This October, Oklahoma's Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust (TSET) announced new funding opportunities to help Oklahoma communities and schools make healthy living more accessible.
The grants—covering Built Environment, Healthy Incentive, and TAG: Physical Activity programs—support projects that encourage movement, reduce barriers to exercise, and build long-term wellness into everyday environments. Each year, TSET releases multiple grant opportunities that address physical activity, nutrition, and wellness. Below is an overview of the primary funding streams open or recently announced for 2025–2026.
1. Built Environment Grants – Physical Activity & Nutrition: These grants support infrastructure and environmental design projects that encourage active living and healthy food access—such as parks, trails, playgrounds, sidewalks, and community fitness areas.
- Focus: Infrastructure and environmental change (parks, trails, sidewalks, playgrounds, fitness/wellness areas) that promote physical activity and/or healthy food access.
- Eligibility: Public entities, 501(c)(3) nonprofits, tribal nations, educational institutions in Oklahoma.
- Timeline (Physical Activity track): Opened approx. September 23, 2025.
Notes: Projects can include planning/design or construction/implementation phases.
2. Targeted Achievement Grants (TAG) – Physical Activity: The Targeted Achievement Grants (TAG) fund group-based physical activity programs in existing spaces. Walking clubs, community classes, and fitness events are examples of eligible projects that promote consistent, organized activity.
- Focus: Programs that support group‐based physical activity in existing facilities/spaces—walking clubs, community exercise programs, etc.
- Eligible Counties: The TAG: Physical Activity stream is only open to organizations located in a listed set of counties in Oklahoma.
- Timeline: Application opened September 2025; awards expected March 2026; start date July 1, 2026.
3. Healthy Incentive / Other Streams
TSET’s Healthy Incentive Grants reward schools, cities, and counties that adopt wellness or tobacco-free policies. Funding can be used for outdoor recreation improvements, walking trails, and other health-supportive environmental changes.
Here’s a quick reference guide showing when each TSET funding stream opens, announces awards, and begins project implementation.
Deadlines & Timing at a Glance
Note: Exact deadlines may vary by funding track—check the official TSET website for current RFA documents, Q&A updates and submission portals.
Eligibility & Key Requirements: Each TSET grant has its own eligibility criteria, but all share a commitment to long-term, population-level health improvements. Applicants typically must be Oklahoma-based schools, municipalities, nonprofits, or tribal entities and demonstrate alignment with TSET’s mission.
- Must be an eligible entity: public school district/site, tribal nation, educational institution, public entity, or nonprofit (501(c)(3)), operating in Oklahoma.
- Must adopt or maintain certain policies (e.g., tobacco‐free policy, wellness policy) depending on the grant track.
- Projects must align with TSET’s constitutional focus: prevent tobacco use, improve physical activity or nutrition, and support children/seniors.
- For infrastructure grants: distinguish between “planning/design” vs “construction/implementation” tracks.
What to Highlight in a Strong Application: Successful applications go beyond good ideas—they show readiness, data, and collaboration. Projects should clearly connect to physical activity or nutrition outcomes, involve community partners, and include sustainability plans to extend impact beyond the grant term.
- Clear linkage between the project and increasing physical activity or healthy food access in the community.
- Evidence of community need: baseline data, demographics, underserved populations.
-Sustainability: how will the project continue to deliver impact beyond the grant period?
- Partner involvement: collaboration with schools, local government, community groups strengthens applications.
- Budget clarity: differentiating between planning/design vs build phases, showing realistic cost estimates and timelines.
Why These Grants Matter: These funding streams enable Oklahoma schools, parks, nonprofits and municipalities to invest in long‐term change—not just one‐time programs, but built infrastructure or recurrent programs that support healthy lifestyles. For rural or lower‐resourced communities in particular, this support can be a catalyst for upgraded sidewalks, safe walking routes, playground enhancements, and structured activity programs. Earlier announcements highlighted how TSET’s grants were used to renovate walking tracks, improve downtown walkability, and upgrade playgrounds.
How to Stay Updated: TSET frequently hosts webinars and updates its funding page with new opportunities and resources.
- Visit oklahoma.gov/tset/funding-opportunities to view the latest application materials, timelines, and Q&A sessions.
- Monitor the TSET website’s “Funding Opportunities” section for updated RFA documents and webinars.
- Sign up for email alerts from TSET for announcements and upcoming deadlines.
Final Thoughts
If your organization is exploring ways to encourage physical activity, improve built environments, or support community wellness in Oklahoma, these TSET grant programs offer meaningful paths forward. Starting early—by gathering baseline data, identifying partners, defining project scope and budget—can give you a competitive edge as deadlines approach.
One of TSET’s ongoing goals is to improve the “built environment” — the physical spaces where people live, learn, and play. This includes everything from sidewalks and parks to playgrounds and community centers. Creating spaces that invite movement doesn’t always require large construction budgets. Simple, creative design changes can make a big impact.
TSET grants emphasize sustainability—projects that last beyond the grant period. Products like stencils are designed to endure Oklahoma’s outdoor conditions and can be refreshed periodically without large ongoing costs and by DIYers; not professional installations or capital expenditures. The economy and ease of installation can help establish routines that keep people moving long after the initial funding is spent.
When schools and communities rethink their spaces through the lens of movement, the result is more than just a playground upgrade—it’s a cultural shift toward health, connection, and play. Programs like TSET provide the funding to make that vision possible. The creativity and local energy turn it into something lasting.
How Fit and Fun Playscapes Supports These Goals: Fit and Fun Playscapes, a New York–based company known internationally and already a large supplier of Reusable Playground Stencils and Sensory Paths is extensively used across Oklahoma. Fit and Fun Playscapes has partnered with Healthy Schools Oklahoma for many years and the Oklahoma Department of Education with the CDC has studied and implemented strategies to reduce childhood obesity. To reduce obesity and get students more physically active, the partnership created "Painted Play Spaces", a systematic approach to offering more physical activity opportunities for Oklahoma students of all ages. The results were impressive: a 66% increase in teachers and school staff playing games and being engaged with students and a 27% increase in the percentage of students who are physically active. Fit and Fun Playscapes stencils and paint kits were used during this study. Today, Fit and Fun Playscapes offers a diverse range of indoor, outdoor, and portable tools that align naturally with the types of projects TSET aims to fund. Discover many options by visiting our collection of products.
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