Goodwill industries of southeastern wisconsin is responding to the notice of funding opportunity (nofo) for the foster grandparent program for operations in racine and kenosha counties

Our organization has had the pleasure of administering this program in these counties since 1993, in partnership with the wisconsin department of health and human services. We run a successful program for older adults, working with staff and students at 11 schools in racine county and 6 schools in kenosha county. These volunteers are willing to share their experience, abilities and skills for the betterment of their community to enrich the lives of children whom they serve. The one-on-one attention a volunteer gives these students makes a measurable difference in the students' grades, reading and math abilities, their attitude towards learning, and is a positive educational experience. The foster grandparent program also provides many benefits to the volunteers, offering them the opportunity to mentor and put their life experiences to work in their own communities. Quality of life for volunteers is greatly enhanced through participation in this program, as one volunteer recently stated, "helping these children gives me a reason to get out of bed in the morning. They depend on me." goodwill has consistently met the school-based national performance measure requirements and other criteria of the program. Moving forward, IT is the desire of goodwill to continue this legacy program through partnership with the corporation for national and community service (cncs). An estimated 40 FGP volunteers will serve and be placed in outcome assignments. Some of their activities will include school based mentoring and tutoring, and assisting in the classroom. The primary focus area of this project is education. At the end of the three-year grant, there will be an increase in the number of children demonstrating gains in school readiness in terms of social and/or emotional development, and literacy and math skills. The cncs federal investment requested of $179,528 will be supplemented by $20,807 in non-federal match support. With changes in 2016 to request funding directly through cncs, goodwill is submitting a budget that does not comply with the required 80/20 rule, however, IT reflects the program at fully operational with our foster grandparent supervisor at 40 HRS per week. This will allow US to achieve 30 VSY's. We respectfully request a waiver to the 80/20 rule.