The Selma Times-Journal

Faith-based and community groups in Selma will have an opportunity to apply for grants today provided by Volunteers of America Southeast at Freedom Baptist Church on Summerfield Road.

The seminar is scheduled from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Volunteers of America Southeast announced earlier this month that it has received a grant of $381, 129 from the Compassion Capital Fund, which is administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Money from this grant will be used to help community and small faith-based organizations in the Gulf Coast region provide services for the neediest members of their communities. Volunteers of America Southeast have worked with community groups in Alabama and Mississippi for 25 years and continue to provide assistance to communities hit hard by the recent hurricanes.

The organization received

one of the first Compassion Capital Fund grants from the White House in 2002.

“Volunteers of America Southeast is honored to again be a recipient of a Compassion Capital Fund Grant,” said organization President and CEO Wallace Davis. “These grants are especially effective because they allow us to help the groups who are in the best position to directly aid the neediest members of their own communities.”

The grants are designed to help “‘intermediary organizations’ provide training, technical assistance and funding to local faith-based and community groups who are addressing the problems of homelessness, hunger, and at-risk children in their respective communities.”

Since several cities in Alabama continue to house victims of Hurricane Katrina, Volunteers of America Southeast made stops in Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Montgomery and Marion before arriving in Selma.

Local organizations

in Selma can apply for free capacity building training, intensive one-on-one technical assistance, and capacity building grants of $5,000 to $10,000.

The Volunteers of America Southeast statewide tour will conclude in Talladega on Tuesday.