The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the award of $5 million in funding to support continued disaster-relief employment and workforce training for Kentucky residents as the commonwealth continues to recover after severe storms in 2023.
On July 24, 2023, the department announced a National Dislocated Worker Grant up of to $20 million – with an initial award of $6.6 million – to the Kentucky Department of Workforce Development to provide people with temporary employment focused on removing debris and delivery humanitarian assistance in Bell, Carter, Elliott, Harlan, Lawrence, Morgan and Powell counties.
Heavy rains and severe storms in February 2023 caused damage in some of the same areas affected by a devastating flood in 2022 and destroyed critical infrastructure in the affected communities. The Federal Emergency Management Agency issued a major disaster declaration on May 9, 2023, enabling Kentucky to request this funding.
Overseen by the department’s Employment and Training Administration, and supported by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014, National Dislocated Worker Grants provide funding assistance to temporarily expand the service capacity of dislocated worker programs at the state and local levels when large, unexpected economic events cause significant job losses.