Grant Awards
Since its inception in February, 2006, Florida’s Great Northwest’s WIRED Northwest Florida Initiative has been investing in job creation and in the development of the critical foundations to ensure a skilled, trained workforce for those businesses that are creating a diverse and sustainable economy for the region. Through March 2010, the WIRED Northwest Florida Initiative has awarded $7,670,548 in grants to businesses and educational institutions which has resulted in a match of $18,322,120, a capital investment of $149,945,000 and 4,202 trained, skilled individuals. The region's public-private partnerships understand the WIRED Northwest Florida Initiative is a catalyst, proven by the initiative’s first two years where a $8 million investment has been leveraged 2.61:1 in match and has resulted in $150 million in capital investment in addition to its mission of meeting the region’s workforce needs.
Employee Skills Training Grant Awards
Employee skills training grants address immediate skills training needs of businesses and allow for development and implementation of customized training. Training funds were made available to businesses with newly created full-time positions in one of the target industries. Florida’s Great Northwest awarded grants totaling $561,696, which was matched at over $981,489 for training on 209 new positions in Northwest Florida. Award recipients include:
BitWizards
General Dynamics
GE Wind Generators
Hixardt Technologies
Green Circle Bio Energy
Rex Lumber
Syn-Tech Systems
Xcavate
Entrepreneurship Grant Awards
One of the initiative’s most successful programs was its entrepreneurship grant program. Understanding that one of the most critical needs of start-up technology companies is adequate capital, the WIRED Northwest Florida Initiative offered grants of up to $100,000 to entrepreneurial technology businesses based on a minimal job creation and a match of at least $100,000 in new equity investment into the company. The philosophy being that a good entrepreneur with a sound business plan, a saleable product and a minimum of $200,000 of new capital should be able to get seed or venture financing. The $1 million awarded by Florida’s Great Northwest was matched at $3.87 million and created 50 new jobs. The program worked so well that the four-year allocation of funds was exhausted in the first two years. This grant program has been replaced by Florida’s Great Northwest’s SBIR/STTR Phase 0 and Phase 1.5 programs.
ActiGraph, LLC
Avocare
Ceryph, Inc.
Cornerstone Software Services, Inc.
Cogon Systems
DayJet Corporation
GridSouth Networks, LLC
O & M Steel Fabricators
Patient Practitioners, LLC
Trinity DNA Solutions
Secondary Education Grant Awards
Adopting a philosophy of “grow your own talent,” Florida’s Great Northwest's WIRED Northwest Florida Initiative has been investing in the region’s public education systems to stimulate program development in the skills training that results in industry certification, high school and college credit through the replication of CHOICE™ Career Academies or the development of accelerated math and science programs at the high school level. The grants require match and only cover start-up costs, ensuring that the school districts are adequately funding ongoing costs and that the programs have a long lifespan as an integrated component of the curriculum. Three rounds of Secondary Education grants have been awarded to facilitate implementation of either the state-recognized CHOICE™ model career academy creation or to introduce accelerated math and science curriculums.
Post-Secondary Grant Awards
Beginning in 2008, Florida’s Great Northwest, through its WIRED Northwest Florida Initiative, turned its education focus to post-secondary programs necessary to meet the current and future workforce needs in the region’s target industries. Fundamental to the growth and development of the region’s target industries are the two critical support industries of information technology and engineering, occupations that transcend all four target clusters. Armed with a comprehensive evaluation of the region, its anticipated workforce demand and an understanding of the region’s existing training capacity, Florida’s Great Northwest and its partners are embarking on a focused effort to expand the region’s post-secondary education capacity in the occupations critical to supporting a sustained and diversified economy in Northwest Florida.
Heavy Equipment Operators
Post-Secondary Education Awards
Workforce Innovation Awards
The Workforce Innovation project was developed to address specific industry needs by funding innovative workforce development, training and other industry-specific education and training partnership projects that encourage or lead to high-skill, high-wage employment or employee advancement in four targeted high-growth, high-tech industry clusters: aerospace and defense; health sciences and human performance enhancement; renewable energy and the environment; and transportation and logistics; or in either supporting industry: information technology and research/engineering services. These new programs will have a tremendous impact on the development of the region’s knowledge-based workforce and support the growth of target industries, creating a diverse and sustainable economy. Florida’s Great Northwest, through its WIRED Northwest Florida Initiative, awarded the grant recipients $2,101,706, which will be matched with an additional $5,605,490. Through these training initiatives, an additional 850 skilled workers have been trained already with 340 skilled workers being added to Northwest Florida’s workforce annually. Further, these programs expect to have a combined annual economic impact of $60 million on the region’s economy.
Workforce Innovation I
Workforce Innovation II
Workforce Innovation III
Incumbent Worker Training Grant Awards
The Incumbent Worker Training grants were designed to address specific industry workforce needs. Florida’s Great Northwest awarded grants for workforce training that encourages employee retention and advancement in targeted, high-growth, high-tech industries. Eligibility was limited to training programs for existing employees in Northwest Florida. Under this grant,Florida’s Great Northwest invested more than $550,000, matched by more than $1.4 million, for training of 512 employees throughout the region.
Baskerville-Donovan
Bit-Wizards
Fleet Maintenance
Fort Walton Machining
GE Energy
Global Business Solutions, Inc.
Gulf Coast Community College
Gulf Coast Workforce Board
Gulf Power
H2 Performance Consulting
Quantic Engineering and Logistics Corporation
SAIC
TeCMEN