Ohio Department of Public Safety Offers Grant Opportunity to Emergency Medical Service Providers2/8/2018
The Ohio Department of Public Safety is currently accepting applications for the Emergency Medical Services Priority 1-5 Supplemental Grant Program. The purpose of this program is to improve and enhance EMS and trauma patient care in Ohio through grant funding for equipment, training, and research.
All EMS Organizations established or operated by a township, municipality, village, city, county, or joint safety district within the State of Ohio may apply. The amount granted each year is determined annually by the amount of seatbelt fines collected through the State of Ohio. For the previous grant cycle, ODPS granted $2.9 million and the maximum award given for Priority 1 was $47,000. Grant Priorities Priority 1: First priority shall be given to emergency medical service organizations for the training of personnel, for the purchase of equipment and vehicles, and to improve the availability, accessibility, and quality of emergency medical services in this state. Priority 2: Second priority shall be given to entities that research, test, and evaluate medical procedures and systems related to adult and pediatric trauma care Priority 3: Third priority shall be given to entities that research the causes, nature, and effects of traumatic injuries, educate the public about injury prevention, and implement, test, and evaluate injury prevention strategies Priority 4: Fourth priority shall be given to entities that research, test, and evaluate procedures that promote the rehabilitation, retraining, and reemployment of adult or pediatric trauma victims and social service support mechanisms for adult or pediatric trauma victims and their families Priority 5: Fifth priority shall be given to entities that conduct research on, test, or evaluate one or more of the following: procedures governing the performance of emergency medical services in this state; the training of emergency medical service personnel; the staffing of emergency medical service organizations. Grant applications opened on February 1st and are due April 1st by 5:00 p.m. If you would like to learn more about this program or would like help drafting a proposal, please reach out to Alex Ehrett at McCaulley&Company at 216-282-5794. Does your organization work directly with refugees? Could your organization benefit from additional funding to help refugees gain meaningful and sustaining employment? The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) may be able to help. The HHS’s Refugee Career Pathways (RCP) Program’s goal is to support refugees in attaining the knowledge and resources needed to initiate a successful professional career in their newly settled community. While many refugees may have previous professional experience in their country of origin, they often lack the degrees, professional certifications, and other credentials that are necessities in America’s competitive professional industry. Because of this, refugees are often ill-equipped to contribute effectively to their new community and achieve economic self-sufficiency. The RCP Program objectives focus on helping refugees overcome the obstacles associated with obtaining professional and skilled employment after resettlement. The first objective is to help refugees achieve self sufficiency by equipping them with the tools to gain positions in professional environments. The second objective is to increase the refugees’ understanding of career pathways that will enable them to traverse the often difficult path to success in their field. By engaging in career development plans, receiving training and technical assistance, utilizing direct financial assistance, and taking advantage of invaluable organizational partnerships, refugees will be well on their way to achieving their career goals in the United States. The HHS is now accepting electronically submitted applications for the Refugee Career Pathways grant program. They are expecting to distribute 12 awards for a total program funding of $3,000,000. The program is divided into three periods of twelve months each, for a total project term of 3 years. Each recipient will be allotted upwards of $250,000 for each period to be used towards helping refugees achieve program objectives. The HHS is accepting applications until August 29, 2017. If you think this program would be a good fit for your organization, or want to learn more, please give us a call at (216) 352-2577. The U.S. Department of Justice is awarding grants up to $3,125,000 to communities and their law enforcement agencies to hire or re-hire law enforcement officials. The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services is soliciting applications for its COPS Hiring Program. The goal of this program is to assist communities and provide funding to law enforcement agencies to hire and/or re-hire career law enforcement officers in an effort to increase community police capacity. This program will cover up to 75% of the approved entry-level salary and fringe benefits of each newly hired and/or re-hired, full time, sworn career law enforcement officer over the three-year (36 month) grant period. There is a maximum federal share of $125,000 per new officer position. Agencies with a service population of 1 million people or more may apply for up to 25 officer positions; agencies with a service population fewer than 1 million people may apply for up to 15 officer positions. Any agency with a sworn force fewer than or equal to 20 officers will have a request cap of one officer.
