Running head: COMMON GRANT PROPOSAL 1

MPA 6105 Week 5 Project

Dionna Brooks

11/05/20
COMMON GRANT PROPOSAL 2

Cover Letter

To: United States Department of Agriculture

Customer Service Center

P.O. Box 66889

St. Louis, MO 63166

RE: New Hope for the Vulnerable!

Dear Sir/Madam,

The New Hope Center, Inc is pleased to present to you this grant proposal for your review. New
Hope Center, Inc looks forward to partnering with you in provision of food and shelter to the
vulnerable groups within Chicago suburban areas through the New Hope for the Vulnerable
Program. Through a meeting we organized several vulnerable groups were found to lack basic
needs due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Thus, the New Hope for the Vulnerable
program objective is to improve the livelihoods of the vulnerable groups in the Chicago city
through provision of food and shelter measures so as to reduce the number of households without
basic needs in the next five years.
Currently the New Hope Center, Inc provides support services to adults and children living with
disabilities with over 675 individuals being under our program. Therefore, our goal is to enhance
the quality of life of persons living with disabilities and in this proposal, we intend to expand this
scope so as to include other vulnerable groups such as children, elderly and street children. The
New Hope for the Vulnerable is going to reach an expanded group of people rather than dealing
with persons with disability only.
The main aim of the New Hope for the Vulnerable Program is to improve the livelihoods of the
vulnerable groups in the Chicago city through provision of food and shelter measures so as to
reduce the number of households without basic needs in the next one year. The USDA-Rural
Housing Site Loans is meant to provide financing for the organizations that wish to purchase and
develop housing sites for the low and moderate income families. Since the program targets the
vulnerable groups within Chicago City by providing shelter and food, this program will be
important since it originates from the federal government which can meet our program needs.
We will really appreciate if your organization takes interest in helping these vulnerable groups to
achieve a quality life through the New Hope for the Vulnerable program! Kindly reach me
through the office number +708-841-1071 if you require more information regarding this
proposal or through our email newhopegroup@gmail.com. Thank you
Yours Sincerely
Sign................. Sign........................
Team Werner Eric Johnson
Chairman Secretary General
COMMON GRANT PROPOSAL 3

Summary of the Grant Project

New Hope for the Vulnerable program is a project program which aims at improving the

livelihoods of the vulnerable groups in Chicago USA through provision of food and shelter. The

project aims at expanding the reach to more vulnerable groups from the current scope of the

persons with disabilities to wider persons including children, elderly and the street families. The

main aim of the project is to ensure the current 675 individuals who are reached by the

organization are doubled so as to ensure more vulnerable groups have quality life. Current

research shows most of the vulnerable people are likely to suffer more in terms of lack of food

and shelter due to the covid-19 pandemic economic effects. Thus, the project program aims to

provide these resources to more vulnerable groups within the next one year so as to caution them

against these socioeconomic effects.

The Appeal

This project is important since it is going to build the capacity of vulnerable groups living

in Chicago City so that they are able to live a decent life after the Covid-19 pandemic. The

project helps the various stakeholders to take action to build resilience and reduce socioeconomic

negative impacts of the Covid-19 towards the vulnerable groups. The project includes building of

shelters for these vulnerable groups while providing food for those with homes hence ensuring

they achieve healthy and quality life. The implementation of this project goes hand in hand with

the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-Rural Housing Site Loans program since

the latter is used to buy, build or improve the applicant permanent residences and uses the area

market limit for the grants. Indeed, requirements are in line with our program which aims at

building shelter for the vulnerable groups such as persons with disability, the old and the street
COMMON GRANT PROPOSAL 4

families. Additionally, there will be a reduction in street families that Rural Housing Site

program always aims to fund and remove them in the streets.

Needs Statement

According to Feeding America (2020) in the year 2019 there were more than 4.2 billion

meals which were distributed to over 40 million Americans with the working poor, elderly and

persons with disability being the majority of food bank users. In Chicago for instance the

Lakeview Pantry had to issue as much as 2000 meals daily while compared to only 1100 meals

per day before corona virus. Therefore, it is clear the vulnerable groups are more likely to feel

the effects of the Covid-19 than the rest of the people. Additionally, based on Center for Disease

Control people who experience lack shelter have a life expectancy of about fifty years and hence

faced serious medical conditions which must be addressed. By the year 2019 there were 5290

homeless persons in Chicago and although this number has been on the decline for the last three

years, the Covid-19 crisis has increased number of homeless persons across the whole of United

States. Culhane et al (2020) the number of the people rendered homeless due to Covid-19 related

effects have increased by between 70,000 and 58,000 persons in United States.

