(E) INTERNAL GRANT PROCESS:
As a part of Strategic Plan 2001-2003, a financial grant program is being made available to provide agency personnel the opportunity to apply for funding for a project of their own initiative. The following are guidelines for project development:
· Grants of a maximum of $25,000 will be made available for a project of one year’s duration with no provision for further funding.
· Individual employees or groups of employees may submit a proposal.
· Persons not employed by the agency may participate as long as the agency employee is responsible for the grant accountability and reporting.
· Grant activity must increase child safety, permanence, or well being, or increase staff effectiveness or job satisfaction.
· Grants cannot be used to the personal or financial benefit of employees beyond increasing individual job effectiveness.
· Grants cannot be used to hire additional agency staff, but can be used to contract for services from other agencies or individuals.
· Agency staff time used for the grant will be charged as a cost against the grant. Those monies can then be used by the supervisor losing staff time to contract for temporary staff to replace lost staff time.
All grant proposals must contain a description of the project, project personnel, project budget, and a system for measuring the achievement of the project’s outcomes. The following outline is required:
· Variables: Include measurable variables which will indicate achievement of the outcomes.
· Operational definition: Define the project parameters which limit or describe the variables.
· Measures: Indicate the way(s) in which the outcomes are to be measured.
· Baseline: Establish a starting point to measure progress in meeting the outcomes.
· Charting period: Identify the time frame in which the data is to be collected, analyzed and reported.
· Data source: Identify the source documents from which the data is to be collected to measure the outcomes.
Grant proposals will be submitted to the Special Services Manager who will in turn prepare and distribute them to the Policy and Program Committee of the Board, who will serve as the reviewers for the grant process. (If you would like to know more about the strategic plan or any aspect of it, feel free to contact SusanDeppisch@ChildrenServices.org.)