WHO SHOULD APPLY?
Proposals are welcomed from all groups, public or private, whose applications show them to be qualified to conduct the activities described. Additional information about who might apply, any specific restrictions, or stated preferences, is noted in the Objective Statements. Organizations that have any conflict of interest through participating in the Council’s planning process for a specific activity are not eligible to apply under that Objective. If you are interested in submitting a proposal please return the completed Intent Form found in the Appendix section of this book.
HOW TO PREPARE YOUR PROPOSAL
Please read this section carefully. It provides general information on how you must prepare your proposal for submission. The following points make it easier for reviewers to concentrate on your ideas and to understand your proposed project.
- You are encouraged to be innovative and creative in your approach and in developing project activities.
- While the Council does not impose page limits on applications, we do have a strong preference for proposals that are clear and concise. Applications that are unnecessarily long, too wordy or full of jargon are difficult to read and may hurt your review score.
- Grants funded under this RFP are subject to the availability of federal funds. The initial grants are generally for a two-year period unless otherwise noted in a particular objective. The Council may renew the grant for up to three more years as indicated in each Objective statement.
- Proposals must be typewritten.
- For each Part of your proposal, use a divider with a tab that clearly numbers that section.
- Consecutively number each page of the proposal.
- Staple or bind the proposal together. Do not submit proposals in hardcover three ring binders. Soft-sided binders or covers may be used.
- Your proposal must be prepared with an executive summary and the four Parts described below.
A Few Thoughts on the Preferences of the PADD Council...
The Council prefers work that is cross-disability in nature; while we have funded projects with a focus on one disability, we prefer to fund approaches that affect all people with disabilities in common areas of their lives, such as housing, health, employment, community inclusion, etc.
The Council is deeply committed to inclusion and integration. We do not like approaches which are segregated, and will not fund "special programs for special people". We prefer your activities to be alongside and integrated with people without disabilities, in regular settings in regular communities. Groups of people with different disabilities congregated together do not constitute "inclusion".
We are excited by projects which change communities, especially in the broadest, generic sense. We appreciate proposals which view people with disabilities, in all their diversity. as contributing members of their communities.
We will view favorably projects which meaningfully involve people with disabilities, or, if they cannot speak for themselves, their chosen family members, in all areas of the project's conception, preparation and implementation. We do not like proposals which could be construed as doing things for, to, or on behalf of people with disabilities rather than under their direct leadership. We will not fund projects which portray people with disabilities as deserving pity; which, even unconsciously, endorse stigmatization of people with disabilities, or which incorporate portrayals of people with disabilities as the objects of charity or "the least of these".
We believe that the skills involved in understanding disability are closely related to the skills which lead to other forms of cultural competence. For this reason we are particularly interested in projects which are led by people from a variety of cultures and which strive to make themselves open to people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds.
Our preferred emphasis is on changing systems rather than people. We are less and less interested in models of accommodation which rely on the person with the disability being the person doing the changing. If we work with faith communities, we are more interested in changing the belief system of the community than the behavior of the individual; our work in employment is focused on employers, and our work with schools, focused on their behavior rather than that of the student. We are prohibited by federal law from funding direct services other than short term demonstration projects. Hence we prefer all our activities to include a systems change capacity.
We believe that disability is a natural part of the human condition. We are not sympathetic to medical models of understanding disability. While we do not deny the importance of medical treatment and medical need, we are more sympathetic to understandings of disability as a social construct imposed on people with disability labels rather than as a quality inherent in the person with a disability. We are therefore unlikely to be interested in proposals which focus on the deficits of people with disabilities rather than on the social constructs which dis-empower them. We are not impressed by the model of trying to "help" people with disabilities by making them more like people without disabilities.
Executive Summary
Each proposal must begin with a brief Executive Summary of 300 words or less. This summary should succinctly describe the nature of the problem being addressed and what you intend to do about it.
PART ONE - What do you propose to do?
In Part One, bidders have the opportunity to more completely describe their proposed project. What is it that you propose to do? How will your approach address the problems you have identified? Succinctly describe why you believe that your proposed approach will accomplish our Objective in such a way as to be coherent with the Council's stated Vision and Mission.
Give a full step-by-step plan for doing the work, including a chart that shows major activities, time frames, responsible personnel and expected outcomes. You should address each of the required activities in the relevant Objective Statement.
