Before ambulances and their life-saving equipment can reach the scene of an emergency, AEDs can help save someone's life until paramedics arrive.
Automatic external defibrillators can help same someone's life with relative ease. But at prices more than $1,000 per unit, plus the costs and times needed for training, AEDs can be hard to afford. Government and private agencies offers grants to help lower or eliminate those costs. Paramedics and firefighters can access funding through organizations such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But non-first-responder groups, like schools, can also receive money.
AEDGrant
AEDGrant, a web-based philanthropy, uses corporate donations to provide the AEDGrant.com Public & Private Entities Grant. The program is open to almost everyone, except retailers and any vendors planning to obtain the devices to resell them. Along with helping pay for the grants, the program connects people with AED--and CPR--training programs. The program provides an application form on its website, which applicants can fax in.
AEDGrant.com
565 Westlake St., Bldg. 100
Encinitas, CA 92024
760-944-1048
aedgrant.com
FEMA Assistance to Firefighters
The Federal Emergency Management Agency's Assistance to Firefighters Grants program can go toward any equipment, including paramedic equipment such as defibrillators. Grant awards in 2009 ranged between $328 to almost $2.7 million, the average individual award being about $160,000. The majority of recipients, 76.6 percent, were rural fire departments. Volunteer departments accounted for 56.6 percent of the awards. Along with fire departments, EMS agencies are also eligible for the program.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
FEMA
800 K St. NW
Washington, DC 20472
866-274-0960
firegrantsupport.com
Rural Access to Emergency Devices
The U.S. Department of Health's Health Resources and Services Administration the Rural Access to Emergency Devices grant. The program intends to help rural communities purchase FDA-approved AEDs as well as training through nationally recognized organizations, such as the Red Cross and American Heart Association. The federal grants go to community partnerships between first-responder agencies, such as fire departments, and for- or non-profit businesses, such as health care providers. The HRSA in 2009 budgeted $1.1 million for the competitive grants.
HRSA
5600 Fishers Lane
Rockville, MD 20857
877-464-4772
hrsa.gov
School Readiness
Schools can buy AEDs by using money from the U.S. Department of Education's Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools program. The grant's objective is to "to create, strengthen, and improve emergency management plans at the district and school-building levels." Along with putting funds toward equipment purchases, schools can also use the grants for developing emergency or illness response plans, training and communications. Average awards for fiscal year 2010 were $150,000 for small schools, $300,000 for medium-sized schools and $600,000 for large schools.
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Ave. SW
Washington, DC 20202
800-872-5327
ed.gov
Tags: Along with, fire departments, Access Emergency, Access Emergency Devices, Assistance Firefighters, Department Education