| The National Volunteer Fire Council has an online resource to help applicants |
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will begin accepting applications for FY 2009 Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Services (SAFER) Grants beginning November 16, 2009 at 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time.
The deadline for receipt of the SAFER Grant applications will be December 18, 2009 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The automated applications will be accessible from the web site for the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program (AFG) at www.firegrantsupport.com/safer.
The FY 2009 SAFER program has approximately $210 million available for grants. The Program Guidance for the grants will be posted in the near future on the program's web site. The SAFER Grants are administered by the Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency and provide grants to fire departments for hiring personnel and to fire departments and regional and state fire associations to implement volunteer recruitment and retention programs.
The National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) has an online resource center to help volunteer fire departments write successful narratives with their applications for the AFG program. The AFG and SAFER Grant Narrative Resource Center includes copies of narratives from successful past grant applications as well as a grant-writing guide created by DHS. These model grant narratives are to be used for example or reference purposes only and are not to be directly copied. The Resource Center is available to NVFC members in the Members-Only section of the web site at www.nvfc.org.