Clean Jobs Workforce Network Program

• Your organization must provide community employment, skills or related services, have at least one main operating office in the community or region served, and demonstrate local relationships. Eligible organizations include community colleges, nonprofits and local governments. New clean-energy training providers are encouraged to partner with experienced service providers.
• Propose a hub in or near Chicago South, Chicago Southwest and West, Waukegan, Rockford, Aurora, Joliet, Peoria, Champaign, Danville, Decatur, Carbondale, East St. Louis, Alton or Kankakee. Identify the region, training locations and communities served; sites must be accessible to participants. Surrounding areas and nearby regions may be served.
• Demonstrate the staff, instructors and partnerships needed to deliver training, employment support and timely individualized barrier-reduction services. The barrier-reduction provider must be a community-based organization or nonprofit with the stated service capacity and local connections. Include prior performance data. Competitive teams have employer agreements for work-based learning and job placement. If offering preparation for the solar-electricity credential called the NABCEP Photovoltaic Associate, meet NABCEP's current registered training-provider requirements.
• Deliver the required 2027–2029 Clean Jobs Curriculum Framework: foundational CEJA Core Competencies, at least two occupational Career Pathways, and work-based learning. Participants must complete the foundational content or test out before technical training. Work-based learning hours must be at least 10% of instructional hours, added to those hours and completed before recording a participant as a completer. Hands-on experience is required unless impracticable; talks and tours alone otherwise cannot satisfy it. Climate Works pre-apprenticeship placements do not count.
• Register in Illinois' Grant Accountability and Transparency Act (GATA) portal when applying. The portal checks your federal employer identification number, public registration in the federal System for Award Management (SAM), state good standing where applicable, and sanction lists. Entities on Illinois' Stop Payment List or the federal exclusion list at submission cannot receive an award. Your organization must be treated by the IRS as a separate entity for federal income-tax purposes. A “disregarded entity,” whose activities are reported on its owner’s tax return, cannot receive funding. A Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) may be obtained after application but must be in place before grant execution. Unless a stated federal exemption or state-approved exception applies, meet the SAM/UEI requirements before award and keep SAM registration current throughout the award.

The people trained must be Illinois residents aged 18 or older, or reach 18 by scheduled completion. They must also live in an R3 area or environmental justice community, be displaced energy workers, or face employment barriers such as low educational attainment, criminal legal involvement, language barriers or foster-care experience. Displaced workers and people facing employment barriers need not live in the designated areas. Apply the call's placement priorities: at least one-third from areas that are both R3 and environmental justice communities, and at least two-thirds from either category, including that first third, where the regional applicant pool allows. Within both geographic priority groups, give preference to people facing employment barriers and graduates or current members of the foster-care system. Give priority for the remaining placements to displaced energy workers, people facing employment barriers, and graduates or current members of the foster-care system, regardless of their area of residence. R3 areas are Illinois' designated Restore, Reinvest, and Renew areas. Disclosure of incarceration or foster-care status is voluntary and cannot be required for participation.

A displaced energy worker has lost employment, or DCEO anticipates they will lose it within five years, because of reduced operation or closure of a fossil-fuel or nuclear plant or coal mine. The worker must have worked full-time at such an Illinois site for at least one year within the previous five years; full-time means at least 35 hours weekly for 45 weeks annually, or 1,820 hours including paid leave but excluding overtime. Worker status continues for five years from the last employment date or 15 September 2021, whichever is later. DCEO's CEJA community map identifies qualifying R3 and environmental justice areas.

Status

søknadsfrist 30. okt. 2026

Åpner

22. sep. 2026

Søknadsfrist

30. okt. 2026 · 17:00:00 UTC-05:00

Vilkår for søknadsrunden

• Apply separately for each hub region; one application per region.[^c20]

Download DCEO's application package and submit it through the linked Smartsheet application form. Submit one complete application per hub region, with no more than one application for each region. Include the signed grant application, full signed CEJA budget workbook, signed disclosures, Guided Program Application, Project Work Plan, staff information and partner/employer agreements. The work plan must cover curriculum, staffing, timeline, activities and outcomes. If requesting CPRG funding, also include its budget and curriculum plan.

The form accepts at most ten uploaded documents, so combine files where needed; documents stored on Google Docs or other cloud servers are not accepted. Apply during the current dated window. A later rolling route until 31 December 2027 is conditional on individual hub regions remaining unawarded.