Funding Assistance: Grants

The Alliance (staffed by NEOEDD) operates the Regional Investment Program which provides Opportunity Fund grants to businesses, local governments, and non-profits in Union, Umatilla and Wallowa counties. Funds for this program are allocated from the Oregon Lottery by the Oregon State Legislature on a biennial basis. Currently, there are no Opportunity Funds available as the last legislature did not allocate any funding for the Regional Investment Program.

The volunteer board of directors of the Northeast Oregon Alliance makes funding decisions for this program. A regional plan describes the priorities for investment of these funds. The regional plan is developed by the Alliance and includes information on programs and application deadlines. For more information, visit the Northeast Oregon Alliance page. The Opportunity Fund is very competetive.Check with staff if you have questions about the status of the program, 541-426-3598 or 800-645-9454.

Region 13 of Worksource Oregon

The Workforce Response Team in Baker, Union and Wallowa counties is accepting applications to fund training costs for current employees. The Employer Workforce Training Fund can be used to cover 50% of the costs of training current workers. The fund cannot be used to train new employees, public sector employees, to recruit employees, to relocate employees from one area to another, fund proprietary training, or some other expenditures.

The maximum award to any one employer will be $40,000. The grant award must be matched 1:1 by the employer through in-kind or cash contributions. All expenditures must be documented to receive reimbursement of costs incurred and employer must provide evidence of successful completion of the training by specified employees. Additional obligations will include some up-front information about employees and compliance with necessary follow-up and reporting activities.

Information on the application process for the workforce training fund is available from Teri Simonis at Training and Employment Consortium (http://www.tecteam.org/). Her phone number is 541-963-8458, her e-mail is simot@tecteam.org.

Baker-Morrow Regional Partnership

The Baker/Morrow Regional Partnership serves Baker and Morrow Counties. The partnership is staffed by the Greater Eastern Oregon Development Corporation. Visit their website at www.geodc.org for information on the Baker/Morrow Partnership financing program.

The partnership is governed by a twelve member volunteer board appointed by the county governing bodies. The Baker-Morrow Regional Partnership functions as both a partnership with state agencies and as a regional investment board that has created a regional investment plan and funds projects with state of Oregon lottery dollars provided by the Oregon Economic and Community Development Department. The partnership with state agencies provides a greater level of access to state government personnel and programs than would otherwise exist. The state agencies that are member of the partnership are: Oregon Department of Transportation, Oregon Economic and Community Development Department, Department of Environmental Quality, Department of Land Conservation and Development, Oregon Housing and Community Development Department, Oregon Agriculture Department. The Greater Eastern Oregon Development Corporation staffs the Baker-Morrow Regional Partnership.