Weekend Wrap Up

Good morning, good morning! Feeling in a real good mood. Since I don’t have Dr. M. this morning and I’m not expected in until 9:30, I’ve got some time. Pretty good since I didn’t wake up until about 5 am. It’s 6:30 now. Let’s see leave at 8:30, shower at 8 am. That means a whole 1 ½ hours YAYYYYY! Better set timer right away. K ... that’s done.

We had just a short chance to talk in IM this morning. But, as we’d been doing that it occurred to us to load the DVD disk of our work files into our computer. Couldn’t tell you how I did this, but the point is ... IT WORKED!!! Hundred’s and hundred’s of documents and pictures are now available to me at home. Really happy about that! I feel so much more in control.

I didn’t do much yesterday except sleep, I’m afraid, so there wasn’t any progress to the grant project. I had a nap in the morning, then pretty much slept through 1:30 to the next morning with only a couple of hours up to watch the games. I even fell asleep in double overtime of the Michigan game. Just don’t know how this is possible, unless its because we forgot to take our medicine until 5 pm or so. *sigh* I think unconsciously our mind requires us to take small medicine breaks, just to see who we are without the drugs. Don’t dare to go like that for long though, because we get very depressed, very quickly. I’m thinking now that we tend to sleep when depressed. Hmm...

Everything back as scheduled this morning. Whoops, let the kitty out. I hear it’s going to be beautiful this week. Even up to the 70's!

Need to recalculate where we are with the grant this morning. We’d gone through quite a bit of material on Saturday, but it wasn’t sticking to its place because there was so much of it. Somehow or another, we wrote out about three paragraphs while trying to explain who we were to the grantmaker in the form of a letter of inquiry. It became much too formal though. I’m not sure what to do with it now. There has to be someway we can put it in order so that we can follow step by step directions on what to do ... It sure does help to have the work files at home though. Even the Excel sheets copied over! This was the first part. Figured we better break it down to outline form. This makes it easier for us to understand

Letters of Inquiry

If you are seeking support for the first timeor if you are a returning grantee seeking support for a new program, we highly recommend that you

send us a letter ofinquiry before you submit a full proposal. This would allow us to give you preliminary feedback concerning your request and its potential fit within our funding priorities.

Letters of inquiry should include a brief description of the proposed project,

a project budget, and

other projected sources of support.

Proposals

This will provide not only an explanation of what will occur during the grant period, but also a picture of the intended effect.

Program activities should lead to short-term outcomes that result in the proposed long-term impact.

By identifying tangible and realistic outcomes at the outset, an agency can conduct an informed assessment at the end of a program year and

provide early feedback on a program's likely long-term direction.

Proposals should include a description of three basic elements of a project:

program activities,

A description of program activities should provide details about what will occur during the grant period. Such details include

information about the type of activities planned and

their frequency and duration, and should

identify the participants or beneficiaries of the program.

In a welfare-to-work program, for example, the activities might include

enrolling women in the program,

providing adult education classes,

job readiness workshops,

support groups,

on-site day care and

making linkages to job training programs.

A detailed description of each program component serves not only to delineate activities which are intended to occur during a program year, it also provides a context for assessing the program's implementation at year-end.

short-term outcomes,

Before implementing a project, an agency should outline measurable short-term outcomes that will demonstrate the change expected to occur as a result of the program activities.

In the example of a welfare-to-work project, short-term outcomes would include

the number of participants who became employed, as well as

many outcomes preceding that objective, such as

increased literacy rates,

participation in and completion of job training programs and

job search activities.

This type of information provides important benchmarks for determining if a program is creating the desired results which will leadto its ultimate goal.

long-term impact The long term impact of a project is reflected in the cumulative or lasting changes it effects.

For a welfare-to-work project, the ability to keep participants off of welfare and in sustainable employment is an obvious long-term goal.

While long-term tracking may be difficult, preliminary indicators that may be used to estimate long term outcomes can be helpful. For instance,

client progress can be tracked at intervals following program completion to determine if employment is maintained at 60, 90 or 120 days.

Establishing tangible, long-term goals and identifying indicators of success helps to

guide the direction of a program and

provides a framework for assessing its effectiveness over time.

For our purposes, we should be working to submit the grant by June 1, to be considered by their Board of Directors by August 1.

