The NYS Securing Communities Against Hate Crimes is expected to be released mid to late January. The amount of available dollars is $25 million for nonprofits in the State, including schools and shuls. There are some changes expected to the grant for the coming year, and although they aren’t finalized, we believe they are going to be highly beneficial to organizations seeking funds to improve their security posture in the face of unprecedented threats. We also think that there is a solid possibility that additional funding will be added to the program to meet the demand of organizations seeking funding.
There are critical steps for organizations to take now to prepare for the “RFP”, or request for proposals. First, they should get a security assessment or designate someone to work on a self-assessment. In the last 3 year’s grants, NYS has put out a self-assessment template that needed to be used by organizations unless they had a different assessment. These fairly simple templates allow organizations to make a common-sense, no-frills assessment of their vulnerabilities and threats. Besides the assessment piece, organizations should pinpoint projects that are central to hardening their facility and deterring potential attackers.
To apply for the grant, organizations must be prequalified on the NY State Financial System (SFS—another acronym in case you didn’t have enough to remember!). That process will open up on January 17 (see our article in this newsletter for more details).
Teach NYS has an active grants and security advocacy division and successfully brought $3.6 million to the schools and shuls that applied to the State grant through us. Please reach out to Rebekah Rybstein for more information, rybsteinr@teachcoalition.org.