November 2023
Team Updates
Please help me welcome two new ACP Coordinators! Cristina Villella and Mee Xiong joined our team a couple weeks ago and over the next month will slowly take over some of the Direct Appropriation Grantee contracts.
The ACP Team was excited to release seven SFY2024-2025 Requests for Proposals (RFPs) over the past couple months. The team is in the process of reviewing all applications and anticipate award announcements within the next months. The Drive for Five RFP was released on October 10, 2023 and is due Monday December 11th, 2023. Questions about the RFP may be directed to Ann Meyers (ann.meyers@state.mn.us) until Thursday December 7th and are answered and posted each week to the DEED Competitive Grants and Contracts webpage.
We anticipate releasing another RFP in the next couple weeks for the Targeted Populations program. We encourage Grantees and any interested organization to visit the site and review all outgoing grants. Included with each solicitation, is a brief description of the work and a link to its Request for Proposals (RFP). Sign up to receive emails when new opportunities are listed.
Please remember, when applying for ACP Competitive grants to not send your attachments in ZIP files. Review the directions carefully and send 2 separate PDF documents.
REMINDER:
Final SFY22-23 reports are due by October 30th, 2023 for competitive grants. The final quarterly report templates, for all programs, are available on-line at the ACP home page under Forms, Final Grant Report Closeout template. All SFY22-23 Direct Appropriation grants’ final quarterly reports were due July 30th, 2023. If you have not submitted yours to your Grant Coordinator, please do so by October 1st, 2023. If needed, we have posted report instructions here.
Marketing ACP programs? A reminder to review the ACP Cost Category Guidance for allowable marketing and outreach costs and the disclaimer that must be included on ALL marketing material.
“The State of Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) funded (or funded in part) this training through a grant. The grant recipient created this training. DEED does not endorse this publicity or training or make guarantees, warranties, or assurances of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, usefulness, adequacy, continued availability or ownership of the information herein or elsewhere.”
SFY24-25 Adult Direct Appropriation
The ACP team is working closely with all Adult Direct Appropriation Grantees to finalize the SFY24-25 contracts. We appreciate your patience as we move these through our contracting process.
Thank you all for attending the Adult Career Pathways Direct Appropriations onboarding event and Workforce One training in September. Both have been posted to the ACP web page for reference.
SNAP E&T 50/50
The SNAP E&T project can provide additional, unrestricted funds to your organization when partnered with your ACP Grant. If you serve SNAP recipients within your ACP program(s) and are interested in more information about adding the SNAP E&T 50% Reimbursement program to your organization, please contact Ann Meyers at ann.meyers@state.mn.us.
Workforce One - ACP Programs
As a reminder, all participants enrolled in any SFY22-23 ACP program MUST be appropriately exited from Workforce One (WF1) upon the completion of the grant. As a reminder, past performance is taken into consideration when reviewing and recommending future ACP funding.
In order for your organization to capture outcomes for these participants, all participants must Exit from Workforce One (WF1) within 45 days from the expiration of the grant contract. Be mindful as final Reimbursement Payment Requests (RPRs).
Adult Career Pathways Guides
The ACP Workforce One User Guide has been updated and posted to the ACP home page.
The ACP Operations Guide has been updated and posted to the ACP home page. If you have any suggestions for the guide, please submit those to your Grant Coordinator.
Please contact your Adult Career Pathways Grant Coordinator directly with any questions regarding Adult Career Pathways Programs.
 Staffing Update:
- The ETPL Administrator position is now vacant. We will post the position in the coming weeks. Please continue to send ETPL questions to ETPL.DEED@state.mn.us
Formula Funds – WIOA Adult, WIOA DW and State DW
- Roundtable Feedback Survey Available
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Feedback survey for the Dislocated Worker Federal Adult Program (DWFAP) 2023 Roundtable is available for anyone who attended on September 27 and/or 28. Participating in the survey is voluntary. Your responses will be kept confidential and won’t be linked to any identifying information, such as your name, email address or provider location. We value your partnership and input! Our goal is to get feedback from participants to ensure better planning and implementation of future roundtable events. Click here.
- Quarterly Progress Report
- Reports for quarter ending September 2023, was due on October 30. Please report on all active grants.
- IMPORTANT NOTE: Being late or behind on QPRs may delay monthly invoice (RPR/FSR) payments.
Re-entry Grant
- The next monthly meeting will be held on November 8, 2023, 10:00 -11:00 am
- Check out the Re-Entry web page for information and resources. We’ll continue to update the page as needed.
