N.C. Commerce Secretary Lilley Announces Grants to Workforce Boards to Support Businesses Impacted by Hurricane Helene

The North Carolina Department of Commerce is providing funds that local workforce development boards may use to help businesses minimize the damage of layoffs caused by Hurricane Helene, N.C. Commerce Secretary Lee Lilley announced today. The Hurricane Helene Business Edge Fund offers $500,000 in grant funding for local workforce boards serving the Western North Carolina counties that were most impacted by the storm, helping communities retain jobs and businesses.

"This innovative grant program is one of numerous tools we are using to support long-term economic recovery for western North Carolina,” Secretary Lilley said. “It is essential that we help employers, particularly small businesses, to save jobs, adapt and rebuild.”

The Hurricane Helene Business Edge Fund is managed through the Governor’s Rapid Response program at the North Carolina Department of Commerce’s Division of Workforce Solutions (DWS). Business Edge, an initiative that is part of the Rapid Response program, seeks to engage with employers to minimize layoffs as part of a series of strategies to help them through each stage of the business life cycle.

Workforce development boards in the region may apply to DWS for funding and then may provide grants of up to $10,000 each to eligible businesses and community-based organizations.

Employers located in one of the critical business disruption counties will be eligible to apply to their local workforce board. Those counties include Ashe, Avery, Burke, Buncombe, Caldwell, Haywood, Henderson, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Transylvania, Watauga, and Yancey.

To apply, businesses must have been in operation for at least two years, be current on Unemployment Insurance (UI) taxes, and be in good standing with the Internal Revenue Service. The application should demonstrate a need for layoff aversion support and outline reasonable uses for the funds. Local workforce development boards may add their own application requirements.

Layoff aversion support can be used, for example, to fund Incumbent Worker Training, installation of Internet and remote access tools, services or tools that allow restaurants or retail establishments to convert to online sales or delivery of orders, cleaning and sanitation supplies or services, risk assessments, business consulting services, and other creative approaches to reduce or eliminate the need for layoffs.

The Hurricane Helene Business Edge Fund may not be used for products or services covered by insurance, hazard pay, rent, employee wages and benefits, certain support services for employees, and improvements, upgrades, or equipment that contribute to the capital assets of a business.

To apply for the Hurricane Helene Business Edge Fund, businesses should contact their local workforce development board or NCWorks Career Center. Contact information for local workforce boards is available at www.ncawdb.org/local-boards/.

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This is a WIOA Rapid Response project, which is 100 percent supported by the Employment and Training Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor, as part of an award to North Carolina totaling $5,261,492.