I bring you a different kind of notification this week because the opportunity I am discussing will not be available until April 6, 2007. This blog is to notify K-12 schools districts of a new round of funding for the Safe Schools Healthy Students (SSHS) Initiative. For nearly four years, the Improve Group has conducted successful partnerships with Minnesota school districts that have already received one of these competitive grants. Our role has been completing the grant’s evaluation and reporting requirements for the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools. Our firm would welcome the opportunity to partner with any district interested in applying for the 2007 funding round.

Background

The Federal Department of Education provides funding to help K-12 school districts develop community-wide approaches to creating safe and drug free schools along with promoting healthy childhood development through their Safe Schools Healthy Student’s Initiative. This comprehensive program funds local strategies addressing these 6 elements, among others:

• Provide a safe school environment;
• Offer alcohol, other drug, and violence-prevention activities and early intervention for troubled students;
• Offer school and community mental health preventive and treatment intervention programs;
• Offer early childhood psychosocial and emotional developmental programs;
• Support and connect schools and communities; and
• Support safe-school policies.

You can locate the Request for Proposal after the April posting date through the Grants.gov website or at http://www.ed.gov/fund/grant/find/edlite-forecast.html. You will also find a link to the RFP here on our website. The deadline for applications is May 31, 2007. Estimated average size of the grant is $2 million and up to 20 grants will awarded.