The SAFER grant was once thought to only apply to large full-time departments. While the majority of the funding is handed out to full-time departments, a portion of the monies are reserved for volunteer departments. This is an opportunity for volunteer and paid on call departments to increase their staffing by offering additional perks to their membership. While the first thought would be to pay members more money, the grant committee actually is looking for creative ways to compensate members rather that pay a monetary amount. This funding is to be used to draw new members to the department. It is important to find out why your current membership volunteers and to also find out what it would take to get other members to join.
Several ideas that were kicked around in our department were...
- Paying a percentage of property taxes for members who live in the area.
- Health insurance for members and/or their families
- A retirement program
- Hourly pay for classes that are required by the state and/or federal government
Here is the headline from the FEMA website.
The FY2009 SAFER program guidance states that: "the position must have been the object of a layoff action that was effected between January 1, 2008, and October 31, 2009". We interpret this to mean that a notice must have been issued between January 1, 2008 and October 31, 2009, even if the actual layoff had not occurred by October 31, 2009. An applicant's narrative should be used to explain the circumstances of the lay off notifications, such as the date of notification and the effective date of the lay off.
