What do ARPA funds say about local tech ed?

You ARPA know

What's up withcu, Baltimore? Depending on who you are and where you live, it could be a lot.

Yesterday, the city announced the first awardees of $7 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)-related funds. According to The Baltimore Sun, nine major nonprofits received awards worth between $285,000 and $2.3 million. Awardees included several organizations — Wide Angle Youth Media, Minsters' Conference Empowerment Center CDC and Baltimore Corps — that will put the federal funds toward workforce development programs. The former two orgs' programs specifically involve tech and other STEM education and skills/job training initiatives, while Baltimore Corps' project focuses on those that identify as women and/or people of color.

The whole city also stands to potentially benefit from the state Commerce Department re-designating and expanding its Enterprise Zone. The zone no longer includes Federal Hill, Harbor Point or Harbor East, but does include neighborhoods like Highlandtown, Port Covington and downtown near Pratt Street — all noted, if understated, areas of tech, life sciences or other commercial activity. Cecil County also got an expanded Enterprise Zone.

All of these changes dovetail with the convos around STEM pipelines, diverse workforce cultivation and others at the heart of Technical.ly's July editorial calendar theme: Tech Education. We'll be examining best practices for educating the tech workforce of tomorrow, along with the structures and institutions that shape what that looks like. Read more about our plans below.

Have you any preferred bootcamps or K-12 programs we need to know about? Anything new cooking in local tech ed, from schools to clubs to colleges and beyond? Want to talk or write about it? Let us know by replying to this email or sending one to [email protected].

— Technical.ly editor Sameer Rao ([email protected])

This month's newsletter is sponsored by United Way of Central Maryland

United Way of Central Maryland improves lives for residents of Greater Baltimore and the surrounding counties by promoting equity and increasing access to education, health, employment, and housing. Learn more about United Way’s innovative work in Greater Baltimore at uwcm.org.