Ian aftermath: Sarasota County offers workforce training funds

SARASOTA — The workforce development portion of Sarasota County’s Resilient SRQ program opened this week.

Resilient SRQ is the county’s program for distributing $201.5 million in federal disaster recovery funds for people harmed by Hurricane Ian.

The county was one of few jurisdictions that received Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery funds directly from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The application periods for funding of infrastructure and affordable housing projects have already closed, while applications for money for housing recovery hasn’t yet been released.

The workforce development program is open to nonprofits, community-based development organizations, public institutions of higher learning and Sarasota County public entities to apply for funding for workforce development, training programs and projects, a county news release says.

The county has allocated $15 million to the program.

“The intention is to create a career trades training program in the construction fields,” Resilient SRQ Program Manager Laurel Varnell told the County Commission during a presentation in March.

Applications will be accepted through June 26.

An informational session is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Tuesday in the first-floor training room at the Sarasota County Administration Building, 1660 Ringling Blvd. The session can also be attended virtually.

To be eligible for funding, applicants must meet all of the county’s criteria, the release says:

The proposed project must serve low- to moderate-income people.It must involve either public facilities construction and acquisition for the purpose of a construction trades training program; a workforce training program that includes creating or expanding training programs for construction trades; or both.It must be in Sarasota County.It must include mitigation measures.

Qualified projects will be scored on their financial plan, project readiness, project impact and pre-award assessment, according to the release.

Resilient SRQ staff will make scoring recommendations to the County Commissioners for the selection of projects to be funded.

Additional information about eligibility requirements and scoring criteria can be found at ResilientSRQ.net or by calling 311 or 941-861-5309.