USCG Awards NASBLA with Seven Nonprofit Grants
Among the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators’ (NASBLA) core values is 
collaboration with a broad community of stakeholders. To help move the association forward, NASBLA works annually to construct nonprofit grant project proposals to meet the needs of members through research, training, innovation and standards development. As a result of the Fiscal Year 2022 National Nonprofit Organization Recreational Boating Safety Grant Program applications, NASBLA was awarded funding for seven grant projects, detailed below. Each of these projects is intended to support members and stakeholders in a coordinated effort to make our nation’s waterways safer.
The awarded grant projects are detailed below:
Boat Occupant Injury Surveillance Tier 2-B
This grant project will focus on using a public health approach to enhance boat occupant injury surveillance and prevent occupant injuries and enhance safety. Boat Occupant Injury Surveillance is working to aid the state recreational boating programs and the U.S. Coast Guard to improve data collection efforts – particularly with recreational boating injuries. There are three primary strategies including expanding data collection, providing program professionals with access to actionable data, and engaging the recreational boating community to participate in an evidence-based approach to implementing a comprehensive, meaningful data collection program.
Boating Accident Investigation Courses
NASBLA has been awarded funding to conduct three Level I – Comprehensive Boating Accident Investigation courses and one Level II – Advanced Boating Accident Investigation course in Fiscal Year 2022. The Level I – Comprehensive courses will be conducted at three state agency locations and the Level II – Advanced course will be conducted on November 1-5, 2021, at the Pat Thomas Law Enforcement Academy in Havana, Florida. If your agency is interested in hosting a Level I - Comprehensive course, please contact Chris Moore.
Boating Safety Dashboards
The Boating Safety Dashboards project offers data for evidence-based program enhancements. This is facilitated by providing up-to-date, easily accessible, statistical information in a visual format to advise program decision-makers with evidence needed for policy refinements and program planning. This grant project provides NASBLA members with a portal for program measurement and analysis.
Boating Under the Influence Detection & Enforcement Courses
This grant provides support for NASBLA to conduct targeted trainings to combat boating under the influence of alcohol (BUI) and drugs (BUI-D). NASBLA will conduct one Boating Under the Influence Officer course and three Boating Under the Influence Train-the-Trainer courses in Fiscal Year 2022. The BUI Officer course is designed for marine law enforcement officers and officials from federal, state, county, local and tribal agencies who wish to gain baseline knowledge in the seated battery of BUI Detection and Enforcement. The Train-the-Trainer course focuses on taking an officer who has already developed instruction skills and preparing them to instruct each of the four NASBLA BUI courses. If your agency is interested in hosting either of these courses, please contact Chris Moore.
BUI Awareness & Enforcement Campaign: Operation Dry Water
For the fourteenth year, grant funding will be used to deliver the Operation Dry Water (ODW) campaign. Operation Dry Water is a year-round boating under the influence awareness and enforcement campaign. The mission of ODW is to reduce the number of alcohol- and drug-related incidents and fatalities through increased recreational boater awareness and by fostering a stronger and more visible deterrent to alcohol use on the water. NASBLA will engage with local, state and federal law enforcement partners as well as outreach partners across the nation to help educate boaters about the dangers associated with boating under the influence and to facilitate the coordinated effort to remove impaired operators from our nation’s waterways.
National Boating Education Standards
This grant project supports the work of the National Boating Education Standards Panel (ESP) implementing the proposed 2021 revised American National Standards for Basic Boating Knowledge. Included in this project is the publication of a revised Core-Plus Technical Report incorporating Core, Human-Propelled, Sailing, Power, and Water-Jet Propelled into a single support document to advance the use of the standards by educators of the boating public.
Standardizing State Recreational Boating Safety Statutes & Regulations: NASBLA and the States
NASBLA is unique in bringing together the states’ recreational boating safety agencies for standardization and reciprocity in public policy development, communicating strategies, coordination, information sharing, education, and training -- critical functions since the states’ recreational boating safety programs are responsible for the annual implementation of more than 95 percent of all boating safety expenditures nationwide. These include accident reporting, enforcing boating under the influence (BUI) of alcohol and drug laws, administering boater education, enforcing life jacket wear requirements and a range of other boating safety services.
In furtherance of this important role, this grant assists NASBLA in partnering with and supporting the states, the U.S. Coast Guard and the recreational boating safety (RBS) community in standardizing state recreational boating safety statutes, regulations and policies. NASBLA accomplishes this by developing and updating model state boating safety policies, standards, best practices, and guidance for their administration and enforcement, effectively communicating those to the states and other partners and providing hands-on coordination of state efforts and cooperative environments where state officials can discuss management of the RBS programs.