Good Morning, I am contacting you from the Office of Emergency Management in Dorchester County, SC. I was looking online for some resources for our local fire departments and ran across your website regarding help with fire grants on certain types of equipment.
I wanted to touch base with someone from your establishment to see if you were aware of any air monitoring equipment grants or assistance in obtaining air monitoring equipment. Some of our departments are looking to get these systems, but being primarily volunteer departments, they do not have access to the funds to purchase them.
Any ideas or resources that might could help us?
Thanks for your time!
We assume you are looking for gas meters( that measure 3 or 4 types). Our regional homeland serurity task force (region 13) got every fire department in our county at least one through a grant from Homeland Security. I believe it was DHS money that the state applies for from project request it gathers in the field. You should talk to your state's Homeland Security Director or equivalent to see if they would entertain such a request. This would be a lot quicker than AFG and a lot less competiitve.
A good resource for locating homeland security office by state: http://www.dhs.gov/files/resources/editorial_0306.shtm
Good Luck,
FireGrantsHelp Team
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
2011 Fire and EMS conferences and tradeshows
Hello there - thank you so much for the valuable informaton you provide. I would like to speak to you in person about some of my grant projects. Will you attend any fire or EMS conferences or tradeshows in 2011?
Yes - we post all of our tradeshows and events here:
http://www.firegrantshelp.com/events-calendar and
http://www.emsgrantshelp.com/events-calendar/
We look forward to talking with you,
- FireGrantsHelp Team
Yes - we post all of our tradeshows and events here:
http://www.firegrantshelp.com/events-calendar and
http://www.emsgrantshelp.com/events-calendar/
We look forward to talking with you,
- FireGrantsHelp Team
Monday, December 13, 2010
SAFER 2010 Hiring Question
Greetings:
I just have one quick question about a topic regarding the SAFER grant, as I was not able to find it in print when skimming through the DHS documents or anywhere else for that matter.
To give a little overview, my City Dept has recently applied for the 2010 SAFER in hopes to hire 3 Firefighters. A little history about the municiplaity, they currently have a city charter provision that PROHIBITS all full time firefighters from being employed by any other fire dept. other than said municipality.
It has come as a rumor that a provision in the SAFER grant administration, that the above mention charter article has to be revoked (in this case per charter, by the voters) in order to comply with the grant outlined conditions. Thus allowing the current firefighters of the City dept the ability, if they so wish to work on other call/volunteer FD's in other communities.
Is this accurate?
Thanks for the e-mail and question. If you are looking for the particular DHS document that sights "non-discrimination" of volunteering it is located in the 2009 SAFER Guidance Document http://www.firegrantsupport.com/docs/2009SAFERguidance.pdf
Specifically, look on page 27, (f) "Volunteer discrimination: This statement should explain how the applicant plans to meet the requirement ensuring firefighters in positions filled under SAFER Grants are not discriminated against for, or prohibited from, engaging in volunteer activities in another jurisdiction during off-duty hours."
This statement had to be included in your narrative statement in your application. Additionally, this provision is sited in the award responsibilities section (page 38 (10))
Hope this helps!
Respectfully,
FireGrantsHelp
I just have one quick question about a topic regarding the SAFER grant, as I was not able to find it in print when skimming through the DHS documents or anywhere else for that matter.
To give a little overview, my City Dept has recently applied for the 2010 SAFER in hopes to hire 3 Firefighters. A little history about the municiplaity, they currently have a city charter provision that PROHIBITS all full time firefighters from being employed by any other fire dept. other than said municipality.
It has come as a rumor that a provision in the SAFER grant administration, that the above mention charter article has to be revoked (in this case per charter, by the voters) in order to comply with the grant outlined conditions. Thus allowing the current firefighters of the City dept the ability, if they so wish to work on other call/volunteer FD's in other communities.
Is this accurate?
Thanks for the e-mail and question. If you are looking for the particular DHS document that sights "non-discrimination" of volunteering it is located in the 2009 SAFER Guidance Document http://www.firegrantsupport.com/docs/2009SAFERguidance.pdf
Specifically, look on page 27, (f) "Volunteer discrimination: This statement should explain how the applicant plans to meet the requirement ensuring firefighters in positions filled under SAFER Grants are not discriminated against for, or prohibited from, engaging in volunteer activities in another jurisdiction during off-duty hours."
