Asset building is an approach to overcoming poverty that emphasizes the value of enabling individuals and families to learn about and use sound family budgeting and money management practices, to address financial issues, and to plan for long-term success. Especially when combined with other services, the asset building approach helps families set goals and progress toward financial stability.

The Office of Community Services (OCS) and the Administration for Native Americans (ANA) have partnered to increase access to and awareness of asset building opportunities in Native American communities. OCS and ANA are program offices within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF).

OCS and ANA will accept applications to establish and administer asset building projects with a focus on the Assets for Independence (AFI) projects. Grantees will provide an array of supports and services to enable low income individuals and families to become economically self-sufficient for the long-term.

The AFI focus of each project requires that eligible participants are given access to matched savings accounts, called Individual Development Accounts (IDA), in which participants save earned income for the purchase of a home, for business capitalization, or to attend higher education or training. Participants are also given access to other supportive services that enable them to become more financially secure.

The IDA portion of the project is funded by OCS. ANA funds may be used to pay for costs associated with the administration of the AFI-funded IDA project and to provide other asset building strategies, such as financial literacy education and coaching on money manage ment and consumer issues.

Link: http://www07.grants.gov/search/search.do?&mode=VIEW&oppId=166273

The ANNH program authorized under section 317 of the HEA provides grants to eligible institutions of higher education (IHEs) to enable them to improve and expand their capacity to serve Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians.

These priorities are:

Competitive Preference Priority 1—Increasing Postsecondary Success.

Projects that are designed to address the following priority area: Increasing the number and proportion of high-need students who persist in and complete college or other postsecondary education and training.

Competitive Preference Priority 2—Enabling More Data-Based Decision-Making.

Projects that are designed to collect (or obtain), analyze, and use highquality and timely data, including data on program participant outcomes, in accordance with privacy requirements, in the following priority area: Improving postsecondary student outcomes relating to enrollment, persistence, and completion and leading to career success.

Competitive Preference Priority 3— Improving Productivity.

Projects that are designed to significantly increase efficiency in the use of time, staff, money, or other resources while improving student learning or other educational outcomes (i.e., outcome per unit of resource). Such projects may include innovative and sustainable uses of technology, modification of school schedules and teacher compensation systems, use of open educational resources, or other strategies.

Link: http://www07.grants.gov/search/search.do?&mode=VIEW&oppId=160433

Native Hawaiian Library Services grant projects may enhance existing library services or implement new library services, particularly as they relate to the following goals in the updated IMLS statute:

1. Expanding services for learning and access to information and educational resources in a variety of formats, in all types of libraries, for individuals of all ages in order to support such individuals’ needs for education, lifelong learning, workforce development, and digital literacy skills

2. Establishing or enhancing electronic and other linkages and improved coordination among and between libraries and entities for the purpose of improving the quality of and access to library and information services

3. (A) Providing training and professional development, including continuing education, to enhance the skills of the current library workforce and leadership, and advance the delivery of library and information services, and (B) Enhancing efforts to recruit future professionals to the field of library and information services

4. Developing public and private partnerships with other agencies and community-based organizations

5. Targeting library services to individuals of diverse geographic, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds, to individuals with disabilities, and to individuals with limited functional literacy or information skills

6. Targeting library and information services to persons having difficulty using a library and to underserved urban and rural communities, including children (from birth through age 17) from families with incomes below the poverty line  applicable to a family of the size involved

7. Developing library services that provide all users access to information through local, state, regional, national, and international collaborations and networks

8. Carrying out other activities consistent with the purposes of the Library Services and Technology subchapter of the IMLS statute (20 U.S.C. §9121)

Link: http://www07.grants.gov/search/search.do?&mode=VIEW&oppId=154393

The purpose of the Native Hawaiian Education (NHE) program is to support innovative projects that enhance the educational services provided to Native Hawaiian children and adults. These projects may include those activities authorized under section 7205(a)(3) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended (ESEA). Congress expressly authorized that FY 2012 program funds may be used to support the construction, renovation, or modernization of any elementary school, secondary school, or structure related to an elementary school or secondary school, that is run by the Department of Education of the State of Hawaii that serves a predominately Native Hawaiian student body.

