Paula Pichon, grant writer for the city and Jamestown Community College, views her role as an opportunity to impact the community by helping others. Pictured is Paula Pichon, city grant writer. P-J photo by Timothy Frudd

As grant writer for both the city and SUNY Jamestown Community College, Paula Pichon is motivated to help others in the community.

After seeing an advertisement for the grant writing position on Linked-In, Pichon said she applied for the position and was hired in November 2021. Pichon explained that her duties are split between Jamestown Community College and the city, with both entities paying half of her annual salary; as a result, Pichon spends half of her time at City Hall and half of her time at JCC each week.

“I’m just their dedicated grant writer, so whatever they want to apply for, they send it my way and I do it,” she said. “On a daily basis, I write a ton. I do a lot of research, data collection and I form stories. That’s really what I do, I tell the story.”

Pichon said she usually checks each day to see what grants are open and available. Sorting through those, Pichon said she sends information to potentially interested parties at the city or JCC.

“I read through them to see, ‘Are we eligible? Can we do this?’ Once I do that, then I leave it up to everybody else to decide if this is something that they want to do or if it’s a project that’s important to them or whatever. I do have a list of things that I know people need already, so those are already on the side.”

Pichon explained that part of her job is spending time with people and learning what they need. Meeting with various people throughout the city and the college, she is able to learn what has been done in the past and what has not yet been done to address various needs. By doing this, Pichon is able to formulate stories that can be used throughout the process of finding potential funding for various needs.

Pichon said the most rewarding part of her job is seeing the impact of her work when grants are successfully obtained and implemented at the city and the college. Since the time she was hired to work for the city and JCC, Pichon has helped the city and college receive 34 grants, totaling $12,348,316.42.

“Personally, I believe you have to give good to get good,” Pichon said. “I believe that if you have a talent you give it. I don’t know how I became a great writer, and I fail more than I succeed. My return rate is like 47% right now, that’s normal, but the success is when you find something or you get something that gives somebody what they need.”

Pichon noted that one of the first grants she worked on was the Assistance to Firefighters Grant. In discussions with the Jamestown Fire Department, Pichon discovered that many firefighters were equipped with “old bail-out systems that really didn’t work all the time.” Pichon described that realization as “tragic,” providing her with motivation to write the grant by telling the stories and concerns of local firefighters.

“We won that grant,” she said. “To me, that’s success. Somebody somewhere is going use that one day, and I had a hand in that. I had a hand in saving their life. I had a hand in providing a service or a hand in fixing a bridge. Before I was here, I worked for the Seneca Nation for almost 10 years as a grant writer, and there are bridges that I drive by and I think ‘I was part of that,’ or new programs or services, like they started a whole crime victims and domestic violence service program there with funding that I helped write, so that’s affecting lives well beyond just the grant.”

Pichon said the most challenging part of her position is losing the grants that she has a “strong connection to” or is very hopeful of winning. She explained that the transition from working as a grant writer with the Seneca Nation to working as a grant writer for the city and JCC has involved a “learning curve,” as Pichon has had to navigate the challenge of learning the state funding process, which she said is very different than the federal funding process she was used to with her former position.

Another challenge Pichon has faced is learning the “technical language” of the Board of Public Utilities. As the grant writer for the city, Pichon is responsible for helping the BPU apply for various grants.

“The BPU puts in grants and they talk a different language than the rest of the world,” she said. “Things like geothermal, micro grids, and things like that have all been things that I’ve really had to take a second and try to learn more on, in the middle of preparing an application. They may do the technical piece, but I have to make all the other pieces work, and I have to make sure that they’re answering the questions that they need to answer to score well. Learning all of those things is a little bit of a process.”

Asked about her motivation to be a grant writer, Pichon said she has “always been a helper.” Prior to working for the Seneca Nation as a grant writer, Pichon worked at The Resource Center and also worked in social services in Chautauqua County for 16 years. Serving now in her position with the city and the college, Pichon said she is always motivated to help others through her work.

“I feel that’s a talent that I have that I can use to help others,” she said. “I want to make the world a better place. That’s who I am as a person and that’s what motivates me is helping somebody who needs it. The city of Jamestown needs it and JCC needs it and the students need it. They benefit from whatever dollars I can bring in. We all benefit; it’s a group effort.”

Outside of her work, Pichon said she donates her time to other organizations who need help writing grants. While Pichon said one of her goals is to have a 50% return rate on all of the grants she writes for, she said it is more important to see the city improve throughout her time as grant writer. Her goal is to see the impact of grant dollars bringing improvements, changes and additions to the city and the college.

“I think that that’s my goal is that I get to watch this city grow, and I get to be part of it,” she said. “I do want to see positive things happen. Equitable access is an important thing in the city of Jamestown, so no matter where you live, you can get around and you can get help and you can get services and you can get medical care and you can get all these things. My goal is to help kind of eliminate some of those issues or reduce them.”

Regarding her work with JCC, Pichon said her rate of success is actually higher than her rate of grant success at the city, despite this being her first time writing major college education grants. Working for JCC, Pichon said she has learned to distinguish between the workforce side of the college and the academic side of the college, which she said has involved a “huge learning curve.” She added that the experience writing grants for JCC has been “very rewarding,” as she has been able to see both the immediate impacts of certain grants as well as long-term educational grants.

“You get the long-term educational ones, but you also have these sort of shorter-term employment opportunities, training programs that I also get to write about and try to get money for,” she said. “Nursing is another thing that I’ve been able to get really excited about, and I feel really good about working with JCC and coming up with some new ways to increase successive enrollment.”

Throughout her job as grant writer for both the city and JCC, Pichon emphasized the importance of teamwork. Pichon told The Post-Journal she never writes the grants alone; instead, she said there is usually a group of people providing her with information to “translate” into an application that will score the most points and answer all of the questions that need to be answered for each grant.

“I think that’s what I am, a translator,” she said. “They know the project they want to do; I just have to translate the language so it fits.”

While Pichon said some people are often discouraged about sharing the needs of the city or college, which involves details that are not always positive, when applying for various grants, she views each grant as an opportunity to share a compelling story. As someone who loves to tell stories and loves a competition, Pichon said she views each grant as a sort of “game.” Each time she is successful at obtaining a grant for the city of JCC, Pichon said it is as if she is “beating the system.”

In addition to her work as a grant writer, Pichon said she enjoys spending time with family and reading books. Paula said she enjoys spending time with her adult children, especially attending sports activities together.