On Wednesday, Feb. 24 at 8 a.m., Tioga County Economic Development and Planning, the Tioga County Chamber of Commerce, and Tioga County Tourism will host a workshop to help educate business owners, non-profit directors and municipal leaders on the function and processes of upcoming grant opportunities through New York State (NYS). Available opportunities include the Consolidated Funding Application (CFA), which includes Empire State Development (ESD) Capital Grants, and the Upstate Revitalization Initiative (URI).
“There are funding opportunities out there through these programs, but it can be confusing and overwhelming,” said LeeAnn Tinney, director of Tioga County Economic Development and Planning.
She added, “We hope to clarify the key points of these grants and get our community leaders excited and ready so they can get help funding their projects. Tioga County can’t reap the benefit if we don’t play. Let’s get in the game.”
Speakers at the workshop include Tioga County Economic Development and Planning personnel who will give an overview of the three grant programs; Abbey Hendrickson, director of Tioga Arts Council, who will go over how to register for the Grants Gateway, a prerequisite to submit an application through NYS; local community leaders who will offer first-hand experience on how they applied and were awarded funding for their project through one of these programs; and the Central Region’s Grant Administrator for the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation who will present what key features they look for in a fundable grant application.
The NYS CFA is the online application used since 2010 to submit grant requests to a number of New York State Programs. ESD Capital Grants are available through the CFA process to help fund capital development projects. At this time, a sixth round of CFA has not been announced by the Governor’s office. The goal is to best prepare for the process in the event the Governor opens the program again.
The URI is a $500 million award received by the Southern Tier for economic development projects, which was awarded in 2015.
