Critique of a Grant Proposal for Cerebral Palsy Association

This report provides a comprehensive critique of a grant proposal submitted by the Cerebral Palsy Association in Alberta, aiming to improve the lives of individuals with cerebral palsy through assistive technology and community development. The critique evaluates the clarity of objectives, the statement of need, program description, goals, and objectives. It assesses the inclusion of key elements such as the introduction of Kurzweil 3000 software, timelines, budget details, program monitoring, and supporting documentation. The report highlights both the strengths, such as well-defined aims and timelines, and weaknesses, including the lack of information about cash reserves and project sustainability after funding depletion. Recommendations are provided to strengthen the proposal, emphasizing the importance of a clear project description and a detailed statement of need. The report concludes with a call for thorough research, planning, and vision in grant proposals.

Running head: CRITIQUE OF A GRANT PROPOSAL
CRITIQUE OF A GRANT PROPOSAL
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author’s note

1CRITIQUE OF A GRANT PROPOSAL
Grant proposal
Name of the organization- Cerebral Palsy Association in Alberta
Purpose/ objectives: The Cerebral palsy Association is seeking a grant to improve the living of a
person with cerebral palsy. The main aim is also to develop the community capacity by the
provision of networking and learning opportunities to the members.
It can be seen that the purpose of the objective is clear. It is the aims that identify the
changed conditions. It is attainable realistic and measurable.
Key elements of the proposal
All the key elements below has been well defined.
Statement of need
Cerebral Palsy Association in Alberta has about 500 hundred members who have been
determined to be at risk in their learning performances. The organization is eligible for title 1
funds and if this opportunity is not given to this organization then the members would miss the
learning opportunities.
The statement of need has been rightly stated as this should describe the problem that the
project will attempt to address and also describe the population that is required to be served.
Program description

2CRITIQUE OF A GRANT PROPOSAL
A new assistive software, Kurzweil 3000 will be introduced, that would be using a multi-
sensory approach for helping out people with cerebral palsy having learning disabilities. The
software is a research based assistive technology where materials of learning would be displayed
as an image in the computer screen after which the texts are read aloud with human sounding
speech, highlighting the spelt words (Tanis et al., 2013).
The problem description of the proposal has been described properly however the
proposal did not disclose any information regarding the setting up of this system. The project
description is the most crucial written part of the proposal and should give a detailed information
regarding the plans and the particular goals of the grant appliers.
Goals and objectives
1. There should be a measurable increase in the comprehension, reading speed and the
attention span.
2. Provision of some innovative techniques that would help increasing their reading speed
and provision of some reading alternative that is multisensory.
It can be seen the goals for this proposal has been clearly stated. According to studies,
victims of cerebral palsy face with considerable amount of reading disabilities that directly
impacts their education and way of living (Novak et al., 2013). A well written objectives
should appropriately describe the outcomes and the results of the actions.
Related activities to objectives:
Activities Time line
 Submission of the grant proposal  July 2018

3CRITIQUE OF A GRANT PROPOSAL
 Expected notification for the grant  September 2018
 Arrangement of the hardware and
software
 October 2018
 Setting up of Kurzweil 3000  November 2018
 Staff training  December 2018
 Introduction to the clients  January 2018
 Testing of the reading speeds  January 2018
 Improving the speeds  February 2018
 Preparation of the results reports  February 2018
According to Levitt, (2013), the activities should naturally flow from the problems and the
objectives. But the proposal did not clearly state why the activity has been selected. This paper
has been successful in describing the sequence of the activities and the staffing for the programs.
The target population has been appropriately chosen. The activity list also contained a stipulated
timeline.
Budget
Price Quantity Total
Kurzweil Scan/Read
Lab Pack (Color) 5-
Pack
$8000 1 $8000
Software
Maintenance
$700 1 %700

4CRITIQUE OF A GRANT PROPOSAL
Agreement (SMA)
Monitor
$ 1500 5 $7500
Training $1000 1 day $1000
The budget is detailed and accurate with accurately priced item but the time frame of the
expenditure has not been included.
Program monitoring and evaluation
Standardized reading tests have to be conducted before the use of the technology and
after the completion of the course for determining the reading attention rates. The feedbacks
from the clients would again be taken by the help of the questionnaires. Further improvements
can be done after publishing an evaluation report.
The proposal well describes the how the data was gathered. Evaluation tools such as reading tests
and questionnaire’s has been used.
Supporting documentation:
 List of the board of directors: The board of directors included the president Terri-Lee
Oleniuk. Other members included David Dziadyk, Ben Ellert, Sheila Leigh. The board
members have experience working with special children having severe learning disabilities
and are responsible for the implementation of the several successful programs in this
association. They are responsible for governing the organisation through perfect leadership
and create life without limits, for those with cerebral palsy.

5CRITIQUE OF A GRANT PROPOSAL
The proposal is successful in giving an account of the president and the board of
members of the institution. The funders generally wants to see the list of directors of the
organization that might add to the credibility of the proposal.
The proposal writing process
The proposal writing process has been followed rightly.
Content
The content of the proposal is well defined. However the project information should have
been described more elaborately and the budget would have been broken down to its details.
Strength
The strength of this proposal is that the aim of the project and the target client has been
well defined with well-set time lines. The evaluation procedure would have been appropriate.
Weakness of the proposal
Although the proposal has given information about the board of directors but have not
described about any cash reserves and the reason why they have not been used in this project.
Furthermore the proposal has not described how the project will continue after the depletion of
the funding.
Recommendations to support the proposal with solid rationale
In order to make a proposal acceptable, it is required to follow a well-defined aim, which
this paper had. The project description should be appropriate enough, such as a detailed
information about the plans. The statements of need for assistive technologies for those having

6CRITIQUE OF A GRANT PROPOSAL
cerebral palsy, should be written in an extensive way to warrant that the amount that is being
requested is urgent enough to be funded right now. All the operations should be mentioned in a
straightforward and a chronological way for the proposed project to work effectively. In
conclusion it can be said that a proposal should be able to reflect, research, planning and vision.

7CRITIQUE OF A GRANT PROPOSAL
References
Levitt, S. (2013). Treatment of cerebral palsy and motor delay. John Wiley & Sons.
Novak, I., Mcintyre, S., Morgan, C., Campbell, L., Dark, L., Morton, N., ... & Goldsmith, S.
(2013). A systematic review of interventions for children with cerebral palsy: state of the
evidence. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, 55(10), 885-910.
Tanis, E. S., Palmer, S., Wehmeyer, M., Davies, D. K., Stock, S. E., Lobb, K., & Bishop, B.
(2012). Self-report computer-based survey of technology use by people with intellectual
and developmental disabilities. Intellectual and developmental disabilities, 50(1), 53-68.