Matthew McConaughey and his wife Camila co-founded a foundation to help bring after-school programs including fitness and wellness to students. Just keep livin Foundation has a new project, The Greenlights Grant Initiative (GGI), that will help schools to apply for federal funding for school safety measures like mental health services and school security systems.

This is a potentially substantial initiative that can help send at least $1 billion in federal funds into school districts across the country to help with school safety. The money is available through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act which was passed after the Uvalde elementary school mass shooting in May 2022.

McConaughey is a native of Uvalde, Texas. His mother was a school teacher there. After the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in 2022, he has taken special interest in the community and school safety measures. “Today’s launch of the Greenlights Grant Initiative is a meaningful step toward providing school districts across the country the grant writing support and the resources they need to keep kids safe,” the McConaugheys said in a statement Thursday.

The initiative will focus on three areas: Education through letting districts know about grant opportunities; Support by providing resources from tutoring to grant writing services; Advocacy to encourage policymakers to maximize the funding for grants.

Fundraising numbers from GGI are not disclosed and it’s unknown how many schools will be impacted by this initiative.

McConaughey stresses the bipartisanship in his initiative. People paint McConaughey as a liberal but he comes down more as a libertarian. His initiative will have Republicans and Democrats in Congress as advisory board co-chairs. Their roles, however, have not been explained.

What they’re saying: “The initiative’s work to help get BSCA money to schools that might otherwise be excluded is absolutely essential,” Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) said.

“The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act made historic investments aimed at protecting our children and schools, and we must now turn our attention to ensuring these critically-important resources get to communities that need them the most,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said.

His foundation strives to ‘streamline and simplify’ the government’s funding process for school safety. If you’ve ever tried to write a federal grant for a non-profit, you know the kind of red tape that is involved. Perhaps this will help some grant writer somewhere get through the process without too much trauma.

McConaughey, who grew up in Uvalde, explained during an interview on “Good Morning America” the grant writing process can be “intimidating” to schools that don’t have the resources. To hire a grant writer can cost up to $50,000, which many “high-risk” schools don’t have, according to the “Fool’s Gold” actor.

“When Camila and I went to Uvalde, the parents and the family members of the children that were killed asked for one thing: ‘Make their lives matter,’” McConaughey explained in a video shared to Instagram.

“Let’s make sure that the first bill passed in 28 years to help protect all our children in schools matters.”

Unlike a lot of celebrities who just give their hot takes and don’t offer much else, other than to demand gun grabbing, er, gun control measures, McConaughey stresses he thinks more can be done in the name of gun responsibility, not gun control. He’s a Texan and isn’t a freak about gun control as some are, especially after Uvalde, like Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke who continues to try to exploit the tragedy of Uvalde even now. Your mileage may vary but I think McConaughey is sincere for his hometown and others and using his platform to try to do something positive for school. Lord knows public schools in this country can use all the help from outside that they can get.