| MADISON – The Wisconsin Department of Workforce (DWD) today announced a new grant program that will fund projects to address healthcare workforce challenges in Wisconsin’s rural communities. The Workforce Innovation Grant: Healthcare Employment, Access, and Rural Transformation (WIG: HEART) Program will award up to $150 million in grants over four years to nonprofit and government organizations to implement innovative plans to tackle pressing healthcare workforce challenges across the state.Awards of $500,000 to $10 million are available through the program for nonprofit and government organizations to work with regional workforce partners on healthcare workforce solutions for rural and semi-rural regions across the state. In the first year, $4.9 million will be available. Funding will support projects with leading-edge, long-term solutions for rural healthcare workforce challenges that help employers find workers, and workers to prepare for and connect to better, higher-quality, and more family-sustaining jobs. These grants support reducing barriers to training and investing in healthcare employment programs. They follow the successful model of Gov. Evers’ Workforce Innovation Grant (WIG) Program.”Access to timely, quality care is an essential building block to a high quality of life in Wisconsin. But we know that it’s challenging to build and keep a healthcare workforce in our state’s rural areas,” said DWD Secretary Amy Pechacek. “These grants will follow Gov. Evers’ proven strategies to expand the workforce and bring down barriers to employment, which allow communities to grow local, innovative solutions to these challenges that support career pathways and training opportunities for rural healthcare providers.”This program aims to address the key rural health workforce challenges with projects focused on workforce, training and technical assistance, appropriate care availability, and collaboration.The WIG: HEART grant program builds on the success of Governor Tony Evers’ historic $168 million Workforce Solutions Initiative, which included the $128 million WIG program. The WIG program invested nearly $15 million in addressing healthcare worker shortages and supported local solutions to employment barriers in all sectors such as access to transportation, affordable housing and childcare. It also supported projects that brought meaningful career pathways for many Wisconsinites, including justice-involved individuals and those with a substance use history. In addition, the WIG: HEART grant program bolsters the recommendations identified by the Governor’s Task Force on the Healthcare Workforce to strengthen education, training, recruitment, and retention of healthcare workers.Online applications and all required exhibits are due by 3 p.m. CT on Monday, Aug. 17, 2026.To learn more and access the online application and related materials, visit the WIG: HEART grant webpage. |
