New Careers for Veterans and the Government Grants that Make Them Possible
Upon discharge or retirement from active duty, military veterans often face the harsh reality of ‘normal’ life. That is, they begin to tense about finding a job, building a home, or getting along with a new line of work as opposed to their military duty.
This is why the federal government, as well as some non-profit organizations, has offered grants to help make the transition from military to civilian easier for veterans. For their service to their beloved country, it is the least that can be done for them.
Some military personnel, upon discharge, do not find shifting to civilian life a piece of pie. This is especially true in the case of non-technical specialists. Grants are available in many forms and qualifications to help every veteran find a niche in civilian life.
For specialists such as military service engineers, researchers, designers, and others, turning to a career in consulting seems like the best shot at normalcy. Unfortunately, not everyone discharged can take advantage of such skills. Many veterans go for less than lucrative jobs just because they don’t qualify for better paying jobs. Also, you will have to factor in the fact that many of these veterans have also acquired some sort of disability due to their tours of duty.
Many veterans of past wars such as World War 2, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War – not to mention the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – have acquired physical or even emotional and mental disabilities as a result of life on the field. The government has at least allowed some grants to help these people find get on better footing.
Government Grants
Government grants are made available every year with the Annual Federal Budget. This allocates a good deal of money for various government agencies to forward projects and grants. This budget should be used to forward the welfare of those covered by each agency. The projects may be forwarded by various entities: agencies, cities, states, and even the President himself. However, ultimately, it is Congress that gets say on which projects to push through with.
Grant projects become available to the agencies once the budget is made available to them. Various grants will then be offered to those that qualify for certain projects. These grants will become available on the CFDA, or the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance. This would be a good place to look up a grant that fits your qualification.
There are various grants aimed at veterans through the government agency that specifically deals with them – the Department of Veterans Affairs. There are too many grants to list here, but suffice it to say that there are grants to deal with homeless veterans, continuing education programs, home building grants, and grants that help veterans with their jobs such as job training grants.
Education and job training grants are great for those that are looking for a new career but desire more training to be better equipped for the job market. Home grants are also a great way for veterans to get their feet firmly planted on stable soil so that they are in a better position to earn.
Finding Veteran’s Grants
All you have to do to browse these grants is to log on to http://www.cfda.gov to find a comprehensive and complete listing of these grants. There will be many other websites promising to be the best and most exhaustive list of grants around. However, you will find that many of these sites will either extract a fee from you or will forward you to bogus sites and scams.
It doesn’t help that the official websites of the US government are never on the top of the search engines lists. You will find many sites claiming to be the ‘official’ web portal of the United States government only to show every evidence of being a pay site or a partner site to other grant-assistance web sites.
While there are legitimate grant-assistance websites, do be wary of the fact that there are always people ready to take advantage of people on the Internet.
It is not piece of cake
Applying for a grant is straightforward. However, getting them approved is another question. You will have to study the grant carefully so that you know if you truly are qualified. Getting a grant approved is a very competitive affair. So you will need to study how to create grant applications that is both qualified and attention garnering.
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Grants to Help the Single Female Parent
Being a single mom these days can be so tedious, generally statistics say that single moms are one of the most disadvantaged parties in the United States.
Believe it or not, single female parents:
* are rarely awarded spousal support, in it only occurs in 15% of divorce cases.
* who are actually awarded spousal support doesn’t get the support anyway. Statistics say that only 36% of the 15% of total women awarded with spousal support actually get this support.
* who are given spousal support rarely getting the whole amount; it’s usually less than half actually.
* suffer from a fall in their standard of living, after divorce, while a male’s standard of living actually increases by 15%.
And because of the recurring social stature of women, most single female parents are those that used to be homemakers, meaning they are jobless and have no experience as a worker whatsoever. This is a problem because they are dependent on their husbands for income, and once that income goes away, they are left with nothing.
There is one way to recover from such a blow, some women already have a start on tertiary education, and only need the money to finish it. Fortunately, the government offers various grants that target single moms who want to finish their education.
What is a grant?
A grant is usually a form of financial support that the federal government offers to certain eligible people. The government offers over 900 grants and out of these nine hundred there are a few grants targeted towards single mothers. The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) has a complete list of all the grants that may be applied for and this can be found at their website at www.cfda.gov.
If you’re one of the mothers who want to pursue higher education, it is best however to go to the financial aid office of your respective college or university. Usually, grants, especially scholarship funds have faculty representatives for each school who can assist students who are applying for grants.
Who is eligible for a grant?
Usually grants awarded by the US government are only for U.S. citizens. Aside from those criteria, each grant has its own set of eligibility rules. Some only cater to undergraduates, some only to juniors or sophomores, some only for Native Americans some only for Alaskans, and yet another some that target the course rather than the origin of the applicant. For example, there are a lot of grants that offer scholarships for outstanding students who are studying the sciences or tribal politics of Native Americans.
Why apply for a grant?
As a single female parent, furthering your education is one of the sure fire ways to find a living where you can earn more than minimum wage, sure minimum wage is ok if you’re single but if you have a child or children, it’ll be a lot harder to find time both for work and for childcare.
How to prepare for a grant application
1. Get the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance from the financial aid office of your college or university. You can also get the list from www.cfda.gov.
2. Study the grants that are applicable to you, not just the eligibility but also the application process and the purpose of the grant as well as the Government department giving it.
3. Ask yourself where are you going to apply? Does your application have to go through the school, does it have to go through the local government or can you send it directly?
4. These projects usually have assessment pages where they show previously or currently funded individuals or institutions, study these to find out your chances of getting the grant.
5. Know what types of paperwork are required note down everything you already have and everything that you still have to get.
6. Call the contact persons and ask to get an application kit.
7. After filling the kit don’t forget to include your grant proposal; most of the judgment is based on this piece of writing. It’ll help a lot if you attend or at least have read previous grant proposals.
8. Make sure to have the application in before the deadline.
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