Florida Incentives Information
- Able Trust
- Access to Telework
- Alliance Micro Loan Program
- Assistive Technology Loans
- Enterprise Bond Program
- Financial Incentives for Florida Businesses
- Florida's Enterprise Zone
- Florida's First Capital Finance Corporation
- Incumbent Worker
- Quick Response Training
- Venture Capital Companies
- Veteran's Workforce Program
- Vocational Rehabilitation
- Workforce Central Florida
- Workers' Compensation Reemployment Services Program
Able Trust
Able Trust, also known as the Florida Governor's Alliance for the Employment of Citizens with Disabilities, is a 501(c)(3) public-private partnership foundation established by the Florida Legislature in 1990. Its mission is to be the leader in providing Floridians with disabilities fair employment opportunities through fundraising, grant programs, public awareness and education. Since its establishment, The Able Trust has awarded over $19 million to individuals with disabilities and nonprofit agencies throughout Florida for employment-related purposes. Its programs have enabled approximately 2,000 Florida citizens with disabilities to enter the workforce each year.
Access to Telework
Access to Telework offers financing to assistive technology (AT) users who want to telecommute (work from home) or start their own home-based business, but don’t have the funds to create a workplace with all the needed adaptations. This program serves individuals who have viable business plans and/or a teleworking opportunity. Telework funds remove financial barriers from making work at home accessible.
Teleworking is a great employment alternative for many self-motivated people with disabilities who are looking for work. Click here to learn more about Access to Telework funding.
Alliance Micro Loan Program
Provides capital for business start-up, expansion, equipment, working capital, inventory, and business purchase in Brevard, Hillsborough, Lake, Marion, Orange, Osceola, Polk, Seminole, Sumter and Volusia counties. Minimal paper work, 2-4 week approval wait. Includes technical assistance, Electronic payment and 15% reserve. Average loan $5,000. Maximum $35,000 depending on availability of loan pool.Click here for additional information on Alliance Micro Loan Program.
Assistive Technology Loans
Florida Alliance for Assistive Services and Technology (FAAST) makes loans for assistive technology and services to qualifying borrowers. This web site has information on loans with “favorable” interest rates for Assistive Technology purchases. Assistive technology is any device that enables a person with a disability to be more functional. Using the appropriate technology at work will allow a disabled person to be more productive, and in turn, a better worker.
Click here for a list of assistive technology providers who participate in this program.
Enterprise Bond Program
The State of Florida provides financial assistance through the Enterprise Bond Program. The program offers tax-exempt, low interest bond financing to qualified manufacturing and 501(c) 3 non-profit organizations. This program was designed to improve low cost capital availability to Florida’s growing and expanding businesses. Loan amounts range between $500,000 and $2,000,000.
This program emphasizes growth and expansion for Florida’s businesses. Part of this development could be to include jobs specifically for people with disabilities, who as a group, tend to have low employment rates.
Financial Incentives for Florida Businesses
This web site has general information on the various tax credits and other types of incentives available to Florida businesses. Many of these programs are relevant to job creation. They can be used as incentives for employers to create new jobs for people with disabilities. To learn about Florida business financial incentives like the Qualified Target Industry Tax refund Program, the Economic Development Transportation Fund, the Florida First Bond Pool, and more.
Florida’s Enterprise Zone
The Florida Enterprise Zone Program offers various tax incentives to businesses located within the designated enterprise zones. Click here to see if your address (or proposed addressed) falls inside of one of these enterprise zones. These incentives include tax credits for job creation and refunds on the purchase of certain properties or building materials used to rehabilitate and revitalize properties located within a zone.
The tax credits for new job creation in these zones can be as much as 45% of the wages paid to the newly hired employees. Very often, people with disabilities live in urban or rural areas that are depressed and in need of revitalization. Hiring disabled individuals from these zones would reverse the unemployment trend among this population and give their neighborhoods a must needed lift.
Florida First Capital Finance Corporation (FFCFC)
FFCFC is a state-supported Certified Development Corporation that provides eligible small businesses with long-term fixed-asset financing through the Small Business Administration 504 Loan Program and other loan programs.
