AFGP PROGRAM UPDATE | March 2024

FY 2023 AFG Application Period Closing Soon! 

The Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 AFG application period opened Jan. 29 and will close March 8, 2024, at 5 p.m. ET.

The AFG program is hosting Q&A sessions over the last four weeks of the application period. The final workshop will be held TODAY, March 7, 3 - 5 p.m. ET. Once the session opens, the room can be accessed HERE. 

Visit Assistance to Firefighters Grants Documents | FEMA.gov for application guidance materials.

FY 2023 SAFER and FP&S Application Periods Open March 11!

The FY 2023 Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) and FY 2023 Fire Prevention and Safety (FP&S) application periods open March 11, 2024, at 8 a.m. ET and close April 12, 2024, at 5 p.m. ET. 

Notices of Funding:

The FY 23 Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) and Fire Prevention & Safety (FP&S) Notices of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) formally announce the availability of funding to potential applicants. The notices also include pertinent program information such as important dates in the application and grant timeline, program requirements, performance measures, funding eligibility and more.

• FY 23 SAFER NOFO
• FY 23 FP&S NOFO

Additional resources will be made available soon at Staffing For Adequate Fire And Emergency Response (SAFER) Documents | FEMA.gov, and Fire Prevention & Safety Documents | FEMA.gov

FY 2023 SAFER and FP&S Application Workshops:

The fiscal year (FY) 2023 SAFER application development workshops will provide an overview of the FP&S Activity, updates to the program, applicant eligibility, information about the application and review process, allowability of costs, as well as a walk-through of the application in FEMA GO. The workshops will also provide an opportunity for applicants to ask questions about how to apply.

To Attend:

• Visit the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Programs Workshops page.
• Filter by topic (see topics below).
• View attendance date and time.
• Click workshop topic title.
• Select "View Webinar". 
• Select "Register Now" to join.

Workshop Reminders:

• Please start signing into the workshop approximately five minutes before it starts.
• Please mute your telephone line while listening to the webinar.

Reminder: You are allowed to hire a grant writer or work with outside entities to develop your application and/or manage your award. However, you, the applicant or recipient of funds, is responsible for the content of the application, reports, payment requests and any other documentation submitted on behalf of your agency. Please be sure to read anything completed by a third party prior to its submission to ensure accuracy and prevent fraud, waste and abuse. 

Coordinate with your local officials to verify your organization’s SAM.gov account is active and that no changes have been made.

• Choose interconnected smoke alarms so that when one sounds, they all sound. 
• Put smoke alarms inside and outside each bedroom and sleeping area. Put alarms on every level of the home.  
• Make sure your smoke alarms work. Your family is not safe if they can't hear the smoke alarms. 
• Test smoke alarms every month and replace 9-volt smoke alarm batteries at least once every year. 
• Smoke alarms do not last forever. Get new smoke alarms every 10 years. 
• When you hear a smoke alarm, you may have less than 2 minutes to get everyone outside and safe. 

Grants Management Training

Grants Management Technical Assistance 

Upcoming Course Offerings: 

To Apply: National Emergency Training Center Online Admissions Application (fema.gov) 

Questions: fema-gpd-training@fema.dhs.gov 

FEMA’s Grant Programs Directorate (GPD) is offering a series of virtual trainings on the federal procurement rules applicable to recipients and subrecipients when purchasing in support of a FEMA award or declaration. The one-hour training sessions are being offered through June 2024. 

Topics include: 

• Standard Procurement Under Grants (PUG) Training – Provides an overview of the federal procurement under grants rules for recipients and subrecipients when purchasing under a FEMA grant. 
• Exigency or Emergency Training – Educates recipients and subrecipients on the federal procurement under grants rules applicable when purchasing during exigent or emergency circumstances. 
• Prepare Before a Disaster – Focuses on contracting actions recipients and subrecipients can take to prepare before a disaster strikes. 
• Procurement Under Grants (PUG) Training- Mitigation Grants – Provides an overview of the federal procurement under grants rules for recipients and subrecipients when purchasing under a FEMA mitigation award. 

Target Audience 

These training sessions are appropriate for FEMA award recipients and subrecipients, including state, local, tribal, and territorial government personnel; nonprofit organization staff; eligible private entities; and other non-federal entities. This training is also appropriate for FEMA staff. 

