About this archived opportunity

The California Regional Initiative for Social Enterprise Program (CA:RISE) was created in 2021 by Senate Bill No. 193 (Government Code Section 11788) to accelerate economic mobility and inclusion for individuals that experience employment barriers, the purpose of the program is to provide financial assistance and technical assistance to employment social enterprises. This program will provide grant capital paired with technical assistance in order to support the growth of ESEs in California, in service of the following outcomes: more ESEs, and larger, more sustainable ESEs able to employ more individuals facing barriers to employment, increased economic mobility and related pathways for ESE participant workers, stronger ESE peer connection and communities of practice to support one another long-term, increased integration of ESEs with available government-administered small business and programmatic services, and explicit and increased support directed towards traditionally overlooked ESEs. CA:RISE provides approximately twenty-five million dollars ($25,000,000) in one-time grant funding to support eligible employment social enterprises through a combination of technical assistance and grants. CalOSBA is seeking a technical assistance entity to serve as the Program Lead for the training and technical assistance component of the Program for the State. Of the total program funding of $25,000,000, up to $6 Million will be reserved for the Program Lead. The Program Lead will be an organization with a mission that primarily supports economic empowerment of individuals with barriers to employment. The Program Lead must also be capable of providing technical assistance for the Program. The Program Lead will be tasked with providing technical assistance to ESEs. In addition, the Program Lead will work alongside the fiscal agent to support participants in meeting eligibility requirements for a competitive grant. The fiscal agent, not the program lead, will be tasked with application verification, approval and grant distribution. One-time grants will be awarded to ESEs through a competitive grant process. Grants will be awarded to eligible ESEs on a competitive basis following certification from the Program Lead and grants will be accompanied by technical assistance with a value of up to 30 percent of the grant amount awarded to the ESE grantee. The technical assistance provided shall be in addition to the grant amount awarded. For full application instructions and eligibility information, please see the Request for Proposals at https://calosba.ca.gov/grant-and-funding-opportunities/.