SOWIB named $3.4 million Good Jobs Challenge Awardee

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 8/4/22

NOTICE: $3.4 Million Grant to Develop Transportation

Workforce Training Program in Southwestern Oregon

Coos Bay, OR. The Southwestern Oregon Workforce Investment Board (SOWIB) announced the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) is awarding a $3.4 million American Rescue Plan Good Jobs Challenge grant to the Southwestern Oregon Workforce Investment Board (SOWIB) in Coos Bay, Oregon. The grant will help develop the Driving Prosperity program focused on career training and job placement for the trucking industry.

“This grant will help employers fill jobs in the crucial trucking industry in Southwestern Oregon and create economic opportunity in communities and rural areas hungry for good-paying jobs,” said. Rep. DeFazio. “This EDA investment will help the Southwestern Oregon Workforce Investment Board and industry partners train hundreds of new truck drivers that will expand and diversify the workforce and help address supply-chain shortages across the entire Pacific Northwest.”

The American Rescue Plan Good Jobs Challenge is awarding $500 million in grants to 32 worker-centered, industry-led workforce training partnerships to help accelerate economic recovery, expand opportunity, and support innovative approaches to localized industry-led worker-centered training programs.

The Southwestern Oregon Workforce Investment Board is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization working to maximize regional collaboration, effective innovation, and coordinated investment of public and private resources to optimize equitable access to family-sustaining employment. For more information, please visit www.sowib.org.

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