| Six Guidelines for Successful Proposals | Standard Components | Cover Letter |
| Table of Contents | Sample Proposal: Anger Management | Government Grants | Active Verbs |
This sample proposal text is based on a project that received full funding from a regional Woman’s Foundation. The application process involved completion of a six page standardized form, which explains the fill-in-the-blank brevity of the responses below.
What is the primary service of your organization?
Shining Light provides a daytime drop-in center and an overnight shelter for homeless, mentally disabled women. Shining Light meets basic human needs, offers advocacy and case management, facilitates social interaction, and creates a supportive community for women who live on the streets. What geographic area does your organization serve?
Shining Light services are primarily for women living in the streets, parks, and beach areas of the City of Brunnersville. We work in conjunction with other Westside agencies. Give a brief history of your organization, describing its purpose activities and accomplishments.
Since incorporation in 1969, the Shining Beacon Community Services Center has grown from a small neighborhood program for youth to a multifaceted agency with nine distinct service facilities. Shining Beacon has served the homeless since 1981 through the Beachside Meal Program, Street Outreach Team, and New Life Shelter for homeless adults. As staff made contact with isolated, unserved homeless women, we realized that the provision of comprehensive services required a safe haven designed specifically for this client population. Shining Light opened in 1993 to provide meals, showers, laundry facilities, nap areas, counseling, and fellowship for over 300 women annually. Shining Light was recognized by the 1998 U.S. Conference of Mayors as a model program and received praise at the 1999 National League of Cities Convention. The 15-bed Shining Light Shelter will open this summer to help prepare homeless, mentally ill women for the transition to independent living. The State Department of Mental Health selected the shelter for funding as a demonstration project under the federal McKinney Homeless Assistance Act. Describe your organization’s efforts to promote self-sufficiency and economic independence for women and girls.
Most women at Shining Light will never be able to support themselves through full-time employment because they suffer from severe mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia and manic-depressive bipolar disorder. Shining Light staff members teach independent living and money management skills while helping participants navigate through the welfare system maze. Shining Light provides access to medical and psychiatric care to better control symptoms, including hallucinations, delusions, and depression. Self-sufficiency is measured in small units: the ability to ride the bus alone, the patience to bathe thoroughly, or the ability to control behavior in public settings. Describe how participants are involved in program development and organizational decision-making.
Shining Light women are encouraged to participate in program development to the fullest extent of their abilities and mental health. Involvement is limited partially because impaired decision-making is a major symptom of mental illness and because daily survival takes precedence. The clients establish the program atmosphere; their needs and moods set the tone each day. Shelter guests will be asked during the intake process to suggest preferred activities. Evening meals will provide a chance to informally discuss shelter services as a supplement to weekly “house” meetings. Participants will assist with meal preparation, grocery shopping, house maintenance, clerical tasks, craft projects, and evening activities. The Shining Light staff believes in full accountability to the women we serve and maintains flexibility to accommodate special needs. We anticipate that the first year at the shelter will be a continuous learning process for both staff and clients. Describe the issue or problem to be addressed with grant funds.
Shining Light women face continuous stress, both internally from delusions of persecution and other symptoms of mental illness and externally from denied services, public harassment, and the horrors of sleeping exposed on the streets. The women are often unable to find effective coping strategies. Their anxiety, irritability, and understandable resentment can result in aggressive and maladaptive behavior. The consequences of inappropriately expressed anger, however justified, can be further expulsion, imprisonment, or involuntary hospitalization. The women of Shining Light rarely last long at traditional shelters or rehabilitation agencies because of their loud voices, bizarre behavior, and sometimes threatening gestures. Security guards routinely escort our participants out of shopping malls, restaurants, and other public areas after disruptive incidents. Family members frequently shun contact. Residential programs refuse to accept patients who cannot control their anger or who have histories of violence. As psychiatrist Paul Koegel reported to the National Institute of Mental Health, “the population of homeless mentally ill women probably includes disproportionate numbers of people who were either expelled from available treatment facilities . . . because of disruptions or who exhibited a constellation of characteristics associated with disruptiveness which led them to reject those alternatives.” The staff of Shining Light fear that even after a six-month stay at the shelter, women will not qualify for housing programs or future services unless they learn the basics of anger management. By learning to assume more responsibility for their own behavior, women will be better prepared to function within the community-at-large. What are the goals and activities of the proposed project?
