News & Updates

The Executive Office of the Governor today announced 47 priority projects across 28 counties as part of the Florida Forward Initiative's first funding round.

Projects span four core program areas:

• Transportation Infrastructure — 18 projects totaling $1.4 billion, including corridor modernization, bridge replacement, and multimodal transit expansion.
• Broadband Expansion — 12 projects delivering high-speed connectivity to 340,000 underserved households across rural and suburban communities.
• Workforce Training Centers — 9 new or expanded facilities partnering with state colleges and industry employers in advanced manufacturing, healthcare technology, and cybersecurity.
• Community Resilience — 8 investments in flood mitigation, affordable housing, and critical infrastructure hardening in vulnerable coastal and inland communities.

All projects were selected through the Initiative's data-driven prioritization framework, which weighs economic impact, population served, readiness to proceed, and alignment with statewide strategic objectives.

Construction and program delivery is expected to begin in Q3 2026, with first completions anticipated by mid-2027.

The Florida Forward Initiative has formalized workforce development partnership agreements with 12 state colleges across Florida, creating a coordinated network of earn-while-you-learn programs in high-demand fields.

Participating Institutions

The 12 partner colleges span all regions of the state, ensuring geographic accessibility for Florida's workforce:

• Broward College
• Daytona State College
• Florida State College at Jacksonville
• Hillsborough Community College
• Indian River State College
• Miami Dade College
• Palm Beach State College
• Pensacola State College
• Polk State College
• Santa Fe College
• Seminole State College
• Valencia College

Program Focus Areas

Each partnership includes curriculum development and employer engagement in at least two of the following sectors:

• Advanced manufacturing and industrial automation
• Healthcare technology and biomedical systems
• Cybersecurity and information assurance
• Supply chain management and logistics

Programs are designed to deliver industry-recognized credentials within 6–18 months while participants maintain employment through flexible scheduling and employer-sponsored tuition support.

The Florida Forward Initiative today published its Community Resilience Vulnerability Index, making publicly available the data-driven methodology used to prioritize resilience investments across all 67 Florida counties.

About the Index

The Vulnerability Index incorporates over 40 data indicators across five dimensions:

1. Physical exposure — flood risk, storm surge potential, sea level rise projections, wildfire hazard
2. Infrastructure condition — age and condition of water systems, transportation networks, power grid, communications
3. Social vulnerability — poverty rates, housing cost burden, uninsured population, limited English proficiency
4. Economic dependence — employment concentration, tourism reliance, agricultural exposure, tax base diversity
5. Adaptive capacity — emergency management resources, institutional capacity, community organization density, prior mitigation investment

Transparency and Access

The full dataset, methodology documentation, and interactive county-level maps are available on the Resources page. Communities and researchers are encouraged to review the methodology and submit feedback during the 60-day public comment period.

The Index will be updated annually to reflect changing conditions and investment impacts.

The Executive Office of the Governor today formally established the Florida Forward Initiative through the signing of Executive Order 2026-12.

Executive Order 2026-12

The order establishes:

• Florida Forward Coordinating Council — a cross-agency body chaired by the Governor's Chief of Staff, with representatives from the Departments of Transportation, Economic Opportunity, Education, Environmental Protection, and Management Services.
• Program Office — a dedicated team within the Executive Office responsible for day-to-day coordination, performance tracking, and stakeholder engagement.
• Investment Framework — authorization to develop and implement the data-driven prioritization methodology for allocating initiative resources across program areas.

Four Program Areas

The Initiative organizes its work across four interconnected programs:

1. Infrastructure Modernization
2. Workforce Development
3. Economic Growth
4. Community Resilience

Next Steps

The Coordinating Council will hold its inaugural meeting in March 2026, with the first round of priority project selections expected by May 2026.

The Initiative represents a commitment to coordinated, measurable investment in Florida's future — ensuring that economic growth, workforce readiness, infrastructure modernization, and community resilience advance together rather than in isolation.