- Providers can use State, County or Federal Department of Corrections “Face Sheet” to enroll participants. However, the participant must have a goal of obtaining a state issued ID within a given timeline (suggested timeframe is 60-90 days from enrollment.)
Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP)
- In late September 2023, the PY 2022 participant and host agency customer satisfaction survey activity was initiated. The first batch of participant surveys was dispatched on Monday, September 25, marking the beginning of this important initiative. Two subsequent waves of surveys were scheduled to be sent out at 3–4-week intervals for those participants who will not have responded to the previous surveys.
- It's important to note that any surveys that were not successfully delivered will be returned to the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED). DEED will work closely with our Sub-grantees to address the mailing issues, often stemming from inaccurate addresses, and will provide the Survey Team with a comprehensive report detailing the corrective actions taken.
- Customer satisfaction, as a key SCSEP performance measure, underscores the significance of enhancing our survey response rates. Therefore, it is imperative that we address and resolve survey mailing issues promptly and effectively.
- The SCSEP Grant Community continues to engage in productive collaboration with the Grantee Performance Management System (GPMS) team, aiming to identify and address challenges within the system. This collective effort is directed at enhancing the effectiveness of GPMS as a valuable work tool.
- We strongly encourage providers to participate in the GPMS vLive Office Hours, following the provided schedules. By attending these sessions, you can gain insights from the challenges that have been brought to the forefront. The GPMS team is actively working to address immediate issues and diligently documenting those that require further research or technical solutions.
- Additionally, all training webinars and virtual live events are recorded and stored in the WorkforceGPS You can conveniently access GPMS e-newsletters (the October 2023 Issue 10 Vol 1 is now available) and a wealth of other GPMS resources on the same platform. Our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section serves as a valuable resource for finding answers to common queries. We kindly request that you explore this section before submitting new inquiries.
- Check out the updated SCSEP web page for information and resources. We’ll continue to update the page as needed.
Retaining Employment and Talent after Injury/Illness Network (RETAIN)
- MN RETAIN continues to scale its efforts across Minnesota.
- If you or someone you know has an injury or illness that is affecting their ability to work, please visit mnretain.com to see if RETAIN could help!
Question from the Field
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QUESTION: We are trying to find options to address how we can initially purchase gift cards to ensure that they are readily accessible to program participants to support the activities/goals outlined in their IEP. We are also trying to balance the expectation that formula dollars cannot be used to purchase bulk gift cards and reimbursement requests can only be made after the service was provided (i.e., gift card provided to participant). Has DEED ever allowed for Advanced Funds to be approved? If so, under what circumstances? If formula grants are unable to be used to purchase bulk gift cards up front, does DEED have any suggestions on how we may approach this if Advanced Funds in our Master Agreements cannot be used?
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ANSWER: DEED cannot provide advance funds to purchase gift cards in bulk. Period. We cannot reimburse organizations for gift cards until they are distributed. One suggestion to providers would be to purchase the gift cards in amounts that they are able to afford as close to the distribution as possible (for example, when a quarter ends for incentives, or at the beginning of training for gas cards) and then account for them properly and submit the cost to us a quickly as possible.
Other
You can find additional information and resources here: Office of Dislocated Worker and Federal Adult Programs website
Please email all requests, reports, and technical assistance questions to the Dislocated Worker Federal Adult Programs general email at dwfaprograms.deed@state.mn.us.
 IMPORTANT UPDATE:
Program Year (PY) 2023 Quarter One (Q1) performance reports will be available late November 2023. If you need reports that are not available using Workforce One (WF1) or if you need assistance with running a WF1 report, please reach out to the performance team for assistance.
Local Area PY2022 Annual Reports are now available!
Attached you will find your Workforce Development Area’s Program Year 2022 Annual Reports for the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Adult and WIOA Dislocated Worker programs.
Performance Related Q&A
QUESTION 1 - As we are updating our dislocated policies, is the primary occupation definition still applicable, even though it is still in DEED’s policy?
Primary Occupation: The occupation the applicant has worked for at least six of the last thirty-six months (in a single occupation). If the applicant has held more than one occupation in that time period, they must choose which occupation the program will establish in its records.
ANSWER 1: That’s correct, it is still applicable. This information can be found as an attachment within both the State Dislocated Worker Eligibility Policy and the WIOA Dislocated Worker Eligibility Policy found here DEED Policies (state.mn.us) and DEED Policies (state.mn.us). I’ve attached the definitions to this email for your convenience (page 4).
QUESTION 2: What UI option do we choose in WF1 when an individual is being determined eligible using category I: Individual or Small Group Layoff, when they have been employed long enough to demonstrate attachment to the workforce but is not eligible for unemployment compensation because earnings were not enough to qualify or the job from which the participant was laid off was with an employer that was not covered under a state unemployment compensation law?