The financing obtained through this corporation can be used to purchase ADA compliant property or Assistive Technology that would enable a disabled employee to be more productive. Click here for more information on the SBA 504 Small Business Loans.
Incumbent Worker
The Incumbent Worker Training Program provides grant funding for customized training for existing for-profit businesses. Through this customer-driven program, Florida is able to effectively retain and keep businesses competitive through upgrade skills training for existing full-time employees. The program has been structured to be flexible to meet the business’s training objectives.
This training grant program is administered by Workforce Florida, Inc. Funding priority will be given for the following:
- Businesses with 25 employees or less
- Businesses in rural counties and areas
- Businesses in distressed inner-city areas, EZ, Brownfield, and HubZones
- Businesses in a qualified targeted industry
- Businesses whose grant proposals represent a significant upgrade in employee skills
- Businesses whose grant proposals represent a significant layoff avoidance strategy.
Often, workers with disabilities don’t have the skills needed for advancement in their careers. With this program, a disabled employee can receive a skills upgrade allowing for further achievement in their field of employment. For more information on the Incumbent Worker Training Program – click here.
Quick Response Training
The Quick Response Training Program (QRT) provides grant funding for customized training for new or expanding businesses. Through this employer-driven program, Florida is able to effectively retain and attract businesses creating new high-quality jobs. Workforce Florida, Inc. administers this program.
This program is designed to create high-quality jobs performing quick response services in an emergency situation. People with disabilities who have the physical capability and the appropriate educational and employment backgrounds could be the recipients of the jobs created by this program. This program will pay the training costs associated with providing your existing employees or new employees with job critical skills in a highly customized manner.
For more information on the benefits of Quick Response Training, click here.
Venture Capital Companies
The venture capital industry in Florida continues to grow and evolve. More than 500 venture capital deals have closed in the state since 2000, resulting in more than $4.9 billion in total venture capital spending. As more Florida-based success stories make the news, more venture capitalists are attracted to the state. Florida's wealth of technical talent is also attracting investors from around the world, who choose to establish their headquarters in Florida to capitalize on the innovative opportunities that abound here. Click here for more information on venture capital firms in Florida and to access an interactive database of VC firms.
Veteran’s Workforce Program
The mission of the Veterans' Program is to promote and maximize the employment of Florida's veterans, especially veterans with barriers to employment, utilizing the complete menu of One-Stop Career Center resources. The Transition Assistance Program (TAP) was established to offer job search assistance and related services to separating service members during their period of transition into civilian life. The TAP is a partnership among the Departments of Labor, Defense, Homeland Security, and Veterans Affairs to provide employment and training information to armed forces members and their eligible spouses within one year of their separation or two years of their retirement.
Click here for more information on this workforce program.
Vocational Rehabilitation
The following is the web site for the Florida Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (VR). VR helps adults with various disabilities obtain and keep gainful employment. To help achieve this goal, services, like accessibility assessments and ADA consultations, are offered to employers without any obligation to hire a person with a disability. This web site also has information and links to programs that would be beneficial to an employer seeking to hire a person with a disability. Click here to find the VR office in your area.
Workforce Central Florida
Workforce Central Florida (WCF) is the region's largest permanent placement agency, helping over 4,700 employers connect with more than 54,000 job seekers each year. WCF offers innovative solutions to assist Central Florida businesses succeed in today's highly competitive workforce, while providing the tools job seekers need to find or advance in their current career. Click here to learn more and to access a WCF job seeker data-base that highlight training grants and other resources.
Workers' Compensation Reemployment Services Program
This program provides appropriate remployment services designed to assist Florida injured workers return to work. It does so while monitoring insurance carriers and rehabilitation providers to insure compliance with the rehabilitation and reemployment services requirements in the Florida Workers' Compensation Law. Click here for more information on WC reemployment services.
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In
the decade and a half since the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed,
life has improved for many of this country’s 54 million disabled citizens.
But the landmark legislation can be seen as “both a tool and a sword.” That’s
the view of Janet Fiore, CEO of Sierra Group 
