New grant award to help local manufacturers and defense contractors
The Quad Cities Chamber is one of four Illinois Defense Manufacturing Consortium (ILDMC) community members that will share a $5 million grant to help local manufacturing companies and defense contractors grow through operational excellence, innovative technology and workforce.
The five-year grant was awarded by the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DOD) Defense Manufacturing Community Support Program. In addition to the Quad Cities Chamber, ILDMC partners include the Cook County Bureau of Economic Development represented by Chicago Metro Metals Consortium, Rockford Area Economic Development Council, Greater Peoria Economic Development Council and Illinois Manufacturing Excellence Center.
Each partner will receive $675,000 in funding. The federal grant is supplemented by $1.6 million in non-federal funds to support the project.
“A resilient supply chain requires modern manufacturing that involves use of advanced technology, and advanced manufacturing requires a modern workforce,” said Julie Forsythe, the Chamber’s Senior Vice President of Business & Economic Growth. “ILDMC will implement comprehensive workforce strategies focused on untapped and underrepresented populations to build a diverse manufacturing workforce in collaboration with stakeholders.”
The consortium will be led by the Nathalie P. Voorhees Center for Neighborhood and Community Improvement at the University of Illinois Chicago. Together the partners will launch a Casting, Forging and Energy Storage Center of Excellence to introduce new offerings, comprehensive solutions, innovative manufacturing technologies and state-of-the-art workforce training modules. Its goal is to strengthen supply chain productivity and stimulate market growth.
“This grant will allow the Illinois Defense Manufacturing Consortium to develop innovative plans for boosting productivity, while also creating comprehensive programs to expand the skilled defense manufacturing talent pipeline,” said Yittayih Zelalem, director of the Voorhees Center at UIC. “We look forward to collaborating with Illinois Manufacturing Excellence Center and our team of regional partners and economic development organizations in the Quad Cities, Rockford, Peoria and Chicago, as well as with other supporters and stakeholders.”
This is the fourth DOD grant that the Chamber and three Illinois Defense Network partners – Chicago, Peoria and Rockford – have received since 2016 to assist manufacturing companies and defense contractors.
In 2022, those partners were joined by the Illinois Manufacturing Association, Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Development, America Makes and the American Manufacturing Communities Collaborative to apply for the Defense Manufacturing Community designation. Earlier this year, the designation was awarded and provides the Consortium with new opportunities to seek funding for efforts that strengthen our national defense.
The DOD Defense Manufacturing Community Support Program makes long-term investments in critical skills, facilities, workforce development, research and development, and small business support in order to strengthen national security innovation. Of the 24 applicants that competed for funding, ILDMC was one of six awarded a grant.
The Voorhees Center will also maintain the Supply Chain Mapping Tool, an online platform created by the Voorhees Center that provides users with real-time data for an informed perspective of the federal military’s manufacturing and supply chain across the country.
Illinois holds a valuable position in the country’s national security and readiness. Manufacturing represents the single largest share of the state’s gross product, and defense-related spending in 2019 amounted to $8.8 billion dollars with a value-added impact of $11.8 billion on the state economy.
Over three-quarters of the state’s manufacturing is concentrated in the northern half of the state where the defense-intensive-regions (DIR) of Northeast Illinois, Peoria, Rockford and Quad Cities are located.