Coastal Bend College
Dwayne Dumas

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Mission Statement: In conjunction with business and industry, Coastal Bend College’s occupational education programs will develop and maintain quality workforce training programs at the associate degree and certificate levels. Programs will be designed to meet industry standards in the fields, and shall teach all basic technical and SCANS competencies required of entry-level employees.

Institutional Goal: Be recognized in the service area as the primary educator and trainer of a skilled market-driven workforce.

Objective 1: Respond to market-driven workforce needs with industry recognized training in a timely and cost-effective manner.

Objective 2: Actively participate and provide leadership in area economic growth and development.

Objective 3: Maintain and extend collaborative resource sharing for program development and enhancement.

Objective 4: Improve job opportunities and socioeconomic advancement through training of non-traditional student populations.

Objective 5: Update and improve technical program equipment within the constraints of the budget.

Objective 6: Improve technical programs through industry-based training of faculty.

Objective 7: Educate the service area regarding workforce opportunities and training through outreach activities.

Current Operations: Coastal Bend College currently operates a main campus in Beeville, Texas and centers in Alice, Kingsville, and Pleasanton, Texas. It has technical programs in accounting, air conditioning and refrigeration, airframe and power technology, automotive technology, child development, computer information technology, cosmetology, dental hygiene, drafting and design, electronic servicing, emergency medical services, general office management, health information technology, law enforcement, office automation technology, vocational nursing, and welding.

Needed Programs: Registered nursing, radiological technician, respiratory therapy, lab technologist, diesel mechanics, machinist.

Involvement with Workforce Groups: The vice president of occupational programs serves on the Bee Development Authority Board and Coastal Bend Workforce Board. The Alice center director is in the Alice Chamber of Commerce and the Alice Industrial Foundation. The Kingsville center director is past-president of the Kingsville Chamber of Commerce and serves on the Kingsville Economic Development Corporation. The Pleasanton center director is in the Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce.

The Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund was created to expand the availability of credit, investment capital, and financial services in distressed urban and rural communities. The Fund was authorized by the Riegle Community Development and Regulatory Improvement Act of 1994, as a bipartisan initiative. By stimulating the creation and expansion of diverse community development financial institutions (CDFIs) and by providing incentives to traditional banks and thrifts, the Fund’s investments work toward building private markets, creating healthy local tax revenues, and empowering residents. The CDFI Fund provides relatively small infusions of capital to institutions that serve distressed communities and low-income individuals. The Fund’s activities leverage private-sector investments from banks, foundations, and other funding sources. Since the Fund’s creation, it has made more than $534 million in awards to community development organizations and financial institutions.

CDFIs are specialized financial institutions that work in market niches that have not been adequately served by traditional financial institutions. These CDFIs provide a wide range of financial products and services, including mortgage financing for first-time home- buyers, financing for needed community facilities, commercial loans and investments to start or expand small businesses, loans to rehabilitate rental housing, and financial services needed by low-income households and local businesses. In addition, these institutions provide services that help ensure that credit is used effectively, such as technical assistance to small businesses and credit counseling to consumers. CDFIs include community development banks, credit unions, loan funds, venture capital funds, and microenterprise loan funds, among others.

Initiatives:

The Community Development Financial Institutions Program

The Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Program uses limited federal resources to invest in and build the capacity of private, for-profit and non-profit financial institutions to provide capital and services to underserved people and communities. The Fund invests in CDFIs using flexible tools such as equity investments, loans, grants, and deposits, depending upon market and institutional needs. These needs are demonstrated by the applicant CDFI in its business plan and in its ability to raise comparable non- federal matching funds, both requirements of the application process. The Fund evaluates each applicant CDFI in a manner similar to a private investor determining the investment-worthiness of an institution, including assessing financial performance, management capacity, and market analysis. Thus, the Fund is able to effectively assist these organizations to enhance their ability to meet community needs, and to develop, and grow.

