All right, well, it's four o'clock and it is day three of the 2023 Federal Funding Task Force debriefs. Thanks again for joining us. And a big thank you to our chairs and everyone who is so involved with this really incredible program. My name is Meg Natter. I'm the Director of Community Colleges and Foundations for CASE. And in the background, I'm being joined by Christy Grimm, who's our Director of Online Education, and she's going to make sure all of the technology works for us. So you're all muted right now. Please stay on mute. This is being recorded right now. The speakers know that they can unmute at any time. And if you have questions along the way, we will address them at the end of each speaker. You can put them in the chat and at the very end, we'll definitely open up for all questions. This is being recorded, as I said, and then it will be stored in our learning module, just like days one and day two. To get to them, you pretty much go in how you did today. You go to learn.case.org and then look for each specific debrief and look under the course tabs. And that's where the PDFs of these slides are, as well as the recordings. So again, my name is Meg. Thank you for joining us. I'm going to pass it over. First, let me thank again one more time Michelle Alexander and Rachel Johnson for co-chairing this. Rachel, you take it away. Thank you, Meg. Welcome, everyone, to day three of our debriefs. My name is Rachel Johnson. I'm lucky to work with Michelle Alexander as one of the co-chairs of the Federal Funding Task Force. I've been on the task force for a number of years, at least five or six, I think at this point, and really love this role and love this work. So just a brief sort of overview of the agenda. On the intro slide, you'll see all the agencies that we're going to talk about today. So we're going to be rotating through the team captains or presenters from those groups. And as Meg already mentioned, you'll get a chance to ask questions right at the end of each agency presentation. And then with whatever time we have left at the end, we can open it up to more questions. But myself and the rest of the team captains and presenters will be active in the chat. So if you think of a question at any time, feel free to drop it in there and we might just answer it in real time in the chat as well as we go along. Just for sort of Zoom housekeeping, if you want to select speaker view instead of gallery view, you'll see the slides and at least the screen of the person who's talking. So you'll see the team captain that's presenting on each one. Otherwise, please feel free to turn your videos off if you need to. Primarily, the information you're looking at is going to be on the slides. If you're one of our presenters, just be sure to let Michelle know when you want her to advance the slide to the next one up there. And then, yeah, I think that's it. Thank you all for being here. I'm going to pass it over to my co-chair, Michelle. Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Michelle Alexander, and I had the honor of being the co-chair and serving with Rachel. We wanted to give you a little history and overview of the task force itself. We're over 30 years old. There have been at least 1,700 professionals that have served on the task force since the beginning. We don't just get information about upcoming grants when we meet with our federal contacts. We also get anticipated funding levels, program priorities, non-grant program opportunities, and other partnership opportunities that may come along where community colleges can work with the federal agencies. We also advocate for institutions of higher education, and we explain the role that community colleges play and the positive impact we have on our students and our communities. In fact, through the work of the task force in these meetings, there have been some program officers that have been more opening to the possibility of community colleges competing for some of their grants. The end of our work is the federal funding report for education. That is open now with the 2022 information. We will start uploading 2023 information within the next two weeks, and our anticipated completion date will be January 31st of 2024. This year, we had 61 incredible members of the federal funding task force. We met with approximately 32 agencies across 17 departments, and we had 13 amazing team captains. Each task force has approximately five to seven members, plus the one team captain. We do want to thank CASE for all of their staff support. We could not do it without each and every one of the people involved. This is our timeline. I'm not going to go through it, but you can read it at your leisure, and you can see that we start work in February. We don't finish till the following January, and next February, we'll start working on 2024. And this is the incredible group that came to Washington and met with program officers, are writing the reports now, and did all of that tremendous work, and all of the information that you will see in the coming weeks. And now I am going to turn it over to Ali Yadav. Hi, everyone. So I had the pleasure of visiting the National Endowment for the Humanities with my team listed there, Anecia, Catherine, Carl, Cherise, Solomon, and Charity. Next slide, please. So these are some updates from the agency. They did tell us without a budget, they're not able to set agency-wide initiatives yet, but look for the chair to select those in the future. So at that time, there wasn't a budget when we visited them. They said that the review criterion for all proposals should be does it speak to the humanities, and all proposals need a humanities lens, so something to consider as your faculty are writing. They said specific to grant programs, if there's a change from the previous competition, they'll post on their program's webpage a clear header that says what's new. So when you're searching for what's new about a grant program, it's easy to scroll through their website and look and see what's changed from the previous competition. They're a very congenial organization that seeks to foster relationships with community colleges and faculty. They'll review drafts, and they want our faculty on panels. They said when in doubt, reach out. So they've always been a very, very friendly agency to us, and they just reinforced that during this visit. Also