Running the Gauntlet for Money

Why does it have to be so hard to get money to serve our clients?

This latest stimulus money, although wonderful to be able to access, is like giving your first-born child. How many people will you serve (reasonable), how many hours of case management (bordering on not reasonable), and break down case management hours into levels of case management given (totally ridiculous). How will you prioritize who gets funds (fairly reasonable). Describe unmet needs, target population, poverty rates, coordination of mainstream services, your history, services currently offered, address of building, square feet of building (???), types of services currently offered, total # of persons served annually, target group currently served, case management services currently ofered, staff positions providing direct services, plan for prioritizing services, unmet need data, needs and gaps in services, method to determine client eligibility, plan to develop policy and procedure manual and timeline for doing so, current system of evaluation, proposed evaluation of this project----all in three (3!), double-spaced, 1" margins, 11 font (smallest) pages (totally unreasonable) with headings and sub-headings (which take up space)! It's better than Saturday Night Live.

Somehow, I doubt President Obama has seen these RFPs (Requests for Proposals). And, my eternal bane, we get only 2.5% of the grant money to administer the grant.

Despite my groanings and moanings, we will once again run the gauntlet, with no guarantee of funding, and hope for the best.

Our young families need the help, and we cannot let them down.