Eligibility is limited to state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies which have primary law enforcement authority are eligible. This grant can be used for the following:
Are you looking for ways to increase home values, create new jobs, and beautify your community? The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wants to help. The EPA’s Brownfields Program provides grants and technical assistance to communities to thoughtfully assess, safely clean up and sustainably reuse properties that may have hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants present. Cleaning up and reinvesting in brownfields protects human health and the environment, reduces blight, and takes development pressures off greenspaces and working lands. Still not sure how this can help your community? In 2016, an EPA study found that residential property values increased between 5% and 15% after a nearby brownfield was cleaned up. Some areas also experienced a reduction in crime near recently revitalized brownfields. Ready to move forward? Great news, the EPA is currently soliciting applications for the Brownfields grant program. There are two programs currently open: 1) “assessment” grants and 2) “cleanup” grants. Assessment grants provide funding for a grant recipient to inventory, characterize, assess, plan, and conduct community engagement related to brownfields sites. An eligible entity may apply for up to $200,000 to assess a contaminated site. The EPA expects to distribute over 230 assessment awards for a total of $42 million in program funding. Cleanup grants provide funding for a grant recipient to carry out cleanup activities at brownfields sites. An eligible entity may receive up to $200,000 per site. These funds may be used to address sites contaminated by petroleum and hazardous substances, pollutants, or other contaminants. Cleanup grants require a 20% cost share for eligible and allowable costs, which may be a contribution of money, labor, materials, or services. The EPA is expecting to distribute 60 cleanup awards for a total of $12 million in program funding. The EPA is accepting applications until December 22, 2016. Not-for-profit organizations, which are typically also tax exempt, play a vital role in communities throughout the United States on both a local and national level. In many instances, they are the front line for serving and protecting the most vulnerable in our society. From this perspective, non-profits are in a unique position to obtain a wide array of information that is useful in determining what we need as a city, state, or even country. This data and information collected by non-profits is particularly valuable in the arena of public policy as it has the potential to impact policy in a positive way to benefit the organization and the populations that they serve. However, a common misunderstanding of the federal law that limits tax exempt organizations' ability to affect government legislation often results in tax exempt organizations completely avoiding engaging public policy in fear of losing their tax exempt status. In order to move beyond this misunderstanding, it is important for all non-profits–specifically 501(c)3 organizations–to be aware of their ability to impact change in the government without losing their tax exempt status. 501(c)(3) organizations are exempt from paying income tax, and are eligible to receive tax free donations from individual donors. With these benefits comes special restrictions on lobbying and advocacy, among other things. Some of these restrictions on advocacy are somewhat difficult to navigate, while others are very straightforward. One straightforward restriction prohibits 501(c)(3) organizations from endorsing a political candidate or supporting a candidate through participating in certain campaign activities. In addition to this restriction on support of political candidates, federal regulations provide that in order for a non-profit organization to maintain its tax exempt status, lobbying must not consume a “substantial part” of its overall activities. This restriction has caused many non-profits to shy away from advocacy activities and lobbying. The IRS defines lobbying as an attempt to influence legislation. It defines legislation as any "action by Congress, any state legislature, any local council, or similar governing body, with respect to acts, bills, resolutions, or similar items (such as legislative confirmation of appointive office), or by the public in referendum, ballot initiative, constitutional amendment, or similar procedure. It does not include actions by executive, judicial, or administrative bodies." Actions that involve attempting to influence legislation, must not make up a substantial part of a 501(c)(3)'s activities. Under the federal regulations, there are two ways to measure an organization's lobbying efforts; the substantial part test and the 501(h) expenditure test. The substantial part test is the default test for all 501(c)(3) organizations, but does not provide clear guidance to non-profit organizations as to what amount lobbying activity might jeopardize 501(c)(3) status. It is a survey of the organization's total activities and under it the IRS makes a case-specific determination as to whether an organization’s lobbying activities constitute a substantial part of its overall activities based on a consideration of all of the “pertinent facts and circumstances.” Several commentators suggest that less than 5% of all activity may be deemed insubstantial, but the IRS has not provided a clear definition of what constitutes “excessive lobbying activity” under the substantial part test. As an alternative to the substantial part test, all 501(c)(3)s have the option of electing to use the 501(h) expenditure test to measure lobbying activity. To make that election, a non-profit organization must file a Form 5768 with the IRS. Unlike the substantial part test, the expenditure test provides clear guidelines for the amount of money that an organization may spend on lobbying activities. The permissible amount of money that a 501(c)(3) organization may spend on lobbying activities depends on the amount of money spent on activities related to its tax exempt purpose. To view the exact dollar amounts permitted, view the IRS's chart here. Although 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations certainly need to tread carefully when engaging in lobbying, they can play a vital role in the public policy arena.[KLC1] Advocacy is not limited to lobbying, and presents a way for 501(c)(3)’s to partake in public policy more liberally. Some examples of advocacy include any activity that is centralized around education without opinion or bias such as educational meetings and distributing informational material. In addition to your limited lobbying efforts, you may employ these methods to continue to use your expertise to help people and have your voice heard. Cleveland, OH – Being a large yet tight-knit community, Cleveland is filled with organizations and groups that are dedicated to giving back and providing services to help people. In light of World Refugee Day on June 20th, it is an opportunity to reflect on the economic impact refugees have had on Cleveland. In a Chmura Economics & Analytics report, the economic impact of refugees was $48 million in 2012, providing 650 jobs in Greater Cleveland, with an annual operational growth rate of 5.4% per year since 2007. Helping refugees and the local economy has encouraged many organizations to welcome refugees into the city. While refugees can certainly have a positive impact on their communities, they face many initial obstacles. They may struggle finding a place to live, experience difficulty in gaining access to medical services, face issues when trying to become self-sufficient. Thankfully, there are many organizations here in Cleveland that provide services to refugees. For places that offer this assistance, there is an opportunity to gain funding to help serve our community and aid vulnerable refugees. This grant, entitled The Preferred Communities (PC) Program, is a funding opportunity through the Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families. The Office of Refugee Resettlement presents the grant, offering funds for 2017. The goal of this grant is to help vulnerable refugees with resettlement and integration into their new environment, and it can be used to develop and improve organizations or groups that provide services to refugees. The program will aid current and new refugees through providing funding to organizations so that they can further help them work towards becoming self-sufficient, enabling refugee services to become stronger, and enhancing individuals’ ability to get the services and support they need. The total award amount is $15, 510, 907 split up amongst 9 winners. The deadline for applications on August 1, 2016. The grant is available to public, private, non-profit, and eligible faith-based organizations. Additionally, institutions of higher education, and local or state governments may apply for the grant. |
AuthorMcCaulley&Company is a strategic consulting and professional services firm focused on communication and opportunity development for clients. Archives
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