Updated Information to Transcript

Clarification on Child Welfare Agency and Regional Partnerships

There were a number of questions regarding the child welfare agency partner requirement for this funding announcement.

The answer to these questions is below:

If your regional partnership consists of a county that is located in a State that is State-supervised, county-administered, the county child welfare agency satisfies the “administration of the State plan” requirement described above.  In such a partnership, the State agency that is ultimately responsible for State Plan compliance under title IV-B or title IV-E is not required to be a partner in the regional partnership, but also is not precluded from participating as a member of the regional partnership.  In a state administered system, a local office of the state child welfare agency can participate in the partnership and satisfy this statutory requirement.

Begin transcript here:

Targeted Grants to Increase the Well-Being of, and to Improve the Permanency Outcomes for Children Affected by Methamphetamine or Other Substance Abuse.

 

Good afternoon and welcome, everyone.  I’m happy that you’ve all chosen to join us this afternoon for the pre-application conference Webinar on Targeted Grants to Increase the Well-Being of, and to Improve the Permanency Outcomes for Children Affected by Methamphetamine or Other Substance Abuse.

I am speaking to you from our conference room here in the Portals Building in Washington, DC.  As I’m sure you all know, the Office on Child Abuse and Neglect is part of the Children’s Bureau, so joining me are other Children’s Bureau staff who have worked on the program announcement, as well as our colleagues from the ACF Grants Policy Office and the Grants Management Office.  These staff will be assisting me as needed at the end of our presentation to help respond to questions that you may have.

The purpose of our call today is to walk through the program announcement, providing clarification where possible and assisting all of you potential regional partnership applicants in preparing responses and complete applications.  I hope that you all have a copy of the program announcement with you because we will be referring to page numbers throughout the presentation this afternoon.  We are using the PDF format of the program announcement, and those are the numbers from the PDF format.

This Webinar will last two hours.  We are anticipating the first 60 minutes for the formal presentation and for the second hour to be fielding your questions.  As Jose, our web moderator, mentioned, you are all welcome to submit questions at any point during the conference.  Staff is standing by to accept your typed questions, and again, at the end of the formal presentation, we will then gather up those questions and respond to as many as possible.

Those that we are unable to answer due to time constraints or because we may need to go back and do some more research on the question you may pose, we will develop those answers and we will post those within the transcript, which will be posted on the website in the next couple of days.

The guidance around the questions may be provided utilizing the information in the legislation and in the announcement.  The Children’s Bureau may not be able to answer some of the questions that you have because you may be requesting information that is beyond the scope of the program announcement or the legislation.

Again, thank you so much for joining us today, and I hope that this Webinar will be useful to you as you prepare your applications.  As we have said in all of our postings, any other questions that arise that we may not have covered in the Webinar today, you can always feel free to call us after today.

Let me take a minute now to review the conference agenda with you.  We will begin with a review of the Promoting Safe and Stable Families legislation, and particularly focusing on Section 437f, which is the language that describes and requires us to implement this new grant program.  We’ll talk a little bit about the purpose of the targeted grants, and then we will focus the bulk of the Webinar on the program announcement itself.

Because the legislation is very complex and the program announcement reflects that complexity, we decided that we would walk you through the program announcement based on the most frequently asked questions that we’ve received to date and the key components based on the legislative language.  So, as you can see on the slide, we will begin with a discussion of partnerships and eligible applicants, move on to the designation of a lead agency and the capacity that is required by the lead agency.

We will describe the four program options for which a regional partnership may apply, what kinds of activities may be funded under the grant, the legislative requirement to develop performance indicators in consultation with grantees, program evaluation, and finally, the technical details, especially for those of you who may be new to submitting grant applications to ACF, technical details about the actual application itself, and how to submit it.

We will then describe what happens next after you submit a proposal, and then, as I said, spend the last hour of our time together on your questions.

On the next slide, you see the Child and Family Services Improvement Act of 2006, also known as Public Law 109-288.  This is the law that was passed at the end of the fiscal year, at the end of September of 2006 and signed into law by the president, and this is the legislation that reauthorizes the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program.

On the next slide, we focus on the Section 437f, and this is the legislative authority authorizing the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to make competitive grants to regional partnerships to provide through interagency collaboration and integration of programs and services those services and activities that are designed to increase the well-being of, improve permanency outcomes for, and enhance the safety of children who are in out-of-home placement or those children who are at risk of being placed in an out-of-home placement as a result of parents’ or caregivers’ methamphetamine or other substance abuse.

On the next slide, you’ll see more detail.  Section 437f is very proscriptive and it defines several features.  It defines regional partnerships.  It notes the role of the state child welfare agency partner.  It talks about tribal partnerships and then outlines the specific parameters for the grant awards.

The legislation specifies grant amounts for four fiscal years, 2007 to 2011, not less than $500,000 per year and not more than $1 million per grant per fiscal year.  It also specifies the time period of the grant.  It may not be less than two years and not more than five years.

Finally, 437f has very specific language about the application requirements, about the use of funds under this program, about the grantee matching requirement, performance indicators, grantee reporting requirements to us, and then our reporting requirements in terms of the Department of Health and Human Services reports to Congress.

Just to comment about the performance indicators, we will talk more about those in detail shortly, but just to make a note that the statute required, number one, that we develop performance indicators in consultation with our colleagues from other federal agencies as well as the grantees.  Because of the timelines involved, the way that we decided to respond to that statutory requirement in terms of having grantee consultation in the development of the performance indicators, we chose to use the application process as the consultation vehicle, and I’ll talk more about that shortly.

On this slide, we’re talking about the purpose of the grants.  Again, in the legislation, it’s very clear that the purpose of the grants are to assist regions in building the capacity to address issues related to child permanency, safety and well-being occurring because of parental methamphetamine or substance abuse.

Who is eligible to apply for these grants?  On this slide entitled Eligible Applicants, you see the standard OMB-approved language for ACF grant announcements, and this language is listed on pages 16 and 17 of your program announcement.  You have a whole variety of eligible applicants ranging from state governments, county governments, public- and state-controlled institutions of higher education, Indian/Native American tribal governments, federally recognized, those that are other than federally recognized, and so on.  You see the whole list there.

On the next slide, what you see is the regional partnerships.  These are the organizations and entities that are listed in the legislation at Section 437f parens two, parens A.  What we say in the announcement is that the regional partnership must designate a lead agency, and the lead agency must be one of these organizations.  And again, as I say, this comes right out of the legislative language.  Again, the range here is from – is the requirement around the state child welfare agency and so on down the list.

We’ve had several inquiries since the publication of the announcement related to lead agencies and eligible agencies.  For example, universities are listed as eligible applicants on the eligible applicant list on the preceding slide, but they are not specifically listed on this list, the regional partnership list.

If you do not see your agency specifically cited on this list, we encourage you to go to the last bullet, which reads “any other providers, agencies, personnel, officials, or entities that are related to the provision of child and family services under this subsection.” If you can demonstrate that your agency in fact fits this description, you can be a lead agency.

