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Learn and Serve America Youth Engagement Zones FY 2011

Deadline: March 31, 2011 by 5:00 p.m. Eastern

The Learn and Serve America Youth Engagement Zones are designed to improve academic engagement - including student attendance and behavior - and academic achievement, high school graduation rates, and college-going rates by:

1. Demonstrating the relevance of academic coursework and the value of civic engagement through service-learning;
2. Connecting youth with citizens from diverse communities, backgrounds, and perspectives, providing them with expanded opportunities to serve; and
3. Building enduring capacity within communities to use service as a solution to address pressing challenges.

These grants will provide support for "eligible partnerships" to develop coordinated school- or community-based service-learning opportunities for secondary school students. All partnerships must include, at a minimum, at least one local education agency, one community college, and one community-based entity.

Funding Available

Subject to the availability of appropriations for fiscal year 2011, CNCS anticipates the availability of approximately $5.7 million for new Youth Engagement Zones grants. CNCS anticipates making an estimated 5 to 7 grant awards that will range from approximately $700,000 to $1,500,000 to support three years of operations.

For the full Notice of Funding Opportunity, and application information, visit: http://www.nationalservice.gov/for_organizations/funding/nofa_detail.asp?tbl_nofa_id=86

Dept. of Labor Grant Announcement: Civic Justice Corps

Deadline: March 15, 2011

The U.S. Department of Labor announces the availability of approximately $20 million in funds for Civic Justice Corps grants. Projects funded through these grants will help juvenile offenders gain valuable jobs skills, while demonstrating accountability for their actions through community service projects.

Awarded through a competitive process, these grants will prepare participants for employment and reduce recidivism. This will be accomplished through on-the-job training, job placement, subsidized jobs, and service projects that allow young offenders to take a positive role in their communities. Work experience, other vocational training, and academic interventions will enable participants to improve their skills and enhance their future educational and career opportunities.

The Department expects to award a minimum of 13 grants through this funding opportunity. Civic Justice Corps project funded grants will be expected to develop partnerships with a range of entities, including Social service agencies to provide referrals for supportive services that program participants may need.

A notice of this SGA will be published in the Federal Register. Full eligibility information for applicants and individual participants is included in the solicitation for grant applications. To view the full solicitation, visit http://www.doleta.gov/grants/find_grants.cfm. For information on the range of Department of Labor employment and training programs, visit www.doleta.gov.

Learn and Serve America School-Based Indian Tribes and U.S. Territories FY 2011

Deadline: 5 p.m. Eastern Time, March 3, 2011.

The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) announced a funding opportunity to accelerate the success of service-learning programs in federally-recognized Indian Tribes and U.S. Territories. Anticipating approximately $650,000 in new funding, CNCS expects to award three to four new grants under its Learn and Serve America program to enhance and expand existing service-learning programs, and develop new service-learning opportunities in tribal communities.

The grants will provide funding for one to three years to schools that are challenged to meet education standards. Specifically, the grants will support culturally-relevant programs that help youth in under-resourced communities achieve in school and graduate prepared for college, the work force, and life. These grants underscore the agency’s commitment to expanding opportunities among Indian Tribes and U.S. Territories to use service as a tool to build stronger communities.

Funding for this grant competition is contingent on the enactment of the Fiscal Year 2011 budget for CNCS.

More information and application instructions: http://www.nationalservice.gov/for_organizations/funding/nofa_detail.asp?tbl_nofa_id=85

Environmental Justice Small Grants Program

Deadline: March 31, 2011

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is now accepting grant applications for $1.2 million in funding to support projects designed to research, educate, empower and enable communities to understand and address local environmental and public health issues.

Environmental Justice Small Grants funding is available for two categories of projects:

• 40 grants of up to $25,000 each—to support projects that address a community’s local environmental issues through collaborative partnerships, and;
• 4 grants of up to $50,000 each—to support research on the environmental and human health impacts of exposure to multiple sources of pollution in communities.

Since its inception in 1994, the Environmental Justice Small Grants Program has awarded more than $21 million in funding to 1,200 community-based organizations, and local and tribal organizations working with communities facing environmental justice issues.

The Environmental Justice Small Grants Program, supports and empowers communities working on solutions to local environmental and public health issues. The program assists recipients in building collaborative partnerships to help them understand and address environmental and public health issues in their communities. Successful collaborative partnerships involve not only well-designed strategic plans to build, maintain and sustain the partnerships, but also working towards addressing the local environmental and public health issues.

More information and application materials: http://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/grants/ej-smgrants.html