AmeriCorps Seniors - American Rescue Plan Senior Demonstration Program

The American Rescue Plan Act provides additional federal resources to AmeriCorps Seniors in order to assist communities in COVID-19 recovery. Funding will be made available with a particular interest in programs that will serve communities hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Seniors American Rescue Plan Senior Demonstration Program (American Rescue SDP) will support projects that will be focused on supporting communities as they reopen after the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the American Rescue SDP funding opportunities, applicants must demonstrate how they will engage adults age 55 and over to address one or more of the American Rescue SDP priorities.

Applicants are required to address one or more of the following Focus Areas: Disaster Services, Economic Opportunity, Education, Environmental Stewardship, Healthy Futures, and Veteran and Military Families.

AmeriCorps Seniors will prioritize national service investments in the following areas:
• Efforts to help local communities recover from the COVID-19 Pandemic. AmeriCorps Seniors is specifically interested in applications that establish or support education, vaccination, and vaccination education efforts; particularly in hard-to-reach communities.
• Applications that actively engage in removing structural racial inequities, advance racial equality, and increase opportunity to achieve sustainable change in communities.
• Applicants may propose programming in any county, city, or town, as identified within the priority service areas identified on Appendix A (New Mexico is not listed).

AmeriCorps Seniors’ is prioritizing programming in the following areas:
• Access to Care - Healthy Futures: Applications related to increasing access to care and public health education opportunities in hard-to-reach communities and/or historically underserved communities; including, but not limited to, establishing, and supporting contact-tracing, vaccination sites and providing vaccine education, transportation, and registration. Applicants may also propose to develop programming to address mental health support.
• Education – Intergenerational Programming: Applications that engage older adults in supporting students and families for successful transitions in returning to the classrooms and/or strengthen social emotional learning of students to increase school readiness and K-12 success post pandemic.
• Veterans and Military Families: Veterans and Military Families, Caregivers, and Survivors – a program model that improves the quality of life of veterans and improves the well-being of military families, caregivers, and survivors.
• Aging in Place – Independent Living: Applications that support communities historically underserved, marginalized, and adversely impacted by persistent poverty and inequality to increase independent living for older adults and/or individuals with disabilities, to re-engage in their communities post COVID-19 recovery. Activities such as companionship to deal with bereavement of a loved one due to death related to COVID-19 or providing support to seniors adjusting to a loss of a loved one during the pandemic.
• Access to Care - Substance Abuse: Applications that focus AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers on assignments that increase access to care and participation in health education activities designed to prevent or reduce substance abuse.
• Addressing Food Insecurity – Health Futures: Applications that focus AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers on assignments that increases access to healthy food in underserved communities.
• Aging in Place – Elder Justice: Applications that focus AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers in assignments addressing elder justice, including activities that mitigate the potential that clients and caregivers will be victims of financial fraud, abuse, and/or neglect and/or that aid and support services to victims of elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Economic Opportunity – Workforce Development: Applications that establish and/or support programs designed to increase the number of economically disadvantaged individuals receiving job training and other skill development services, with a goal of connecting individuals and families to resources developed to support post-pandemic life.
• Economic Opportunity – Financial Knowledge: Applications that result in seniors working on financial literacy, improving financial knowledge, and utilization of savings plans.
• Economic Opportunity/Economic Mobility: Educational opportunity and economic mobility for communities experiencing persistent unemployment or underemployment, and students experiencing homelessness or those in foster care.
• Economic Opportunity/Digital and Information Literacy: Educational opportunities that increase the number of underserved or economically disadvantaged individuals having access to and the opportunity to develop skills needed to use online resources.

Additionally, the American Rescue SDP will prove an opportunity for applicants to include up to six-month of a planning period in the proposal for funding. The planning time will support the development of community partnerships, creation of reporting tools, as well as the development and implementation of a recruitment plan.

Amount: Approximately $10,000,000 is available to make award that range from $100,000 to $500,000 and cover a two year period of performance.

Applicants are required to have a 10% match, regardless if the proposed program will recruit and place volunteers who receive a stipend or not.

Eligibility: Tribal communities; institutions of higher education; local governments; nonprofit organizations; and states governments.

Deadline: February 3, 2022.

