Special Projects

Yes. While only one person shall be listed on the application as the single point of contact for the special project, an application may be submitted that combines the efforts of multiple individuals or organizations . The individual submitting the application must be a member of a career or volunteer fire and emergency services organization. Other team members may be from disciplines outside of the fire and emergency services if they add value to the project. For example, a firefighter doing the special project might team with someone who has a research background, an educator, software engineer, psychologist, etc.

Yes. The applicant and everyone participating as a principal researcher or project team member must be a U.S. citizen.

The completed project and final report must be submitted to the YLD Board of Directors within 18 months of the date the award letter of notification is received.

Yes. Any public safety agency or related institution may apply, including career, volunteer or combination fire and rescue departments, EMS agencies, emergency management agencies, and local, state or regional fire, rescue or organizations such as training academies. Corporations and for-profit organizations and consulting companies are not eligible.

The preferred types of special projects must be related to the development of leaders in the fire and emergency services community. The emphasis of the YLD special projects program is the need to develop better leadership talent and skills to meet the future needs of the both the public and the emergency preparedness community. Projects that promote solutions to problems and result in a defined work product that can be shared within the public safety community for free will be looked upon favorably. Examples include:

• Leadership training programs or materials that focuses on developing new officers who will function in leadership positions in the future.
• Research that defines current leadership challenges and solutions for the future. Examples might include time management, communications skills, implementing new policies, dealing with problems, critical decision-making, etc.
• Projects that focus on developing fire and emergency services company level or mid-management leaders.

No. Examples of disallowed items include vehicles, tools, audio/visual equipment, and computers. Goods and items that may be allowed for special projects include the cost of USPS mailings to support research, or a subscription fee to support special software required to conduct surveys or develop training.

• Yes, but only if the purpose of sending the individual to the seminar is to bring back knowledge gained with the goal of adopting its principles and improving leadership within the organization. The emphasis of attending the seminar must be to gain knowledge necessary for “organizational adoption” vs. individual self-improvement. If the applicant is a single individual looking to enhance their skills, they should seek funding through YLD’s Scholarship program. 
• Funding may be used to support the cost of tuition to attend fire and emergency services leadership development special seminars if they meet the same goals and objectives as the YLD Special Projects requirements. The cost of salary and backfill time is disallowed. The cost of travel and lodging is also disallowed unless this associated cost is all-inclusive and already built into the seminar fee. Applications for this type of funding will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

The YLD Board of Directors determines the annual budget for special projects and then advises the Chair of the Scholarship and Awards Committee of the budgeted amount. No member of the Board of Directors serves on the Scholarship and Awards Committee and has no influence on the evaluation and selection of applications. The Chair of the Scholarship and Awards Committee serves on the Board of Directors as a non-voting member. See: How YLD Operates

The YLD Scholarship and Awards Committee evaluates all special project applications. All applications are on a level playing field if they meet the prescribed requirements and submit a completed application using the format provided by the deadline. The Chair of the Scholarship and Awards Committee submits the applications to the committee for evaluation. A scoring matrix is used by committee members to ensure a fair and consistent evaluation process. Scores are submitted by secret ballot so that none of the Committee members knows how the other members scored the application. The Committee chair ranks the scores and submits the final evaluation to the President of YLD who then makes the notification of the successful applicants.

No. An applicant may not be funded a second time. Any individual who has received a past special projects award is still eligible to apply for a YLD scholarship. Past YLD scholarship recipients may apply multiple times and several past scholarship recipients have received more than one award.

No. There is no appeals process allowed and YLD’s decision is final.