PROJECT SYNOPSIS

The focus of the Grassroots Capacity Building Initiative is to build the capacity of private sector organizations in offering the services that will help Latinos living in communities throughout Ohio.  The initiative is broken up into three phases.

Phase I is training for organizations in the areas of grant writing and legislative advocacy, with a mini-grant opportunity for organizations to apply the lessons learned in the training.  Only those organizaitons participating in the training will be eligible for the mini-grant opportunity.

Phase II is a legislative visit day scheduled for Tuesday, May 6, 2008.  Participants will be able to discuss their own unique issues and priorities with elected officials in meetings facilitated by the Ohio Latino Affairs Commission.

Phase III is a community foundation project slated for state fiscal year 2009.  In Phase III, eight key community foundations across Ohio will be invited to direct a portion of their grant funds and issue a call for proposal to support initiatives which will address the greatest needs of the Latino residents in their service area.

UPDATE - 22 April 2008

REGISTRATION DEADLINE for the Latino Legislative Visit Day is MONDAY, APRIL 28th!  Call today to secure "Your Place at The Table"!  Here is the tentative Visit Day schedule:

Lunch is sponsored by State Farm Insurance.

Because of the need to pre-order lunches, print and prepare materials, and coordinate facilitated meetings, ONLY PRE-REGISTERED PARTICIPANTS WILL BE ABLE TO TAKE PART IN THE SCHEDULED EVENTS.  ONLY THIRTY (30) SPOTS ARE AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME!

SPECIAL UPDATE - 08 April 2008

Dear Workshop Participants, a few of you have asked if an organization can submit more than one grant application.  By error, we may have informed some of you that this was a possibility.  Upon review of the published application, we have confirmed that only one application per organization can be submitted.  This is a requirement of the grant and we must abide by it.  

If you were considering the submission of more than one grant, please contact Janet Wermuth of Strategic Government Initiaitves to see if she can assist you in including such projects into one grant.

We do apologize for causing any confusion. 

UPDATE - 26 February 2008

Here is the FINAL training schedule:

All training sessions will begin at 8:30 SHARP and follow the NEW agenda listed here:

8:30 - Registration & Welcome
9:00 - Grant Writing Training
10:00 - Legislative Advocacy Training
11:30 - Mini Grant Opportunity Briefing & Wrap Up
12 Noon - Conclusion

At the conclusion of each training session, a detailed presentation about the GCBI Mini Grant Opportunity will be given.  Only those participating organizations in attendance for the full training session will be eligible for applying for the mini-grant.

UPDATE - 28 January 2008

There are new dates for Cleveland, Youngstown, and Lorain training sessions:

UPDATE - 18 January 2008

This initiative is now known as the Grassroots CAPACITY BUILDING INITIATIVE. 

UPDATE - 08 January 2008

Ohio's private sector, not-for-profit, community-based organizations (CBO's) are critical partners in helping to integrate "New American" populations across our state.  Due to the fast growth in the Latino community across Ohio, many of these organizations have been swamped, and are today ill-equipped to adequately offer services including:

• English-language instruction
• Civics & citizenship classes
• Academic tutoring
• Outreach & orientation programs
• Workforce development

It is critical for these private sector organizations to have sufficient capacity to provide such services that help Latino communities to become successful and productive threads in the fabric of life in Ohio.  To that end, the Commission is launching its Grassroots Capacity Building Initiative.

The Grassroots Capacity Building Initiative is a program specifically focused on building the capacity of private sector organizations through training and assistance in the areas of grant writing, leadership, board governance, and legislative advocacy.

Beginning in 2008, the Commission will conduct a statewide training series of classes for community organizations.  The tentative schedule and agenda includes:

Participating organizations would then be eligible to participate in a special Ohio Latino Affairs Mini-Grant Opportunity to demonstrate the skills acquired in the training and to begin the capacity-building process.

As a part of the Commission's Strategic Initiatives for the 2008-2009 biennium, the Grassroots Capacity Building Initiative is a project under the leadership of the Ohio's Emerging Diversity (OED) committee of the Board of Commissioners.

Additional updates will be available on this web page.

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