webpage

“The Department of Employment and Economic Development, through its Employment & Training Division’s Adult Career Pathways programs, is seeking proposals from qualified responders to provide services to eligible Minnesota (MN) Family Resiliency Partnership (federally known as Displaced Homemaker Program) adults in the Southeast region of Minnesota. Specifically, a responder to serve Houston, Fillmore, Mower, Winona, Olmsted, Dodge, Wabasha, Goodhue, Freeborn, Rice, and Steele counties.”

Information about the Minnesota Family Resiliency Partnership program can be found on DEED’s ACP webpage.

Adult Career Pathways Guides

Even during these busy times, the ACP team continues to update the Operations Guide posted at the ACP home page. This guide does NOT include measures implemented in response to COVID-19, which are listed separately.

The ACP Workforce One Guide is updated and is now posted to the ACP Webpage!

Please contact your Adult Career Pathways Grant Coordinator directly with any questions regarding Adult Career Pathways Programs.

Trade Adjustment Assistance

Staffing Update

Dawn Andrada recently joined the Adult Programs team as the Administrative Support Specialist. She comes to us with experience as an administrative support person in a variety of settings, most recently as the Office Manager of a girl-focused middle school (Laura Jeffrey Academy), and as an assistant to the Executive Director of the Friends of Saint Paul College Foundation. She attended the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities where she majored in Elementary Education. She lives in Saint Paul with her husband Roger and beloved cat. She has an adult daughter Paxton (also beloved!) who is a recent college graduate. Dawn enjoys travel and is equally thrilled with busy days going on rides at Disney World and quiet days enjoying nature on the North Shore.

Roundtables / Technical Assistance

On April 11 (10:00am-12:00pm) and April 13 (2:00pm-4:00pm), TAA is offering virtual “Intro to TAA” sessions for newer Dislocated Worker Counselors, those with limited experience working with TAA customers, and those who’d like a refresher on 2015 Law. The material will be identical in the two sessions. Registration is open now.

If/when the program is Reauthorized, TAA will offer robust technical assistance for all DW staff. Contact TAA any time your agency would like technical assistance for 2015 Law, Reversion 2021, or other TAA topics.

RTAA/ATAA Customers

When completing a 60-day check-in for customers receiving Reemployment Trade Adjustment Assistance/Alternative Trade Adjustment Assistance (RTAA /ATAA), Dislocated Worker Counselors should ask the customer if they are still working the same employment, and if they’re submitting RTAA/ATAA paperwork timely. Some customers have been reporting they are still employed but have not recently submitted paperwork. This can often leave a large amount of paperwork the customer has to submit at one time for TAA/TRA to process. If the customer has exhausted benefits, it’s important to submit paperwork in a timely manner so the customer can receive prompt payment, and the TAA file can be closed.

Petitions

Here’s the link to check the status of petitions with U.S. Department of Labor

• Certified
• 97108 – Gannett Co., Inc., Various locations

• 98219 -- BCS Automotive Interface Systems, LLC, Galesville, WI (HQ in Winona, MN)
• Pending
• 98211 – BetaSeed, Inc/KWS Seeds, Bloomington

Please email all questions and customer applications to the Trade Adjustment Assistance general email at deed.taa@state.mn.us

ETPL Administration

11 Things ETPL Administration Can Help You With:

General tools: ETPL Provider Portal, for training providers. Career and Education Explorer, MN’s public-facing ETPL. Minnesota’s Credential Engine’s Credential Registry, a national registry. The School table in WF1.

1. Minnesota’s Eligible Training Provider List policy clarification or questions (https://apps.deed.state.mn.us/ddp/PolicyDetail.aspx?pol=565)
2. A Dislocated Worker or WIOA Adult participant has found training through a Minnesota school but the training is not currently on the eligible training provider list.
3. The Career and Education Explorer application is malfunctioning
4. The training you are verifying in the Career and Education Explorer is “Pending,” and you need to know now whether this will be a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’
5. Information about WIOA certified badging and what this means.
6. I am a career counselor referring a school that is asking how to join the ETPL
7. A school on the ETPL has changed the trainings they offer, but have not updated their information in the Career and Education Explorer
8. What are the performance reporting requirements of training providers to maintain eligibility on Minnesota’s ETPL?
9. What are the eligibility requirements for training providers’ trainings for WIOA Adult, Dislocated Worker, and Youth workforce programs?
10. Information about the Quality Credentials Workgroup work
11. Federal reports focused on credential attainment

21 things ETPL Is Not the Best Contact For Help:  

Things that are similar, but where other colleagues are the best contact to get your answers faster:

How do I contact my program team?

Lensa Idossa, Supervisor: DW and Federal Adult Programs, SCSEP, and Retain

• Team Email: dwfaprograms.deed@state.mn.us

Ann Meyers, Supervisor: Adult Career Pathways

• Team Email: AdultCompetitiveGrants.DEED@state.mn.us

Kay Tracy, Youth Programs:

• Email: kay.tracy@state.mn.us

If you have questions about the ETPL, please connect with ETPL Administration at etpl.deed@state.mn.us

Labor Market Information

DEED’s agency-wide goal in 2022 is to drive an economic comeback from the COVID-19 pandemic, focused on people and businesses who face systemic barriers to growth. In order to do that, we need to know who was most negatively impacted and how systemic barriers play a role in that negative impact. There is plenty of data to show that Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) Minnesotans bore the brunt of job and wage loss during the pandemic. But a deeper dive into the data reveals additional information about what factors – like occupation, industry, part-time vs. full-time work status, and educational attainment – influenced job loss, the ability to find new employment and, very critically, the ability to find new employment that paid as well or better than a person’s previous job. DEED research analyst Alessia Leibert’s article Reemployment after COVID-19 layoffs in Minnesota: Who's getting left behind? is a good example of how our department uses data to create new insights and inform decision-making.

Leibert also completed a series of two articles on outcomes for students in Career & Technical Education (CTE) programs. Her newest article – Females in Career and Technical Education – explores gender wage gaps that are evident for students who participate in CTE because female-dominated professions provide fewer opportunities for career preparation during high school than male-dominated professions. CTE can contribute toward addressing this equity issue. The original article – Males in Career and Technical Education – aims to help better understand the degree to which CTE was successful at facilitating both workforce entry and college enrollment and to identify which program features drive the most desirable outcomes so that school administrators, policy makers, and employers can invest more in what worked best.

If you have questions about Labor Market Information, please email deed.lmi@state.mn.us

This newsletter is meant for DEED Grantees, Providers, and Employment Counselors. We want this e-Newsletter to meet your needs! We encourage you to send your comments and suggestions deed.taa@state.mn.us. Find past issues of Partner Express.