SPECIAL NOTE ON DIVERSITY:
The Council supports the full participation of all citizens in Council funded projects. We believe that diversity and inclusion strengthens the impact of any of our grant projects, and encourage our grantees to pursue such meaningful participation through hiring practices, real involvement in the planning stages of your grant, in oversight and management of your project, as well as recruitment for participation in the project itself. That being the case, the following two concerns must be addressed in Part One of all proposals submitted to the Council.
- You must describe what steps your project will take to ensure the active and meaningful participation of people with developmental disabilities in your project. Such participation includes not only being project participants, but also involvement of people with disabilities in the planning, direction, management, evaluation or as employees of the project.
- You must also describe in practical terms, what steps your project will take to ensure minority participation in your project and how the project will increase its competence in working with, including, assisting and involving people from different cultures. The Council defines minority participation in terms of Pennsylvania's four major minority population groups: African American, Asian American, Latino and Native American. Such involvement should, at a minimum, be representative of the diversity of your geographic area.
By Council Resolution of 9/27/90, if these descriptions are not included in your proposal, it will be technical grounds for rejecting your proposal in its entirety.
Upon receiving a Council grant, the organization housing the project agrees to the creation of a plan or "road map" to become more culturally competent. This plan will be outcome-based, have measurable goals, and be developed jointly by the grantee organization receiving Council funding, the facilitator for diversity and cultural competence funded under a separate Council grant, and the Council.
PART TWO - What outcomes do you expect for the project?
In PART TWO describe exactly what your project will achieve. Provide a concise list of outcomes you plan to achieve. You should build on, rather than simply repeat, the expected outcomes from the Objective Statements.
State your proposed outcomes in measurable form. When possible outcomes should be quantifiable. The Council recognizes some projects will lend themselves more to achieving concrete changes than will others. Where it is not possible to document specific changes, alternative measures of "output" (reports prepared, recommendations made, bills proposed) or "processes" (people who attended training sessions, meetings held, letters written) may be used instead. Quality outcomes could also include participant satisfaction with services provided, stakeholder assessments of the efforts of the project, and/or perceptions of the likelihood that the services, supports and products offered will ultimately lead to the achievement the Council's and the project's goals. Many proposed efforts are dependent on influencing larger systems, or mobilizing coalitions in order to achieve concrete change, and we will accept evidence of these efforts as substitutes for end outcomes.
PART THREE - Who will do the work?
PERSONNEL:
Describe who will work on this project. Tell us why they are qualified to do this particular work. Their qualifications and experiences may be formal (degrees and professional work histories) or informal (life experiences and volunteer work). Pay particular attention to describing your project's key employees. If staff will be hired once a grant is awarded, describe what qualifications and experiences you will look for in recruiting personnel.
NOTE: The proposal must contain a statement that the grantee's personnel (in particular, the coordinator or organizer), once assigned to this project, will not be re-assigned by the grantee to other non-project related activities without the prior consent of the Council's Staff Person.
ORGANIZATION:
Briefly describe your organization's experience in the creation, operation, and/or involvement in projects similar to the work being requested. Illustrate how the proposed project fits with the organization's mission and history. The description of your organization's experience should be pertinent to the work requested in this RFP, as opposed to other, perhaps unrelated work the organization does. Describe what types of administrative support will be given to the project.
The inclusion of letters of support, which are relevant to the proposed project, is strongly encouraged. If you have indicated that your project is a collaborative effort with other groups or organizations, then you must include Letters of Collaboration from each group involved. Include all such letters as an appendix to your proposal.
PART FOUR - The Budget Form & Narrative
Use the format outlined in the Budget Form in the Appendix section of this book. The budget section must also include a separate budget narrative page detailing, by line item, how grant funds will be used.
All Council Grants require a local match contribution. For further budget definitions, examples of what needs to be included in the budget narrative and instructions on determining you match, click here or see the Appendix Section.
Please be certain that you budget your grant for a two year, 24-month period, unless specifically noted otherwise in the Objective statement. For specific Planned Allocations for each Objective, including the number of projected projects that the Council hopes to fund, please refer to the individual Council Objectives. Any indirect cost rates must be fully supported as described in the Budget Definitions of this RFP book.
The Commonwealth is not responsible for any costs your organization incurs prior to the issuance of your grant.
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