Welcome to ODEP's National Expansion of Employment Opportunities
Network (NEON) Initiative Core State Application Portal for 2024-2025
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) is announcing a solicitation for States and State Government Agencies (SGAs) to apply through a competitive application process as part of ODEP's National Expansion of Employment Opportunities Network (NEON) initiative to increase Competitive Integrated Employment (CIE) within their statewide systems that serve individuals with disabilities.
States selected as NEON Core States will be offered intensive policy consulting, capacity building support and ongoing mentoring through onsite, telecommunications, and virtual mediums to support the strategic aims of their efforts to increase CIE for individuals with disabilities in their state.
ODEP has contracted with Economic Systems Inc. (EconSys) to manage, support and coordinate this project. EconSys is a small business in the Washington, DC metropolitan area providing consulting and support in the policy area of employment of people with disabilities.
The following deadlines have been established for the application process and execution of NEON Core State initiative.
- Solicitation Release: October 8, 2024, 3 p.m. ET
- Virtual Informational Session: October 15, 2024, 3 p.m. ET
- Questions Due: November 1, 2024, 9 p.m. ET
- Application Due: November 7, 2024, 11 p.m. ET
- Core State Selection Announcement: November 27, 2024
- Period of Performance: December 2, 2024 - August 31, 2025
- In-Person NEON Meeting and Orientation (Participation required for one representative from each selected Core State): Tentatively February, 2025
You can exit any time to complete your application later. All your entries will be saved in the portal but not submitted to the evaluation team.
For technical difficulties, contact EconSys at neon@econsys.com