Obama Administration Awards $20.5 Million in "Make It In America" Challenge Grants to Spur Business Investment and Job Creation in the U.S.

Make It In Washington Project

The applicant team includes the Innovate Washington Foundation, a nonprofit statewide economic development organization, Impact Washington, the state’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), and the Washington Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board, the state’s Workforce Investment Board (WIB)

Region and Target Industry: The region served includes 25 economically distressed Washington counties from across the state. The project is targeting manufacturing generally because of the diversity of industries in the state.

Integrated Project Summary: The overall objective of the Make It In Washington Project is to identify and take advantage of the underutilized capacity of hundreds of manufacturing subject matter experts (SME) outside the Seattle area in order to recapture domestic production that is currently offshored, or is likely to be offshored. The project will provide strategic business planning, access to capital, create an Asset Map of SME’s, provide advanced educational opportunities to incumbent and potential employees and participate in state trade missions to recruit foreign direct investment. The combination of these activities will not only increase investment, manufacturing activity and high-skill employment during the grant period, but will create infrastructure and opportunities for continued expansion of statewide manufacturing capacity in the future.

Scopes of Work:
Innovate Washington Foundation (IWF) will:

  • Contact SME’s in targeted counties to identify companies qualified for the project and recruit participants.
  • Provide consulting assistance to selected SME’s in strategic business planning, access to capital and other needs to evaluate and pursue re-shoring opportunities.
  • Support the state Department of Commerce led foreign trade missions to recruit foreign direct investment in Washington.

Impact Washington will:

  • Create a statewide Asset Map of SME’s and their capabilities.
  • Develop and disseminate market intelligence, including tech mining/scouting reports.
  • Conduct industry specific trainings.
  • Enroll companies in Impact Washington’s Made In Washington program.

Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board will:

  • Coordinate with IWF and Impact Washington to identify workers for training.
  • Screen workers for program eligibility and refer to Washington State University (WSU).
  • Contract with WSU’s Global Campus distance learning and Management Certificate Programs.
  • Performance Measures

EDA (Innovate Washington Foundation) measures: Qualify 5500 companies and identify 150-300 eligible for program participation; visit and recruit 13 companies for in-depth consulting engagements; Conduct 6 foreign direct investment missions (2 per year.)
NIST (Impact Washington) measures: Statewide Asset map created; Five tech mining/scouting reports; One industry specific training per year; 30 companies enrolled in Made in Washington.
ETA (Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board) measures: 144 students enroll in WSU Global Campus manufacturing management certificate program; 112 students receive certification; 10 (of 15) unemployed workers enter unsubsidized employment.