U.S. Department of Labor OSHA: Susan Harwood Training Grant for Capacity Building in Worker Safety and Health

Ineligible applicants are individuals, for profit organizations, federal, state, and local agencies, 501(c)(4) nonprofit organizations, and FY 2022 Susan Harwood Targeted Topic Training grant or Training and Educational Materials Development grantees with more than a 90-day time
extension to their grant. Note: Capacity Building grantees are not eligible for a 90-day time extension.

Under the authority of Section 21 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSH Act), the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) established its discretionary grant program in 1978. In 1997, OSHA renamed the program in honor of the late Susan Harwood, former director of the OSHA Office of Risk Assessment. The grant program offers opportunities for nonprofit organizations to compete annually for funding so they may develop and conduct training and educational programs for small business employers and workers.

The Susan Harwood Training Grant Program helps to expand Good Jobs for American workers by providing disadvantaged, underserved, low-income, or other hard-to-reach, at-risk workers hazard awareness, avoidance, and control training to protect them from on-the-job hazards, and to inform workers of their rights and employers of their responsibilities under the OSH Act.

(For more information on the Good Jobs Initiative visit: https://www.dol.gov/general/good-jobs/workers/good-jobs.)

The program and this funding opportunity announcement prioritizes investment and funding to train workers and employers impacted by working in in high-hazard industries, industries with high fatality rates, or whose workforce has historically had disadvantaged access to occupational safety and health training, including young workers, temporary, minority, low literacy, limited English speaking, and other disadvantaged and hard-to-reach workers and worker communities. The Susan Harwood Training Grant Program seeks to increase access to life-saving training by encouraging grantees to provide the training in other languages. Technical assistance, guidance, and support for this funding opportunity is presented in OSHA’s FY 2023 Susan Harwood Training Grant Funding Opportunity Overview available at: https://www.osha.gov/harwoodgrants/applicant-information.

The program is designed to support and enable nonprofit organizations to serve in providing this important occupational safety and health training to disadvantaged workers. These nonprofit organizations include qualifying labor unions, community-based, faith-based, grassroots organizations, employer associations, Native American tribes, tribal organizations, Alaska Native entities, Native Hawaiian organizations, and native-controlled organizations that are not an agency of a state or local government, and public/state-controlled institutions of higher education. The program provides education and training on advancement of workers’ workplace rights and protections against discrimination and reprisal.

The Susan Harwood Training Grant Program seeks applications based on proven strategies to reach the target training populations while also developing innovative solutions to expand access. Grantees agree to participate in the data collection and training impact evaluations described in this funding opportunity announcement.

The Susan Harwood Grant Program awards funds to qualifying organizations who have demonstrated capabilities to achieve the program’s performance expectations outlined in this FOA. This includes experience in becoming subject matter experts, delivering and administering adult training programs, recruiting students, and managing grants. Following the grant awards. OSHA monitors each organization’s progress in achieving their performance goals and training targets. OSHA accomplishes this by conducting orientation meetings, training material reviews, training observations, program and financial monitoring visits, and quarterly and year-end report reviews.

For FY 2023, OSHA announces the availability of not more than $6,500,000 to fund Susan Harwood Training Program Capacity Building grants. Susan Harwood Training Program grants are contingent on the availability of federal funding and appropriations. OSHA expects to award multiple grants to eligible nonprofit organizations under this competitive Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). This FOA does not itself obligate any federal funds. The obligation of funds occurs when grant recipients acknowledge receipt and acceptance of award documents.

Program funding is for a 12-month period beginning no later than September 30, 2023, and ending on September 30, 2024. Two types of capacity building grant opportunities are available. Applicant may apply for either a Capacity Building Developmental grant or a Capacity Building Pilot grant. The maximum award for a Capacity Building Developmental grant is $180,000 and for a Capacity Building Pilot grant is $80,000. Applicants are encouraged to carefully read this opportunity, so their application supports the type of grant they are requesting funding for. Capacity Building Developmental applications must provide a four-year plan describing the training capacity they plan to build. This is not a requirement for the Capacity Building Pilot application, but Pilot applicants must describe the training program they wish to build. Pilot grantees are required to test their plan, by attempting a small part of the program activities to see if they will be successful in building new capacity. Pilot grantee must provide one pilot training on their chosen topic, where a Developmental grantee must have the ability to conduct multiple trainings. By the end of the Pilot year, pilot grantees must have developed a four-year plan so they are prepared to apply for a new Developmental grant.

Organizations are restricted to one Susan Harwood Targeted Topic Training grant, Training and Educational Materials Development grant, Capacity Building Developmental or Capacity Building Pilot grant award in a fiscal year. If an organization submits multiple applications for any of these Susan Harwood funding opportunities, OSHA will review the last complete and viable application package submitted.

Once submitted, applications are not available for additions, corrections, or revisions. To make changes to a submitted application, the organization must submit a new application package. This FOA closes on July 7, 2023, at 11:59 p.m. eastern time. Applications not validated by Grants.gov, or submitted after this deadline, are ineligible for consideration.