How to Apply To respond to this request for proposals, use the following guidelines for: America's Historical and Cultural Organizations Planning Grants America’s Historical and Cultural Organizations Implementation Grants

Family and Youth Programs in American History

As part of the We the People initiative, NEH invites proposals for public programs that encourage intergenerational learning about and reflection on significant topics in U.S. history and culture. Grants will support programming tailored to youth and/or family audiences at museums, libraries, historical societies and sites, parks, and other places in the community. The projects should:

• strengthen knowledge and appreciation of American history among young people through activities outside the classroom; or

• encourage families to explore themes and ideas from American history together.

NEH encourages projects that:

• Highlight documents and artifacts significant to American history. Projects can use one or more significant American documents to explore events, eras, individuals, or ideas in American history. Texts might include speeches, publications, or other documents from a wide range of individuals whose words and ideas helped to shape the course of American history, such as Thomas Jefferson or Martin Luther King, Jr. Museum artifacts and historic places can also serve as inspiration for programming.

• Make humanities content central to the project. Competitive proposals will have a team of humanities advisers whose expertise is tailored to the particular needs of the project. Advisers should play an active role in shaping the project-defining themes, incorporating a variety of perspectives, drawing on relevant scholarship, and developing interpretive approaches. The expertise of the advisory team should complement that of the staff of the institution applying for the grant.

• Collaborate with other organizations to extend the reach of the project. Applicants are encouraged to collaborate with programming partners such as cultural, community, professional, business, or social organizations; state humanities councils; or other institutions as a means of increasing project resources and recruiting new audiences. Projects should also take place at multiple venues regionally or nationally. Organizations or associations with regional or national distribution mechanisms are often best equipped to do this.

Single-site project applications may be competitive if they are of exceptional scope and quality, if they hold unusual promise as models, or if they are conceived as "pilots" for larger-scale projects.

Activities that take place at schools during regular school hours or as part of the school curriculum are not eligible.

Sample Projects

A national youth organization designs an intensive "History Summer Camp" program for elementary and middle school-aged children in four cities focused on life in colonial America, from agriculture to politics. Guided by local teams of educators and scholars, children spend three weeks visiting living history sites, botanical gardens, and farms in their areas, experiencing daily life in the colonies, "meeting" significant figures from early America such as Benjamin Franklin and Abigail Adams, and discussing key texts such as Thomas Paine's Common Sense.

A network of senior centers and a state historical society engage five groups of teenagers from diverse communities in producing a documentary video based on interviews with African American seniors who served in the military during World War II. The teens work closely with two historians and a documentary filmmaker. They examine the connections between memory and history, investigate the wartime experiences of African Americans, and learn how scholars and filmmakers research and understand the past. The documentary video is used as a springboard for public discussions at a variety of venues, including senior centers, historical societies and libraries.

An urban public library and a city museum create a series of intergenerational reading and discussion programs for recent immigrants and their children, exploring the immigrant encounter with America. Reading selections include diaries, historical newspaper accounts, poetry, fiction, and transcriptions of oral histories. The project team develops scholars' guides and lists of readings that can serve as models for other organizations developing similar collaborative projects.