unique from other agencies, you can pull full samples of funded proposals, so the entire proposals on the website that you can pull and review. They also are now using the forecasting tool on Grants.gov. So if you look up the CFDA of a prior program in Grants.gov, you may be able to see its forecasted date for the new release. And they encourage our faculty to visit the Humanities Commons site to find like-minded folks. So some agency takeaways. The Climate Smart Humanities Initiative, it's a newish program. It will help plan for sustainability and preserving humanities documents and resources, but you can go outside that scope if necessary. So that's one to look at. Also Spotlight on Humanities and Higher Education is their newest program that has run two competitions so far. It's also part of their newest initiative, which is American Tapestry. So these aren't brand new, but they're newish. But they did set new parameters for size restrictions, and NEH is researching for us whether we can apply by campus and if size is related to FTE. So if you review the information about this program, you'll see what I mean. But size is a determination, and we want to know if colleges can apply by campus or by district, and if our size is determined by FTE or total enrollment. Another program, Cultural and Community Resilience, they told us applicants should use the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool to ensure alignment with Justice 40. So that's another thing as we review that program information. I think that would make more sense. Preservation Assistance Grants for Small Institutions. They recommended these for community colleges, and the institution gets to define small. So there's no parameter set. We say if we are a small institution. Digital Humanities Division, they want more projects focused on the impact of AI. And Division of Preservation and Digital Access, they will tweet recommendations for protecting collections before a natural disaster. So if that's your college's situation, you may want to check their Twitter. We only listed here the agency or the programs that have upcoming deadlines. So everything would be in the full report, but these are those with upcoming deadlines. Public Humanities Projects, they support projects that bring ideas and insights of humanities to life for the general audiences. There's some information here about funding levels and upcoming application dates, including the optional draft that's due in a couple weeks. Digital Humanities Advancement Grant. This is another one that has an optional draft due in a couple days and a deadline coming up. So there's some information there. Preservation Assistance Grants for Smaller Institutions. Again, this is another one with an upcoming deadline, and this is the one where we could define small. So there's some information there on the screen and it will be in the report if that's something your college would be interested in. And we included this one. It doesn't have an upcoming deadline yet. It does have an anticipated deadline of May 7th. We included this because there are several different avenues for community colleges to apply under. There's HBCU, community colleges themselves, Hispanic serving institutions and tribal colleges and universities programs. So and there's also colleges and universities. So there's some different ways to apply, but this kind of flagship program for community colleges because it's humanities initiatives. So there's a lot of different project ideas they would fund under this program. And if you're in one of those specific categories, you can also apply there. So my next visit was at NSF, and I want to, again, thank my team listed here. Michelle, Carrie, Sharice, Ursula, Julie, and Lisa. We had a big team. We had a lot of programs to cover. So this is so agency updates. This is the first year for the Innovation in Two-Year Colleges STEM education program. This is one where only community colleges can be the lead. And we met with Dr. Celeste Carter, who is over the ATE program, but she's also over some others as well. And so what she recommended for this is anything you can't do with the ATE grant, you could propose to do with this ITYC grant, such as transfer pathways. But that one is a very, very imminent upcoming due date of December 13th. Dr. Carter also said a new ATE solicitation will come out early next year and the budget maximum amounts will change. She didn't say if they would lower or if they would increase. So that's just something to look out for. And also, she said there was a large spike in ATE applications this year, which is a good thing to keep that program going. She said there are new areas that are trending for NSF projects, such as AI, renewable energy, solar battery technology, semiconductors, electric vehicles, drones, GIS, offshore wind technology, climate changes and marine technology education. So those are some areas to consider for your faculty to consider. Some takeaways. She again emphasized, as she has in years past, the many opportunities to get involved with mentoring. So there's Mentor Connect. There's also these others listed here. She said that mentoring does increase your approval rate to 70 to 80 percent of applicants with mentoring that approved. So that's great. And then also Mentor Connect is seeking more grant writers to be part of their team to help mentor other grant writers. So there's a link here in the report. And that's something an opportunity for those in our community. ATE, Central and Mentor Connect do have online repositories with resources. If you want to look into those, if you're writing a proposal. Also, there were many new Dear Colleague letters that came out in the past couple of months. They're relevant to our work. Dr. Carter stressed we should sign up for the NSF newsletter to be sure we receive these as they are released. We can also search them in the website. She also said a project can only be seven years maximum. So you cannot spend beyond seven years. Something to think about. If you have a five year project and you want to do two no cost extensions, then that's the end. So just want to stress that. She said the solicitation takes precedence over the PAC-G. So read carefully. And she said this specifically with the ATE applications. They don't want the letters of support to say if this is funded, then the sub, you