Historic Preservation Training Center Facility Management and Historic Preservation Emerging Professional Engagement | P24AS00331

Opportunity Information: Apply for P24AS00331

The National Park Service (NPS) is offering a discretionary funding opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number P24AS00331) to support the Historic Preservation Training Center (HPTC) through a cooperative agreement. The core idea is to expand the HPTC's capacity to preserve and maintain historic buildings, structures, and related cultural resource features across the national park system by pairing real project work with structured training and mentorship for emerging professionals. With the HPTC growing in both scope and demand, the NPS is looking for partners who can help bring additional skilled and semi-skilled labor, training structure, and participant support so the center can respond more quickly to preservation and facilities needs at parks nationwide.

The program is rooted in a clear operational need: the HPTC uses active historic preservation projects as its primary teaching tool, building practical competence in traditional preservation trades while also reinforcing preservation philosophy, ethics, and modern stabilization methods. The opportunity emphasizes hands-on craft skills such as masonry, carpentry, woodcrafting, and architectural building identification, evaluation, and condition assessment. Because projects are already designed as learning environments, the HPTC can incorporate additional participants who are ready to practice and refine skills in the field. Increased technical assistance from capable individuals is intended to help the NPS address backlogged preventive maintenance and other critical preservation work, ultimately supporting the broader NPS mission of preserving cultural resources for future generations.

The main objective is to create pre-apprentice-style and pre-professional placements that immerse participants in facility management and historic preservation restoration/rehabilitation work. The target participants are current students and recent graduates (within about two years) from historic trade programs and other relevant disciplines. While historic preservation trade schools are a key pipeline (including programs like those highlighted by The Campaign for Historic Trades), the scope also includes participants from facility-adjacent fields such as water and wastewater management, engineering, architecture, project management, and other degree programs aligned with public lands facility management. In practice, the program is meant to bridge the gap between classroom learning and real-world application by placing participants on active NPS work sites alongside experienced NPS maintenance and preservation professionals.

Training under this opportunity is designed to be both intensive and practical. Participants would work in an immersive environment where the primary learning happens through doing: maintaining, restoring, and preserving public lands infrastructure such as historic buildings, bridges, monuments, memorials, and smaller but essential assets like culverts. Any NPS-provided curriculum is intended to reinforce the field experience, focusing on trade skills, preservation and conservation ethics, and the standards and mindset needed when working on historic resources. The model also aims to strengthen project management skills, expose participants to current stabilization practices and techniques, and build professional readiness for careers that combine facilities stewardship with cultural resource protection.

A stated priority of the program is broadening participation in these career pathways. The NPS intends to engage emerging historic trades and facility professionals from diverse backgrounds, particularly individuals who are currently underrepresented in these fields. Beyond delivering preservation outcomes on the ground, the program is also meant to serve as a recruitment and career-exploration pipeline by introducing participants to NPS work and encouraging them to pursue long-term careers within the NPS facilities workforce, supporting diversification and workforce development goals.

From an administrative standpoint, the opportunity is administered by the National Park Service and uses a cooperative agreement instrument, which generally signals substantial involvement by the federal agency in guiding or collaborating on the project. The opportunity lists a maximum award amount (award ceiling) of $400,000. Eligible applicants are broad and include state, county, and local governments; public and private institutions of higher education; federally recognized tribal governments and other tribal organizations; and IRS-recognized 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations (excluding higher education institutions under that nonprofit category). The original closing date listed for applications is 2024-07-03, and the opportunity is associated with CFDA number 15.946.

• The National Park Service in the other sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Historic Preservation Training Center Facility Management and Historic Preservation Emerging Professional Engagement" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.946.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-04-03.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-07-03. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $400,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education.

Apply for P24AS00331

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