Energy Transition Navigators Program
Grants for nonprofit community teams to recruit and guide disadvantaged Illinois residents into clean-energy workforce and contractor programmes.
Fund a team that helps people enter clean-energy careers through the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA) programmes. Navigator teams handle outreach, applications, eligibility screening and intake for their regional Clean Jobs Workforce Network hub. Before referral to that hub, they must complete the required pre-assessments, check readiness and suitability, and provide career exploration orientation. The hub remains responsible for case management, support during training through the Energy Transition Barrier Reduction Program, and core-competency training; it may contract these functions to its navigator partner. Climate Works pre-apprenticeship retains its own application and selection process.
Navigator teams also address obstacles to completing their own intake, assessments and orientation. You may budget for transport, childcare during sessions, required document fees, testing fees or access to virtual sessions under the navigator grant's miscellaneous cost line, or connect participants to existing community resources. These costs are separate from support during training. Barrier Reduction funds are generally unavailable for navigator intake. For participants below the sixth-grade reading and math entry level, refer them to tutoring, adult education or another appropriate provider, arrange reassessment, and support programme entry once they meet the requirement. Only when no funded provider is available and the navigator team has documented that other sources have been pursued and are unavailable may Barrier Reduction funds pay for that prerequisite service as a last resort. This is not an expected cost and cannot fund a standing basic-skills programme.
The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) expects grants of approximately $150,000–$650,000 for services from 1 June 2027 to 31 May 2028. These are estimates: final awards depend on the people served and programme outcomes. The range covers navigator responsibilities and excludes possible additional hub subcontracts. No matching contribution is required. DCEO may provide an initial advance for approved immediate cash needs, followed by payments covering documented cash needs and reimbursement of costs already incurred.
Awarded teams must plan jointly with DCEO and their hub before services start. Funding covers allowable programme work and costs under the notice and grant cost rules; lobbying, fundraising, entertainment, political activities, alcohol, food and personal-use activities are among the excluded uses. Accepting the award notice does not itself authorise you to start work or incur costs. Awards of $250,000 or more must comply with the Business Enterprise Program for Minorities, Females, and Persons with Disabilities Act, which sets a goal for contracting with businesses certified as owned and controlled by people in those groups. DCEO works with grantees on compliance before the grant agreement and throughout the grant.
Keep participant service records in the CEJA Reporting System and cooperate with DCEO's external evaluations. Financial and performance reports are required at least quarterly, due within 30 days after the reporting period, with a closeout report within 45 days after the service period ends. A separate annual programme report is due by 1 April. DCEO must preapprove subrecipient and subcontractor agreements and budgets, and the lead organisation remains responsible for their performance. Staff must complete the training and authorisation required for Department-controlled work. If hub subcontract responsibilities or personnel change, update the staffing and budget documents through DCEO's change process.
Eligibility
- Apply as a nonprofit corporation organised under the General Not For Profit Corporation Act of 1986, in good standing to operate in Illinois, representing a community or significant part of one and serving low-income people or low-skilled workers directly. You must be a community-based provider with a history of education, outreach and recruitment for low-wage or low-skilled workers or people in economically disadvantaged communities. The notice defines those communities by census tracts with average household income no higher than 80% of the relevant county area median income. Community colleges and units of local government cannot apply as the lead organisation.
- Lead applicants must demonstrate a record of career navigation, assessment, counselling or pathways services for the target populations and knowledge of clean-energy jobs and training. Applicants with little experience in these areas are encouraged to partner with experienced organisations; one organisation can deliver all services or subcontract programme elements.
- Propose services in one of Illinois's 14 regional workforce hub areas, explaining how you will reach its communities and nearby areas. Submit a separate complete application for each hub region, with no more than one application per region. Your programme design must increase participation by CEJA equity investment eligible people: people whose primary residence is in designated environmental justice or Restore, Reinvest and Renew areas, graduates of or people currently enrolled in the foster care system, or formerly incarcerated people. Use the official community map to identify the designated areas. Make assessments accessible, including language and disability access and approved alternative methods where needed. Demonstrate through past work how you identified unequal access or outcomes and changed service delivery in response.
- Apply priority of service in outreach, screening and referral so that training providers can meet their placement priorities where the applicant pool allows. At least one-third of placements should be for people living in areas that are both Restore, Reinvest and Renew and environmental justice areas; at least two-thirds should be for people living in either or both, including that first third. Within those groups, preference goes to people facing employment barriers and foster-care graduates or current participants. Remaining placements prioritise displaced energy workers (qualifying energy workers who have lost their jobs, or are expected by DCEO to lose them within five years, because a fossil-fuel power plant, nuclear power plant or coal mine reduces operations or closes), people facing employment barriers and foster-care graduates or current participants, regardless of their area of residence. These priorities guide placement; they do not determine eligibility, which must be checked under the destination programme's rules.
- Register in the Grant Accountability and Transparency Act (GATA) Grantee Portal when applying and obtain prequalified status. This checks your federal employer identification number, public SAM.gov registration, UEI identifier, applicable Illinois Secretary of State good standing and exclusion or sanction lists. Applicants on the Illinois Stop Payment or Federal Excluded Parties lists cannot receive an award. You may apply before obtaining a UEI, but must obtain it before grant execution; the notice allows authorised SAM/UEI exemptions. Maintain active SAM registration while holding the award unless an exemption applies.
- Your organisation must be treated as a separate, “regarded” entity by the IRS for federal income-tax purposes. Entities the IRS disregards as separate from their owner cannot receive these grant funds.
How to apply
- Status
- closes 30 Oct 2026
- Opens
- Closes
- Round restrictions
- Submit one complete application for each workforce hub region you propose to serve; only one application per region is allowed.
- A later rolling intake may continue only for regions where navigator awards have not been made; this is conditional.
Download DCEO's application documents and read the funding notice. Complete the programme application, uniform application and budget, project work plan and required disclosures and staffing documents, then upload the package through the linked Smartsheet submission form. Use the notice's checklist for the required attachments. GATA prequalification is required for your application to be considered.
Submit within the current application window. DCEO may keep applications open later only for hub regions where navigator grants have not been awarded; do not assume that later route will be available for your region.