Last week, OSHA announced the availability of $10.5 million in training grants for nonprofit organizations, including employer associations, labor unions, joint labor/management associations, state-funded colleges and universities, faith-based organizations and Native American tribes.

The grants are part of the Susan Harwood Training Grants program, which supports in-person, hands-on training for workers and employers in small businesses; industries with high injury, illness, and fatality rates; and vulnerable workers who are underserved, have limited English proficiency, or are temporary workers. The grants are designed to fund training and education to help employers and workers identify and prevent workplace safety and health hazards.

Three types of grants are available: capacity building grants, target topic grants and training materials development grants.

Capacity building grants focus on developing and/or expanding the capacity of an organization to provide safety and health training, education and related assistance to the targeted audiences. Two types of capacity building grants may be awarded:

• Developmental grants support and assist organizations that, through their past activities, have established a capability to provide occupational safety and health training, education, or related assistance, but where the organization wants to expand its training capacity into a new safety and/or health topic area.
• Pilot grants are intended to assist organizations that are able to demonstrate a potential for meeting program objectives but that need to assess capabilities, needs, and priorities and organizations that need to formulate objectives before moving forward into developing a full-scale program.

Target topic grants focus on training workers and/or multiple employers on occupational safety and health hazards associated with one of the OSHA selected training topics.

Training materials development grants are available for organizations that are set up to develop, evaluate and validate classroom quality training and educational materials that focus on identifying and preventing workplace hazards.

Applications for these grants must be submitted online no later than 11:59 p.m. EDT, Tuesday, July 2, 2019. Applicants must possess a D-U-N-S number, which may be obtained free of charge from Dun & Bradstreet, and an active System of Award Management registration.