Link: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=336384 ... See more

Enterprise Community Partners: Section 4 Capacity Building Grants

Enterprise Community Partners (Enterprise) is seeking applicants for its Section 4 Capacity Building Program (Section 4). The Section 4 Program aims to enhance the technical and administrative capacity of community development corporations (CDCs) and community housing development organizations (CHDOs) to carry out community development and affordable housing activities to benefit families of low to moderate income (80% AMI or below). Enterprise is an intermediary under the Section 4 Capacity Building for Affordable Housing and Community Development program (Section 4), funded by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Enterprise is focusing toward racial equity as COVID-19 has further highlighted disparities in life outcomes for communities of color. Due to COVID-19 those adversely impacted by inequitable systems are economically more vulnerable than ever. The response to the pandemic must encourage a system that equitably responds to the disparities experienced by marginalized communities. The long-time prevalence of racial inequality has called for the deep need to strategically invest in communities led by and serving people of color so that they can take care of their most pressing needs while ensuring that they are at the center of recovery efforts.

The purpose of the Section 4 program is to enhance the technical and administrative capacity of CDCs and CHDOs to carry out community development and affordable housing activities. CDCs and CHDOs play a critical role in the development and preservation of high-quality affordable housing and the implementation of community-development programs.

Through this funding opportunity, Enterprise will provide funding to CDCs and CHDOs that support key community needs that include advancing racial equity by addressing systemic racism in housing; increasing housing supply through production and preservation; preparing for and supporting quick and full recovery from natural disasters and other unforeseen events, including the current and ongoing Covid-19 pandemic; and advancing economic opportunity and upward mobility. To effectively address these community needs, CDCs and CHDOs need organizational stability and increased capacity to carry out priority programs and business operations.

Enterprise will support CDCs and CHDOs in building the organization’s capacity to address community needs across six (6) program areas that work towards advancing racial equity, increasing housing supply and fostering resilience and upward mobility:

1. Preservation of Existing Housing
2. New Housing Production
3. Climate and Community Resilience
4. Economic Mobility
5. Eviction Prevention
6. Organizational Sustainability and Development

Amount: $7,965,000 is available to make awards expected to average $45,000 each.

Eligibility: Section 4 Capacity Building grant funds are limited to CDCs and CHDOs as defined by the Section 4 program. See the RFP for additional guidance on qualifications as a CDC or CHDO.

Priority will be given to applicants applying in an area of persistent poverty. The continued persistence of poverty is most evident within several predominantly rural regions and populations such as Central Appalachia, the Lower Mississippi Delta, the southern Black Belt, the Colonias region along the U.S.-Mexico border, Native American lands, and migrant and seasonal farmworkers. Persistent poverty counties are defined as counties that have had poverty rates of 20% or greater for at least 30 years.

Link: https://www.enterprisecommunity.org/blog/section-4-grants-2021

Deadline: December 10, 2021 ... See more

U.S. Department of Agriculture: America’s Healthy Food Financing Initiative – Targeted Small Grants

Deadline: December 7, 2021.

America’s Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI) is a public-private partnership administered by Reinvestment Fund on behalf of USDA Rural Development to improve access to healthy food in underserved areas, to create and preserve quality jobs, and to revitalize low-income communities by providing financial and technical assistance to eligible fresh, healthy food retailers and enterprises to overcome the higher costs and initial barriers to entry in underserved areas. Program support may also be used to mitigate hardships resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The HFFI Targeted Small Grants (TSG) program offers grants to eligible fresh, healthy food retailers and enterprises. The TSG program supports fresh food retail and food system enterprises that seek to improve access to healthy food in underserved areas through food retail. Grants could assist projects with a variety of aspects of project development, renovation, and/or expansion. Grants are designed to be one-time investments of capital into a food retail or food enterprise project in order to address higher costs and initial barriers to entry in underserved rural and urban areas. Grant funds should unlock additional sources of capital, catalyze project sustainability, meet financing gaps, and/or enable deeper impact or project reach. While the HFFI TSG Program is designed to support projects that respond to food access and food enterprise needs that were evolving prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic is having on communities, retail outlets, and the food supply chain is recognized. Applicants may use their discretion to propose a project that otherwise meets program guidelines, and is or is not related to recovery from the pandemic, directly or indirectly.

