Safety Works for You® and your company - And BWC can give you the money to make it happen.

Through BWC’s SafetyGRANT$ program, you can receive matching grants from BWC.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: Funds for the BWC SafetyGRANT$ program are no longer available for the current fiscal year. Should funds become available July 1, 2008, the grant awards will continue at that time.

SafetyGRANT$ for Ohio employers
The Safety Intervention Grant$ Program is available to any Ohio state-fund or public employer who wishes to purchase equipment to substantially reduce or eliminate injuries and illnesses associated with a particular task or operation.

Reporting
Safety grant reporting is available online! Submit your 90-day data reports through our Web site. Click here to access Safety grant reporting.

Employers are required to provide a one-year and two-year case study report on their SafetyGRANT$ intervention item. BWC has created a designated e-mail box to make it easier to report these case studies. E-mail your case studies to the SafetyGRANT$ mailbox.

Drug-Free Workplace Grant Program
Implement BWC’s Drug-Free Workplace Program (DFWP) or Drug-Free EZ Program (DF-EZ), or implement a comparable drug-free program.

NEW! Safety Grant Best Practices
The BWC SafetyGRANT$ program proudly introduces a new interactive Web page designed to share results of the program. This initial introduction allows users to select an industry and risk factor type or enter a key word search to obtain case studies specific to their interests. Future additions to this page will include Web links, articles and other resources specific to the user's request.

Preliminary results of the CTD grant program
We offer a series of publications that could help prevent CTDs in your workplace. You can download and print the manuals listed below. We developed these best-practice manuals based on the research data gathered through our SafetyGRANT$ program.

• Ergonomics Best Practices for the Construction Industry
• Ergonomics Best Practices for Extended-Care Facilities
• Ergonomics Best Practices for Manufacturing
• Ergonomics Best Practices for the Plastics Industry
• Ergonomics Best Practices for Public Employers

Safety Intervention Grant$ Program
The Safety Intervention Grant$ Program is available to any Ohio state-fund or public employer who wishes to purchase equipment or other materials to substantially reduce or eliminate injuries and illnesses associated with a particular task or operation. To participate in the program an employer must have a minimum of one claim filed for the task or operation affected by the intervention within two years preceding the grant application. And the employer must maintain active workers’ compensation coverage.

With the safety intervention grant, private and public employers are eligible for a 4-to-1 matching grant, up to a maximum of $40,000, meaning a total of $50,000 — $10,000 from the employer and $40,000 from BWC. The employer will benefit through a substantial reduction or elimination of workplace injuries and illnesses, and their related costs.

In return, the employer will submit quarterly data reports to BWC, an interim report after one year and a final report two years from the date of the intervention. BWC will use this information to determine the effectiveness of the intervention and share successes with other employers.

Because of the large number of requests we received for particular intervention items, and in keeping within the scope of the SafetyGRANT$ research project, the following interventions will no longer be considered for SafetyGRANT$ funding:

• Bathing systems
• Ceiling lifts
• Electric beds
• Exercise equipment
• Floor-based patient-lifting devices
• Forklifts
• Lift tables
• Patient ambulation devices
• Patient bathing and toileting chairs
• Patient scales
• Personal protective equipment
• Powered dolly equipment
• Skid steerers, front-end loaders, bobcats, all earth-moving equipment
• Stair chairs/cots
• Standard guardrailing systems
• Standard machine guarding
• Stretchers
• Transfer tables
• Transplanters, taggers
• Vehicles, including cars and trucks
• Weaponry, including tasers

To begin the application process, simply download the SafetyGRANT$ Procedural Guide. For more information about SafetyGRANT$, call your local BWC customer service office or 1-800-OHIOBWC, and follow the options.

The guide includes applications for both the safety intervention grant and the DFWP or DF-EZ grant.

Drug-Free Workplace Grant Program
BWC has safety grants available for employers participating in our Drug-Free Workplace Program (DFWP) and Drug-Free EZ Program (DF-EZ). Ohio state-fund or public employers who participate in either of the previously mentioned programs are eligible to apply and can receive grant money from BWC to offset their costs.

Private employers are eligible for a 2-to-1 matching grant, up to a maximum of $10,000, meaning a total of $15,000 -- $5,000 from the employer and $10,000 from BWC. Public employers are eligible for a 3-to-1 matching grant up to a maximum of $15,000, meaning a total of $20,000 – $5,000 from the employer and $15,000 from BWC. DFWP and DF-EZ program participants can use these funds to help meet any of the following drug-free requirements:

• Development of a written substance policy;
• Legal review of the policy;
• Employee education;
• Supervisor training;
• Employee assessment when included in a BWC-approved consortium package.

Employers with a comparable program are eligible for funding to cover only employee education, supervisor training and associated materials. If you are not participating in BWC’s DFWP or DF-EZ programs, submit proof of your comparable program, along with a SafetyGRANT$ application, agreement and a completed W-9 form. Proof of comparability includes a written policy with requirements for annual employee education and supervisor training, drug and alcohol testing and employee assistance.

To begin the application process, simply download the SafetyGRANT$ Procedural Guide

Note: Participation in the BWC SafetyGRANT$ DFWP, DF-EZ and safety intervention programs requires all grant recipients to verify by invoice/receipt and check copy that the grant money was used for the intended purposes. Failure to do so will result in disqualification from the grant program. BWC reserves the right to recover grant monies from disqualified grant recipients by one or more of the following methods:

• Billing the employer for the grant money received;
• Forwarding to the Ohio Attorney General for collection, set-off, recoupment or other legal remedy.

BWC expressly reserves the right to limit the amount of reimbursements and to set caps on such reimbursements for each and every specific reimbursable drug-free service.