LA Fires - Poetry Response - Grant Opportunity

New Funding Opportunity:  

Through this grant opportunity, California Poets in the Schools' Poet-Teachers will encourage K-12 youth to write, share and publish poetry as a way to respond to and process the devastating wildfires in LA County.  

This opportunity has been funded by an anonymous donor who believes strongly in our mission.

The grant application form is VERY simple and short, and should take only about 15 minutes of your time.  At the bottom of this page, you will be directed to sign in to your Submittable account in order to apply.

Guidelines:
 

Grant Funding Requirements & Eligibility:

1. Active Poet-Teachers may apply for service grants from CalPoets in order to deliver generative poetry creation sessions to youth impacted by the LA wildfires.
2. Poet-Teachers may apply for $500 per location (@ $100 per session up to 5 sessions per location).
3. Poet-Teachers may apply for up to $1,000 total at this time (if more than one location will be served).
4. Poet-Teachers may teach K-12 generative poetry workshops in schools/shelters/camps/childcare facilities or other facility wherever there is a need.  
5. It is ideal but not required if youth engage with the Poet-Teacher over multiple visits. We understand in pop-up scenarios, this will not always be possible.
6. Poet-Teachers should aim to serve groups of youth, rather than one-on-one instruction. 
7. In person instruction is preferred.  If you are proposing a virtual project, you should make a strong case for why virtual instruction is thought to be more beneficial/impactful for youth involved.
8. Poet-Teachers will collect poems and parent permissions from some youth participants to submit to a regional anthology of poetry related to the wildfires that may be published at a later date.
9. The grant application will be open to certified California Poets in the Schools' Poet-Teachers.  
10. Poet-Teachers in training may apply if they anticipate finishing their training very soon and receive a thumbs up from Meg.  Former Poet-Teachers may also apply after checking in with Meg:  meg@cpits.org.
11. Poet-Teachers may apply for one grant right away.  If there is still funding remaining in the grant pot after 6 months, Poet-Teachers will be invited to apply again. 

Payment, Contract, Evaluation & Final Report:

1. Poet-Teachers will agree in advance to a $100 per session teaching rate.
2. Each session taught should be one hour(ish) in duration.  If longer, payment will remain $100 (in other words - $100 per hour per class max regardless of class length).
3. Minimal travel stipends (up to $100) will be considered on an as-needed basis. 
4. If a travel stipend is required, the maximum grant amount per location remains the same.  ($500 per location, $1000 total per Poet-Teacher).  
5. After the fact, Poet-Teacher should submit a CalPoets’ contract demonstrating that work has been completed.
6. Payment of grant is delivered within two weeks of receipt of final contract, final summary, and poetry submissions.
7. There will be no final report required. However, all contracts submitted must include a summary that consists of the following:

•      One paragraph narrative that summarizes your work with youth
•      One highlight of the residency
•      Poems from each residency and parent/guardian permissions to be considered for a regional anthology.  If it is not possible to gather parent permissions in the moment, please consider how CalPoets can contact the family/classroom teacher of the student poet at a later time, and include that information  (School/Classroom Teacher name for example).
   

Please note:

This is a competitive grant opportunity and funding is limited. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis until funding is depleted.  

All youth included in the anthology will be mailed a complimentary copy.