What: The Delta Regional Authority (DRA) is a federal-state economic development program restricted to a 21-county area of western Kentucky.
Delta Regional Authority funds are used to help economically-distressed communities leverage other federal, state and local dollars for community development projects that focus on infrastructure development, business development/entrepreneurship and job training services.
Who Can Apply: Cities, counties, special districts and non-profit entities are eligible. No maximum project amount; no specific match required but priority is given to projects that leverage other funding sources.
Kentucky counties eligible for DRA funds include: Ballard, Caldwell, Calloway, Carlisle, Christian, Crittenden, Fulton, Graves, Henderson, Hickman, Hopkins, Livingston, Lyon, Marshall, McCracken, McLean, Muhlenberg, Todd, Trigg, Union, and Webster.
Application Process: The application process for the DRA program is facilitated by the three DRA Area Development Districts – Green River, Pennyrile and Purchase. The application process is developed totally by the DRA office in Clarksdale, MS. The DRA contracts with the ADDs to facilitate the pre-application and full application process.
Requests for pre-applications are normally released in January or February of the current fiscal year with due date for pre-applications to be delivered to ADDs or DRA prior to early April. DRA notifies DLG with a list of pre-apps deemed eligible from which DLG selects priority projects for recommendation by the Governor to DRA for full application invitations.
DRA then notifies the priority applicants to submit full applications via the respective ADD. Full applications are delivered by ADDs to DRA for review and consideration after which final grant approval is announced by DRA Federal Co-Chair and contracts are submitted via ADDs to the project grantees.
Visit the
Kentucky DRA website.