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WVSAN Wants You To Apply for An Afterschool MiniGrant

Purpose

The West Virginia Statewide Afterschool Network (WVSAN) with support from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation is offering mini-grants of up to $7,500 each to support strengthening relationships of Out of School Time (OST) sites, child care centers serving the school aged population, and afterschool programs with their local school systems to work to together to address the extraordinary needs of youth and families during COVID-19.

As school systems address protocols and schedules that are being developed for instruction, transportation and safety procedures, mini-grants for afterschool programs are offered to build customized out-of-school arrangements with local schools. This includes helping school systems understand the supports afterschool programs can provide and how they are uniquely qualified to help support students’ academic success and social-emotional learning. Programs will increase advocacy efforts to demonstrate they are a long-standing community partner serving many of the same children and families served by schools. Afterschool can offer immediate resources to schools including staff, expertise, and connections with families and community partners. Afterschool programs are uniquely positioned to help school systems reimagine the school year. As schools offer alternative hours for students, there is a greater need for afterschool programs to offer additional hours to accommodate and support students, who are not in a school building.

Mini-grant recipients will participate in a grant application process and virtual technical support with the WVSAN to advance partnerships with school to provide students opportunities for academic improvements and personal enrichment. Mini-grant support will assist afterschool programs in collaborating with school systems to put practices in place that best support students’ and families’ needs. These practices could include parent support for student’s homework completion, extended hours of operations, school liaison staff, consistent meetings between afterschool staff/tutors and school teachers or principals.

Eligible Applicants

In order to be eligible to apply for this funding, applicants must meet the following criteria:

Applicants must plan to provide in-person programming a minimum of two days per week after the school day during the 2020-21 school year. This opportunity is open to all West Virginia programs operating out-of-school time care and childcare that serves the afterschool population (children in grades K-12). Additional consideration will be given to programs that provide child care for school-age students five days per week.

Awards will be made per site, with programs operating multiple sites eligible to apply for more than one grant.

Grant Award & Duration

Grant award timeline will be January -May 2021. Grant awards notification will be made in mid-December 2020. These grants are not renewable.

School-age childcare and afterschool programs must select whether they are currently:

Beginner – Eligible for maximum of $5,000. Limited or no structured communication or networking between school and afterschool program to support student’s academic progress. Afterschool program does not collaborate with the school served.

Advanced – Eligible for maximum of $7,500. Afterschool program and school staff and administration work collaboratively to support students’ learning and well-being during after school hours. This category would include 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC).

Eligible Activities & Expenses

Allowable expenses must be for the 2020-21 school year:

  • Collaborative projects with school to support student social-emotional learning including purchase of SEL curricula or training to assist students, their parents, and staff.
  • Collaborative project with school to support the academic progress of students attending afterschool.
  • Personnel time to form continuous relationship with school/s being served by the afterschool program for the purpose of student academic or social emotional improvements and progress.
  • Personnel to support and educate parents on how to communicate with teachers and school administration to support their child in academic achievement.
  • Examples of Eligible Activities:
  • Social-emotional learning collaboration examples include frequent scheduled meetings between afterschool and school staff to discuss afterschool supports in sponsoring social-emotional learning; offering joint parent training; offering joint school and afterschool staff training on evidence-based methods for interacting with students.
  • Project based collaboration could include a focused program/project (STEM, Art, Music, etc.) that transitions from school to afterschool program or an agreement for school and afterschool to focus primarily on project-based teaching and enrichments.
  • Family engagement project to enhance parents’ connection to school thereby supporting their child’s educational progress. Examples could be joint family or parent programs, a hot-line or specific available time for parents to seek advice on homework help and supporting their child academic progress, and parent advocacy training to support their student.
  • Integrating Afterschool Voice emphasizes afterschool personnel working with the school to strengthen the connection between the school day and the afterschool day. Examples would include afterschool personnel members of the school LSIC, consistent communication or presentations to schools regarding afterschool efforts and school/afterschool collaborations, attending parent support calls regarding child’s growth and development, and afterschool providers are included in teacher professional development.

Grant Timeline

A technical assistance session will be held on Tuesday, November 17, 2020 at 11 a.m.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Electronic proposals must be received by 11:59 p.m., on Wednesday, December 2, 2020. Grant award will be January - May 2021. Grant awards notification will be made in mid-December 2020.

Fiscal Responsibility & Reporting Requirements

The grantee must comply with all state and federal regulations governing expenditures, accounting and reporting requirements. Due to the high levels of uncertainty and the possibility of program closure during the pandemic, any program that does not utilize funds awarded because it ceases operations must return the funding. A final programmatic and financial report will be due at the end of the grant period.

All approved grantees must submit a completed W-9 and Tax ID number for funding to be received.

Questions

Questions should be emailed to Susan Gamble, Executive Director of the West Virginia Statewide Afterschool Network.

How to Apply

In order to be eligible programs must take two steps:

  1. Applicants must complete a short intent to apply form for the West Virginia Statewide Afterschool Network. Completion of the form does not entail any additional responsibilities but request basic contact information and state that you elect to receive emails from the West Virginia Statewide Afterschool Network.
  2. Electronic proposals should be emailed to wvsan@mail.wvu.edu by 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, December 2, 2020. All applications will receive a receipt via email. Paper submissions will not be accepted.

Proposal Summary (first page)

  • Organization Name
  • Executive Director: name, email and phone
  • Executive Director Statement of Commitment to the Project and signature.
  • Principal Signature of the partnering school/s.
  • Contact Person (if different) name, title, email and phone
  • Afterschool Site and address
  • Grades/Ages Served
  • Total amount requested
  • Designation of Beginner or Advanced Program
  • Total number of children you expect to serve in afterschool spring of the 2020-2021 academic year, total number of staff that will participate

Proposal Narrative (three additional pages, maximum)

  1. What is the mission and vision of your organization?
  2. Describe the needs of connecting with the schools serving your students. How have needs arisen from changes due to the pandemic?
  3. Please provide your goal and describe the project for school connections to enhance student academic achievements. How will you achieve connection with schools? How will you know when you have success?
  4. Please outline a timeline of activities that will ultimately meet the goal of your project.
  5. Please describe your current financial situation and ability to manage finances according to general acceptable accounting procedures.
  6. How will you use this funding? Why do you need it?

Proposed Budget & Narrative

Please submit a budget and a budget narrative for the project. Budget narrative details expenditures that are necessary to accomplish the goal of the proposal. Budget must break out the costs according to the following categories:

  1. Personnel: including salary and fringe,
  2. Contracts,
  3. Supplies and materials,
  4. Equipment (not to exceed $1,000), and
  5. Subscription/Curriculum
  6. Other

Indirect, facilities and administrative costs are not allowed. The grant also does not allow for capital or building costs. Questions can be directed to Susan Gamble, Director. Final report of outcomes and successes will be due at the conclusion of the grant.