The TSG program seeks to primarily support Retail Outlets or Food Enterprises within the food retail supply chain that meet the eligibility requirements described in this section of the RFA. For example, a retailer or developer might seek grant funding as a portion of an overall capital project to build a new grocery store or renovate a portion of an existing store, in order to retain or expand access to full-service grocery stores in an Underserved Area. A community-based nonprofit organization or cooperative might seek funding for predevelopment and materials to develop an alternative or non-traditional retail distribution model such as a pop-up retail outlet in a low-population community that has limited access to fresh foods. A retail applicant might seek funds to expand e-commerce or delivery options as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. A food enterprise applicant might seek funding for equipment to expand their produce distribution company in order to improve and expand food access at a number of Retail Outlets. It seeks applications from these types of projects and many others not described here.

Proposed projects could include (but are not limited to):
• Predevelopment: Projects should be ready for implementation or shovel-ready when applying for HFFI TSG Program grant funding, but grant needs can include predevelopment and soft costs, including market analysis, site location analysis, appraisals, architectural or design assistance, training, or other contractual or consulting uses.
• Brick and Mortar Facility Development: Hard capital costs including land or building acquisition; construction; and fixtures, furniture, and equipment for the construction, renovation, or expansion of a brick and mortar facility.
• Other capital needs: Hard costs for the creation, retrofit, expansion, or other one-time investment in capital needs for a retail operation or enterprise that isn’t for facility, including vehicles, machinery, equipment, technology, software, purchase of existing business assets, a one-time investment in inventory or raw materials, or other.
• Other soft costs: One-time soft costs such as training, consumer/community engagement, governance support, financial or development consultants, project management, marketing and merchandising work, environmental/energy assessments, food safety assistance, project learning and/or impact assessment, and other one-time soft costs that contribute to preserving or expanding access to food retail.

To be eligible for consideration, applicants must describe a project that fulfills the following criteria:
1. Plans to expand or preserve the availability of Staple and Perishable Foods in Underserved Areas (defined in Part I) with low- and moderate-income populations (defined in Part I); and
2. If the project involves retail sales, accepts or plans to accept benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) established under the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008.

Amount: $4,000,000 is available to make 20-30 awards that range from $20,000 - $200,000.

Eligibility: For-profit, nonprofit, and cooperatively owned businesses, institutions of higher education, state and local governments, and tribal governments. Applicants may include food retailers or non-retail food enterprises.

Support is provided to eligible organizations in eligible Underserved Areas to implement a project that is designed to improve access to fresh, healthy food through food retail. The program will support projects aiming to strengthen, expand, and innovate within the food retail supply chain. The program could assist a variety of organizations, business models, and capital needs of ventures that process, distribute, aggregate, market, and sell healthy, fresh, and affordable foods to underserved communities and markets.

Eligible Locations: Projects in underserved urban and rural areas are eligible. Underserved Areas, are communities that have: (I) limited access to affordable, healthy foods, including fresh fruits and vegetables, in grocery retail stores or farmer-to-consumer direct markets; and (II) a high rate of hunger or food insecurity, or a high poverty rate. For the purposes of the TSG program, a project must be located:

1. In a Census tract determined to be a Low-Income and Low-Supermarket-Access Census Tract by the United States Department of Agriculture in its Food Access Research Atlas; OR
2. In a Census tract adjacent to a Census tract determined to be a Low-Income and Low-Supermarket-Access Census Tracts by the United States Department of Agriculture in its Food Access Research Atlas; and which has a median family income less than or equal to 120 percent of the applicable Area Median Family Income; OR
3. In a Geographic Unit as defined in 12CFR Part 1805.201(b)(3)(ii)(B), which—
A. Individually meets at least one of the criteria in 12CFR Part 1805.201(b)(3)(ii)(D), and
B. Meets the criteria as having low access to supermarket or grocery store through a methodology that has been adopted for use by another government or philanthropic healthy food initiative.

More information, including data and maps available to help determine if a proposed location is eligible, is available at https://www.investinginfood.com/eligibility/.

Link: https://www.investinginfood.com/about-hffi/ ... See more