On the next slide, we talk a little bit more about the regional partnerships.  The applications submitted must represent a regional partnership formed by a collaborative agreement.  The legislation defines regional partnership as a collaborative agreement entered into by at least two of the regional partnership organizations.  Regional partnerships may be established on an interstate or intrastate basis, and again, must be between at least two of the organizations listed in the announcement, and I would refer you to page 18 of the program announcement for this language.

The legislative requirements also state that the child welfare agency that is responsible for the state plan under Title IVB or IVE must be a partner unless a tribe or a tribal consortium is the regional partnership.  The child welfare agency does not need to be the lead agency in the partnership.  An Indian tribe or a tribal consortium can be a regional partnership.  If an Indian tribe or tribal consortium, the regional partnership must include at least one non-tribal partner.

And finally, the legislation states that the regional partnership cannot consist solely of the state child welfare agency and the state substance abuse prevention and treatment block grant agency.  There must be at least one other partner that is not either of those two state entities.

On the next slide, we’ll be talking about the lead agency.  In the program announcement again, on pages 17 and 18, this is discussed.  Regional partnerships must identify a lead agency responsible for administering the grant.  The identified lead agency must be one of the regional partnership organizations listed in the announcement and listed on the slide that we just reviewed a few slides ago, and it cannot be an individual.

And finally, the designated lead agency must have the capacity to sufficiently monitor program activities or services, funding and reporting requirements described in the announcement, and that’s on page 18.

On the next slide, we talk about partnerships and the lead agency.  And again, throughout our discussion this afternoon, I will be referring often to the evaluation criteria in the program announcement.  The way that the program announcement is structured, towards the back of the document, there is a section called Evaluation Criteria, and these are the elements that we instruct our reviewers to follow as they read and review and score your application.  So this is what they will be basing their decisions on in terms of the scores that they give you, so in general, it’s very important that you all read the Evaluation Criteria section very carefully.

But for the purposes of this topic, the partnerships and the lead agency, I just wanted to point out to you that in the organizational profile section of the evaluation criteria, there are a few highlights.  One criterion is that the regional partnership includes either the state child welfare agency that is responsible for the administration of the state plan under Title IVB or IVE of the Social Security Act, or is an Indian tribe or tribal consortium.

Secondly, the regional partnership includes at least one non-state entity.  Third, a tribal regional partnership must include at least one non-tribal entity.

Then, directly quoted from page 53, “the application includes letters of commitment and/or memoranda of understanding from regional partners and other partnering organizations that document the agreed-upon roles, responsibilities, and time commitments.  Agreements demonstrate that the financial relationships of the partners will ensure proper stewardship of Federal funds.” And again, that’s all on page 53.

Throughout our discussion this afternoon, I’ll be giving formal presentation information, and then we’ve inserted a few slides that are questions that have already come in since the publication of the announcement, so the questions that relate to the particular topic, we will answer at that time.

We did receive an inquiry related to the demonstration of regional partnerships and collaboration.  How might applications demonstrate their regional partnerships and collaborative efforts?

Noted in the announcement is the requirement of applicants to represent a regional partnership on page 17.  We’ll use a common means to demonstrate collaborative efforts and partnerships, and this vehicle is noted several times in the announcement.

Again, the evaluation criteria on pages 44 and 54 note collaboration of partnerships, including a detailed description of strategies for collaborating, letters of commitment and again, MOUs.  Then finally, in the proposed performance indicator section, you’ll see where there are some indicators related to measuring collaboration efforts, and that’s on page 53.

Another question related to this topic came in.  Would an application proposing two or more counties as a regional partnership meet the definition the partnership?

The answer is no.  The state child welfare agency must be a member of the partnership, as we have said.  However, county governments are eligible applicants and may, as part of a regional partnership, function as a member of the partnership and/or they may function as the lead agency in applying for these funds.

If the regional partnership is an Indian tribe or tribal consortium, as we have stated, the state child welfare agency is not required to be a partner.  However, the tribal partnership must include at least one non-tribal entity, and those entities could be counties.  You’ll see that on pages 17 and 18 of the program announcement.

Now, you have a regional partnership and you decide that you fit the eligibility criteria as we’ve just reviewed them.  The next step is to look very carefully at the four program options listed in the beginning of the announcement on pages 13 to 16.  As listed in the announcement, there are four program options with two possible federal award amounts and two possible grant periods.

Regional partnerships are to select one of the program options.  They must state for which of the options they are applying and they are to justify their selection in terms of accomplishing their project goals.  Regional partnerships must clearly state for which of these four program options they are applying.  And finally, a regional partnership may apply for only one program option.

There have been several questions that have come in regarding one regional partnership being able to apply for various options.  The answer is no.  The program announcement clearly states throughout the documents that regional partnerships, through their lead agency, are instructed to select and apply for one program option. 

This next slide talks about the process of actually deciding which program option to choose.  Regional partnerships are encouraged to utilize the conceptual framework which is provided in the appendix of the program announcement.

Base project goals on identified needs and service gaps as defined by your regional partnership in whatever the region is that you describe or define.  And then, based on that, select one program option and justify your selection in terms of accomplishing those goals that you set up to be responsive to the identified needs and service gaps.

And again, going back to the conceptual framework, this framework outlines short-term, mid-term and long-term goals that you may want to consider in developing your project.  And you can refer to page 12 for this language.

There was a question that came in asking about how a regional partnership should decide for which program they should apply.  Again, we would encourage all potential applicants to review the evaluation criteria under Objectives and Need for Assistance on pages 40 to 43 prior to your selection of a program option.

Selection of a program option is to be supported by a regional partnership’s demonstration of their understanding of the legislative goals and objectives as well as the program announcement goals.

Thirdly, selection of the program option is to be supported by the regional partnership’s presentation of data describing the impact of substance abuse, particularly methamphetamine abuse, on the child welfare system in whatever your defined target community is.  Based on these three points, then, regional partnerships can make the most appropriate selection of the program option.

On the next slide, we’re talking about the funding options.  How much money are we actually talking about?

In the legislation, there are specific amounts of money that authorized.  In FY2007, there is $40 million available in federal money.  In FY2008, that drops down to $35 million, in FY2009, to $30 million, and in FY2010, $20 million, and in 2011, $20 million.

We noted earlier that the $1 million awards decline in the out years, the $500,000 awards remain fixed, and all awards have an increase in percentage of match over time.  Again, this is all directly from the legislation.

Let’s take a look in the next slide at program option one.  Program option one, as you can see in the table, is a $1 million award for the first year, declining to $825,000 in the second year and $750,000 in the third year.  Program option one is a three-year award with a declining amount over the three years and an increasing match.  As you can see in the table, the match goes from 15% in the first year to 15% in the second year and up to 20% in the third year.

We anticipate awarding up to eight grants under program option one, and we very strongly urge you to look at the program announcement instructions, which say that applicants must use these figures in developing their budget.