know, the person will do such and such. They wanted to say this is this I am this entity and I will do this in support of the project. So be more specific in your letters of support for ATE. And then she said that program officers will accept a one to two page concept paper and make sure to put in a budget estimate, because that helps them review your project as well, even if it's not finalized. So here's information again on the ATE project and some relevant Dear Colleague letters are linked in there that she had brought up during our conversation, which if you have a funded project, those may be able to help enhance your project. And again, that new solicitation is coming. The SSTEM or Scholarships in STEM program. There's some information here. We're still under the same solicitation for that. So the next due date is February 20th. That I use program that has various funding levels and we're still under the same solicitation for that. And there was several deadlines, but I tried to put the most upcoming here in the slide. And there's also I use HSI. So that is still under the same solicitation. And again, these deadlines are the upcoming ones. The Innovation in Two Year Colleges, that one is due, as I said, on the 23rd of December. And then LSAMP, they have their next deadline is coming up in a couple of days. So that one's listed there, too. And EXCELLENT, that's also one of the divisions that we covered was TIP. And so EXCELLENT is a program within TIP and they have no set start date and the due date was listed there, but that's in the past. So I think you have to review that solicitation to get the most most relevant due date. OK, and so this is my last agency visit that I led, thanks to Tora, Maria, Tanya, Anjali and Amber. We met with a new program officer this year. We've met with David Levin for years and he's so gracious with sharing his information. But we met with Catherine King this year and she was also great and so engaged and shared a lot of information. So look out for that in the report that she personally went through and edited our report and added a lot of new stuff. So. So for agency updates, as I mentioned, David Levin retired and we have a new contact. Also, there is an emphasis on embedding more diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility practices in international exchanges and programs. And that does present an opportunity for community colleges and our students who are often underserved by current study abroad programs. We linked the DEIA strategic plan there so you can review that as well if you want to integrate some of those concepts into your proposals. Also, our program officer, she explained the different neighborhoods that the programs live in. So it's just kind of a way to decipher their website and their programming. They live in academic neighborhood, cultural exchange neighborhood, private exchange neighborhood and policy neighborhoods. So that's their language. And also our contact provided the best practice lifecycle stages approach to designing and implementing a study abroad program. She included that in her update to our online report. And so that will be there for your reference. But it's it was just really great information, especially for community colleges. Think about how to recruit, enroll and serve our students with study abroad. So some takeaways for us, our contact, Catherine King, she provided us a printout that was the Fulbright program and community colleges. And we'll share this up into the library as well as the relevant information that was on that printout. But it described ways community colleges can or could interact with the Fulbright program. And so the categories were programs for community college students, faculty, administrators, community college hosting activities and engagement with community college audiences. So that's a really useful document that we can refer back to as we're planning how our colleges might be more involved with Fulbright. Our contact also suggested thinking about two way exchanges. So often we think about, well, how can we get our faculty abroad so they can bring back this information to our college? But we also have a lot to offer as colleges to inbound visitors. And so you may want to propose that because that's something that they're looking for is the benefit that goes both ways. They also said that in twenty twenty four, they are going to create a Fulbright specialist program. Oh, I'm sorry. The Fulbright specialist program will create a community college advisory council. And so she's going to give us more information on how community colleges will be recruited to participate on that council. And she also said, if your proposal is not funded, you can request a post submission briefing. So if you weren't if you applied and didn't get any feedback from them, you just have to request it. But they are happy to give you that post submission brief briefing. So, again, for this one, we have a lot of programs in the report, but we really only included here the ones that have upcoming deadlines. So this is the Gilman International Scholarship Program, and it has an upcoming deadline in March. This is the Community College Initiative Program. We included this on the slide because to the best of our knowledge, and what we could gain, sorry, from Catherine King, was that these grants, the competition was held in 2012, the grantees were selected, and so now the way to get involved with this program would be to contact a grantee to become part of an existing consortium. So it doesn't appear they're going to host an upcoming competition anytime soon. Catherine King didn't have any information on upcoming competition, and the last solicitation we could find RFP was in 2012. So that's just something to think about. I think the best bet may be to reach out to a college or university that already holds this grant and see if you can, how you might join them or work with them. And then also if your students, well, it's more for international students, so if an international student wants to participate, they should contact their country's embassy for placement. Again, this is another one with an upcoming deadline in December. This is the English Language Fellow Program, and then the English Language Specialist Program. Those applications are accepted year round. The Fulbright Specialist Program, again, accepted