Description
Under the authority of Section 21 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSH Act), the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) established its discretionary grant program in 1978. In 1997, OSHA renamed the program in honor of the late Susan Harwood, former director of the OSHA Office of Risk Assessment. The grant program offers opportunities for nonprofit organizations to compete annually for funding so they may develop and conduct training and educational programs for small business employers and workers. The Susan Harwood Training Grant Program aims to advance the job quality of the American workforce by providing disadvantaged, underserved, low-income, or other hard-to-reach, at-risk workers with hazard awareness, avoidance, and control training to protect them from on-the-job hazards, and to inform workers of their rights and employers of their responsibilities under the OSH Act. The program and this funding opportunity announcement prioritize investment and funding to train workers and employers impacted by working in high-hazard industries, industries with high fatality rates, or whose workforce has historically had disadvantaged access to occupational safety and health training including young workers, temporary, minority, low literacy, limited-English speaking, and other disadvantaged and hard-to-reach workers and worker communities. The Susan Harwood Training Grant Program seeks to increase access to life-saving training by encouraging grantees to provide training in other languages. Technical assistance, guidance, and support for this funding opportunity is presented in OSHA’s FY 2024 Susan Harwood Training Grant Funding Opportunity Overview available at: www.osha.gov/harwoodgrants/applicant-information. The program is designed to support nonprofit organizations’ efforts to provide this important occupational safety and health training to disadvantaged workers. These nonprofit organizations include qualifying labor unions; community-based, faith-based, and grassroots organizations; employer associations; Native American tribes; tribal Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and native-controlled organizations that are not an agency of a state or local government; and public/state-controlled institutions of higher education. The program provides education and training on advancement of workers’ workplace rights and protections against discrimination and reprisal. The Susan Harwood Training Grant Program seeks applications that include proven strategies to reach the target training populations while also developing innovative solutions to expand access. Grantees agree to participate in data collection and training impact evaluations described in this FOA. The Susan Harwood Grant Program awards funds to qualifying organizations who have demonstrated capabilities to achieve the program’s performance expectations outlined in this FOA. This includes experience in engaging subject matter experts, delivering and administering adult training programs, recruiting students, and managing grants. Following the grant awards, OSHA monitors each organization’s progress in achieving their performance goals and training targets. OSHA accomplishes this by conducting orientation meetings, training material reviews, training observations, program and financial monitoring visits, and quarterly and year-end report reviews. For FY 2024, OSHA announces the availability of $12,787,000 in funding for new Susan Harwood Training Program grants based on 2024 federal appropriations. OSHA expects to award multiple grants to eligible nonprofit organizations under this competitive FOA. This FOA does not itself obligate any federal funds. The obligation of funds occurs when grant recipients acknowledge receipt and acceptance of award documents. Program funding is for a 12-month period beginning no later than September 30, 2024, and ending on September 30, 2025. The maximum award for a Capacity Building grant is $100,000. Capacity Building grants allow applicants time to formulate and test their program objectives and build a full-scale occupational safety and health training program. During the grant period, grantees are required to conduct a needs assessment to determine occupational safety and health training needs in the area they wish to train, assess current abilities to develop and deliver occupational safety and health training, develop marketing and recruitment plans, develop processes for conducting level one training evaluations and level two training assessments, develop curriculum responsive to the training needs identified in the needs assessment, and deliver one small training session to test the effectiveness of curriculum and teaching methods. By the end of the grant period, capacity building grantees must have developed a comprehensive four-year capacity building plan. Successful capacity building grantees may then apply for up to four annual follow-on grants to execute their capacity building plan. Organizations are restricted to one Susan Harwood Targeted Topic Training grant, Training and Educational Materials Development grant, or Capacity Building grant award in a fiscal year. If an organization submits applications for multiple Susan Harwood funding opportunities, OSHA will review the last complete and viable application package submitted. Once submitted, applications are not available for additions, corrections, or revisions. To make changes to a submitted application, the organization must submit a new application package. This FOA closes on July 26, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time. Applications not validated at www.grants.gov (Grants.gov) or submitted after this deadline are ineligible for consideration.