This statement had to be included in your narrative statement in your application. Additionally, this provision is sited in the award responsibilities section (page 38 (10))
Hope this helps!
Respectfully,
FireGrantsHelp
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Financial Aid for Paramedic Class
Have a young man that wants to go to a paramedic program in Penn., He is already a Firefighter 1 & 2 and has EMT training for Basic and Intermediate. How can I get him the financial help to get him to class?
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. My first thought is to find out if the institution that he wants to attend has any type of financial aid or if they have a financial aid officer that might be able to help him. Generally paramedic courses are tied to a community college. Next if he is currently unemployed or underemployed he should check with the local workforce investment board they may be able to provide him with money for training if he meets certain criteria. Is there a prospective employer if he successfully completes this course? If so they may have funds available to assist him. If you are a second generation Firefighter or EMT then Boundtree has a scholarship program it is located at boundtree.com/training/scholarships. Last, take a look at fastweb.com the service is free and they claim to have access to over 3 million scholarships. I hope this helped.
Good Luck,
FireGrantsHelp Team
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. My first thought is to find out if the institution that he wants to attend has any type of financial aid or if they have a financial aid officer that might be able to help him. Generally paramedic courses are tied to a community college. Next if he is currently unemployed or underemployed he should check with the local workforce investment board they may be able to provide him with money for training if he meets certain criteria. Is there a prospective employer if he successfully completes this course? If so they may have funds available to assist him. If you are a second generation Firefighter or EMT then Boundtree has a scholarship program it is located at boundtree.com/training/scholarships. Last, take a look at fastweb.com the service is free and they claim to have access to over 3 million scholarships. I hope this helped.
Good Luck,
FireGrantsHelp Team
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
County Wide Training Facility for Firefighters
I am a county fire marshal in Bandera County Texas and have 9 volunteer fire departments that serve this county. I am looking for a way to fund/assist funding a county wide training facility thought you might have some info on how to do this through a grant thank you for any assistance you can provide...thank you !!
This is a quit common concern for public safety officials. From your brief email its hard to determine if you are looking for money to build a training facility or if you are searching for funding to develop and deliver training programs.
As far as construction program funding there are several possibilities the first is the USDA Community Facilities Program, which can provide you with grant, and loan dollars to build a training facility. Next you may want to talk to your congressman or senator about acquiring an earmark for the project. The congress had put this type of assistance on hold for 2010 but you may want to check to see if it is available for 2011. As far as I know the senate kept the program, so you may want to talk with your US Senator and see if they can sponsor your request. Also you can look at private foundations in your region, again this is hard to determine because I don't have an dollar amount to know who might be approachable.
From the program delivery side the best thing you can do is to become an accredited training site. In your state I don't know who does this but a good place to start is with your state department of education. To help your case in accreditation you may want to partner with an existing institution of higher education such as a community college and tag onto their accreditation. Doing this may also allow your firefighters to pursue a degree through their program. Having accreditation normally opens the doors for other types of education funding. Good Luck.
-FireGrantsHelp Team
This is a quit common concern for public safety officials. From your brief email its hard to determine if you are looking for money to build a training facility or if you are searching for funding to develop and deliver training programs.
As far as construction program funding there are several possibilities the first is the USDA Community Facilities Program, which can provide you with grant, and loan dollars to build a training facility. Next you may want to talk to your congressman or senator about acquiring an earmark for the project. The congress had put this type of assistance on hold for 2010 but you may want to check to see if it is available for 2011. As far as I know the senate kept the program, so you may want to talk with your US Senator and see if they can sponsor your request. Also you can look at private foundations in your region, again this is hard to determine because I don't have an dollar amount to know who might be approachable.
From the program delivery side the best thing you can do is to become an accredited training site. In your state I don't know who does this but a good place to start is with your state department of education. To help your case in accreditation you may want to partner with an existing institution of higher education such as a community college and tag onto their accreditation. Doing this may also allow your firefighters to pursue a degree through their program. Having accreditation normally opens the doors for other types of education funding. Good Luck.
-FireGrantsHelp Team
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