How to Get a Cut of $10.5 Million in Safety Grants from the DOL

Want a cut of $10.5 million in safety grants?

Here’s your chance.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration just published a notice in the Federal Registrar that $10.5 million is available through Susan Harwood’s Training Grants.

There are 3 specific grants in total:

1. Targeted Topic Training Grants.
2. Training and Educational Materials Development Grants.
3. Capacity Building Grants.

We’ll go over each of these grants, who can access the funding, and how to get your hands on these funds.

But before we do, let’s define Susan Harwood Training Grants.

What are Susan Harwood Training Grants and Who Was Susan Harwood?

Susan Harwood Training Grants are awarded to “provide training and education programs for employers and workers on the recognition, avoidance, and prevention of safety and health hazards in their workplaces and to inform workers of their rights and employers of their responsibilities under the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act.”

They’re run by OSHA, which established the original grant program in 1978, then known as New Directions.

In 1997, it was renamed in honor of the late Susan Harwood, a former director of the Office of Risk Assessment in OSHA’s Health Standards Directorate, who died in 1996.

For 17 years, Susan Harwood helped develop OSHA standards to protect workers exposed to bloodborne pathogens, cotton dust, benzene, formaldehyde, asbestos and lead in construction.

What Does the Grant Program Support?

The safety grants program supports the creation of educational programs and in-person training for the following:

• Workers and employers in small businesses
• Industries with high injury, illness and fatality rates
• Vulnerable workers, who are underserved, have limited English proficiency or are temporary workers.

The purpose of the grants is to fund training and education for workers and employers to help them identify and prevent workplace safety and health hazards.

What are the 3 Types of Grants?

Susan Harwood Training Grants are provided for 3 distinct types of training:

1. Targeted Topic Training.
2. Training and Educational Materials Development.
3. Capacity Building.

Let’s look at each one:

Targeted Topic Training Grants

This type of safety grant is exclusively focused on training and educating workers and managers on identifying and preventing workplace hazards.

Training and Educational Materials Development Grants

This type of safety grant assists leaders in developing, evaluating, and validating training materials that cover specific OSHA topics that are high-quality enough to be used in a classroom.

Capacity Building Grants

This type of safety grant aids organizations in developing and expanding their capacity to provide safety and health training and education.

You can apply for either of these 2 types of Capacity Building grants:

1. Capacity Building Pilot.
2. Or Capacity Building Development.

Capacity Building Pilot grants help organizations assess their training and development needs so they have a clear plan before implementing a whole safety and health education program.

Capacity Building Developmental grants help organizations develop the capacity to effectively provide full-scale safety and health training and education.

Who’s Eligible to Get a Grant?

Unfortunately, not everyone who needs or wants these grants are eligible to receive them.

Here are the only organizations eligible for Susan Harwood Training Grants:

• Nonprofit organizations, including qualifying community and faith-based organizations, employer associations and labor unions.
• State and local government supported institutions of higher education.

How do you apply for the grant?

If you’re eligible and want to apply for a Susan Harwood Training Grant, simply visit Grants.gov and register your organization through the site.

The registration process typically takes 3-5 days to process.

After that, you can submit an application for the grant of your choice.

Want to Accelerate Your Safety Training Programs?

While in-person training has its merits, it also has its drawbacks…

They’re normally more expensive than other forms of training (which is why safety grants are so important).

They’re time-consuming and require all your employees to be in the same place at the same time.

And the training can’t be repeated or played over – if employees wanted to refresh their memories, they would either have to take excellent notes (which, as you know, doesn’t always happen) or you would have to hire someone for another training session.

But you can avoid all of this by supplementing in-person training with Elearning.

It’s much cheaper.

You’re employees learn faster (and retain more information).

And they can learn anytime, anywhere, and go back to the training whenever they want.

If you’re interested in seeing how Elearning can enhance your existing training and development program, get your free online training consultation below.