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Department of Health and Human Services – Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Attention institutions of higher education! The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) recently opened a funding opportunity focused on mental health services for college students. The Garrett Lee Smith (GLS) Campus Suicide Prevention program provides institutions of higher education (IHEs) with funding to develop the infrastructure and sustainable capacity for effective identification, intervention, and suicide prevention programming on college campuses.

This time of year naturally leads people to reflect back and start looking forward, generating new goals and resolutions. Respectfully, I ask, “How is that even possible with a year like 2020?” It’s been a year filled with fear, sadness, uncertainty, confusion, and constant change, to say the least. Even our everyday language has taken on a whole new plethora of words like COVID-19, pandemic, social distance, quarantine, contact tracing, essential businesses, and flattening the curve. By the way, if you are looking for that blog that says better days are ahead, here is my warning: STOP! This blog is about realness – real thoughts, real feelings, real struggles. I wish I could say that I thought of writing this myself, but I am not that bold. I owe it to a great colleague of mine who challenged me to bring out the realness and ugly truths that may help me (and possibly even others) sort this out in my head.

Department of Health and Human Services - Health Resources and Services Administration Does your organization provide advanced nursing education? The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) recently opened a funding opportunity through its Advanced Nursing Education – Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (ANE-SANE) program. This program focuses on recruitment, training, and certification of registered nurses (RNs), advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs), and forensic nurses (FNs) to practice as sexual assault nurse examiners (SANEs). By increasing the supply and distribution of qualified working SANEs, the ANE-SANE program improves overall access to sexual assault forensic examinations.

Department of Health and Human Services - Health Resources and Services Administration Does your organization provide educational programs for individuals pursuing nursing degrees? The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) recently opened a funding opportunity through its Nursing Workforce Diversity (NWD) program. NWD provides funding to assist students from underrepresented and disadvantaged backgrounds as they progress through the educational pipeline – from enrollment to graduation – toward becoming practicing registered nurses. NWD programs accomplish this through the implementation of evidence-based strategies that are proven to support students from disadvantaged backgrounds (including ethnic and racial minorities) in completing their degree programs.

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) has recently opened to proposals its Campus Cyberinfrastructure (CC) program. Given the data-driven nature of scientific research and education, institutions of higher education face many challenges regarding cyberinfrastructure, including computing, data services, security, information-sharing, and more. NSF addresses the growing needs for innovative, effective network infrastructures on campuses through the CC program. Let’s take a closer look at this opportunity.

National Endowment for the Humanities – Preservation & Access Attention humanities folks in small or mid-sized institutions! If your organization is seeking funding to help preserve and care for collections of books and journals, archives and manuscripts, prints and photographs, moving images, sound recordings, textiles, archeological artifacts, digital materials, and more, you might be interested in this opportunity. The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is accepting applications for Preservation Assistance Grants for Smaller Universities to help institutions improve their capacities to preserve significant humanities collections.

National Science Foundation Attention higher education folks! The National Science Foundation is accepting applications for its multi-track program, Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI program). The HSI program is intended to enhance the quality of undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and to increase the recruitment, retention, and graduation rates of historically underrepresented students in these fields who are working toward associates or baccalaureate degrees. Let’s take a closer look at this grant program.

Department of Health and Human Services - Health Resources and Services Administration Does your organization provide professional training programs in the behavioral health sciences? The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) recently opened a funding opportunity through its Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training (BHWET) Program for Professionals. This program focuses on creating and expanding experiential training opportunities (such as internships or field placements) to improve the behavioral health workforce in underserved, high-demand, or rural areas. BHWET encourages building relationships with community-based partners (hospitals, crisis centers, first responders, etc.) to improve access to behavioral health services in these regions.

I always think of the last quarter of the year as the “learning season” when I attend the Grant Professionals Association (GPA) National Conference and begin thinking about the year past and ahead. This is not an easy process for me. As a grants professional, it is so easy to get bogged down in the daily grind, but this season really forces me and gives me permission to think about my own learning and goals. It reminds me of the Dr. Suess book Oh, The Places You’ll Go. A friend gave me this to me when I graduated college with my bachelor’s degree. At the young age of 20, I could not even begin to imagine where I would go. Some 20 years later, after working as an in-house grant professional and now working in a consultant role, I am using this learning season to really reflect on where I have been and where I will still go. There are so many different paths in the grant professional’s work. This just one example – my journey.