Program option two, again is an initial award of $1 million for the first year, declining over a five-year time period to $825,000 in the second year, $750,000 in the third year, $667,000 in the fourth year, and $500,000 in the fifth year, the last year.  Again, the match goes from 15% to 20% and ending at 25% in the final year.  So program option two is a five-year project, declining award, increasing match, and we anticipate funding up to five projects under this program option.

Program option three will be a $500,000 annual award for three years.  It is a fixed amount, but again, based on the legislation, there is the increasing match.  In the first year, second year and third year, the award is $500,000 federal share.  The grantee match begins at 15% in the first year, 15% the second year, and then 20% in the third year.  We anticipate awarding up to 10 grants under program option three.

Finally, in program option four, this will be a $500,000 annual award for five years.  Again, this is a fixed amount, $500,000 per year, but it is over five years, and again with the increasing match, 15%, 20%, 25% in the final year.  Under program option four, we anticipate funding up to 30 grants.

Just to review on this slide, state clearly for which of the options a regional partnership is applying, and refer to pages 12, 18, 19 and 20.  Outline your budget for each of the program years following the tables provided in the announcement that we just reviewed, and that’s pages 13 to 16 of the program announcement.  Regional partnerships are to submit a complete budget for each year of grant funding, and again, I would encourage you to turn to page 55 and look at the evaluation criteria around the budget section.

We did get some inquiries regarding this topic.  Is the increasing match to be cash or in-kind?  It’s listed on page 12 in the announcement.  The non-federal share of the cost of services provided or activities conducted with funding under this announcement may be cash or may be in-kind, and must be detailed in the budget.

We had another question.  If an applicant applies under one program option, but a reviewer believes that the application is better suited for another program option, would the applicant get a chance to re-apply under the new option?

And the answer is no.  Noted throughout the program announcement is the need for the regional partnership to state clearly for which of the options they are applying and to apply for only one option. Therefore, regional partnerships will not receive a chance to reapply, and again, regional partnerships are encouraged to carefully and thoughtfully select the program option that most appropriately addresses the need identified and the project proposed in your application.

Now you have your regional partnership.  You have selected a program option.  Now we want to spend some time talking about what the activities are that you can spend this money on, and again, this comes from the suggested topics in the legislation as well as the more refined subcategories that were developed for the program announcement.

Regional partnership may choose from a variety of approaches depending on the scope of the problem in their region and the needs identified.  Regional partnerships may choose to test a broad-based approach to substance abuse treatment and child welfare collaboration, or focus efforts on a point along the continuum of care from prevention to treatment to aftercare services.  Again, I would encourage all of you to look very closely at pages six to 10 where you can see these in much more detail.

For example, on the next slide, some examples of services and activities that regional partnerships may propose are again listed in the program announcement.  And these services and activities are based on the most current knowledge available to us on effective practice and interventions, and they include but are not limited to system collaboration and improvements, for example, support for comprehensive training across disciplines, and the category of treatment linkages, for example support for co-location of staff to enhance cross-agency efforts.

Under the category, as you’ll see on the next slide, Services for Children and Youth, a project may propose support for a DEC program, Drug Endangered Children program.  In the category of substance abuse treatment services, a partnership may decide to provide support for long-term residential treatment programs where children may reside with their mothers and services are provided for all family members.  Or, under Other Services for Parents, a project may decide to support parenting skills training and ancillary services for parents.

There was a question that came in around startup.  Are regional partnerships expected to begin their projects, for example, serving clients, within 90 days even if the program is a brand new project?

And the answer is yes.  However, phase-in activities are included in that first 90 days, so phase-in activities such as hiring and training staff, cross-training the network of service providers and admissions of first clients could all be startup activities in that first 90 days.  The issue of startup is noted in the evaluation criteria under Approach section on page 43, and in your application, the applicant is to provide a timeline for implementing whatever the proposed project is.  The timelines include phase-in activities that would be implemented no later than 90 days after the award.

So you have your regional partnership, you have your program option selected, you have your activities described.  Now we need to talk about performance indicators.

Performance indicators in the program announcement were developed and included in the announcement to meet the statutory requirement for consultation with grantees.  So what we are asking regional partnerships to do in their application – and that will serve as the proxy for consultation.  Partnerships are asked to review the indicators and the conceptual framework in the announcement, select indicators that are relevant to your proposed grant-funded activities and services, to demonstrate the appropriateness of each selected indicator and to suggest to us any revisions or to propose additional indicators that might be more relevant for the project that you are proposing.  You can see language around that on page 48 in the program announcement.

Again, referring to the evaluation criteria – this is on page 48 – applications will be evaluated in part on the selection of appropriate indicators, the regional partnership’s ability to demonstrate the indicators’ relevance to the program that you’re proposing and the demonstration of the program’s capacity to report on those performance indicators.

Again, if you could please go to page 48, you will see the evaluation criteria and the categories of proposed indicators, which include child/youth outcomes, adult outcomes, family relationship outcomes and regional partnership/service capacity outcomes.  These correlate with the conceptual framework which is in the appendix.

In the program announcement, there is a section on program evaluation, and what this refers to is that regional partnerships are encouraged to recruit a local evaluator to assist in plans to monitor the required performance indicators, as well as to assist in assessing the performance and the impact of grant-funded services and activities.  You can see more information on that on page seven.

I would like to spend a few minutes now actually talking about some of the technical details of the application itself.

Applications submitted by regional partnerships are to follow the application and submission information in the program announcement, and this can be found on pages 19 through 32. 

The due date for these applications is July 3, 2007.  Applications must be received by July 3, 2007 at 4:30 p.m.  eastern daylight time, and I really, really want to emphasize this.  This is the receipt date and time.  It’s very, very important because applications that are received after 4:30 p.m.  eastern daylight time will be classified as late and they will be screened out.  And screened out means that they will not be reviewed.  So this is really, really critical.  July 3, 2007, 4:30 p.m.  eastern daylight time.  We must have the application by then.

I would bring your attention to page 30 of the grant announcement, which outlines all of the required forms that must accompany your application. 

Again, this sounds very, very specific, and it is, but the application limit is 100 pages, which includes all forms and attachments.  It’s very, very important that you pay attention to this detail because pages over the 100-page limit will be removed from the application and therefore not reviewed.  So any material or information that is in those pages, reviewers will not have access to and cannot score you on whatever that material is.  So again, the limit is 100 pages, including all forms and attachments.

And finally, applications are to be typed, double-spaced, and printed on only one side with at least one-inch margins and a standard 12-point font.

If you turn now to page 40, you will see the section that I’ve been referring to often throughout the conversation, the evaluation criteria.  Again, this is application review information.  Criteria for application scoring by panels is in this section.  This is the section that we really focus on when we train our reviewers to score the applications that come in.  This is what we’re going to be spending a lot of time on.

The criteria basically fall into five categories, objectives and need for assistance, approach, evaluation, organizational profiles and budget and budget justification.  As you can see there, if you have the announcement there with you, after each section there are a certain number of points assigned to each section.

