After our latest email, I got a response asking me how a certain government agency could get grant funding so that they could buy the Go Stay Kit for their community. I asked several of our recent purchasers how they were able accomplish this task, and these are their answers.
ANSWER #1. The only grant we got was from the Forest Service. They had a program to help low income seniors clear their property for fire safety and they gave us some preparedness dollars. We gave all those Kits to people on the Disaster Registry.
There was also a large purchase early on by the State through the department that trains and supervises Home Care Workers for people who receive long term care paid for by the state with Medicaid. This was not a grant to us, but might provide ideas for, say, nursing homes or Assisted Living Facilities that take Medicaid clients.
But these days, I think the best bet is the FEMA funds that go through each County’s Emergency Manager. (Or, at least in this area, governmental agencies can apply for funds for specific projects and all applications are consolidated into one and submitted by the Emergency Manager.) “Citizen Preparedness” is not always on the fundable list through the process in a given year, but it’s worth asking. It would probably be the same pot of money that CERTs are funded with.
Otherwise, I recommend that folks write to local foundations that specialize in funding activities that promote the health and safety of seniors, people with disabilities and/or families—especially for communities that are located in disaster-prone areas (tornados, hurricanes). Emergency preparedness might be a priority—or at least a recognized need–for the local foundations.
ANSWER #2. Yes, we did use a one-time special needs grant that we received back in 2009, but had not done any planning until last year. We are planning on ordering more this year, we aren’t sure how many as we are waiting on a large purchase to be finalized, but should know more in the coming weeks. For this we will be using base preparedness grant funds.
ANSWER #3. Many local governments have used Citizen Corps (UNITING COMMUNITIES PREPARING THE NATION) to obtain grants to buy the GO|STAY|KIT®. Your local Citizen Corps chapter is part of your regional FEMA organization. Citizen Corps is sometimes able to allocate funds to purchase GO|STAY|KIT® materials that would help those with access and functional needs in case of a natural disaster. Citizen Corps asks that you place their logo, and your organizational logo on the custom TAB 7 page of the Kit. If you are not familiar with Citizen Corps, you can find your local contact by going to Citizen Corps <http://citizencorps.gov/> and typing in your zip code.