Competitive Preference Priorities:

For FY 2012 and any subsequent year in which we make awards from the list of unfunded applicants from this competition, these priorities are competitive preference priorities.  The US Department of Education awards up to an additional 12 points to an application, depending on how well the application meets one or more of these priorities.

These priorities are:

Competitive Preference Priority 1

 - Needs of At-risk Children and Youth. (Up to 2 points): Projects that are designed to address the needs of at-risk children and youth.

Competitive Preference Priority 2—

- Native Hawaiian Underemployment (Up to 2 points):Projects that are designed to address needs in fields or disciplines in which Native Hawaiians are underemployed.

Competitive Preference Priority 3—
- Hawaiian Language Instruction (Up to 2 points):  Projects that are designed to address the use of the Hawaiian language in instruction.

Competitive Preference Priority 4—

- Beginning Reading and Literacy (Up to 2 points):  Projects that are designed to address beginning reading and literacy among students in kindergarten through third grade.

Competitive Preference Priority 5—

- Improving Early Learning Outcomes (Up to 2 points): Projects that are designed to improve school readiness and success for highneed children (as defined in this notice) from birth through third grade (or for any age group of high-need children within this range) through a focus on one or more of the following priority areas:

(a) Physical well-being and motor development.

(b) Social-emotional development.

(c) Language and literacy development.

(d) Cognition and general knowledge, including early numeracy and early scientific development.

(e) Approaches toward learning.

Competitive Preference Priority 6—

- Improving Achievement and High School Graduation Rates (Up to 2 points):  Projects that are designed to address one or more of the following priority areas:

(a) Accelerating learning and helping to improve high school graduation rates (as defined in this notice) and college enrollment rates for students in rural local educational agencies (as defined in this notice).

(b) Accelerating learning and helping to improve high school graduation rates (as defined in this notice) and college enrollment rates for students with disabilities.

(c) Accelerating learning and helping to improve high school graduation rates (as defined in this notice) and college enrollment rates for English learners.

(d) Accelerating learning and helping to improve high school graduation rates (as defined in this notice) and college enrollment rates for high-need students (as defined in this notice).

(e) Accelerating learning and helping to improve high school graduation rates (as defined in this notice) and college enrollment rates in high-poverty schools (as defined in this notice).

(f) Accelerating learning and helping to improve high school graduation rates (as defined in this notice) and college enrollment rates for all students in an inclusive manner that ensures that the specific needs of high-need students (as defined in this notice) participating in the project are addressed.
 

Link: http://www07.grants.gov/search/search.do?&mode=VIEW&oppId=146314

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA/NMFS) is soliciting competitive applications for the 2012 Pacific Islands Region Marine Education and Training Mini-Grant Program. Projects are being solicited to improve communication, education, and training on marine resource issues throughout the region and increase scientific education for marine-related professions among coastal community residents, including indigenous Pacific islanders, Native Hawaiians and other underrepresented groups in the region.

Link: http://www07.grants.gov/search/search.do?&mode=VIEW&oppId=134813

The Native American/Native Hawaiian Museum Services program promotes enhanced learning and innovation within museums and museum related organizations, such as cultural centers. The program provides opportunities for Native American tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations to sustain heritage, culture, and knowledge by strengthened museum services in the following areas:

- Programming: Services and activities that support the educational mission of museums and museum-related organizations

- Professional development: Education or training that builds skills, knowledge, or other professional capacity for persons, either paid or volunteer, who provide or manage museum service activities

- Enhancement of museum services: Support for activities that enable and improve museum services

Link: http://www07.grants.gov/search/search.do?&mode=VIEW&oppId=138553

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Administration for Native Americans (ANA) announces the availability of fiscal year 2011 funds for community-based projects for the Native American Language Preservation and Maintenance - Esther Martinez Initiative. The purpose of ANA grant funding is to promote economic and social self-sufficiency for American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and other Native American Pacific Islanders from American Samoa, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The Esther Martinez Initiative provides funding to support three-year projects being implemented by Native American Language Nests, Survival Schools, and Restoration Programs.

The Tribal Colleges and Universities Program (TCUP) provides awards to Tribal Colleges and Universities, Alaska Native-serving institutions, and Native Hawaiian-serving institutions to promote high quality science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education, research, and outreach.