eNews February 17, 2023
Friday, February 17, 2023 - 03:38pm
This issue is sponsored by:
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In this issue:
- Virginia Registered Apprenticeship Challenge: Virtual session Feb. 28
- Share Our Strength’s “No Kid Hungry” campaign seeks partnership with Virginia Mayors
VML News
Deadline to submit 
entries for VML’s “If I Were Mayor” essay contest is March 3
The Virginia Municipal League (VML) invites students from VML member municipalities enrolled in the 7th Grade during the 2022-2023 school year to join its “If I were Mayor” essay contest.
Regional winners selected from around the state will each receive a $150 gift card and a plaque. One statewide winner chosen from the regional winners will receive a $250 gift card and a plaque. The runner-up from the region that receives the statewide award will become that region’s winner.
Winning essays will be featured in the May issue of VML’s magazine Virginia Town & City.
More information about the contest and instructions on how to submit essays are available on VML’s website here >.
The deadline to submit entries is the end of the day on Friday, March 3.
Good luck everyone!
VML Contact: Manuel Timbreza, mtimbreza@vml.org
Opportunities
Virginia Registered Apprenticeship Challenge: Virtual session Feb. 28
The Virginia Department of Labor and Industry (DOLI) Division of Registered Apprenticeship is conducting a year-long challenge for the business community, member organizations, economic developers, Chambers of Commerce, service providers to support the Commonwealth’s Registered Apprenticeship sponsor and talent expansion.
February challenge
Inviting Business Member Associations and Suppliers serving Employer/Sponsors interested in adopting or expanding the Registered Apprenticeship model of targeted, occupational training.
Registered Apprenticeship was adopted early on by the Manufacturing and Building Trades/Construction sectors. Now, as talent recruitment becomes more difficult, the Healthcare and Technology industries are borrowing the concept of earn-while-you-learn as well as competency over pedigree.
Virtual session February 28
DOLI is convening advocates from the Healthcare, Manufacturing, Technology and Building Trades sectors to discuss how to spread this earn while you learn model for talent development.
Virtual session: February 28 | 2:00 – 3:30 PM EST
Learn more and register here >
Coming soon: “Mayors and Main Street” Virginia Registered Apprenticeship Challenge
As part DOLI’s year-long “Virginia Registered Apprenticeship Challenge – 2023” the Division of Registered Apprenticeship is looking for new friends and allies among the community of Mayors across the Commonwealth. Contact Patricia Morrison at the email address below to learn more.
DOLI Contact: Patricia Morrison, Patricia.Morrison@doli.virginia.gov
Share Our Strength’s “No Kid Hungry” campaign seeks partnership with Virginia Mayors
As Mayor, you see many of these struggling families in your community and are best suited to address this solvable challenge. Share Our Strength partners with more than 140 mayors from across 46 states and the District of Columbia to lead the Mayors Alliance to End Childhood Hunger. Together we have taken meaningful actions to end childhood hunger in cities nationwide, and we invite you to join us in this effort.
Last month, Share Our Strength hosted a meeting of the Mayors Alliance to End Childhood Hunger. The event focused on opportunities to address childhood hunger at the local and federal levels. The Mayors Alliance is a nonpartisan coalition of more than 140 mayors from 46 states and Washington, DC, working in partnership with Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign committed to taking meaningful actions to end childhood hunger in cities nationwide.
At the event, Mayor John Giles of Mesa, AZ, and Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome of Baton Rouge, LA, were announced as the Mayors Alliance’s Chair and Vice-Chair for 2023, respectively. The event also featured a briefing from the White House Domestic Policy Council on the National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition and Health, remarks from Mayor Eric Adams of New York City, and a panel discussion that included House Agriculture Chair GT Thompson (R-PA) and Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA).
Share Our Strength will continue to work with the Mayors Alliance leadership to implement strategies that will address childhood hunger in their communities. Among the priorities for the next year will be collaboration with the Biden-Harris Administration on the implementation of the White House Strategy, sharing best practices, engaging mayors in policy debates at the state and federal levels, and bringing in even more members from across the country.
Since its launch in January 2022, the Mayors Alliance has already made an impact. It engaged in collective advocacy at the federal level on critical issues related to child hunger, including child nutrition waivers, and offered virtual briefings on emerging topics such as new federal regulations and tax credits, and connected mayors to their peers who shared strategies to address child hunger in communities. Led by Mayor Levar Stoney, City of Richmond, VA and Mayor John Giles, City of Mesa, AZ in its inaugural year, the coalition is poised to advance its goal to end childhood hunger under the leadership of Chair Mayor John Giles, Mesa, AZ and Vice-Chair Mayor Sharon Weston Broome, Baton Rouge, LA. To find out more about the Mayors Alliance, I invite you to review its website, mayorshungeralliance.org, which features a brief video of member mayors describing why they joined the Mayors Alliance and took the pledge to end childhood hunger in their cities.
Share Our Strength Contact: mayors@strength.org
Resources
U.S. Treasury’s contact centers open ahead of April deadline
The U.S. Department of Treasury announced this week that starting on February 21 the contact centers for the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Fund, Homeowner Assistance Fund, and Emergency Rental Assistance program will reopen. As you might remember, in October 2022, Treasury shut down the contact centers due to budget limitations.
The message from Treasury was as follows:
Treasury is pleased to announce the Office of Recovery Programs Contact Center will be reopening starting on February 21, 2023.
As you know, the Contact Center closed last year due to an administrative funding shortfall, which impacted Treasury’s ability to provide support to recipients of funding from the Office of Recovery Programs. However, late last year Congress provided additional resources for the Office of Recovery Programs in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023. As a result, Treasury is able to reopen the Contact Center in order to better support recipients by answering their phone and email inquiries.
However, for faster service, Treasury continues to encourage recipients to use Self-Service Resources (Treasury’s Self-Service Resources) as the first step for all questions and inquiries. If questions cannot be resolved through these Self-Service Resources, recipients may reach out to the Contact Center for questions related to recovery programs as follows starting on February 21:
- State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds: SLFRF@treasury.gov or call (844) 529-9527
- Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency: LATCF@treasury.gov or call (844) 529-9527
- Emergency Rental Assistance program: EmergencyRentalAssistance@treasury.gov or 877-398-5861
- Homeowners Assistance Fund: For states and territories: HAF@treasury.gov; for tribes: HAF_Tribal@treasury.gov; or 877-398-5861
Office of Recovery Programs Contact: slfrf@treasury.gov