year round, and the Fulbright U.S. Students Program. The grants have to begin by March, but each country has specific information, so these are ones you want to dig into more. A lot of the Fulbright opportunities are for the faculty, not necessarily the college, so just want to read over them carefully. The Gilman McCain Scholarship, that's now open as well, so accepting applications for internships that start next year. And then the Ideas Grant is one that we were interested in. It does close December 13th, and that is one where you can increase the capacity at your college to launch study abroad programs. So it's a capacity building program in a way, but it does support colleges to plan and launch or implement a study abroad program, so that is something that you may want to look into. Thank you. Thank you very much. Are there any questions for Allie? There was one in the chat, but I think it's been answered there. Ann provided a link, and I think we're all good. Okay, thank you. Next up is Ralph Hogan. I had the pleasure of leading a team to delve into FIPSE. This was a web update, because trying to pull everybody together in the department, it spread all over the place, was not working. But Ralph has graciously said that he would report on it, so Ralph, take it away. Thank you, Michelle. Michelle said about half my presentation, so... You'll have to supplement. So that's fine. But we did have a great team, Michelle, myself, Sharon, Tanya, another Michelle, and Sherry. We split this up and did web updates from available resources on the website. So as Michelle had previously said, the programs are spread across the Department of Ed. I did find out in another meeting that a good chunk of them are under post-secondary ed, particularly HSI. So even though they're not Hispanic-serving institution programs, a chunk of them are under that area currently. That could change. Next slide. One of the best ways to get in touch with these folks is actually to reach out to the individual program officers themselves. So if you're looking for more direct information on them, that is where you'll want to go. We did learn in another meeting that FIPSE programs are quite popular, and pending appropriations, many of them will continue to receive competitions, including in FY24. Next slide, please. So I won't go through all of them, as there are 13 FIPSE grants currently funded in different capacities. But as you can see on this slide, they do have regular competitions every couple years or so. There is an anticipation that the Basic Needs for Post-Secondary Students program will have a competition in the upcoming fiscal year. As you can see, previous deadlines are later in the summer, so it is a later competition. And you must address two or more of different basic needs requirements of your students. Next slide. A couple additional programs here. The Center for Educational Excellence for Black Teachers programs is expected to have a competition in the upcoming year as well. It's about a 36-month wait in between grant programs, so keep an eye out for this one as well. We don't have a budget approved, so that's probably why we haven't heard anything yet. Next slide, please. A couple other programs. There were some awards for the Centers of Excellence for Student Veteran Success this past year. So there may or may not be an upcoming competition for that one. Most of these are pending appropriations. There is one more I want to talk about, which I think is on the next slide. One more slide, sorry. So the Open Textbook Pilot Project is another one that they're anticipating having a competition for in the upcoming year. Big takeaway on that one is you do have to do that as a consortium, so you will need at least two other institutions if you are looking at applying for that one. My institution is actually looking at this one, and I've done a deep dive into some funded abstracts, and there are lots of different models out there, ranging from having like 30 different partners to having just a couple partners. So that website does have a lot of information on past projects that you can look at if it is a program that you're looking at exploring. Next slide. Transitioning and Getting Involved Youth just had a closing date. Those are meant to say 2024. Yes, they're anticipating fiscal year 2024. And then Rural Post-Secondary just had a closing date as well. Those are the 50 programs. I would love to share more, but unfortunately we didn't meet with them. Are there any questions in the chat for Ralph? I don't think I see any. Let me look real quick. Nothing in the chat, Michelle. No. Okay. So we will thank you, Ralph, very much. Callie Holden and her team had the next three programs. So please take it away, Callie. Yeah, so first up, we had a team that visited the Department of Commerce, their Economic Development Agency. And that was myself, Robin, Amy, Elizabeth, Sharon, Heather, Sherry, and Beth. We all kind of collaborated on that visit. And they were a great team and were really flexible as we kind of saw some changes taking place at EDA that I'll talk about here in a second. We can go on to the next slide. A few things to talk about from this agency. There are kind of big things happening at EDA that are good things to keep on your radar from the community college sector. Specifically tech hubs, Good Jobs Challenge, and Recompete. These are three programs that have had community college participation in. And it's something that they are looking to do more of in the future. They've requested to renew Good Jobs Challenge, if people are familiar with that. It was a couple years ago, using some HERF funding, they were able to fund some programs out of their national office. And they're looking to put these into actual appropriations moving forward to run future competitions. Because we don't have a budget, they're not sure if those appropriations will go through. But it's something to definitely keep your eye on as we kind of look at that budget, hopefully getting passed at some point in the near future. They also want to do a better job of having economic development and workforce development working together. They see their agency really aligned. With DOL. And so a lot of their funding opportunities, you're seeing this overlap between workforce and economic development. Their funding has also significantly increased