Located in:
- Program-specific Requirements for Adult, Dislocated Worker, and Youth Activities under Title I-B
The Unified or Combined State Plan must include the following with respect to activities carried out under subtitle B—
a. 2. B. Describe how the State intends to use Governor’s set aside funding. Describe how the State will utilize Rapid Response funds to respond to layoffs and plant closings and coordinate services to quickly aid companies and their affected workers. States also should describe any layoff aversion strategies they have implemented to address at risk companies and workers
Current Narrative:
California reserves 25 percent of its Title I Dislocated Worker funding to carry out statewide Rapid Response activities. Of that 25 percent, California chooses to allocate 50 percent directly to Local Areas and hold the other 50 percent at the state level for future Additional Assistance requests.
Rapid Response and Lay-Off Aversion
As outlined in Workforce Services Directive WSD16-04, one half of California’s 25 percent Rapid Response set-aside funds are allocated directly to Local Areas to support them in enabling affected workers to return to work as quickly as possible following a layoff, or to prevent layoffs altogether. To accomplish this, the workforce development system must be coordinated, comprehensive, and proactive in communicating with business.
This includes providing labor market and workforce information, integrating industry requirements into training strategies and career pathways, brokering relationships and job connections, making services efficient and easy to access, and coordinating with regional partners to reduce duplication. Rapid Response also tracks labor market trends, increased Unemployment Insurance claims, public announcements through the California Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notices, and analyzes economic data to assess the health of businesses.
Rapid Respond funds are allocated to Local Areas using a three-part formula:
- Baseline funding - This funding is allocated equally among Local Areas to ensure, at a minimum, that some capacity exists in each Local Area for the coordination and conduct of Rapid Response activities. Allocations to Local Areas comprised of more than one county will include an additional allocation of $50,000 for each additional county. Of the Rapid Response set-aside funds, 30 percent are reserved for this baseline funding.
- Layoff-based funding - This funding is for Local Areas that serve regions where significant numbers of dislocation events occur. This allocation will be based on quantitative layoff data. Funds will be allocated to Local Areas in proportion to the number of affected workers offered Rapid Response services in response to layoffs reported to the state. This methodology ensures services are provided to assist groups of workers affected by mass layoffs, permanent business closures, and natural or other disasters. Of the Rapid Response set-aside funds, 45 percent are reserved for this layoff-based funding.
- Hold-Harmless funding - This funding minimizes funding losses from year-to-year. A portion of the Rapid Response set-aside funds will be used to ensure that no Local Area receives less than 75 percent of their prior-year share of statewide funds distributed for baseline and layoff based activities. This policy also limits any Local Area’s year-over funding increase to 100 percent of their prior-year allocation.
Layoff Aversion funds are also distributed to Local Areas based on the Local Area’s relative share of the Rapid Response formula allocations referenced above.
Additional Assistance
As outlined in Workforce Service Directive WSD16-15, the other half of California’s Rapid Response set-aside funds are kept at the state level as Additional Assistance funds. These funds are made available to Local Areas that experience sudden and large increases of unemployment due to natural disasters, mass layoffs, or other events.
The purpose of the Additional Assistance is to supplement and expand local capability to respond effectively to worker dislocation events by funding direct services to dislocated workers when local resources are inadequate. Ideally, projects should be funded from multiple sources and involve multiple WIOA mandated partners. Additional Assistance funds should be used to serve the additional dislocated workers as well as allow a higher quality of services and outcomes to be achieved. The funding request must demonstrate that existing local resources (WIOA or others) are inadequate to address the needs of the affected workers seeking services.
There are three different methods for requesting Additional Assistance funding:
- Standard Application – This application petitions the state for additional funds to respond to unanticipated dislocated worker events that exceed the capacity of the existing Local Area’s formula funds to provide the needed resources.
- Emergency Application – This application provides the applicant with initial bridge-funding to begin the provision of services to dislocated workers from a mass layoff or natural disaster. To qualify for a natural-disaster classification, the event(s) must be declared eligible for assistance by the Federal Emergency Management Agency or other responding federal agencies.
- Project Modification Application – This application seeks to alter a current Additional Assistance project due to a substantial change in the scope of the originally-funded work.