You Didn’t Get the Grant: Now What?
April 3 from 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM

The Infrastructure Bill has presented us with once in a lifetime opportunity to pursue life-changing transportation improvements for the communities we serve. As a planner for Delaware County, philosophically we were ready to pursue the funding; but practically, we did not have the necessary expertise on hand to pursue the complicated federal grant process. With a very supportive County Council, and weeks to spare the Delaware County Planning Department partnered with Chester Economic Development Authority to use ARPA funds to contract with Alta Planning + Design to submit a RAISE FY22 planning grant for the City of Chester, a historically disadvantaged city and area of persistent poverty. To us, Chester was the city for which this Bill was written. Working with stakeholders, we put together a solid application, collecting 34 letters of support from elected officials, businesses, non-profits, and unions. We even got the first ever letter of support from PennDOT.  We had a meeting with Charles Small from the DOT- we were a shoe in! And then, we did not get it. As a matter of fact, no one in PA got a RAISE planning grant awarded. So, what are the lessons from this experience? Where did we go wrong?  What could make the application “Highly Recommended”? Is it worth trying again? We don’t usually hear about “failures” at conferences, but they are just as important as the successes- especially when getting the money can be the hardest part. Sharing our failures can help other planners achieve success. We will discuss what we learned and why we decided to try again!

Deadline to register is Tuesday, April 2.

CM credit is pending approval. You must attend the webinar live to earn CM credit.

If you’re interested in sponsoring a Webinar Wednesday or have a session for Webinar Wednesday, please contact us. Send your request to info@planningpa.org