General Information
Eligibility
Grant Amount
Evaluation Criteria
Making Your Program Accessible

GENERAL INFORMATION 

Applicants may request support for up to four high school interns per IAC program year. Recent high school graduates that have not yet entered college may be considered. The IAC program year is from September 1, 2004 through August 31, 2005. The IAC will support 16 weeks of an individual internship, up to 20 hours per week. The stipend offered should be no less than $6.50 an hour. Interns may only participate in one IAC supported internship per year. Internships may be staggered throughout the year, clearly indicate the start and end date of each intern on the budget page. Please note that funds will not be authorized for release until all interns have been identified and required documentation is submitted to the IAC.

No more than 16 consecutive weeks, up to 20hrs/wk, paid at least $6.50/hr

ELIGIBILITY

Any Illinois not-for-profit organization that is currently in good standing with the Illinois Secretary of State is eligible to apply. Individual schools and school districts are not eligible for this program.

GRANT AMOUNT

Eligible organizations may request up to $4,000 per IAC program year. Applicants are required to provide a cash match equal to the amount requested 1:1(50% IAC, 50% Organization). The match can be cash specifically raised for the project and/or from applicant’s current operating budget. For example, a staff person being paid $12/hour who works with the youth for 160 hours is valued at $1920 that may be put towards the cash match. Likewise, overhead expenses related to the project (i.e. materials) may be used to cover the match.

EVALUATION CRITERIA

Funded projects will share the following characteristics:

• positive arts programming experiences that will result in one or more tangible outcomes for the employed youth
• guidance and mentoring of the intern by a supervising adult who is active in the organization’s arts programming
• clearly identified process to identify and select intern(s) to participate and match intern skills to planned actvities

making your program accessible

One of the conditions an organization agrees to in accepting a grant from the IAC is to make every attempt to ensure that the program is accessible to persons with disabilities. According to state and federal law, every organization receiving public funding must ensure that it is in a position to provide accommodations when persons with disabilities make requests for services. Accessiblity involves both location (the facility) and the content (the activity or product) of the program. Thinking about accessiblity issues, e.g., sign-language interpreters, cassette recordings of printed materials, audio description describers or large-print labeling in the early planning stages of a project, is the key to ensuring that persons with disabilities will be able to participate in the program.