This legislation is interesting in that there was language that talked about giving greater weight to certain applications, so the Children’s Bureau in consultation with our colleagues chose to respond to the legislative requirement by creating bonus points.  So on page 42, under Objectives and Need for Assistance, you will see that an additional five points may be scored for applications that identify and describe the impact of methamphetamine abuse and addiction alone or in combination with other drug abuse and addiction on child welfare in the partnership region, and – second point – propose funded services and activities that appropriately address methamphetamine abuse and addiction, again, alone or in combination with other drug abuse and addiction in the geographic area and targeted population.  That language is directly from both the legislation and the program announcement.

You’ve completed your application, you’ve submitted it on time by July 3, 2007 at 4:30 p.m.  What happens next?

What happens next is that we convene panels of objective outside experts to review all of the applications.  We will convene those panels here in Washington, DC, the week of July 30, 2007.  All of the applications will be reviewed and scored.  A decision meeting with the ACYF commissioner will be held in August of 2007 where the final decisions will be made and then final grant award letters will go to successful applicants from our grants management office no later than September 30 of 2007.

Now just a few additional reminders.  Regional partnerships must clearly state which of the four program options they are applying for.  The announcement is available, as you can see if you have the slides in front of you, http://www.acf.hhs.gov/grants/open/HHS-2007-ACF-ACYF-CU-0022.

Probably, again, as I’ve mentioned earlier and again, please feel free to pass this along to any of your colleagues, today’s transcript, slides and additional questions and answers will all be posted to this website, http://www.acf.hhs.gov/grants/grants cb.html.  And that should be in the next few days and that will be a transcript of this entire presentation, the slides and the Q&As that we discuss today as well as any additional Q&As that come in that we don’t have time for today.  We will develop those responses and also post them on that website.

That concludes the formal presentation. We are going to take a two-minute break and put you on mute so that we can gather the questions that you’ve typed in, and we will rejoin you in two minutes and begin the Q&A session.  So don’t go away.  We’ll be back in two minutes.

(pause)

Welcome back, everyone, and thanks so much for all the questions that are coming in.  I will just read the questions and then go through the answers with you.

According to page 17 in the full grant announcement, the primary applicant must be one of the regional partnership organizations listed, so would county government be included in the regional partnership category of any other provider, agency, personnel, officials or entities related to provision of child and family services?   The answer is yes.

What is the definition of a tribal consortium?  In other words, how formal of an operation does the tribal consortium need to be in terms of legal structure, bylaws, MOUs, etc.?

That level of detail is really not specified in either the statute or the program announcement.  It just says an Indian tribe or a tribal consortium, and then under the standard OMB ACF language, talks about a federally recognized tribe or another non-federally recognized tribe.  So I think that the answer would be that the organization would just need to define what it is.  It needs to demonstrate that it is either an Indian tribe or a tribal consortium.

Is there any expected or preferred target group size for the program treatment group and the comparison group in terms of cost to client, since there are four funding options?

Basically, it is up to the regional partnership, as we said, to identify what is their targeted region, and within that region, what are the needs and the service gaps, and then what does the regional partnership propose to do to address those needs and service gaps.  So it’s really up to the regional partnership to respond to that in their proposal.

Will the number and kind of performance indicators selected have an impact on the grant award decision?

I refer you back to slide number 35 for this question.  Applicants must select and comment on performance indicators that are relevant to their proposed project, and again, as I mentioned in slide 35, what the reviewers will assess for is based on the criteria listed on page 48, related to the performance indicators.

Are all of the conceptual framework outcomes and goals to be addressed?

Again, I would say that the partnership needs to select those that are most relevant to the project.  Again, as we said earlier, when you look under the range of activities that could be funded under this grant award, if you look at the program announcement, the various categories from pages six to 10 and then back in the legislation itself where it talks about the range of activities, there’s a whole range of activities, so depending on what the needs are in your identified target area and what you propose to do to respond to those, you may have different outcomes or goals to be addressed.

I need clarification on page 35 of the grant announcement where it says if any data is to be collected, maintained and are disseminated, clearance may be required from OMB.

We are going to have to get back with you on that, because we need to have a consultation to make sure we’re giving you the correct answer on that one.

If a local government and state government within the same state both would like to apply for the grant, what is the best action to take and what are the options available to increase chances of a successful application?

Basically, the answer is that it’s up to the regional partnership to decide what type of a partnership they would like to create and what is most appropriate for them to apply for depending on how they describe their targeted region and then the use of that targeted region.

If the proposed program budget is greater than the in-kind or tax-match plus the grant funds combined, how would it be best to demonstrate the budget details and total budget picture?

I’m really, really glad this question came in because it’s very critical that you look at page 19 of the program announcement.  On page 19, the very last paragraph before IV, it talks about disqualification factors.  I’m reading this to you from page 19.  “Applications with requests that exceed the ceiling amount or the upper range value will be deemed nonresponsive and will not be considered for funding under this announcement.  See Section II, Award Information.”

So there are only two disqualification factors.  In other words, when the applications come in, they’ll be screened out and not reviewed.  One of them, as I said earlier, is the deadline, the submission dates and times, and this is the other one.  So if your application is submitted above the ceiling amount, it will not be reviewed.

Is there any advice for first timers using the electronic grant application submission process?

My colleagues from the Grants Policy Office, to bring to pages 26 and 27 of the program announcement where it talks about electronic application and particularly what they highlighted and firmly recommend is that you do the CCR registration immediately.  Apparently, this is a process that takes up to three weeks, so if you could turn to page 26 and 27 and read that section very carefully on submitting an application electronically by way of www.grants.gov.

Under examples of services and activities, the first bullet on page nine describes preventive services for children and youth.  However, the list of proposed performance indicators does not include any preventive measures that would be applicable. 

Thank you for that comment.  That’s a great comment.  We would refer you to page 49.  Child outcome number eight actually speaks to the child’s individual needs, but in terms of focusing on prevention, you’re correct, and this is exactly why we needed to do the consultation project is we want to hear from you and we want to hear what you might propose in terms of additional indicators that we would need to include in our list of performance indicators.  So thank you for that suggestion.

Is there a reason substance abuse agencies are not listed on page 18 as an eligible lead applicant, or are they included under mental health providers?

From the legislation and from the programs announcement, the state substance abuse agencies are listed.  That’s the second agency listed.  And as you say, they do list the community health, the community mental health providers.  If your substance abuse agency at the community level does not fall under any of these, you may want to refer to the final bullet listed on page 18, which is sort of a very broad category of all the different entities.

I’ll read it to you again.  “Any other providers, agencies, personnel, officials or entities that are related to the provision of child and family services under this subsection.” So between those two, you should be able to make a fit.

To what extent does that application have to focus on families impacted by methamphetamine?

I think we covered that in great detail already in the presentation.  Obviously, this is, just from the title, these are targeted grants to increase the well-being of and to improve the permanency outcomes for children affected by methamphetamine or other substance abuse.  So, that’s what the whole point of the project is.

