The Lake County Health and Community Services Committee on July 29 voted to accept multiple state workforce grants, including a Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) formula award of $8,516,791 and supplemental grants, to support county job-center operations, training and rapid response services. The committee approved the items by voice vote during its meeting.

The resolutions authorize emergency appropriations for the Lake County Workforce Development Department to cover personnel, operations, direct participant supports and pilot programs. Director Jennifer Serino told the committee the formula award represents a more than 24% increase from the prior year and that “60% of those funds go directly to participants.”

The awards described by staff include: the WIOA program year 2025 formula grant of $8,516,791; a WIOA dislocated worker grant modification for $135,000; a statewide rapid response grant of $350,000; and a 2025 supplemental grant of $232,774. Serino said the formula increase reflects higher historical unemployment data used in the federal-to-state allocation formula.

Why it matters: county staff said the grants primarily fund staff (roughly 30 positions), the job-center facilities and direct services that pay for occupational training, employer-paid training wages and youth contracts. Serino described planned uses including expanding manufacturing training, employer-focused AI readiness and apprenticeship programs and continuing a parent-mentor literacy program tied to Waukegan schools.

Supporting details: Serino said more than $1 million will be paid for tuition-based occupational training and that more than $1 million will fund employer-paid training wages; employee training funding was described as about $500,000. She said more than $600,000 is allocated to youth contracts that serve high-school students and disconnected youth. The rapid response grant will be used to respond to WARN notices and reemployment events; Serino said Lake County has had 12 WARN events since May 2024 affecting more than 1,000 workers and that staff plan to continue working with 28 impacted workers and about 75 businesses.

Committee discussion and next steps: Committee members asked about program details, including a parent-mentor program tied to Waukegan Public School District and connections to apprenticeships and paraprofessional certification. Serino said the parent-mentor project includes 49 parent mentors at six Waukegan schools, more than 6,000 volunteer hours and plans to add a seventh school in 2025 to serve roughly 250 more students. Members also asked about WARN notices and how the workforce office contacts impacted employees; Serino said the department receives the employee lists and conducts direct outreach and hiring events to match impacted workers to open positions.

Formal actions: the committee took items 8.2–8.4 together by a motion to consider them as a group and then approved each resolution by voice vote. The supplemental grant and other appropriations were approved later in the same meeting.

The committee did not ask staff to take additional action beyond accepting the grants and authorizing emergency appropriations; staff will implement the grants consistent with state and federal requirements.