since COVID. Between a lot of that CARES funding, and then some of the funding through the infrastructure bill, they're seeing more money than they've had in the past in this agency. And so they're really kind of looking to continue that past these couple of funding opportunities into larger appropriations. And specifically, maybe future grant competitions that are run from their national office, as opposed to out of kind of their regional offices. And so they're looking to continue that. They also just opened a new grant program called EDGE. So if you're doing any applications for EDA in the future, just be prepared that they do have a new system. They're still working through a little bit of the kinks in that, but I personally have used it. And it's a pretty smooth system to do an application in. And then finally, one of the nice kind of clues that they have is that they're going to have a new grant program called EDGE. And it's a pretty smooth system to do an application in. And then finally, one of the nice kind of clues that they gave us was after authorization of the budget, it usually takes about three to four months for them to release a grant, and then six to seven months for it to be announced who gets awarded. So that kind of gives you a timeline after budget authorization. A couple other things just to keep your eye on as you're looking at EDA. They're very big on collaboration. Your applications need to include collaboration, not only with partners, but also with funding. So really representing that this is not just the EDA that's investing in something. And also, if you're looking at any EDA funding, the best path to go through is your local representative. You can find them on EDA's website. Contacting that local representative and building a partnership with them will help you access their funding. Also, these are their seven priorities. I won't go through them, but every single application has to align to at least one, if not multiple of those. Okay, on to the next. So here I'm going to run through a few of theirs. I won't run through all this text. We just included it for reference for you guys. But some of their competitions to keep an eye out for, Build to Scale, this was recently released. And it is a great project that kind of replaced an old program that they had and is a good opportunity for kind of venture and capital challenge type projects. Next one. The Economic Adjustment Assistance Grant. This is one that if you've ever worked with EDA before, you've probably heard of this. It's one of their most long standing ones and one that you'll have to work with your local representatives to get funding on, but it renews every year. So this is something that's really stable from them. Next up. The STEM Talent Challenge. This was one that also recently closed, but has been one of theirs that has been kind of exciting from the community college perspective. There is a match on it and you want to connect through your regional EDA office to discuss your project before you put anything together. But they're really looking at expanding regional workforce capacity around STEM. And so if that's something that your college is interested in, this might be good funding for you. And then next. A couple other programs that are long standing. The Disaster Relief Program. This is one to look at. They just reauthorized this. It's rolling. So if you have any sort of national declared disasters in your area, then this is funding that's probably accessible to you. So reach out to your local representative. And then we also gave an update on the Research and National Technical Assistance Program. These are mostly for large R1 institutions and universities, but we went ahead and gave some updates on that program as well. And then next. The couple that are really exciting. Tech Hubs, which had just announced its Phase 1 recipients, whenever we met with EDA, they are looking now to their Phase 2, which is the actual funding phase. And these will be major investments in hubs across the country with some of that CHIPS funding that came through with the infrastructure bill. And that's something that's really exciting. Community colleges are a big part of those. As well as the Good Jobs Challenge. This is one that they're looking to bring back. It funded a lot of community college projects. They're hoping to see it reauthorized in the next budget. So we'll kind of keep you updated whenever that gets announced. And last up, University Centers. This one, despite its name, is not just for universities. Community colleges are also eligible for this. They go regionally. And so they just closed Denver and Philadelphia, or no, sorry, Denver and Atlanta. I believe their next are going to be Chicago and Philadelphia in the FY26. So if your regional office is either Chicago or Philadelphia, you'll be eligible to apply in the next couple years. And lastly, Recompete. This one is one that they also funded out of some of the COVID money, but it is really looking to kind of invest in to community colleges. That don't have a lot of economic investment over the last several years and try to bring them back as economically viable communities. And so if you have a high poverty area in your service area, this might be a good grant to consider. It's major investment. So we're talking big dollars for them. Okay, I think that was the last of ours. Yes. Okay, so the next one that we went and visited with was Department of Education, OCTAE. So this team was myself, Tora, Ralph, Elizabeth, Shannon, Tanya, Kathy, Shakira, and Adam. We had a big group that came to the Department of Ed. And they were really great. And several of their program officers met with us and walked through their program. So we're excited to kind of share some of that. Okay, next up. So the kind of big news from our meeting with them, because OCTAE is a very stable and kind of ongoing agency, but they do have a new program that they had just funded whenever we visited. It was called Career Connected High Schools. This funded consortiums of schools to build those high school to post-secondary pathways and key careers. They funded $25 million in grants. And it was really a focus on rural students. And it's something that they discussed potentially expanding in the future. So keep your eye out on some of those OCTAE newsletters to see if this potentially comes