In addition to the activities and services that support timely and priority access to comprehensive substance abuse treatment for families in the child welfare system as suggested in Section One, will the grant also cover actual treatment services?

Again, I believe we did cover this in the slides.  It’s item number four under Substance Abuse Treatment Services.  There’s a list there, and again, of course, treatment services can be covered.  I’ll go back to what I’ve said several times already, which is your regional partnership needs to define what your targeted community is.  You need to do an assessment of what the needs are there and what the gap is, what the scope of the problem is, and then propose how you want to go about addressing those needs and those gaps, and certainly the provision of services is a very appropriate use of these funds.

There was a question that came in.  This came in yesterday, actually, from a list that came in yesterday, and I think we’ve really covered this, but just to say.  Can you clarify what the definition of regional and regional partnership is?  For example, can several counties, areas of the state, qualify as a region?  Can a single county or a municipality qualify as a regional partnership?

Yes, several counties and areas of the state can qualify as a region.  Again, as we’ve talked about you’re – at a minimum, there have to be two agencies in the partnership, or if it’s a tribal consortium, the tribe or the tribal consortium must include at least one non-tribal entity.  But again, the language around inter- or intra-state speaks to how do you want to define your geographic area and then who will your partners be to address the issues that have come up.  It’s up to the regional partnerships to identify what they see as their region.  Again, as we said earlier, as long as the state child welfare agency is a partner in that partnership, and then if it’s a tribe, as long as there is at least one non-tribal entity in the partnership.

Are community substance abuse agencies eligible to be in the partnership and/or lead agency?  And again, I think we addressed that above.

Can the state child welfare agency responsible for the administration of the state plan be a partner on more than one application in its state?  For example, a local provider is planning to submit a proposal and the state is planning to submit one as well.

I’m glad this came in.  This question has actually come up several times since the publication of the announcement.  This is the response.  A regional partnership can only apply for one program option.  However, a state child welfare agency can be a partner in multiple regional partnerships. 

For example, a state lead agency may be in one partnership that consists of various urban agencies, for example.  But there may be another regional partnership that is formed, say, in a rural section of the state, so the state child welfare agency can also be a partner in that regional partnership.  But the regional partnership can only apply for one program option.  But the state child welfare agency can be a partner in more than one regional partnership.  I hope that clarifies that.

I think we’re going to take another one-minute break here because we have more questions that have come in.  Hold on.  Thanks.

(pause)

Again, thanks to everyone for sending in your questions.

We are a county child welfare agency in Ohio.  Ohio is county-administered.  Are we eligible to be the lead agency unless we involve the state?  We would like to set up collaboration within our county.

Again, we addressed this on slide 17.  Yes, counties are eligible to be lead agencies as noted in the program announcement.  However, as we’ve talked about before, the state child welfare agency must also be a partner in that partnership.

If the maximum number of awards were made under each option, the total dollars would sum to just $33 million rather than the $40 million allocated.  Why the difference?

This is a very complicated funding structure.  As we mentioned in one of the slides, we begin with an authorization of $40 million in the first year and then $35 and then $30 and $20 and $20, so there’s a declining federal funding scheme.  So we work very closely with our budget folks in ASRT to work out a number of scenarios for us that would allow us to fund the maximum number of awards, given that we’ll have half the amount of money available to award in years four and five compared to year one.  That was the funding scenario.  The four program options were the most generous funding scenario that we came up with.

Then secondly, there are other legislative requirements that have to do with supporting this particular cluster of grants, around technical assistance, support for the data collection efforts under the performance indicators, reports to Congress and so on.  So there is a certain amount of money that’s reserved for those kinds of costs out of the total.

I think we answered this one.  Can the state child welfare agency responsible for the administration of the state plan be a partner on more than one application?  And we did just cover that.

It is not clear to me whether a university can serve as a lead agency based on the information provided.

Again, I believe I used that as a specific example under who can be a lead agency.  If you look in the program announcement under eligible applicants, institutions of higher learning are referenced.  If you look at the regional partnership language on pages 17 and 18, university is not specifically listed as a regional partnership organization.  However, as I mentioned earlier, if you look at the last bullet in that section on page 18, it says “any other providers, agencies, personnel, officials or entities that are related to the provision of child and family services under this subsection.” So I would suggest to you that if the university can demonstrate that in fact they fit that last bullet and the regional partnership is interested in having that university be the lead agency, they would just have to demonstrate that in their application.

On page 17 in the grant announcement it says the primary applicant must be one of the regional partnership organizations listed.  Would county government be included in the category?

I think we’ve already covered that, that the county government could be a lead agency if the regional partnership so designated the county government, but the state still has to be involved as a partner.

Is the purpose of these grants to support demonstration projects that document the effectiveness of a particular program model, or is the purpose service implementation to as large a population as effectively possible?  Thank you.

Again, the purpose is listed in the program announcement and on the slides number six and number nine.  Again, I think that if you look at those two slides, really, there’s a lot of flexibility in that.  What the program announcement and the law both say are you have to look at your regional partnership, at your targeted geographic area, and you have to provide data on what is the scope of the problem, what is the impact of the problem on child welfare, what are the services that you have in place, what are the gaps, what are the needs, and what then is the best approach or project that you can propose to respond to those needs and those gaps.  So, it’s really up to your regional partnership to really think that through and propose what’s the most effective approach that you can take given the problem that you describe.

Tribal consortium.  We’ve already talked about that.

May Medicaid dollars be used as match?

No, the match has to be nonfederal funds.  The match is the way that the regional partnership has a stake in the project.  It’s your sort of signup for space and your support for what you’re doing.

County branch.  We’ve talked about the county involvement.

Is there any expected or preferred target group?  We’ve talked about that already.

If a partnership includes multiple counties, can the approach vary by county?  That is, can one county focus on preventing placement and another on reunification?

Again, I’ll go back to what I said earlier, and that is that as a regional partnership, you need to define what your target geographic area is within that partnership – and in this case, it sounds like your partnership has multiple counties – what are the activities that you would like to implement using these funds?  So I think you have to just demonstrate that.  Again, what is the scope of the problem in your geographic area, what’s the impact and what are the activities that you would like to undertake to address those issues.

Can this grant be written to place children approximately 7 to 11 years old in residential treatment?

We’ll have to get back to you on that one.  We need to think that one through a little bit in terms of coming up with an appropriate answer for you.

Will the number and kind of performance indicators selected have an impact on the grant award decision?

Again, we’ve already talked about that.  Basically, the request for applicants to respond to the performance indicator section by selecting whatever indicators seem appropriate to what you’re proposing, and also, as I said earlier, if you see that there aren’t indicators that you would like to see, it’s wonderful if you propose those to us.  You can look on the slide that talks about the evaluation criteria around the performance indicators so you can see what the reviewers will be instructed to look for in the application.

A clarification on partnership.  Federally recognized tribe plus tribal law enforcement plus tribal health and mental health plus tribal child welfare plus school.  Would you still need to add a non-native agency to the mix?

