DEED Awarded $19.5 Million Grant to Keep Ill, Injured Workers in the Workfor

The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) was awarded a Retaining Employment and Talent After Injury/Illness Network (RETAIN) Phase II grant from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) this week. Minnesota was one of five states to receive such a grant.

The four-year $19,518,509 grant through DOL’s Office of Disability Employment Programs (ODEP) will fund MN RETAIN, which helps employees stay at or return to work more rapidly when an injury or illness impacts their ability to work. Its goal is to help keep 3,200 Minnesotans connected to the workforce over the next four years. This phase of MN RETAIN will open for enrollment in late summer 2021.

“Now more than ever, we need to do all we can to keep Minnesotans connected to the labor force, and MN RETAIN does just that,” said DEED Commissioner Steve Grove. “During the pandemic, we’ve seen labor force participation fall in Minnesota. Keeping workers in the labor force – in addition to drawing more workers into the labor force – is critical to our state’s economic recovery.”

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