Welfare-to-Work Grants to Federally Recognized Tribes and Alaska Natives

The Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration operates this program (CFDA 17.254) to distribute welfare-to-work formula grants to federally recognized tribes and Alaska Native organizations, with the most recent grant awards issued on October 1, 2003—over two decades ago.

This program is inactive. No grant opportunities have been posted recently, and no awards have been obligated since 2003. The program issued 25 total awards between 1997 and 2003, with activity concentrated in 2001 and 2003 (5 and 11 awards respectively). Award magnitudes were modest; recent awards from October 2003 ranged from $612 to $80,906, though several grants from 1999 exceeded six figures (including one obligating $185,233 in federal dollars). The portfolio contains all Formula Grants, distributed exclusively by the Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration.

The program funded employment and training support for Native American welfare-to-work initiatives. Eligible recipients were federally recognized tribes and Alaska Native organizations providing services to tribal members transitioning from welfare to employment.

The combined federal obligation across all 25 awards through the program's history is negative in nominal terms due to data-quality issues in the historical record (adjustments and reversals are represented in the portfolio figures), making the reported total not meaningful for budgeting purposes. Individual awards during active years suggest typical grant sizes between ten thousand and eighty thousand dollars, though the program's formula-grant structure meant awards were determined by statutory or regulatory allocation rather than competitive solicitation.

No recent grant opportunities are available under this program. Pursuit is not recommended without verification that the program has resumed funding operations, as the two-decade gap since the last award and absence of posted solicitations indicate the program may have been discontinued or consolidated into other tribal employment initiatives.