The Iowa Lakes Corridor has opened applications for their 2026 Homegrown Talent initiative grants. Trevor Smith, Senior Vice President of Economic Development of the Iowa Lakes Corridor talks about the purpose of these grants.
“So the Homegrown Talent Initiative was brought out as a workforce recruitment initiative that, after meeting with a lot of our area businesses, one gap that we realize is that we have a lot of very young, talented individuals who are from our region that we would like to retain and recruit back to the Iowa Lakes Corridor region.“
Smith says they are excited that there are more funds available this year.
“Is a six thousand dollars grant paid over four years, one thousand five hundred dollars a year. Because the studies show if you can get somebody into your community for four plus years, then they’re more likely to stay and develop roots and stay ten plus years. And so with the grant this year, last year, we were able to provide two grants, but with some extra fundraising we were able to do. We are now proud to announce we’ll be having one in each of our four county regions that we serve, which is Buena Vista, Clay, Dickinson and Emmet counties.“
Smith talks about who is eligible and what the funds can be used for. (6773-3)
“They graduated from a high school within the Iowa Lakes Corridor region, moved back within the last two years, so since January first, twenty twenty four and have accepted a full time or work a full time position here in the region and graduated from a college within the last five years. And they can use that grant money towards student loan, debt repayment, mortgage or rent expense, or ongoing child care expenses, which are the three biggest barriers for young families looking to move back to the region.“
Applications and full program details are available at lakescorridor.com/homegrown and the window to apply is open now through February 15th.
