A: Participants must have as their purpose the provision of emergency medical and trauma services in the state of Colorado to be eligible. This includes, but is not limited to:

• Ambulance agencies
• Fire agencies
• State and local governing agencies
• Training facilities
• Hospitals and Clinics
• Special Districts
• Other public and private providers of EMS and trauma services

A: Applications are only available after the required pre-application steps have been completed. This helps CRHC minimize administrative time contacting applicants who have not submitted all the necessary paperwork with their application. Get started here!

A: The CREATE grants are funded through Colorado vehicle registration fees and other state funding.

A: CREATE grants are open-competitive awards with approved applicants providing a local cash match. The requirements of the grant program state that applicants must provide a 50% cash match, but financial waivers are available. Entities that can demonstrate financial inability to match at the 50% level may fill out a financial waiver application for review by the Financial Waiver Review Committee. A minimum of a 10% cash match is required in order to receive a financial waiver review and approval. Successful financial waiver applicants will be automatically passed through to the next ERC review date. Those denied a financial waiver will not be automatically passed on, but have the option of submitting their application to the ERC for a 50/50 match in the next month’s application cycle.

A: Although the grant requirements state that a 50% cash match is required, entities may apply for a financial waiver in order to lower their required match to 40%, 30%, 20% or 10%. It is up to the entity requesting the waiver to determine the match that they can afford, but applicants are also responsible for demonstrating the financial hardship that led to their choice, as well as submit all required additional documentation.

If you are applying for a financial waiver, the waiver application must be completed and submitted with the grant application. The financial waiver evaluation committee will base its decision on the following:

• Does the narrative justify the waiver of a 50% cash match?
• Is the applicant’s current financial status or explanation consistent with the narrative?
• Is the inability to provide the 50% cash match demonstrated?
• Has the applicant provided information that indicates a good faith effort has been made to obtain cash from other sources?

Financial waiver applications that are approved will allow the grant request to continue to the evaluation process. Financial waiver applications that are not approved are disqualified from further consideration for grant funding. Applicants may start the process over completely to resubmit a grant at the 50% match level if their waiver is denied, but the committee will expect an explanation for the matching funds that were not available in the previous application.

A. Courses need to have a start date between 30 days and 5 months following the desired ERC review date as courses must start on or after official CREATE approval letter date to be eligible for funding. Applications will not be accepted for courses with start dates further out than 5 months. Check the General CREATE Dates and Deadlines for the exact dates.

A. Applying for a CREATE grant should not be left until the last minute. In order to receive a grant number and access to the application, you must first complete the five pre-application steps outlined in the grant guidelines. Because of this, it is not advised to start the pre-application process right before the application deadline. Once all five pre-application steps have been completed successfully and these items have been verified by CRHC CREATE grant staff, a confirmation email is sent to the applicant within 3 business days that includes login instructions to access the grant application.  Once you have access to the application, it is to your advantage to allow ample time to craft a well-written application, seek feedback from others, and ultimately submit a grant that accurately reflects the needs of your organization.

A. General applications will be reviewed by an Expert Review Committee, while Financial Waiver applications will be evaluated by a Financial Waiver Review Committee. Evaluators on both committees use a standardized scoring tool. To prevent conflicts of interest in scoring a grant, evaluators are asked to excuse themselves from scoring any applications where there is a potential conflict of interest. Applicants may also ask an evaluator to be excused from scoring if they feel he or she will not be objective. The committees meet monthly to review grant applications.

A: Notification of awards is made within 10 business days of that month’s Expert Review Committee meeting.

A: No purchases or other expenses can be incurred until you have received your official notice of grant award and all your required documents and signatures are on file. Grants are made on a reimbursement basis. Once you have been notified that you are approved to begin spending your funding, you may do so, and then submit a payment request form with final report and all required documentation to CRHC after the course is complete. For multi-course applications, request funding for courses upon completion, do not wait until all courses are complete, unless you request permission for delayed reporting. For courses longer than one semester, a progress report and a request for the proportionate funding amount may be submitted within 30 days of the completion of a semester. Financial documentation must also be included in order to be eligible for this incremental funding. Processing of payments will take approximately five weeks.

A: There are no mid-project progress reports required. A final report must be submitted within 30 days after the course is complete or within 90 days if there is a NREMT requirement. Failure to submit a timely final report is a violation of your contract with CRHC and may result in cancellation of your award, refusal to honor your request for payment, or denial of future funding from the CREATE program. Extensions may be requested in writing.

A: Within five months of application submission.

A: Not necessarily. Your grant was approved based on what was requested in your application. Changes to your award are changes to the scope of work. You may make a request to change the scope of work, but each request will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Contact us at web@coruralhealth.org if you are considering requesting a change in your scope of work. Do this prior to making any changes or you risk refusal for reimbursement.

A: Out-of-state courses and conferences are not supported by this grant program. However, exceptions may be made if one of the following criteria is met and submitted along with strong and convincing justification of need.

• The requested course or conference is not available in Colorado. Justification must include why attending the course or conference is essential and why comparable training on the topic is not available in state.
• It is more cost-effective to attend an out-of-state course or conference. Justification must include specific costs, including the cost of attending in-state vs. the cost of attending the out-of-state.

A: Yes, you can apply for registration and travel funding, but no meals or banquets costs are allowed per CREATE Grant Guidelines.

A: In a multi-entity application, one entity must be designated as the lead entity for the purpose of the application. This lead entity will fill out the complete application, but all agencies should provide letters of support demonstrating their financial need.

Multi-entity applications will be reviewed in their entirety. This means that the combined resources of all participating entities will be reviewed as one request. If an application package is submitted with less than a 50% match for the total cost, the multi-entity group must apply for a financial waiver.

A: Yes, multiple applications may be submitted from the same entity in the same grant year (July 1 – June 30). The pre-application steps must be completed each time.

A: No, grant funds for conference support (as opposed to attendance) are not allowable under this grant program. One source for these types of requests is the EMS and Trauma Service Provider Grant Program. Additional information regarding those grants can be found if you click here.

A: Applications are a matter of public record.