The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is seeking applications for a Pool Safely Grant Program (PSGP or grant program) offered to state and local governments.
CPSC will award up to a total of $2 million in two-year grants to assist jurisdictions in reducing deaths and injuries from drowning and drain entrapment incidents in pools and spas.
The PSGP is a part of CPSC’s national campaign to make drowning and drain entrapment prevention a critical public safety priority.
Prospective applicants are encouraged to review the solicitation on Grants.gov, under grant opportunity CPSC-21-001. Applicants must be a state or local government or U S. Territory that has an enacted or amended a state and/or local law(s) that meet the requirements of the VGB Act (15 U.S.C. 8001), sections 1405 and 1406.
Applications will be accepted through July 19, 2021.
The grant program is made possible through the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act (VGB Act), legislation authored and advanced by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Florida) and signed into law by President George W. Bush in December 2007. The VGB Act authorizes the PSGP, which provides state and local governments with assistance for education, training, and enforcement of pool safety requirements.
“Throughout my career I have been a passionate advocate for pool and spa safety. We must do more to stop these preventable tragedies, and I know that these grants are one of the key steps we can take to help save more children’s lives,” Wasserman Schultz said. “My overall goal is to reduce the number of child drownings across the country, and we can accomplish that by teaching children to swim, ensuring pools have the right safety equipment, and educating parents on the critical importance of supervising children in and near the water.”
CPSC Acting Chairman Robert Adler said that the grants can make a real difference and potentially save lives as communities work to reopen pools following the pandemic.
“Unfortunately, drowning remains the number one cause of unintentional death to children ages one to four. These grants will help states and local governments reach consumers with lifesaving information to prevent pool and spa drownings and entrapments, and will help them to enforce pool safety requirements,” Adler said Five awardees of the grants have already been announced. The state and local governments, selected by CPSC, will receive more than $860,000 in Pool Safely Grant Program (PSGP) grant funds.
• Florida Department of Health: $248,695
• DuPage County Health Department, Illinois: $291,811
• County of Middlesex, New Jersey: $128,800
• Washington, D.C.: $54,993
• Loudoun County, Virginia: $142,968 CPSC’s website www.PoolSafely. gov has more information about the Pool Safely Grant Program and the VGB Act, as well as free, downloadable educational materials available to the public.