Delivery Format 

The online training will be delivered through Adobe Connect. In advance of a training, please test your connection here. Training dates and access information are provided online at Purchasing Under FEMA Awards Training Schedule or in the linked training announcement. There is no limit to the number of participants in each training. 

For additional information and resources on the federal procurement under grants rules, please visit the Procurement Disaster Assistance Team (PDAT) website at www.fema.gov/grants/procurement. 

AFGP Success Stories

Cumberland Valley Volunteer Firefighters Association – Harrisburg, PA 

Awarded items: Multiple Fire Prevention and Safety (FP&S) Awards.  

Submitted by: Chief David Lewis 

Cumberland Valley Volunteer Firefighters Association (CVVFA) has been awarded an FP&S grant multiple times and has built ResponderSafety.com and the Responder Safety Learning Network (RSLN.org) and their resources and programming with those grant funds. The grant funds have also supported nationwide outreach and education, with CVVFA providing subject matter experts to present at numerous national industry conferences with more than 10,000 attendees and making countless contacts through its trade show booth promoting traffic incident management (TIM) training materials and awareness of ResponderSafety.com and RSLN.org.  

Many of CVVFA's TIM and responder safety training activities have been FP&S-funded, including: 

• Developing 48 online training modules in many aspects of roadway incident response safety and traffic incident management; 
• Multiple training videos in topics like safe backing up of apparatus and high visibility; 
• Public service announcements featuring emergency services personnel who survived being struck on the roadway and family members of responders who were struck and killed in the line-of-duty; 
• Public information resources in topics like Slow Down Move Over and how to safely pass an emergency scene on the roadway: 
• Case studies of successful roadway incident responses; 
• Teaching Topic Packages of lesson plans and resources for instructors to teach critical roadway incident response safety practices; 
• Informational web pages on critical topics including helmets and head protection and emergency vehicles and lighting; and 
• Reports and white papers in key roadway incident response topics. 

FP&S funds have also supported person-to-person outreach and seminar presentations at national and regional conferences like FRI, Firehouse Expo, CFSI, and Vision 20/20.  

The work of the CVVFA and its committee the Emergency Responder Safety Institute is changing the culture of the American fire service. Twenty years ago, it was unheard of for fire department personnel to wear retroreflective vests. Apparatus striping and lighting was not engineered to support safe passage around incidents. Protective blocking procedures were an unknown concept. Few firefighters were trained in how to deploy temporary traffic control devices or conduct manual traffic control. Today, all these things are common practices in many departments across the U.S., primarily because of the CVVFA/ERSI's tireless work for the past two decades to raise awareness and educate and train emergency responders in how to protect themselves while responding to roadway incidents.  

ResponderSafety.com and RSLN.org have saved lives. The CVVFA and its Emergency Responder Safety Institute provide the most comprehensive, freely available source of training and resources in responder safety and traffic incident management, built primarily with FP&S grant funds. As of Dec, 29, 2023, RSLN hamore than 142,000 registered users and has awarded more than 744,000 credit hours for completed, tested online training. Over 50,000 emergency responders have earned the National Traffic Incident Management Training Certificate through RSLN.org.  

Over the lifetime of the ERSI, using the credibility and resources on ResponderSafety.com and RSLN.org as well as the passion of our personnel, we have led many industry-wide changes in responder safety on the roadways, including the creation of the National TIM Training Certificate, the creation of NFPA 1091 Standard for Traffic Incident Management Personnel Professional Qualifications, the addition of a chapter to the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices on control of traffic through traffic incident management areas, and (in cooperation with the Fire Department Safety Officers Association) supporting a national certification for Traffic Incident Management Technical Specialist. Our work in partnership with Lt. Brady Robinette, Lubbock Fire Rescue, and Texas Tech to produce training materials in helmets and head protection as well as advocate for a new standard for a roadway response helmet has resulted in ASTM International’s E54 Committee on Homeland Security Applications developing a new helmet standard for the pedestrian roadway worker. 

SHARE YOUR SUCCESS STORY 

Do you have a Success Story regarding a FEMA Grant that you’d like to share with everyone? Contact us at gpd-comms@fema.dhs.gov or through Twitter @FEMAGrants using a private message.