Announcing: $5000 Grants for Maker Gown Production

Maker Cohort Grant

GetUsPPE celebrates the maker community for filling pressing, short-term PPE shortages with innovative designs. We are working to help support and bolster distributed American DIY manufacturing through our Maker Cohort PPE Program. Our first cohort will consist of 6 Makers Groups across the country. Each group will receive $5000 in funding to set up the manufacturing of Impermeable Gowns. The grant program will be tied to a curriculum to share best practices from experienced gownmakers in production process, set up and sourcing materials, outreach and distribution and team management, with mentorship from Something Labs, Nation of Makers, Artisan's Asylum, OSMS and GetUsPPE.

Background

Maker groups responded swiftly to the call for PPE when the pandemic first hit in spring of 2020. Now, as the needs have shifted, many groups have found it difficult to continue to respond to new hospital needs. Face shields and homemade masks are no longer a primary need in medical facilities. In their place impervious gowns have become one of the most requested items of PPE in hard hit areas. At the same time, many maker groups and volunteer efforts have hit a point of fatigue with creation of PPE. To address these issues, our cohort has created a micro-grant program to invigorate and inspire groups across the country to create impermeable gown production programs in their local areas.

This grant program will be tied to a curriculum-based webinar series to enable maker groups to launch their own production of impervious gowns, learning from the best practices of makers who have already done this successfully. 

How Does the Grant Program Work?

The grant program is designed to support makers fabricating impervious gowns who have either not previously produced gowns at scale or have not produced gowns at all. The program will support the purchase of raw material and staffing to make PPE. 

We invite interested groups to join us for an informational webinar on August 19 at 4pm PST / 7pm EST.* At this initial webinar we will introduce an overview of gown production and manufacturing considerations including materials, equipment, labor, budgeting and distribution. Then we will invite groups to fill out this application to become a grantee and part of the cohort. 

Grant applications are evaluated based on the interest and potential capacity of the maker or maker organization to handle the proposed production of 1000 gowns with a budget of $5000, and a clearly demonstrated commitment to equity. This may include considerations such as geography (location in regards to PPE need and/or other maker groups with similar production capacities), track record of successful manufacturing and distribution and more. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and we will begin reviewing applications on August 24, 2020.

Questions? Email us at matt [@] getusppe.org
Webinar Link: https://zmurl.com/makegowns *

*The webinar will be recorded for later viewing if you cannot join us at the appointed time.