Since 2012, JVA has written more than $19 million in successful grants for the City and County of Denver. Recently, The Denver Office of Economic Development was among 23 agencies around the country to be awarded a Ready to Work Partnership Grant from the United States Department of Labor. Denver received just under $6.2 million, which is being used to launch the Technology Employment in Colorado Project (TEC-P).

The funding will provide job training and other services to about 600 long-term unemployed people in Colorado, primarily in Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas, Jefferson, Larimer, Mesa, Clear Creek and Gilpin counties.

“We’re proud to advance this regional effort to further develop our pipeline of talent, to connect the long-term unemployed with promising career paths in high-demand industries,” said Denver Mayor Michael B. Hancock in a press release. “Thanks to the strong collaboration among government, industry and training partners, this regional project sets us up for increased success in recruiting for and boosting our labor force.”

The Denver Office of Economic Development will serve as fiscal agent of the four-year project. Partner agencies include the Colorado Urban Workforce Alliance; Workforce Investment Boards; the Colorado Community College System and Western Colorado Community College; and various industry groups.

“We couldn’t have gotten this grant without JVA,” said Ledy Garcia-Eckstein, senior analyst at the Denver Office of Economic Development. “JVA kept us on task. JVA grant writers have extensive experience in writing successful federal grants and they are excellent writers. They really understand the type of detail that is necessary to respond to a federal grant solicitation and what needs to be included in the application to be awarded a grant like this.”

She said the grant will benefit the underemployed as well as the unemployed.

“There are a lot of folks who might have a liberal arts college degree and might also have an aptitude for IT, yet they are not currently working in a professional job. Even though they might not have really thought about IT, they may have an aptitude, and they would qualify for IT training under this program.”

Approximately 45 percent of the long-term unemployed within the grant area hold a bachelor’s degree. The program will primarily target this population with intensive coaching and job training leading to certificates and credentials needed for employment in the targeted occupations.

JVA grant writer Laura McGarry said the fact that Colorado has a highly educated workforce made Denver an ideal candidate for the grant.

“Nationally, the unemployed are less likely to have college degrees than is the case in Denver,” she said. “Because the Department of Labor designed this grant program specifically to retrain skilled and educated workers for new job opportunities, we were able to connect the dots and create a winning application.”

Garcia-Eckstein said employers are excited about the program because it will help address the mismatch between job opportunities and qualified applicants. Currently, she said, a lot of Colorado employers hire foreign workers with H-1B visas to do work that they can’t find qualified Colorado residents for.

She said Colorado is a hub for jobs in IT, advanced manufacturing and various STEM fields but that the pool of qualified job applicants cannot keep up with the demand.

“This grant will give Colorado residents a chance to get training for good jobs in high-growth industries and will also help employers fill these positions more easily. Everyone benefits,” she said.

“JVA associates did a fabulous job helping us with this grant. In fact, I don’t know that I have ever worked with a grant writer this good-and I have worked with the best of them.”