WF1 Eligibility page ask the question: Eligible for or Exhausted Unemployment Benefits, and we would have to answer no but that would make them ineligible using that route of eligibility and the enrollment page request one of the following (see screenshot below):
 If needed in an alternative format contact amy.carlson@state.mn.us
ANSWER 2: For this, I would recommend options 3 or 4 within the “WF1 State/WIOA DW Eligibility Page Functionality” (see link below). You’ll find “Small Layoff” scenarios listed first in both categories.
As you will see, there is no UI required answer for those scenarios, so the answer provided related to UI is irrelevant. Any selection will work. I recommend using the one that makes the most sense to this case, which is “Neither Claimant nor Exhaustee”.
LINKS:
WF1 State DW Eligibility Page Functionality
WF1 WIOA DW Eligibility Page Functionality
Definitions for WIOA – State DW Eligibility Terms
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.
 Gratitude
Thank you for your work and collaboration with the TAA team! We value your partnership and appreciate your hard work to help Minnesotans obtain their educational and employment goals.
Department of Labor Monitoring Visit
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) conducted a review of Minnesota’s Trade Adjustment Assistance and Trade Readjustment Allowance programs in late August. DEED received DOL’s monitoring report that outlined 4 (four) Findings and 1 (one) Area of Concern. TAA will update forms and policies, as appropriate, on the Counselor Portal https://mn.gov/deed/programs-services/trade-adjustment/.
WF1 Update
TAA is proud to announce a Workforce One system modification that will alert Dislocated Worker Counselors of a customer’s possible TAA eligibility at the time of DW enrollment. TAA will also be notified at the time of a possible match so you may start receiving individualized emails from TAA about the match as well.
The alert (guidance) in WF1 will only activate when there is a possible match between the person you’re enrolling into DW and a name or SSN from a TAA worker list, when this alert pops up in WF1, please save the progress and follow the guidance to check for the person’s TAA eligibility. Once you are done checking for eligibility, please return to the enrollment to complete the DW enrollment. Below is a snippet of what the alert will look like.
If needed in an alternative format contact deed.taa@state.mn.us
We hope this WF1 feature will assist in identifying additional customers who are eligible for the TAA program. Contact TAA with any questions related to this new alert.
As a reminder, the TAA program has funding and continues to serve customers. TAA must be the primary source of funding for customers who are eligible. Previous Partner Express newsletters include articles related to the phased termination that the TAA Program entered on 7/1/22. The U.S. Department of Labor released TEGL 14-22 - Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) for Workers Program Phase-out Termination Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), and is available at https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/advisories/tegl-14-22.
TAA will perform various outreach efforts this fall to ensure those who are eligible for TAA are aware of the benefits available. Contact TAA with outreach suggestions or to ask about an individual’s eligibility.
Petitions
Petitions can still be filed, but DOL’s investigation is paused until program restoration or reauthorization. Here’s the link to check the status of petitions with U.S. Department of Labor: https://www.doleta.gov/tradeact/petitioners
Filed after July 1, 2022
• Torax Medical, St Paul
• Turck, Inc., Plymouth
• Ball Corp, St Paul
• Nordson Medical, Eagan
• Optum, Hopkins
• United Language Group, Minneapolis
• Sleep Number, Minneapolis
Please email all questions and customer applications to the Trade Adjustment Assistance general email at deed.taa@state.mn.us.
Contact the CareerForce Information and Assistance line at 651-259-7500 or careerforce@state.mn.us if you have questions.
 The latest quarterly issue of Minnesota Economic Trends includes articles that: provide a statistical snapshot of the labor force experience of Minnesotans with disabilities; measure outcomes for post-secondary instructional programs by median annual wages and net income seven years after graduation; explore whether the post-recession employment recovery improved racial and ethnic wage equity; and more.
The Labor Force Experience of Minnesotans with Disabilities
Minnesotans with one or more disability are more than twice as likely to be unemployed as those without a disability. October is Disability Employment Awareness Month in Minnesota, a time to raise awareness about employment resources available to people with disabilities and to employers seeking to create inclusive workplaces. This article provides a statistical snapshot of the labor force experience of Minnesotans with disabilities.
Popular or Pragmatic Part 2: The Long View
This article looks at postsecondary instructional program outcomes based on median wage and estimated net income versus expenses, seven years post-graduation. The article describes how students, parents/guardians, educators, career counselors and others can utilize data in an interactive tool developed by DEED’s Labor Market Information office to compare outcomes by instructional program.
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 to deed.taa@state.mn.us.
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