Regional Development Initiative Program (RDI)

LB1412 (2024) allocated three million dollars for the Regional Development Initiative (RDI) Program to fund regional workforce development initiatives throughout all six community college regions within the State of Nebraska.

The funding for this program is from the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund (SLFRF); Assistance listing 21.027. This program is designed to provide resources to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and its negative economic impacts.  

The Regional Development Initiative (RDI) Program will consist of two phases:

Navigator Phase
One grant not to exceed one million eight hundred thousand dollars will be awarded for economic impact assistance to a nonprofit organization for the employment of Regional Navigators in each of Nebraska’s six community college regions. Grant funding will support the employment of regional navigators and planning of regional projects in each of the six community college regions through September 30, 2026. 

Initiatives Phase
Economic Impact Assistance grants will be awarded to applicants in each of the six community college regions within the state of Nebraska to fund regional workforce initiatives that respond to the negative economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Who can apply?

To qualify for the Navigator Phase funding, an applicant must have a presence in each of the six community college regions and the ability to hire a full-time equivalent employee (regional navigator) in each region. Qualified applicants will need to demonstrate they have ability to employ regional navigators as of July 2024.

To qualify for the Initiatives Phase funding, an applicant must develop a regional workforce project initiative in their community college region that responds to the negative economic impacts of the COVID-19 and focuses on improving the lives of citizens in the applicant’s community college region. Eligible regional project initiatives must include a timeline that ensures grant funding is expended by September 30, 2026.

Please see map of community college regions below.

Full Time Equivalent (FTE) Employees means the number of employees computed by dividing the total hours paid in a year to employees by the product of forty times the number of weeks in a year. See, e.g.,  Neb. Rev. Stat. § 77-6907.

Qualified Census Tracts (QCTs) are any census tract designated by HUD that either:

1. Has at least 50 percent of the households with an annual income less than 60 percent of the area median gross income; or
2. Has a poverty rate of at least 25 percent.

Please refer to the map of the Nebraska QCTs below or at https://www.huduser.gov/PORTAL/sadda/sadda_qct.html