April 2000

RELATED LINKS: Equity Office Celebrates 10 Years of ADA

Helen A. Kellar Institute for Human disAbilities Announces Opportunity Grants The Helen A. Kellar Institute for Human disAbilities now offers opportunity grants to parents, people with disabilities, service providers, researchers, and trainers in Northern Virginia and the Washington metropolitan area through a Kellar endowment. The Kellar Institute is an interdisciplinary, university-based organization with the mission of improving the lives and productivity of people with disabilities. The institute combines the resources of the Graduate School of Education with local, state, regional, and national organizations in both the public and private sectors to develop products, services, and programs for people with disabilities. The opportunity grants require compatibility with the mission of the Kellar Institute and are separated into three categories: parents and individuals with disabilities (up to $500), service providers (up to $2,000), and George Mason faculty and scholars (up to $15,000). Grants for parents and individuals with disabilities are designed to enable applicants to access services, training, and other resources, such as conferences and exhibitions, tutoring, recreational or extracurricular activities, and self-advocacy or self-determination training. At least 20 awards are available this year. Grants for service providers are designed to enable teachers, trainers, counselors, and adult service providers to engage in innovative activities on behalf of the individuals they serve, including classroom and community innovations, implementation of best practices, activities that raise individual achievement, community integration activities, and sponsorship of or attendance at conferences and training opportunities. At least 10 awards are available this year. Grants for George Mason scholars are designed to enable faculty members and graduate students to develop and implement innovative research, training, technical assistance, model programs, or policies, such as technology development, community-university partnerships, cognitive or learning research, curriculum design, program development, or sponsorship of conferences or symposia. At least two awards are available this year. Requests for funding do not have to follow a specific format. Parent and individual grants should be limited to one page; service provider grants should be two to five pages; and faculty and scholar grants should be no more than 10 pages. All grant applications should include the following information: name of requester, amount requested, relation to Kellar Institute mission, need for funding, plans, other resources or matching funds, projected outcomes, and plan to report outcomes to the Kellar Institute. Send applications to the Policy Committee, Helen A. Kellar Institute for Human disAbilities, MS 1F2. Applications are reviewed quarterly in October, January, April, and July, in the absence of compelling deadlines.