back in the future, because it's a great opportunity to kind of align with some of your other OCTAE funding. Alignment, well, sorry, went back one slide just a second. A couple of other things that they talked about. Second Chance Pell was recently authorized. This provides Pell for incarcerated individuals. And one thing that they also emphasized that I was not familiar with, but I think is good for everyone to note is something called Ability to Benefit. This is a provision in the Higher Education Act that allows adults without a high school education to still access Pell grants for post-secondary programs. Now, colleges do have to go through kind of some specific regulations to qualify for that. But there is some more information coming in the next month or so. Be on the lookout for that because it could be a good opportunity. I won't go through all of these takeaways because I want to be conscious of time. But a few things to keep in mind. The strategic direction of unlocking career success is OCTAE's overarching framework. And so be sure to look at that. OCTAE is really open to reaching out from colleges for more information. as well as broadcasting information. They're really great at kind of putting that information together. So if you're not so familiar with OCTAE's overarching framework, you should definitely look at that. And then OCTAE is really open to reaching out from colleges for more information as well as broadcasting information. They're really great at kind of putting that information together. So if you're not signed up for their newsletter, I found at least it's one of the more valuable newsletters I'm signed up for. So I highly recommend going ahead and signing up for that as well. Okay, Michelle. Let's move us forward. You're in good shape. Okay, good. So a couple of programs that everyone's probably pretty familiar with. We get them as formula funding, which is kind of one of the unique parts of OCTAE's funding is it goes through our state agencies, but their adult basic education and then Perkins funding, both of which go through your state. So working with your state representatives for each of those grants is important, as well as participating in state plans around them. And those state plans really guide how the funding is distributed across your state. A few things that we did find out that was kind of interesting, on adult basic, you can use 20% of your funding for prison education programs, which we thought was really interesting. Now that those are kind of authorized and they're becoming a larger part of the education we're doing, you can use a portion of that money to help support those. And then with Perkins, you know, some of the things that they really talked about there was looking at how you can work with your state on their plan to do those comprehensive needs assessments every couple of years, and kind of aligning further with workforce to kind of build stronger state plans. Okay, next. And then finally, the Perkins Innovation and Modernization Grant for Connected High Schools. This was the one that I talked about at the top of this new program that they have. It was really exciting to kind of see them investing in these pathways and kind of building those stronger pathways around high school to post-secondary, and it's likely something that could see funding in the future. So keep an eye on that to come back around. Okay, and our final visit that we did was with the Health and Human Services Office, Federal Office of Rural Health Policy. So they are a great group that met with us, and Alexa, who was our program officer, is represented here, but they actually had a group of about five to ten people who met with us, some virtual, some in the room, so it was fantastic to get to talk to them. Our team members that visited, we were a smaller team. It was myself, Elizabeth, Amy, and Natalie, and we got to go all the way out to Rockville, Maryland, which was fun to get to go out of D.C. this time around. So go ahead to the next one. Okay, so kind of the updates from the Rural Health Policy Office is that there's not a lot of updates from the Rural Health Policy Office. They haven't had really any major changes over the last year, and they're not really anticipating any major changes over the next year either. They kind of look at these kind of major health priorities from a long-term point of view. So their priorities are maternal health, opioid use, equity, and then research in rural community health. A lot of their programs are kind of on these long-term cycles, and they're moving to even longer-term cycles in the future. So previously they had been on three-year cycles, and they're rotating a lot of their programs over to four-year cycles. Again, we really got a sense when we were talking to them that they do view a lot of these rural health initiatives as long-term projects. They're making these kinds of long-term investments, and so that's kind of why you see them between these programs. Okay. Can you guys hear me? I just got a message that my internet was unstable. Okay. We can hear you. Sometimes you garble, but we get it. Sorry about that. I'm at a conference, so I'm using like conference internet, which is always a little bit sketchy. The last kind of update from them is that new census data will be coming in, and the specific thing to look at for that is it changes the definition of rurality. So they will have a new definition of who is rural and who is suburban and who's urban coming in the next year or so, and that census data is what they use to identify those. So whether you're eligible or not could potentially change over the next year. Okay. On to the next one. There you are. So a few things to keep in mind as you're looking at these grants. Well, a lot of them, they don't have an obvious place for community colleges in them. I know from myself looking at their opportunities, I couldn't always see how we fit in, but they said that they really do see an opportunity for community colleges, particularly since within some of these rural communities, we're a strong backbone organization. And so they see us as someone who could potentially network or partner with something like a rural hospital to apply for one of these, or a larger university that may not have a local presence, but maybe has training programs like doctor, like physician training programs