Humanities Initiatives at Community Colleges
Division of Education Programs
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Humanities Initiatives at Community Colleges support community colleges’ commitment to educating students on a variety of educational and career paths. The program funds curricular and faculty development projects that help strengthen humanities programs and/or incorporate humanistic approaches in fields outside the humanities.
Each project must be organized around a core topic or set of themes, drawn from humanities areas of studies such as history, philosophy, religion, literature, and composition and writing skills. Each project must also incorporate a broader institutional vision for the humanities at a community college.
The following is a partial list of projects the program may support:
- bridge programs for freshmen, first-generation college students and their families, nontraditional students, and/or secondary school students;
- creation or revision of courses that focus on close reading, analytical writing, and/or effective speaking, including composition courses designed to help students write better;
- new or enhanced humanities programs, including new humanities minors or certificate programs, honors programs, first-year seminars, and culturally relevant or place-based curricula;
- the infusion of humanities learning into professional training in such fields as business, law, engineering, science, technology, science, hospitality, and nursing and medicine;
- creation of humanities-based curricular pathways towards graduation and/or transfer to four-year institutions;
- opportunities for faculty members to study together, in order to improve their capacity to teach the humanities;
- creation or enhancement of humanities resources for the purpose of teaching, including oral histories, literature or film, teaching modules, or guidelines on how to use humanities resources in the classroom;
- development of curriculum-focused digital humanities projects, including podcasts, mapping tools, or digital resources for distance learning that can be used on- or off-line; and
- partnerships and collaborative projects in the humanities (for example, dual-enrollment agreements in humanities-based courses for college or high school students; collaboration with regional museums, libraries, or historical societies to share resources for teaching and learning; or partnering with a school or school system to strengthen K-12 pathways to higher education).
NEH welcomes applications for projects that are modest in scope and duration, as well as applications for expansive, long-term projects.
As soon as you know you're ready to apply for this grant, make sure you register for a SAM number/DUNS number, and for a grants.gov account as this is vital to the grants process. If you already have registered for these items, make sure they are up to date.
Begin by reading the full grant guidelines and studying the application. The files are linked below. You want to ensure you understand all the expectations and restrictions for projects delivered under this grant and are prepared to write the most effective application.
Download Application Materials
Humanities Initiatives at Community Colleges Guidelines (PDF)
Grants.gov Application Package
Budget Resources
Humanities Initiatives Budget Form (XLS)
Humanities Initiatives Sample Budget, 2019 (PDF)
Program Resources
Humanities Initiatives Frequently Asked Questions, 2019 (PDF)
List of recent grants in this program
Sample Application Narratives
East Los Angeles College, Connecting Student Veterans with Humanities Scholars in the Study of War
Reading Area Community College, Linking Berks County Latino Communities to a Larger World
Sitting Bull College, Lakota/Dakota Language Revitalization
Be sure to follow the instructions outlined in the guidelines and in the grants.gov instructions.
You will receive a confirmation from grants.gov when you've successfully submitted your application.
After you submit your application, Grants.gov will send you up to five e-mail messages confirming receipt of your application. These messages represent different stages in the application acceptance process. You should verify that you have received all confirmation messages. Please note that email filters may send these messages to your spam or junk folder.