Your Inquiry Letter should condense all of the key information into the following main

elements:

1. Organization Overview/Purpose

2. State Reason for and Amount of Funding Request

3. Describe Needs or Problem (including target population, statistics, examples)

4. Describe Project or Program

5. List other Project Funders (prospective and committed)

6. Request Funding Application

Typical inquiry letters, usually a maximum of 2-3 pages, include the following components:

COVERSHEET:

Organization Name,

Address,

City,

State:,

Zip Code,

Country,

Contact

Name,

Title,

Telephone,

Fax,

E-mail Address

INTRODUCTION:

.. The mission of your organization (one paragraph)

.. The purpose of your request (one paragraph)

.. How your request fits the grantmaker's funding priorities (one sentence)

.. Total annual general operating budget

.. Fiscal Year

.. Total proposed project/program budget (if other than general support)

.. Grant amount being requested

.. Matching funds committed from other funding sources

.. Proposed grant project/program time frame (beginning and ending dates)

.. Tax exempt status

NARRATIVE (maximum of 1/2 page)

A concise narrative or a synopsis of the proposed project/program, that generally covers

the following:

.. The purpose of the request (project or program)

.. The problem or need being addressed, and how you will address he identified

problem or need

.. The population or community served by your organization

.. How your project or program will promote long-term change

FINANCIAL INFORMATION

For project or program finding requests, you will usually need to submit both a

project/program budget and a general operating budget. However, for general support

requests, you will usually only need to submit a general operating budget.

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Pshwoo, that’s enough information for one morning. We started the Letter of Inquiry yesterday.

I can’t write it out here because it contains too much information about the Center, but for practical purposes I am cutting/pasting it here now. I will then be able to go over it today when I can get to work and print it out. This contains those three questionable paragraphs though :(

I am inserting here also the work done in coming up with a job description for Job Developer. We might have to go into a little more depth with this in the actual proposal, but for now the list stands.

1. Inventory or surveywork skill needs and preferences of all individuals served at the center
2. Establish structured pre/post educational and job skills programs for individuals who are job ready or working in conjunction with other staff
3. Attend job fairs
4. Establish self as marketer for our program and individuals with Developmental Disabilities in general
5. Develop a working contact and mailing directory through cold calls and leads
6. Log Door-to-door job searches and networking efforts within the community
7. Gain information through the Internet and establish from it a job search resource guide
8. Assist job coach(es) with methods for their training work with the individuals served
9. Establish working rapport with the job sites and on-the-job training with the individual’s served
10. Attend in-house and community meetings
11. Write effective evaluative and business reports
12. Communicate efficiently with the Administrator and the Administrative Team
13. Be accountable for all facets of job skills program development and follow-through

Hmm, it doesn’t seem as frightful this morning ... but, I think we’ve veered past the outline. Will check this out better at work.

So forty minutes left of the early morning. What’s next? I know that I have to just print this out and set it aside at work, because I have to make grant work an "At home" affair. Just have to gear my minds properly. Hmm, there was some financial stuff I’d worked though. Better get that in print too. Hold on...

Let’s see ...

29,700.00 Job Developer position ($15 per hour)

8,910.00 Job Coach half year ($9 per hour)

2,574.00 Transportation (60 miles=3 gal.= $6.60 per day x 5 days x 1 ½ employees)

2,100.00 Supplies (I forget formula used - whoops)

44,284.00

Also, shielded from view is a list I’m adding here of the twelve clients I would think are ready for some kind of work and their nationalities since this grantmaker hopes

* Potential workers (select 12 with 3 alternatives)

Good, good ... everything back in some semblance of order.  We've emailed ourselves a copy of the work we want printed out.  Might have to do two copies and give one to our partner to see if we haven't scared the hell out of him yet.  Just I know he's going to be on a totally different track.  Hmm, we better learn to work with him.  That seems the best path.  How about a compromise.  We'll give him a copy only if he is there to go through it with us face to face.  Yep, yep might work.

Time for one more smoke before shower.  I guess its starting to feel about time to get back to work.  Whoops there's the timer.  Need to calm down ... maybe medicine would help?  Yep, yep.  Better get on with it then.  Thanks for Skimming through this effort so far.  :)  Our best!