that are eligible for this kind of funding, but they don't have that local presence within communities. Um, they advise layering applications, um, specifically using planning grants to then set yourself up for success with larger grants down the line. They also have said that the thing that makes or breaks a good application with them is having a champion in the kind of the organizational leadership. Whenever they see college leadership involved in a project, those have been ones that have been really significant and successful, whereas ones that seem siloed into a portion of the organization, but aren't really embraced by leaders at the top aren't as successful. Um, and then there are ones that it's really hard to get any sort of application from, but they do always recommend, um, being a peer reviewer where you can see those applications. If this is something, an area that you're interested in kind of expanding funding in, and they're always really happy to get peer reviewers, but they do have a large pool of them. So make sure that you emphasize, you know, any sort of expertise you have in health or rural populations. Okay. Next up. So one of their programs is the Rural Health Network Development Planning Program. This is one that's probably most likely to be a good fit for community colleges. You can do a planning grant. Um, you do have to make sure that a good number of your partners are rural. Um, and it's one that's really meant to embrace those partnerships and build that network. Um, so putting a lot of time into building that will make you more competitive, particularly if you're showing that network being built in those rural areas, although you can have some urban and suburban partners as a part of that. They don't have to all be rural, um, but showing that that is a really kind of a, a strong piece of your network will make you more successful. Next up. Callie, there's a question in the chat, um, about, it says, what is, what's the web link for this rural health agency? And I saw that you had a link there. Um, I'm just wondering, I'm trying to, oops, it's either that, is it that one, that one, or maybe the next slide you were getting to it. I just wanna make sure we're, we're covering the website for Crystal. Um, yeah, there you go. That, that middle column there. Yeah, the middle one, um, both your state offices of rural health, which are your representatives within your state government, that's the, the directory for them. Um, and then the rural health information hub, I'm trying to remember exactly, but I think that that has a lot of information and I will grab the link, um, for their actual just main office and also drop that in the chat. Thank you. Crystal says she's, she's got it, so thank you. Okay, perfect. Then also, Callie, put that in the report for the main office as well. Can do. If it's not there, thank you. Move on? Uh, on this one, I'm, I just wanna mention real fast, um, this is a telehealth network grant. Um, this one, if you're familiar, uh, there's also the, um, DLT grant that is another telehealth grant. Uh, both of them kind of have similar opportunities. Um, but this one, you wanna make sure that you connect through that state office. Um, whoever your state office representative is, they're really your pathway to being successful on this grant. Um, if you're looking for additional telehealth opportunities outside of USDA's DLT, this might be a good opportunity for that. Okay, next up. Um, here are a couple, uh, that are a little bit, um, less useful for us because they're really meant for healthcare and primary care providers. Um, but the small healthcare provider quality program and the small healthcare services outreach program, they're rather similar. Um, they're both meant for expanding and strengthening rural healthcare. This is probably one that's a better partnership. Uh, we probably couldn't be a lead applicant on either. Next up. Okay. Thank you, Callie. And our last presenter today is Kristin Kinjo, who took a great group to energy. With a lot of energy, I might add. Yeah, it was a great team. We had, um, Rob and Natalie Chandler and Matthew. Um, and that's our 3D printed car. I looked up the name of it because I couldn't, I didn't remember what it, it's called the Shelby Cobra. I'm not a car person, but apparently, anyway, that was, um, in the lobby of the DOE, um, forestall building. So they have this amazing 3D printed car. The entire thing was 3D printed. So, um, yeah. Uh, and we met, so, um, we, so this was the first time that we got to meet with two different, um, 3D printers. Um, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, um, branches from DOE. So usually we meet with the office of science. Um, sorry, the, um, office of workforce development for, um, teachers and scientists is under the, um, DOE office of science. And then this time we got to meet with, um, the infrastructure branch as well, um, because of a couple of opportunities. Um, so you can go ahead and next slide. Oh, there's the car and a better picture of the car. Um, yeah. So we, we, um, tried to report on two new programs. Um, so the DOE, uh, office of science told us that they have $8.1 billion, um, for, um, FY 23. And they just, they were incredibly friendly. They were, um, they reiterated their commitment to funding community colleges and that they like to see community college applications and that they're, um, that they're committed to building workforce through, um, through community college partners. So next link or slide, I mean, sorry. Okay. So the takeaways, um, there are three programs that we reported on, um, that are current, um, currently open for applications. And so, uh, those are kind of the three big ones, um, the CCI, SULI and VLP. So the, um, um, the, there's one more workshop left. Um, two of them already happened, but I did double check and they do have webinar, um, links. Um, they recorded the webinars, um, for the applications. Um, those programs are all directly to faculty or to community college students, um, or undergraduate students. So not necessarily, or sorry, not to the institution. Um, but, uh, they, you know, they appreciate having us act as liaisons to be able to get the word out about those, um, those programs. So Brandy Tolliver, who is the, um, uh, Dr. Tolliver, who we, who we met with, she was actually a graduate from the CCI program. And