With funding from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the Governor’s Institute on Alcohol and Substance Abuse is pleased to offer a new program to assist communities meet the needs of Veterans of our armed services - the Homeless Veteran Provider Technical Assistance Center. This center, known as the TAC, will help non-profit organizations and faith-based agencies create programs to help homeless veterans transition to independent living. The TAC staff will provide free training and consultation in writing successful grant applications to assist organizations in preparing their own grants from federal, state, and/or private funding sources. Homeless veteran providers from all states and territories are invited to participate. Within each Veterans Integrated Service Network or VISN, the TAC will offer three types of assistance:

In June, the TAC staff plans to announce additional workshops in each of the 21 VISNs to occur between September 1 and March 13.

PLEASE NOTE: It is highly recommended that workshop participants review the Grant and Per Diem application materials prior to registering for a workshop. All documents used in the workshop can be previewed here.

Grant Writing Consultation. An additional service of the TAC is to provide individualized assistance directly to the non-profit agency staff that has identified a specific grant to help homeless veterans. In the case of the VA capital grant or per diem only applications, a TAC consultant will review the application with the people who wish to apply and ask concrete questions, provide helpful tips, and assign tasks so that applicants receive assistance in writing their drafts and final application. In the case of non-VA grant opportunities, the consultant must be provided with the grant Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) or application at least a week prior to the consultation. This way the consultant can be prepared to help the program specifically prepare their grant application. All information offered by the consultant will be provided in an electronic format, and program staff will be given assignments related to their grant requirements. The consultant will also be available to answer questions by telephone, or if the non-profit agency staff wish, they can travel to the consultant for one-on-one live assistance.

Please contact our office, 1-877-VET-TAC1, if you have questions.

Grant Writing Application Review. In August, the Department of Veterans Affairs will announce the awardees of the capital grants and per diem only grants. The TAC is willing to review applications that were not approved in this round of funding. The TAC staff will provide comments and suggestions to assist you in developing a successful grant application.