The Shining Light Anger Management Project proposes to assist women in transforming uncontrollable anger into effective communication and constructive assertiveness. Shining Light believes that mentally disabled women can lead more fulfilling lives if they can gain better control over their emotions and develop tools for functioning within the broader society. (However, Shining Light recognizes that outrage is justified against a system that fails to provide for basic housing and mental health needs.) We propose to guide participants toward improved problem-solving skills, educate participants about their rights, and teach participants to be their own advocates to the fullest extent possible. The Anger Management Project will involve a weekly support group meeting for the dual purpose of education about strategies for controlling tempers and supportive reinforcement of participant’s constructive behavior at the shelter. Progressive muscle relaxation training will help women lower the level of emotional arousal and think more clearly about effective methods for handling tension. The instructor will use role playing, rehearsal, and video recordings to illustrate appropriate communication and allow the participants to evaluate their own progress. After any disruptive incident at the shelter, the staff member of shift will gently work with women to calm down, evaluate their behavior, think of alternatives, and effectively communicate their feelings. Fieldtrips will provide opportunities to practice patience, teach problem solving, experience “normality,” and engage in rewarding social interaction. We request Women’s Foundation support to operate the Anger Management Project during the initial start-up year. The project will serve the anticipated 45 women who will stay at the shelter during this one-year period. List the steps you will follow to accomplish your objectives (plan of action, anticipated timeline, and staff/volunteer roles and responsibilities).
During the first month after receipt of grant funds, Shining Light will hire experienced facilitator Susan Jones (resume attached), schedule an intensive weekend training for all staff and volunteers, invite participant input, develop an appropriate resource library, and design progress forms to track changes in behavior. The intensive training will led by Linda Smith, Ph.D., a psychologist with expertise in anger management. (Dr. Smith will donate her services; the requested grant funds will cover expenses for two weekend trips from Sacramento.) Dr. Smith will also be available for trouble-shooting by telephone. During the following months, the weekly two-hour support group will alternate between a focus on education (stress reduction, relaxation techniques, effective communication, assertiveness skills, self-defense, domestic violence, and legal rights) and self/peer evaluation (how anger feels, how anger has been handled, what tensions exist in the shelter, what situations are frustrating, and how alternatives can be successful). The evaluation sessions will use discussion, role playing, rehearsal, imagery, incident reenactment, and videotape feedback. During each shift at the shelter, available staff and volunteers will use standard crisis intervention methods to resolve disputes and handle tempers. After a calming down period, staff will help women reassess the event and look for constructive alternatives to explosive anger. Counselor-advocates will discuss anger management during individual sessions with participants. Monthly supervised fieldtrips to restaurants, theaters, and social events will let Shining Light women practice socialization, communication, and anger management. Appropriate behavior will be modeled and reinforced. After six months of program operation, Dr. Smith will return for a weekend to discuss individual cases, specific difficulties, and staff concerns. We anticipate continuous program modification to address the needs of specific personalities at the shelter as former guests secure appropriate permanent housing and new guests enter the program. How will you evaluate the proposed activity/program?
Individual progress in managing anger will be evaluated as each program participant meets with her assigned advocate to discuss incidents during the week. During the group meetings, the facilitator will guide peer evaluations of how women handled tension and tempers at the shelter. Staff will complete a Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale checklist for each participant, both before and after the Anger Management Training. The training will be evaluated for effectiveness at staff meetings and resident “house” meetings. The consulting psychiatrist Dr. Smith will assist with staff supervision and will coordinated the evaluation process during a weekend retreat at the six-month point. The Board of Directors of the Shining Beacon Community Services Center reviews monthly written and oral reports from the Shining Light Manager. The agency conducts major internal evaluations of each project every two years. If the Anger Management Program faces difficulties during the grant period, the Executive Director, Manager, and project staff will meet to determine the cause and develop a course of action to remedy shortcomings. Shining Beacon Community Services Center has never received negative fiscal or program reviews by outside auditors and is proud of complying with all contractual requirements of past grant awards. Shining Light would like to share the results of the Anger Management Training with other social service providers; the video camera requested as part of the budget will assist in documentation of effectiveness and dissemination of results. Line-Item Budget Form
LINE ITEM COST GRANT
REQUESTIN-KIND Training consultant for two weekend seminar (valued at $800 per diem, Dr. Smith's standard rate) Group facilitator (3 hours per week at $10/hour for one year) Video camera (estimate includes 15% discount offered to nonprofits by local electronics store) Fieldtrip fund Travel (roundtrip airfare from Sacramento to Brunnersville for Dr, Smith for two weekend retreats) Resource books on anger management Photocopying of training material TOTAL Please list other prospective funders for the project and the amounts requested.
Dr. Smith has agreed to donate her services, valued at $3,200 based on her normal per diem consulting rate. We anticipate receiving reduced admission for fieldtrips. The Anger Management Program is a new concept and no other funders have yet been approached for support. However, funding has been committed for overall operation of the Shining Light center and shelter during the next fiscal year, including the City of Brunnersville (rent-free facilities), the Brunnersville Partnership for the Homeless ($24,000), and the federal Emergency Shelter Program ($80,000). A request for operating support from the federal McKinley Homeless Assistance Act is currently pending with approval likely.
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