so she, she definitely believes in the program. She studied chemistry as an undergraduate, and then now is running the, running the thing. Um, so, um, one of the big takeaways that, that she had for us, um, was to make sure that you contact the national office, the individual DOE national offices, the labs, um, if you have technical or program related questions. So to go directly to, to the lab, um, if you have, if your faculty or your students have questions, um, of a technical nature to, you know, if they're wondering, like, am I going to be interested in what you're studying at that specific lab? Um, and she said that if you have application or like, uh, general program questions that she is the one to connect with, um, the, uh, the DOE national office. Um, uh, sorry, you can go to the next slide. So yeah, just a little bit more about, about those programs. So, um, CCI, SULI is actually on the next page. I should have put those in the same one, but, so it's a, it's just a summer internship program. Um, CCI and SULI are basically the same, except CCI is only for community college students and SULI is for all undergraduate students. So she said, um, you know, our students, if you're at a community college, they can actually apply to both, um, that they, that they should apply to the CCI first, um, because it'll be, they'll be more, I guess, uh, less competitive because they'll have fewer applicants. Um, but that if for some reason they don't get in and they try two times, or I guess they can try up to three times then to go ahead and have them apply through SULI, um, because they have more slots, but they also have a lot more applicants. Um, one of the other programs that we reported on was the LEDP. Um, I think we've done that before too. It's a great site. Um, if you go on there, it's, uh, it's kind of like goodwill for really high tech, big equipment from DOE. So you can, um, as an institution, if you're done and, uh, you're, you know, done with a piece of equipment or it's outdated, um, or it might not be in the best condition, you can actually put it up on this website. So you can say, um, Hey, we've got this piece of equipment. It might actually be fine for what your needs are. Another institution might be done with it, but you, um, the list is huge and it, it fluctuates quite a bit. So if you go in there, um, and don't see very much, go back in a month and there might be a whole, you know, like seven extra pages or whatever of, of equipment. So, um, um, the, the, so it's not actually a grant application. Um, you do have to put in an application, but, uh, you pay shipping and handling. You don't get an award. You just get the piece of equipment. Um, so that's a good, uh, good resource for donation and for, um, building up, building up student labs. Okay. So there's the piece about SULI and the visiting faculty program, which is kind of the same as SULI and CCI, but for faculty and they can take two students with them. So the information, um, is on the slides about how much it is for a stipend housing and transportation. Um, those seem like really great, really great programs. So, uh, sorry, next slide. I can only have like a minute left. So I wanted to do, um, so this is, um, oh, sorry, go ahead. You're fine. Oh, okay. Um, so the, uh, these programs, um, last spring, um, there, the DOE announced that there was an additional $54 million for IACs and BTACs, specifically for community colleges. So they're using the same model as the industrial assessment centers, um, and, um, BTAC centers that had been in existence before, but most of them were at universities. So they're using a similar structure, um, but focusing on high quality skills trades, um, pathways, workforce development, um, the, the applications for, um, sorry, the competitions for both of these programs are closed currently. Um, but they said, keep an eye on them. They can't, um, say for sure whether or not it'll be reissued. Um, but it sounded like they sounded like really great programs. They actually were quite flexible as far as DOE, um, solicitations go, um, lots of, uh, lots of different, lots of different types of applications that you could, that you could apply to with these. Um, so that's, that's all I had, I think. Thank you all. Uh, let's see if we have questions. Nothing in the chat. Callie's put a bunch of information in there, which is great. Thank you. Um, no questions in the chat, but if anybody does have a question, you can just unmute or raise your hand and, and we'll get to you. I want to thank our presenters, uh, for such a great job in keeping us on time. Um, and the information is just fantastic. The, the reports are much fuller in the, uh, report for federal funding to education, and we'll start uploading some of those and editing some of those probably within the next two weeks. So if you go into it one day, go back again, and, uh, we don't do them in order, but as you, uh, look around the report, soon you'll begin to see changes with 2023 information. And I just want to make sure everyone understands that that report is separate from the three debriefs that are here in learning, in learn.case.org. So we will be publicizing the other report that Michelle was just referring to very soon. Um, I think it's better to wait just a little bit, let the, let everyone look through these materials, and then, um, maybe December or so we'll start publicizing the, uh, the other website. But yes, if you already have the login information from last year, you can certainly go in. And no, it's under construction until the 31st of January, so it will be changing, but it is open, it never closes. I don't see any questions. Just lots of thank yous for everybody who's worked so hard. Everyone who was in Washington a few weeks ago, everyone who's here, all of the team captains, um, and Michelle and Rachel especially. This is a lot of work, a lot of time, a lot of brain energy when you all have full-time jobs. So really, thank you so much for your dedication to this year after year. I think that's it though. I think it is also. Thank you all for attending, and we enjoyed having you. Thank you so much all.

Economic Development Agency

Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education

Federal Office of Rural Health Policy

Department of Energy

tech hubs

good jobs challenge

funding programs

rural communities

STEM