If the school is a non-tribal entity, then that would serve as the non-tribal part of the partnership.  If the school is a tribal entity, yes.  Any tribal consortia must have at least one non-tribal partner in the partnership.

I think we’ve covered all of these.  Catherine, do we have any more?  Again, we’ll stop here for just a minute.  We have a few more questions coming in.

(pause)

Again, thank you for the new questions that have come in.

Are all the conceptual framework outcomes and goals to be adjusted by the grantee?

Again, I think we’ve covered this, but just to reiterate that each regional partnership needs to identify the outcomes and goals that are appropriate to their particular needs and their particular proposed programs.

Do you need to select one performance indicator from each of the categories of the outcomes or just one performance indicator?

Again, I think you need to just look at them and select the ones – and comment on the ones that are most appropriate to the work that you’re doing.

We’d like more clarification about the connection between the performance indicators identified on page 48 of the grant announcement and the conceptual framework outcomes and goals. 

Again, I think the conceptual framework was just a way to sort of have a visual map for you to help you to think about and think through what would be the goals and objectives sort of short-term, mid-term and long-term, and then ultimately lead to what kind of ultimate outcome.  So it’s just a way for you to think about how you might want to frame the work that you’re doing and have it be outcome-oriented.

Does the funding cover any capital expenditures?

I’m not sure what you mean, whoever submitted the question.  I’m not sure what you mean by capital expenditures, but in the grant announcement on page 32 under funding restrictions, there is a statement that says “construction and purchase of real property are not allowable activities or expenditures under this grant award.” So if you mean something else other than that, you’ll need to let us know.

If my state has not applied to participate, can my agency still apply?

Certainly.  Again, as we’ve talked about, your agency would need to be part of a regional partnership, so maybe you can initiate creating a regional partnership or maybe you can find out if you can be part of a regional partnership, but the key is certainly you can either initiate or be part of a regional partnership that can apply, but the state does need to be involved.

Does the requirement for double-spaced document only apply to the project summary abstract, or does it apply also to the entire project description section and the rest of the grant application?

It applies to the entire grant application.

We’ve covered this round of questions.

What is the age cap with regard to “youth”?

There’s no mention of age in the legislation or the program announcement.  In our usual thinking about children, children are usually 18 years of age and under.  Age of majority in a state.  We’ll do a little more work on this and we’ll write up a more complete answer in our transcript.

Regarding identifying activities, our DEC program incorporates both systems collaboration and treatment linkages.  I’m not clear on whether we are supposed to identify a single overall activity or if it is OK to identify multiple activities.

Again, I’ll go back to what is it that the regional partnership has defined as – what data do you have to support what the scope of the problem is and what the service gaps are, and then what are the activities that your partnership wants to undertake to address those.  I would say that it is certainly possible to identify multiple activities.

What should the role of the state child welfare agency and the State Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs for counties play a central role in administering child welfare and substance abuse services?

Again, the State Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs is not – there’s no specification about them being required to be a partner.  They’re certainly listed under the regional partnerships list, but they’re not required to participate as the state child welfare agency is.  But potentially, they could either be lead agencies or just members of the partnership.

If the proposed program budget is greater than the match – We’ve already gone over that.  If your application comes in with a budget that is greater than the amount listed in the program options, your application will be screened out and will not be reviewed.

Can federal funds be used for capital projects?  We’ve already covered that.

Can we utilize an internal evaluator, that is, our own research department, for evaluation?

I think we’ll have to get back with you on that.  We talk about a program evaluator in the program announcement, but it doesn’t specify if it can be internal or external, so we’ll clarify that for you.

Is there a number that will specifically be awarded to tribal applicants?

No, there is not.

Since the grant award cannot be used for construction and purchase of real estate property, can the match portion be used for that?

I’m looking at our grants policy people.  We’ll get back to you on that.

How is a region defined?  I think we’ve already covered that.

Is there any advice for first-timers using the electronic grant application process?

Again, we refer you back to the program announcement to the section that we just talked about a few minutes ago on really making sure that you apply for your credentialing right away, because that may take up to three weeks.

Relative to our state, the rate of opiate addiction is far higher than addiction to methamphetamines.  Is a focus on opiate addiction within this grant allowable?

That’s a good question and that has come in a few different ways.  I’d like to clarify that even though the sort of preferential language in terms of the focus of activities is on meth, it is clear throughout the application that the language “meth or other drug addiction” is used.  So, again, I think it’s up to the regional partnership to describe what is the scope of the substance abuse problem in your area, whether it’s meth or other substances, and what is the impact that that is having on the child welfare system in your geographic area or your targeted area.

We’ve covered these other questions already. 

My jurisdiction has only 2% meth usage.  However, the heroin and cocaine use is 90% with parents that have long-term substance abuse problems, 15 years.  Will not having a substantial meth-using population impact our applying for this grant?

No, we just covered that.  I think that if you describe meth or other substances, and again, you have the data here.  That’s what you need to do in your application is describe what the scope of the substance abuse problem is.

If our regional partnership includes our county government, child welfare and drug and alcohol agencies, is it correct that we still need state child welfare as a member of the partnership?

Yes, unless the partnership is a tribal membership.  If it’s a tribal consortia or tribal regional partnership, then the state does not need to be involved.

Is it within the scope of the grant to focus primarily on courts by providing child welfare mediation services for case management, that is, drug-addicted birth parents with children in foster care?

Family drug courts are a listed activity on page seven under System Collaboration and Improvements in the program announcement, so again, I think I would encourage all potential applicants to go back.  We just gave highlights in the slides, but if you go back to that pages six to 10 in your program announcement and you can see all the detail around the various activities that you may consider.  And you can also suggest other activities that aren’t listed there as long as you can demonstrate why you’re choosing them and their effectiveness and so on.

Are the evaluation costs drawn from the federal fund pool or must the costs be drawn from state in-kind or cash?

That’s up to you.  If you want to use evaluation as your match and you can pay for that through other ways, that’s fine, but that’s totally up to the regional partnership to decide.

Can an employee paid with state and federal funds be an in-kind match for this grant?

I think we probably need to get back with you with some more specifics, but again, the general rule on this is that federal funds cannot be used as in-kind match, so if there’s any federal involvement there, that can’t cover it.

What is the likelihood a grant will be awarded if there is not a substantial methamphetamine problem in the state as opposed to other substance abuse problems?  I think we’ve covered that.

One of my colleagues is mentioning to go back to the slide about the bonus points.  There is the language in the legislation that says we need to give greater weight to those applications that have a demonstrated meth addiction or other drug addiction problem and propose activities to address that, so there would be that five extra bonus points.

Regarding resumes, do you need brief resumes, vitaes for every professional involved?

Yes, if they play a key role, and that’s listed in the Organizational Capacity section, all the requirements around what you need to say about the professionals, or the staff who would be involved in the project.  It’s laid out for you there.

How can we identify potential system partners, most specifically, potential tribal partners, in outlying areas?

