areas of interest addendum fy 2013.pdf

Addendum to National Non-Profit Organization Grant Program

FOA Number: DHS-USCG-2013-001

The U.S. Coast Guard is particularly interested in receiving grant applications on several specific studies/projects this fiscal year, listed below. However, we also encourage proposals addressing other boating safety concerns.

1. Develop and Conduct a National Year-Round Safe Boating Campaign

2. Develop and Conduct a National Recreational Boating Safety Outreach and

Awareness Conference

3. Federal/State Cooperative Efforts to Enhance Uniformity and Effectiveness

4. Develop and Conduct Boating Accident Investigation Seminars

5. National Estimate of Life Jacket Wear Rate

6. Conduct On-Water Boat Handling Instruction for Recreational Boat Operators

7. Select Voluntary Standards Development Support

With your application, we encourage you to list and describe to us the tools you will use to measure your application’s performance toward achieving program goals or toward achieving a specific objective that will result in the achievement of Program goals. For some examples of tools for evaluating programs or projects, we invite you to explore this CDC website: http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/pub-res/demonstr.htm.

The following list includes items of specific interest to the U.S. Coast Guard; however, potential applicants should not be constrained by the list.

1. Develop and Conduct a National Year-Round Safe Boating Campaign The campaign should focus on providing support to the National RBS Strategic Plan and address specific objectives and strategies that have been identified through the U.S. Coast Guard’s Strategic Planning Process. The U.S. Coast Guard seeks an applicant to plan, develop and implement a 2014 National Safe Boating Campaign that parallel’s and supports the U.S. Coast Guard’s national “Boat Responsibly!” campaign initiatives. The campaign should promote a concentrated effort to target specific boater market segments at the grass roots level and recreational boating safety topics. This year-round campaign must coincide with the objectives of the Strategic Plan of the National Recreational Boating Safety Program and promote the “Boat Responsibility” brand. The nationwide activities of this public awareness campaign should be based on the support of the volunteers and professionals nation-wide at the grassroots (local) level. Key to this collaborative effort is how it will complement the U.S. Coast Guard’s national outreach and “Don’t Wreck Your Summer” initiatives and objectives. The major focus of the effort will be to modify the behavior of all boaters with special focus on boat operators being responsible for their own safety or the safety of their passengers and understanding the consequences of irresponsible behavior on the water. Significant emphasis should be placed on life jacket wear, boating education, safety issues, accident reporting, as well as http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/pub-res/demonstr.htm boating under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Efforts will also be coordinated, year-round, with other national safety initiatives and special media events. At the conclusion of the project, grant recipients will need to submit reports that clearly specify the accomplishments and measures that are implemented to indicate the effectiveness of the project in achieving its objectives and our performance goals. Point of contact: Mr.

Michael Baron, 202-372-1063.

2. Develop and Conduct a National Recreational Boating Safety Outreach and Awareness Conference. The U.S. Coast Guard seeks an applicant to plan, implement, oversee, and conduct a National Recreational Boating Safety Outreach and Awareness Conference that supports the organizational objectives of the National Recreational Boating Safety Program, and most specifically the National RBS Strategic Plan. The overall conference focus should assist in achieving a reduction in recreational boating casualties and have promotional strategies with special focus on boat operators being responsible for their own safety and being aware of the consequences of irresponsible actions on the water. Significant emphasis should be placed on offering multiple subject areas that afford the participants professional development opportunities and educational enhancement. Subject areas should focus on, but not be limited to: life jacket wear, operator inattention, boater education, vessel safety, accident reporting, navigation rules, outreach and awareness efforts, as well as boating under the influence of alcohol or drugs. At the conclusion of the project, grant recipients will need to submit reports that clearly specify the accomplishments and measures that are implemented to indicate the effectiveness of the project in achieving its objectives and our performance goals. In addition an effective post-conference instrument for surveying the attendees and finding out if they did in fact take home initiatives that they learned about at the conference and implemented them in their own programs is to be designed/provided. Point of contact:

Mr. Michael Baron, 202-372-1063.

3. Federal/State Cooperative Partnering Efforts to Enhance Uniformity and Effectiveness. The U.S. Coast Guard seeks an applicant to provide programs to measurably enhance uniformity and reciprocity in State boating safety laws/regulations and other State boating safety efforts, with a special focus concerning accident reporting, and uniformity of state boating safety education and life jacket wear requirements.

