Voc-tech teachers - Grant question

[Gail O'Rourke]

I am on the advisory board for the local technical school and was in for a meeting today. They were discussing potentially looking for and applying for grants for equipment and such.

Does anyone have any experience with this or know of how I can find out about available grants?

All help is greatfully appreciated.

Thank you.:)

[Joe Pelonio]

Gail,

My son is a volunteer with the Red Cross and successfully wrote grants sor some equipment they needed when he was 15. He did a lot of internet research and spent what amounted to probably 10 times more work than he devotes to homework at school. Hopefully you'll find someone with
votec experience to save you all that time.

[Cecil Arnold]

Gail, this is from a long way from where you are, but my experience is that most HS want to (or need to??) crank out college bound kids. A few take the time to put kids in vocational programs, but again, my experience, they only funnel the ones that are in danger of dropping out into vocational programs. What might work better is to do some kind of consortium with a community college and get a furniture design/construction type program going. That puts it under "arts" and out of vocational. In so doing you may be able to get the HS kids in to use the equipment in a prep. course for going to the community college. I spent 10 years at a community college doing fire protection and firefighter training so feel free to PM me if you have any more questions. Most CCs are looking for new programs that they can do in conjunction with HS. It is both a recruiting tool and what they term a win/win.

[Jim Becker]

Gail, you may want to get in touch with Mark Sffiri at Bucks County Community College (http://www.bucks.edu/) near me. He landed a "very nice" grant a few years ago to totally re-equip the shop... (Yes, he's the well known turner/woodworker that was featured on the cover of Woodwork in the Aug 2005 issue)

[Jim Hager]

I am on the advisory board for the local technical school and was in for a meeting today. They were discussing potentially looking for and applying for grants for equipment and such.

Does anyone have any experience with this or know of how I can find out about available grants?

All help is greatfully appreciated.

Thank you.:)

I think you guys probably know this already but in case you don't:

There should be some startup money available from the Carl Perkins Vocational Educational Grant. If the program is being put in new they will kick in quite a bit but if it is not the grant will provide money for "program improvement" Funds are available to us in the public school vocational programs each year based on the enrollment of the program the previous year and the number of "non-traditional" students enrolled.

Technical schools have been getting some of that grant money in our area anyway to enhance their programs. We got a bit over 35,000 in our school this year. The ag program where I teach got about $6 and the rest was distributed around the district into the different vo ed programs.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Hi Gail, Grants for education are available from the American Association of Woodturners (AAW). Pinkerton Academy in Derry NH has applied several times over the past few years and has gotten at least 2 grants.

Overall, it is best to look locally for foundations and organizations that have money available, as this greatly increases your chances. Most small foundations like to keep their focus local so that they can see the results of their expenditures and monitor them if it is one of their requirements.

Our NH Guild has given grants to several local organizations from our scholarship fund for various woodworking related purposes.

[Charles McKinley]

Hi Gail,

The national source for information about available grants and the foundations that offer them is The Foundation Center. They are based in New York with branches spaced across the country. The resources offered are expansive. The libraries they are located at have a librarian specifically trained to help you search the database for a good match. PM me if you need more info and I can do some digging for you. Their database is not available online unless you subscribe to it and it is $$$.

Writing grant proposals is not difficult if you are a good fit with the donor and complete the forms correctly and on time. I cannot stress these three things enough for a successful proposal.

[Gail O'Rourke]

Thanks for the info everyone. I will look around and let you know if I have more questions.

I appreciate it.