Again, I would have to say that’s up to you.  That’s part of the work of the regional partnership.  It’s up to you to sort of figure out who your contacts are and how can you find out who might be in your community that you can partner with.  There is the National Indian Child Welfare Association and you may want to give them a call if you need to find out specifically about tribal entities in your area, but that’s part of the work that the partnership needs to do.

Is the organization profile only pertaining to the lead agency of the partnerships or is it pertaining to all partners?

It’s pertaining to all partners.

Does this funding include services to families where addiction is present but there are no current legal charges or child protective services involvement?

That’s correct.  The language in the legislation and in the program announcement talks about children who are in out-of-home placement because of parental or caregiver methamphetamine or substance abuse or children who are at risk.  So it’s that at-risk category that I think you’re referring to there.

Can tables or graphs be presented in a font of less than 12-point type?

I’m looking at my colleagues who have done this more than I have.  They can?  They have in the past, and so they’re saying, yes, there is.  Charts don’t have to be double spaced or 12.  They have to be readable but they don’t have to be 12-point font.

Can regional partnerships be an entire state with services focused on two counties from opposite ends of a state, or does the regional partnership and program have to be focused in a concentrated geographical area?

Again, I would go back to the slides that we had earlier.  Basically, the regional partner – you, the applicant, needs to define what the regional partnership is and however that works for you.  So it can be an entire state.  It can be more concentrated in a geographical area.  It’s up to your partnership to describe that and define that.

In order to complete the budget proposal, please let me know the number of days per meeting in Washington, DC.

I think every year – usually three days.  I don’t know if we get to that level of specificity in the program announcement.  I think we just say you have to budget for travel to the granting meetings.  I think if you just plan for three days, that should give you a good ballpark estimate.

Child welfare services in Florida have been privatized and community-based care providers who contract with the Florida Department of Children and Families provide the local leadership for child welfare services.  Should the partner be DCF or the CBC in Florida?

Does the state have to be a partner?  We’ve talked about that.  It’s up to the partnership to decide on the other partners and who needs to be included, and you demonstrate that in your application.

From the options three and four chosen, may the amount requested be less than the $500,000?

No, the legislation clearly states that the funding may be no less than $500,000 per year.

Regarding indirect costs, if it’s a low rate like 10%, do we still need approval from the agency then?

You need to have an indirect cost rate agreement, according to our grants policy officer.

Generally, what about mediation services to older youth who are in meth-addicted situations who could use mediation to create healthier permanent or foster homes?

I’m not clear what your question is here, so maybe if you could resubmit I’d be able to answer that better.

Are there a minimum number of clients to be served under the grant?  If not, will a lower number be viewed negatively by the review panel?

There is no minimum number of clients to be served under the grant, and again, I’ll go back to what I have said previously, which is, the regional partnership needs to describe in the application what the gaps are, what the needs are, what does the data show about the scope of the problem in your targeted area, and then based on that, what are the activities that you would like to undertake with this grant funding to address those.

Is it possible for a state child welfare agency to apply with two separate regional partnerships?

Yes.  We have gone over that and the answer is yes.

You emphasize meth.  Is meth a key component target?  Would a process that emphasizes all drugs get as high consideration as a meth-specific project?

I think again you just need to state in your application what the scope of the drug abuse problem is and identify the details around that.  As I mentioned earlier, in the legislation and in the announcement, there’s language that says meth either alone or with other drug abuse.  And I’ll refer you back also to the slides under the bonus points.  Under Objectives and Need for Assistance, page 42, “an additional five points may be scored for applications that identify and describe impact of methamphetamine abuse and addiction alone or in combination with other drug abuse and addiction on child welfare in the partnership region and propose grant-funded activities and services that appropriately address that.” Another question came in very similar to that.

May a single county government be a lead agency?  Yes, we’ve covered that.

What are the minimum, maximum evaluation requirements?

I’m not sure what you’re referring to.  Maybe if you could submit that question with a little more detail.  Basically, we do in the program announcement talk about having an evaluator to assist with your own development of your local evaluation as well as assisting with the selection and the monitoring of the performance indicators.

Can we expand current services that we have in place?

Again, yes, you can do that.  Again, you need to describe what the current status in your targeted area is and then what you propose, and if an expansion of a current project is what you would like to propose and you can demonstrate that that is effective in responding to the need, that’s perfectly appropriate for this application.

Will all of the questions and the answers being provided today also be included in the posting of this Web conference?

Yes, they will.  These are all being transcribed and they will all be included, and then, as I say, there are some questions that we have not been able to answer and I have said that we’ll get some consultation and then get back with you.  And those will also be posted.

If data is to be maintained for outcomes analysis, should IRB approval be obtained and how to address this?

I’m going to have to get back with you on that, because a similar question came up around – another data collection question came up, so we will get back with you on that.

Can there be multiple applications from different regional partnerships within the state?

I want to just clarify this.  As long as there is only one application from whatever the defined regional partnership is.  Each regional partnership can only apply for one application, but yes, it’s very possible that there could be several regional partnerships within a state, in the same state, and each of those partnerships applies for or submits an application.

If one of our non-state agency partners is also experienced in evaluation, can that non-state agency conduct or provide oversight to a contract for the evaluation?

Yes.  Again, go back to the criteria in the announcement, and if it fits the area of what you’re thinking of here fits the criteria, then yes.

I have been encouraged by other HHS staff to not submit applications electronically since it is working poorly.  Do you have any comment regarding this?

The comment I’m getting is that they seem to be working successfully at this point.  So again, you’re all encouraged to submit electronically, but in the program announcement, there are also provisions for how to submit hardcopy if you’re more comfortable with that.

If the proposed project is to be part of a larger existing program, will you want to see the full program budget or just the project for which funds are being requested?

Just the budget for the project that you’re proposing.

Will program expansions be considered?  If we currently run a program that fits the requirements and we want to expand it to other regions’ communities, will that be considered?

Again, yes, if the regional partnership agrees that this is the approach they want to take and you felt through all of the program announcement requirements fell on this, it would certainly be considered an activity that would fit this grant announcement.

Can existing state funds be used for the match?

I would think so because they’re not federal funds, as long as they’re not federal funds, but we will clarify that for you.  The match is your share of the project cost.

Will rural areas with smaller numbers of people needing services be less likely to be successful than urban areas with higher numbers?

I don’t think this is a question that we can really answer.  As I think you can see by now, this program announcement is very broad and it is really designed so that the regional partnership can be very responsive to their targeted community, so I think that there’s not really an answer to this question.  The idea is that your regional partnership, whether it’s in an urban area or a rural area, that you really describe and have data to support what the scope of the problem is, what the impact of the problem is on child welfare and what you plan to do about that.  How are you going to address that?

Can a non-treatment facility apply?

Regional partnerships, as we said, can be composed of relevant partners so long as they are eligible, and again, we have that list of eligible applicants and regional partnerships on the slides and in the program announcement.  Again, I’m not sure.  Whoever submitted this question, I don’t know exactly what you mean by non-treatment facility.  Again, whatever your agency is, look to see if you’re on either of those two lists.

