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This guidance serves as a reminder regarding the timeframes of available flexibilities issued by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Administration for Children and Families in response to the pandemic.
 

The Office of Community Services (OCS), Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) is informing CSBG State Administrators regarding a temporary adjustment of CSBG Program Specialist regional assignments. The temporary assignments will be through the end of Fiscal Year (FY) September 30, 2021. In addition, OCS wants to remind State Administrators of the CSBG Quarterly Calls schedule during July 2021.

Since the release of CSBG-DCL-2021-28, several CSBG grantees have contacted OCS to express concern that they will not be able to fully obligate state controlled administrative or discretionary funds before the end of this fiscal year. We know how important it is for grantees to be able to utilize administrative funds for staffing, oversight and monitoring, training and technical assistance, and special initiatives and programs, among other activities and needs. Given this, OCS is exploring all available strategies to allow states additional time to fully obligate these funds.

To inform Tribes and Tribal Organizations of the CSBG application requirements for FY2022.

This message provides an update on plans for information collection and reporting for both the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) supplemental grants awarded as a result of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) and Additional Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Relief Act of 2019.

OCS has extended the response deadline for the 2021 American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Survey for Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) Eligible Entities to Tuesday, March 30, 2021.

To provide states, territories, and tribes guidance regarding application deadlines for the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 CSBG Plans during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency.

The CSBG State Plan is currently under review for clearance with OMB as described in CSBG-DCL-2021-19 CSBG State Plan: 30 Day Comment Period. During the 30-day comment period, OCS received additional comments. Due to this, OCS decided to continue using the current version of the CSBG State Plan. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause; however, OCS is committed to thoroughly reviewing and responding to the comments we received.  

The Office of Community Services (OCS) has received a number of questions from State Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) Lead Agencies and from CSBG eligible entities regarding state direction in the implementation of supplemental funds distributed under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, P.L. 116-36 (CARES Act).

To help address these questions, this letter discusses the role of states in (1) ensuring flexibility to meet urgent community needs, (2) creating procedures to amend plans and address new needs, (3) supporting locally identified services and strategies, (4) facilitating communication, performance management, and technical assistance, and (5) monitoring and accountability.

We are pleased to provide the registration links for the Office of Community Services’ (OCS) 2021 World Water Week events. As indicated in the World Water Week Save-the-Date announcement that went out on August 11, 2021, OCS will host Building Resilience Faster: Partnering to Increase Availability, Affordability, and Access to Quality Water and Wastewater Services, a series of events in observance of World Water Week 2021, August 23 - 27, 2021.