Nonprofit organizations, including community-based and faith-based organizations, are eligible to apply for the new grants. The grants are targeted to organizations that propose to conduct training programs or to develop training materials to educate Hispanic and other non-English speaking workers, employers in small businesses and workers who are employed in high-hazard industries and industries with high fatality rates.
OSHA will be accepting new applications for two categories of Susan Harwood grants:
- Targeted Topic Training Grants will support training for two occupational safety and health topic areas -- construction hazards and general industry hazards. There is approximately $2.9 million available for this grant category. Grants will be awarded for 12 months with an average award of $150,000.
- OSHA Training Materials Development Grants will support the development, evaluation and validation of training materials for five occupational safety and health topic areas -- construction hazards, general industry hazards, respiratory diseases, transportation and an "other topic" area that will address several broad topics. There is approximately $4 million available for this grant category. Grants will be awarded for 12 months with an average award of $200,000.
Details about the grants and the application process will be available in the June 21 Federal Register. Applications are available on OSHA's Web site at http://www.osha.gov/dcsp/ote/sharwood.html or may be obtained from the OSHA Office of Training and Education, Division of Training and Educational Programs, 2020 South Arlington Heights Road, Arlington Heights, Ill., 60005. The phone number is (847) 297-4810.
Grant applications are due in the Arlington Heights office by 4:30 p.m. on July 21.
The training grants are named in honor of the late Susan Harwood, a former director of the Office of Risk Assessment in OSHA's Health Standards Directorate, who died in 1996. During her 17-year tenure with the agency, Harwood helped develop OSHA standards to protect workers exposed to bloodborne pathogens, cotton dust, benzene, formaldehyde, asbestos and lead in construction.