On the list of examples of services, must one group be selected or can an application include components from two or more groups?

Again, I think we’ve talked about this.  You can have multiple activities, again, depending on what you’re defining as the problem and how you want to address the problem.

Will a set of bylaws of a current collaboration suffice as an MOU?

In both the evaluation criteria and in the narrative of the program announcement, we talk about different examples of how you can demonstrate collaboration, and we certainly talk about an MOU, but I think if your bylaws include who the different members are and they state the roles and responsibilities of those members, then I think that that could – again, depending on what is actually in your document – as long as it demonstrates.  It has to be a document that demonstrates who the partners are, what are the roles and responsibilities of the various partners, and that in fact you are a collaborative body.

Again, is there any provision for construction or remodeling costs?  This is a non-construction project that we talked about earlier.

What proportion of grants should be set aside for research and evaluation activities?

Again, I think that the regional partnership needs to look at the whole program that they are proposing and needs to make that decision and document that decision.

Can we get a list of attendees from our state on this call to increase our collaboration efforts?

I’m going to have to get back with you on that.  I believe that in our notices we have said that this is private information and that it would not be shared, but you may want to – maybe somebody who has the lead in Montana, anybody from Montana if you’re on the call, if you want to get in touch with each other or if anybody knows of anyone else, or if somebody wants to submit a question or a comment saying that you’d be happy for us to mention an e-mail or a phone number that people can call and say you’re on the call, we can do that for you.

We are an addictions treatment company, which would allow us to be a lead agency, but if Louisiana has not elected to participate, how could the state child welfare agencies be involved?

Again, I would say that would be part of your work in developing the regional partnership, that if you are interested in taking on the initiative, you would need to reach out to your potential partners.

I just checked the website and these slides, this presentation, are not yet posted.  When will these slides be posted to the website?

We’re hoping that within the next day or so they will be posted to the website.

Can a federal indirect rate be estimated and then established after the award?

I’m going to have to get back with you on that.  We’re going to have to get clarification from our grants policy office for you.

In our state, the child welfare system is decentralized from state DPW to a county-mandated public agency, the Child Welfare Administration.  Based on our unique structure, may the county agency carrying out the state’s charge fulfill the requirement?

The county can certainly be the lead agency, but the state needs to be involved.

Will a higher score occur if there are more collaborative partners inclusive of the ones required?

There’s no evaluation criterion that talks about if you have more partners you get more scores.  Again, as I’ve said, the legislation and the program announcement very clearly state what the range of possibilities are in terms of the parameters for the regional partnership.  So as long as whatever you define as your regional partnership, as long as that’s clearly stated, that’s what the requirement is, that you have to describe what your partnership is and who the members are, and you have to meet those requirements around state involvement, and if you’re a tribe, to have at least one non-tribal entity.

Page 11 mentions the possibility of a national evaluation.  How is this different from the applicant’s evaluation?  How is it paid for by the partnership?

I’m not exactly sure what you’re referring to there.  There won’t be any national cross-site evaluation hosted by the Children’s Bureau.  What the requirement is is that the grantees must report their progress on their performance indicators to the Children’s Bureau, and then the Children’s Bureau is required to submit an annual report to Congress on how the whole project is going.

We would like to clarify that a county and a tribal consortium can be considered a regional partnership.  Yes, I think we’ve covered that.

Are there any requirements relating to the participation of a state substance abuse program?

There aren’t any requirements.  The state substance abuse prevention and treatment block grant agency is listed.  It’s the second bullet in the law and in the program announcement under Regional Partnerships.  It’s the second partner that’s listed.  But they’re not required to participate.

Can funds that are provided to a nonprofit service provider, that is, a child welfare provider or an alcohol and drug services, by a local government entity, that is the county, be counted as matching funds for this grant award?

I would say yes, again, as long as the funds are not federal funds.  The matching funds need to come from the partnership and can’t be federal funds.

We’re just at about 4:23 here and we have a few more questions.

Can the match exceed the minimum required?

Yes, you can certainly put more – well, actually.  I think I want to get back to you on this, because what we’ve been saying is that your total budget cannot exceed the total amount, so let me get back to you in writing on that one to really clarify that, because that question has come up in terms of what if you come in asking for more money than what the four program options outline.

Can we or should we submit our application both electronically and via regular US mail?

That’s your choice.  I would suggest – well, actually, the applications won’t come here.  They’ll go to the contractor.  Your mail isn’t radiated, is it?  Yes.  Whatever you prefer.  I think the thing that you really need to pay attention to though is that receipt date.  You really need to guarantee for yourself that that – however you send it in, that the application will be received by our contractors no later than July 3, 2007, 4:30 p.m.  eastern daylight time.

Do all families receiving services through the grant need to be impacted by meth?  Can they be affected by other substances?

Yes, I think we’ve covered this a couple of times.  Again, you need to just clarify what is the scope of the problem in your targeted community and what is the data around the different substances that are being used.  But, yes, it can be families that are affected by other substances.

Can the money be used to expand existing services if the need can be demonstrated?  Yes.  I think we’ve covered that.

To clarify, the state child welfare agency and the state agency responsible for the federal block grant, the substance abuse prevention and treatment block grant, need to have a third party for the regional partnership requirement.

Yes, that’s true.  There needs to be another entity.  It can’t be just the state child welfare agency and a substance abuse block grant agency.

Can 638 contract funding be used for tribal matching funds?  I will have to get back with you on that.

Is there any minimum or maximum allowable amount or percentage of funds that are allocated for the evaluation component of the proposal?

There has not been a minimum or a maximum specified in the program announcement.  You would need to specify in your proposal what you are suggesting and document why you’re proposing that amount.

Are there cost bans for this grant, i.e., maximum spent per client?  No. 

If a state applicant has an HHS-approved cost allocation plan and an indirect cost rate agreement is not applicable, how does the state department comply with the indirect cost rate agreement requirement?

You would use the cost allocation plan.  It’s what our grants policy person is saying.

Basically, we are going to wrap this up now.  The question has come up a few times about the information for how to access the transcript.  If you look on your screen right now, you will see the slide where we list the website, and again, for those of you who are calling in by phone and don’t have access to the Internet today, the transcript, the slides, the questions that we’ve just gone over and the additional Q&As that we’re going to develop for you will all be posted within the next couple of days to http://www.acf.hhs.gov/grants/grant cb.html.  I’m just being told that this will be up by Tuesday.

Again, I want to say thank you to all the participants for spending these last two hours with us.  Thank you to Jose, our webex moderator, and to all of our staff here from Xtria and from the Children’s Bureau and from Grants Policy and Grants Management.  Really appreciate all your help today and I hope that these questions and answers and the presentation have been helpful to all of you who are potential applicants, and we wish you the best of luck over these next several weeks as you pull your applications together and submit them to us.

Good luck everyone, and we really look forward to reading what you have to propose.

END OF PROGRAM