The CDFI Program has three separate components: the Core/Intermediary Component; the Small and Emerging CDFI Assistance (SECA) Component; and the Native American CDFI Technical Assistance (NACTA) Component. The Core Component is the Fund’s main program under which CDFIs, or entities proposing to become CDFIs, may apply for financial and technical assistance. The Intermediary Component is created specifically for intermediaries that focus primarily on providing financing and TA to other CDFJs. The SECA Component is designed to better meet the unmet capacity needs of CDFIs, or entities proposing to become CDFJs, who have significant potential for increasing their community development impact. Through SECA, eligible entities may receive financial and/or technical assistance. The NACTA Component is designed to provide technical assistance grants that will specifically benefit Native American, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian communities and to promote the development of CDFIs that serve these communities. The first round of the NACTA component began in the Fall of 2001. Through the first six rounds of the CDFI Program, the Fund has made over $353 million in investments in CDFJs. These organizations serve both rural and urban areas in local, regional, statewide, and multi-state markets in 50 states and the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

A Notice of Funds Availability for the 2002 CDFI Program - the Core/Intermediary, SECA, and NACTA Components - was published in the Federal Register on September 24, 2001. Subject to funding availability, the Fund expects that it may award $36.9 million under the Core/Intermediary Component, $5.6 million under the SECA Component and $3.5 million under the NACTA Component.

The Bank Enterprise Award Program

The Bank Enterprise Award (BEA) Program recognizes the key role played by traditional financial institutions in community development lending and investing. It provides incentives for these regulated banks and thrifts to invest in CDFIs and to increase their lending and provision of financial services in distressed communities. The BEA Program supports the community reinvestment efforts of these financial institutions.

Through the first six rounds of the BEA Program, the Fund has awarded over $181 million to banks and thrifts. To date, banks and thrifts receiving awards have provided more than $960 million in financial support or technical assistance directly to CDFIs, and more than $2.6 billion to distressed communities in the form of direct loans, investments and services.

A Notice of Funds Availability for the 2002 BEA Program was published in the Federal Register on September 24, 2001. Subject to funding availability, the Fund expects that it may award $16.5 million under the BEA Program.

The New Markets Tax Credit Program

On December 21, 2000, the Community Renewal Tax Relief Act of 2000 was signed into law. The law provides for $15 billion in tax incentives under the New Markets Tax Credit Program to help spur economic growth in new markets in urban and rural communities across the country. By making an equity investment in an eligible community development entity” (CDE), individual and corporate investors can receive a

New Markets Tax Credit worth more than 30 percent of the amount invested over the life of the credit, in present value terms.

Summary

EDI provides grants to local governments to enhance both the security of loans guaranteed through the Section 108 Loan Program and the feasibility of the economic development and revitalization projects they finance.

EDT has been the catalyst in the expanded use of loans through the Section 108 Program, one of the most potent public investment tools that HIJD offers to local governments. Because Section 108 loans represent a potential risk to local governments’ Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) allocations which governments pledge against potential repayment shortfalls, the EDT program offers communities a way to decrease the level of risk to their CDBG funds. HUD’s Economic Development Initiative helps local governments manage and reduce this risk in at least two different ways. A local government may use an EDT grant to provide additional security for the Section 108 loan (as a loan-loss reserve or debt-service, for example), thereby reducing the exposure of its CDBG funds in the event of a default in loans made locally with the 108 funds. Or it may use this flexible grant to simply make the project more feasible by paying some of the project costs with grant funds or by reducing the interest rate to be paid from a revolving loan fund. Increasing access to capital for entrepreneurs and small business has emerged as a key component of the job growth strategy powered by the EDT grant program.

How Do I Apply?

HIJ7D awards EDT funds as competitive project grants, to be used in conjunction with Section 108 loan commitments.

Eligible Activities:

EDT grant funds can can only be used in projects also assisted by the Section 108 Loan Program; such projects may involve activities such as property acquisition; rehabilitation of publicly owned property; housing rehabilitation; economic development activities; acquisition, construction, reconstruction, or installation of public facilities; and for colonias, public works and other site improvements.

Application:

HUD publishes an annual Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for the EDI program. In addition to addressing the competitive Rating Factors, applicants must certify that the project is consistent with the Consolidated Plan of the jurisdiction in which the proposed project is to be located.

Allocations/ Appropriations:

Although no new funds were appropriated for the EDT program in FY 2002, a balance of approximately $3 million from past fiscal years remains in the account and is available for future funding.

Laws and Regulations:

EDT is authorized by Section 108(q) of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974, as amended.

Program regulations are identical to those governing Community Development Block Grants and the Section 108 Loan program, which are found at 24 CFR Part 570 SubpartM.

Contact Bill Seedyke, 451 Seventh Street SW., Room 7158, Washington, DC 20410; telephone (202) 708-1686, extension 4445.

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