Based on these estimates it is clear the New Hope for the Vulnerable program by the New

Hope Center, Inc is going to help in reducing the effects of Covid-19 especially among the

vulnerable groups when it provides food and shelter to these groups. By offering these services

the New Hope for the Vulnerable program project will not only improve the health status of the

vulnerable groups, but it will also improve their quality of life.

Goal Statement
COMMON GRANT PROPOSAL 5

To improve the livelihoods of the vulnerable groups in the Chicago city through

provision of food and shelter measures so as to reduce the number of households without basic

needs in the next one year

Objectives

 To provide a measurable number of vulnerable groups households with food and shelter

thus reducing the number that cannot meet their basic needs in the next 1 year.

 Enabling the poor and the vulnerable to acquire food and shelter within the State of

Chicago by channeling resources to them through mobilization of the community-based

organizations that can provide socioeconomic assistance.

Project Description

Most of the suburban areas of the Chicago City have been facing dilemma with the recent

Covid -19 pandemic which has caused serious economic issues for the vulnerable groups (City of

Chicago, 2020). The New Hope for the Vulnerable is a project which will enable the vulnerable

groups consisting of the children, elderly, widows, persons with disability and street children to

improve their livelihoods through provision of food and shelter. To achieve that, the New Hope

Community Based Group aims at constructing more than ten thousand shelters for these groups

in the next one year and distributes more than one million tons of food within the same period.

The project period is one year and will aim at reducing the current number of vulnerable groups

within that period so as to reduce the economic effects of Covid-19 to these groups. In order to

realize the goal of the project of channeling resources to these groups the New Hope Center, Inc

shall mobilize various stakeholders to assist in identification of these vulnerable groups. To make

the project successful activities to be involved will include:

Annual Budget with Budget Justification

forward of $16,018 (Tigas et al, 2018). Additionally, based on Mchepa, (2015) project the

construction costs were estimated for the various unit shelters. Each shelter is estimated to cost

up to $9,300 with the number targeted being 1350 which will be double the current served

vulnerable group of 675 individuals. Therefore the total costs of construction of the shelters shall

be $12,570,640 for the whole year as shown on the Appendices.

Conclusion

Overall, this project is crucial since it is going to build the capacity of the vulnerable

groups especially those that live within the Chicago City. The project targets a grant from the

Rural Housing Site Loans Program which can buy, build or improve the housing units of the

applicants. Through this program project, the New Hope for the Vulnerable targets building

shelter for the vulnerable groups thus achieving a socio-economic goal that our donor always

tries to achieve. The program shall run for one year and shall aim at improving the livelihoods of

the vulnerable groups in the Chicago city through provision of food and shelter measures.
COMMON GRANT PROPOSAL 7

Appendices List

1. Cover Letter

2. A Cash flow budget

3. Timeline of the Program

4. Formal Invitation Letter of Public to the Community Forum

5. Sites visit notes

References

City of Chicago (2020) Reopening Chicago. Retrieved October 12, 2020,

from https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/sites/covid-19/home/reopening-chicago.html

Culhane, D., Treglia, D., Steif, K., Kuhn, R., & Byrne, T. (2020). Estimated emergency and

observational/quarantine capacity need for the US homeless population related to

COVID-19 exposure by county; projected hospitalizations, intensive care units and

mortality.

Feeding America (2020). How do food banks work? U.S. Hunger Relief Organization | Feeding

America. https://www.feedingamerica.org/our-work/food-bank-network

New Hope Center Inc. (2014). New Hope Center Inc - Home. https://www.newhopeinc.org/

Rural Development U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. (2020). Rural housing site

loans. Welcome to Rural Development | Rural Development.

https://www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/rural-housing-site-loans

Tigas, M., Wei, S., Schwencke, K., Roberts, B., & ProPublica, A. G. (2018). A new hope center

Inc - Nonprofit explorer - ProPublica.

ProPublica. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/161311012