The DFC Mentoring Program awards grants, through a competitive peer review process, to current DFC grantees that wish to mentor other community coalitions (up to five for each application) that are wanting to increase their capacity and apply for DFC funding. DFC Mentoring grants award up to $75,000 per year for up to two years to the Mentoring coalition. Though these funds are provided to the Mentoring coalition, they are intended to strengthen the Mentee coalition/community by receiving the training and technical assistance needed to bolster their capacity. In addition, Mentoring grants were established to provide the seed money necessary to assist a Mentee community in developing its understanding of local youth substance use by conducting the work necessary to complete a comprehensive Community Assessment and other products (i.e., Logic Model, Strategic/Action Plan, etc.) that will later be used to demonstrate their readiness in applying for DFC funding on their own. The DFC Mentoring Request for Applications has historically been made available in February of each year and is historically due by mid-April of each year. Stay tuned to the DFC website for exact timing and appropriate training materials.
The Mentor coalition must be able to demonstrate that they have been in existence for at least five (5) years.
This does not mean that the coalition has to have been DFC-funded for five years. |
The Mentor coalition must be a current DFC grantee in good standing.
DFC grantees on high-risk status are NOT eligible to apply for the DFC Mentoring Program. DFC grantees in Year 5 are eligible to apply while applying for Year 6 in the same timeframe. Failure to receive Year 6 funding, though, makes the Mentoring application not eligible for funding. DFC grantees that are entering Year 10 when applying for the DFC Mentoring grant can only apply for one year. Once a coalition has graduated out of the DFC Program, it is no longer eligible to serve as a DFC Mentoring grantee. |
The Mentor coalition must have achieved, through its own efforts, measurable results in reducing youth substance use.
Mentor coalitions must be able to produce baseline and most recent data that indicate a positive measurable change in youth substance use in the community targeted by their current DFC grant. |
The Mentor coalition must have at least one staff person, as well as coalition membership from the 12 required sectors to serve as mentors to the Mentee community/coalition.
The Mentor coalition must be able to outline, in detail, the Mentor coalition membership's ability and commitment to assisting the Mentee community/coalition. |
| The Mentor coalition must propose to serve a Mentee community/coalition that is not currently and has never been funded through the DFC Program. |
The Mentor coalition must supply a detailed Mentoring Plan, created in cooperation with the Mentee community/coalition, in its Mentoring application.
The plan should outline the work necessary, to include training and technical assistance for the Mentee community/coalition, to assist the Mentee in being able to apply for DFC funding on its own. |
The Mentor coalition must demonstrate a willingness on the part of the Mentee community/coalition to actively participate in the mentoring process.
The Mentor coalition will have to produce a Memorandum of Understanding in its application signed by both the Mentor and Mentee coalitions. |
| The Mentor coalition cannot ask for more than $75,000 per year for up to two years. |
The Mentor coalition must demonstrate a minimum of one-to-one match in non-Federal resources equal to the amount requested in the Mentoring application.
The match resources identified in the Mentoring application must be completely independent of any match resources listed by the Mentor coalition in its own DFC application. |
