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Tulsa, Oklahoma has designed a special state-backed Tulsa remote program offering $10,000 grants to eligible applicants who commit to living in the city for a year and working remotely. The Tulsa remote program aims to draw tech workers and creatives to join and help the growth of the Tulsa community. The program is being carried out in partnership with the George Kaiser Family Foundation, a group that works to tackle pressing issues in the Tulsa community for community building, collaboration and networking in the city.

Applicants should meet four eligibility requirements:

  • They can move to Tulsa within 6 months.
  • They have full-time remote employment or are self-employed outside of Tulsa County.
  • They are 18+ years old.
  • They are eligible to work in the United States.

Eligible workers will receive additional benefits like a $10,000 cash benefit. Money from each grant will be distributed throughout the course of one year. Participants will receive an initial $2,500 for relocation expenses, a $500 monthly stipend and a final payout of $1,500 once the program is completed.

Workers will be provided a co-working space in 36 Degrees North, in Downtown Tulsa, to help them collaborate with other local entrepreneurs, remote workers, and digital nomads. The co-working space will offer complimentary snacks and beverages, as well as monthly meetups and workshops with fellow members and Tulsa entrepreneurs.

Participants can live in the City of Tulsa or in the county. They will also be provided with the option of living in new, fully-furnished apartments in the heart of the Tulsa Arts District at a discounted price. The Tulsa community will cover utilities for the first three months. The program will start with small groups of around 10 to 15 people at a time. The city hopes to have up to 300 remote workers in the program.

According to Ken Levit, an executive director at the George Kaiser Family Foundation, “While the program seeks strong workers from the tech sector, it also hopes to draw a broad array of dynamic and talented applicants, such as corporate recruiters, researchers, and writers.

With this move, Tulsa is all set to join a growing list of U.S. cities ( Baltimore, Maryland; St. Clair County, Michigan; and Marquette, Kansas) all looking to attract young professionals.

When Amazon invited North American cities to apply to compete for getting Amazon’s second headquarters in their cities, Tulsa also applied. Tulsa’s proposal for Amazon HQ2 was submitted by the Tulsa Regional Chamber and City and community leaders offered guidance to put forth a strong and competitive proposal that would be a direct reflection of the community. Their pitch included a strong focus on community culture, labor, public investment initiative, site location, and transportation.

“While it’s disappointing that Tulsa didn’t make the shortlist for Amazon HQ2, the effort was certainly worthwhile,” Mike Neal, president, and CEO of the Tulsa Regional Chamber said. “Pitching for one of the largest headquarters projects in the world taught us a great deal about Tulsa’s competitive strengths.”

Although not chosen, Tulsa’s (and other similar cities) plans highlights the fact that non-tech cities are fighting neck-to-neck to attract future investments and collaboration along with growing tech talent in-house. They are pretty serious about this process and many state/province and local communities are coming with lucrative incentives to get big businesses and talents to their cities.

University of Washington Associate Professor of History, Margaret O’Mara warned the cities before the HQ2 results. “I would caution that as exciting as the possibility of being the site that lands the Amazon HQ might be for cities, I would want them to think about what the bigger tradeoffs might be if they are putting together a package to try and lure them to town.

Apply here if you’re interested in the Tulsa remote program. You can also get information and other resources at [email protected].

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Content Marketing Editor at Packt Hub. I blog about new and upcoming tech trends ranging from Data science, Web development, Programming, Cloud & Networking, IoT, Security and Game development.