Applicants would provide a forum to encourage such uniformity and reciprocity among jurisdictions, and closer cooperation and assistance in developing, administering, and enforcing State laws and regulations pertaining to boating safety. The applicant would further provide a forum to encourage sufficient patrol and other activities to ensure adequate enforcement of State boating laws, provision of an adequate USCG recognized State boating safety education program, enhanced maintenance of USCG approved vessel numbering system, and enhanced implementation of a USCG approved marine casualty reporting system. In addition, an effective instrument for surveying the states at the end of the grant period to discover what state laws or regulations were amended that enhanced uniformity is to be implemented and reported on in the project closing report.

Point of contact: Mr. William Burgess, 202-372-1071.

4. Develop and Conduct Boating Accident Investigation Seminars. The U.S. Coast Guard seeks an applicant to develop, provide instructional materials and training aids, and conduct recreational boating accident investigation seminars for Federal and State recreational boating accident investigators. The grantee should plan to conduct four regional comprehensive recreational boating accident investigation courses and two advanced recreational boating accident investigation courses at the NTSB Training Facility located in Ashburn, VA. Each investigative training session must be capable of accommodating 60 students. Each course of instruction must reserve a minimum of four quotas for U.S. Coast Guard Marine Investigators; these quotas will be assigned by the Boating Safety Division's Product Assurance Branch. The U.S. Coast Guard also requires four annual four-hour seminars to be conducted at the U.S. Coast Guard’s Maritime Law Enforcement Academy in Charleston, SC. The location of the regional courses will be determined jointly by the U.S. Coast Guard and the grantee. The regional courses must, at a minimum, consist of an overview of recreational boat accident investigations, witness interviews, collision dynamics, evidence collection and preservation, diagramming, and report writing with an emphasis on adherence to definitions and detail in the accident narrative. The advanced course of instruction will consist of hands-on investigative instruction of accidents simulated on video with actual recreational boats used as training aids. All instructional material must include the requirements contained in 46 USC §6102, 33 CFR PART 173 Subpart C, 33 CFR PART 174 Subparts C & D, paying particular attention to 33 CFR §174.103, which outlines materials necessary for the advancement of recreational boating safety, and the requirements of 33 CFR 179, Defect Notification. Point of contact: Mr. Michael Jendrossek, 202-372-1052.

5. National Estimate of Life Jacket Wear Rate. The U.S. Coast Guard seeks an applicant to provide reliable and valid national estimates of life jacket wear rates by recreational boaters. Wear rate of life jackets should be based on actual observation taken from a representative sample of boaters across a range of water venues that include lakes, rivers and bays. It is essential that observation methods remain as close as possible to those used in previous years so the number of boats, types of boats, length of boats, operation and activity of boats, as well as the age and gender of the boaters observed remain consistent. In the summer of 2013, the post-campaign measurement will be conducted.

The applicant shall conduct observations in areas around the country that have relatively high boating activity in the summer and therefore may be expected to have a reasonable level of activity to make conclusions about changes in wear rates more stable. Point of contact: Mr. Jeff Ludwig, 202-372-1061.

6. Conduct On-Water Boat Handling Instruction for Recreational Boat Operators. The U.S. Coast Guard is seeking a potential grantee to INCREASE THEIR CURRENT CAPABILITIES to conduct on-water boat handling instruction for recreational boat operators through such means as an increase in physical resources, marketing, specific outreach efforts, and enhanced instructor development to increase the capacity to deliver available on-water education programs. The grantee(s) will develop and implement a strategy to EXPAND the delivery of such on-water instruction. The successful applicant(s) will develop a measurement capability and report on 1) number of participants that were added to their base program as a result of the federal financial assist, 2) basic demographic information (age, gender, region) of all participants, 3) number of successful participant/course completions, and 4 increase in overall student participation as a result of strategy elements implemented. To assist the U.S. Coast Guard in measuring the effectiveness of the on-water training program, the successful applicant shall conduct a three year follow up survey of participants to determine if any were involved in a reportable boating accident to include type and cause of accident, number of injuries, number of fatalities, and provide a brief narrative. Point of contact:

Mr. Wayne Stacey, 202-372-1067.

7. Select Voluntary Standards Development Support. The Coast Guard seeks an applicant to carry out a program to encourage active participation by members of the public and other qualified persons to develop technically sound, voluntary safety standards on reducing accidents in which stability, collision, or propeller injury mitigation are factors. Such standards would be those that address a simplified stability test for boats less than 20', occupant seating labels, multiple outboard steering systems, driver distraction, and a propeller guard test protocol matrix. Point of contact: Mr. Po Chang, 202-372-1075.