Income Security and Social Services Grants

Water/Sewer Assistance Program for Low-income Households in Washington State, also known as LIHWAP, aims to help low-income households meet their immediate water needs. The program provides one-time assistance per program year to eligible households with incomes at or below 150% of the federal poverty level. LIHWAP is funded by a federal block grant program and assists households in maintaining affordable and dependable utility services to avoid shutoff. The program offers grants of up to $2500, depending on income, household size, type of housing, and heat bill, to pay arrearage/past-due balances directly to the water provider on behalf of eligible households.

The City of Greensburg offers the Facade Improvement Grant Program to support the preservation and enhancement of the Downtown District. Commercial properties within the Downtown and Gateway Districts can receive grants of up to $5,000 for exterior facade improvements. The program provides matching grants to assist with building or storefront renovation/restoration projects, aiming to protect historic elements, promote civic beauty, and strengthen the local economy. For further details, visit GCDC.

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity is to establish by cooperative agreement the National Center for Tribal Child Welfare Innovation and Advancement (Center). The Center will serve as the Childrens Bureaus (CB) primary vehicle for delivering effective, high-quality technical assistance (TA) to Title IV-B and Title IV-E American Indian and Alaska Native Nations. TA provided will enhance organizational and system performance, and improve outcomes for tribal children, youth, and families by honoring indigenous ways of knowing, and working collaboratively to ensure the preservation of tribal cultures.The Center will provide culturally relevant TA in these areas:1. Workforce Supports: Increase the knowledge, skills, and capacities of child welfare professionals in the tribal child welfare workforce2. Prevention Programs: Support for the development, enhancement, and expansion of tribal prevention programs3. Tribal Child Welfare Programs: Develop, enhance, and expand tribal child welfare programs4. Federal Requirements: Support successful implementation and compliance with federal requirements5. Tribal-State Collaboration: Develop and support meaningful state and tribal collaborations6. Data Management: Enhance capacity for data collection, analysis, visualization, and procurement of case management systems

The purpose of this funding opportunity is to establish, by cooperative agreement, a National Child Welfare Center for Court Innovation and Advancement (CCIA). The CCIA will serve as the technical assistance (TA) provider to State and Tribal Court Improvement Programs (CIPs and TCIPs respectively). The CCIA will also provide TA to continuously improve and promote high quality legal representation for parents, children, and the child welfare agency, including around prevention and at all stages of child welfare proceedings as well as improve the quality of dependency hearings and reviews.The CCIA will be the Childrens Bureaus (CB) principal TA provider to CIPs, TCIPs and the broader child welfare legal and judicial community. The CCIA will build the capacity of TA recipients to meet current and future standards and requirements described in statute and federal regulations (including those specified under titles IV-B and IV-E of the Social Security Act), improve organizational and system performance, and improve outcomes for children, youth, and families. In addition, the CCIA will be responsible for increasing the knowledge, skills, capacity, and resources of child welfare legal professionals.

The THSO’s mission is to reduce Tennessee traffic fatalities as part of the nation’s vision Toward Zero Deaths. The THSO works to achieve this goal by changing driver behavior through increased education, enforcement, and community partnerships. The THSO works in tandem with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to implement statewide programs addressing the behavioral side of traffic safety. Programs administered by the THSO are 100 percent federally funded.

The Maternity Group Home (MGH) program provides safe, stable, and appropriate shelter for pregnant and/or parenting youth and young adults ages 16 to under 22 who have runaway or are experiencing homelessness, and their dependent child(ren), for 18 months and, under extenuating circumstances, up to 21 months. Service providers must accommodate for the needs and safety of the dependent children to include facility safety standards for infants and children on the premises. MGH services include, but are not limited to, parenting skills, child development, family budgeting, and health and nutrition education, in addition to the required services provided under the Transitional Living Program to help MGH youth and young adults realize improvements in four core outcome areas. The MGH combination of shelter and services is designed to promote long-term, economic independence to ensure the well-being of the youth and their child(ren).

The Office of Early Childhood Development within the Administration for Children and Families at the Department of Health and Human Services jointly with the Department of Education will be soliciting applications from eligible states and territories to carry out the renewal grant activities of the Preschool Development Grant Birth through Five (PDG B-5). The PDG B-5 Renewal Grant will fund states to build upon their initial grant activities, while considering the changing needs of children and families created by the COVID 19 Pandemic, and investing in strategies that will address those needs, supporting and strengthening the early childhood care and education (ECCE) workforce, enhancing quality, and expanding access to early childhood services for children, particularly those in high need communities. Recipients of PDG B-5 Renewal Grant funding are encouraged to use a certain portion of grant funds to award subgrants to ECE programs, to expand access to and enhance the quality of existing services or develop new programs that address the needs of low-income and disadvantaged young children and families in the mixed delivery system across the state.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) anticipates soliciting applications for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Data Collaborative Equity Analysis Awards. Awards are intended to support state, territory, or county TANF agencies in conducting equity-focused analyses of their TANF and other human services data. Equity-focused analyses may examine the fair, just, and impartial treatment of individuals under the management and practices of the TANF program. For example, analyses may assess disparities or disproportionalities across different social groups with respect to benefit levels, referral to specific programs, or sanctioning rates. During the 30-month project period, award recipients will participate in intensive training and technical assistance provided by an ACF-funded contractor as part of the TANF Data Collaborative 2.0 (see description below). The technical assistance will build the capacity of agencies to execute a multi-year project that will identify relevant equity-focused research questions, and using available data, build data models and visualizations to inform program improvement, particularly as it relates to social equity in TANF, which is defined as the fair and equitable distribution of public services and implementation of public policy.TANF programs aim to address the employment and self-sufficiency needs of TANF recipients and other individuals with low incomes. The existence of federally reported TANF administrative data and TANF agency case management data creates unique opportunities to evaluate equity in multiple stages of the program process, allowing TANF agencies to build evidence on the potential inequities that may exist in their programs for participants. The TANF Data Collaborative Equity Analysis Awards are intended to support participating TANF agencies to:Build data analytic capacity among TANF agency staff through intensive training and technical assistance;Promote social equity analysis using TANF data to support program improvement and inform policy making;Encourage innovative approaches to leveraging one or more existing TANF data sources; andDemonstrate the potential for improved TANF data quality, use, and sharing to benefit agency programming and individual and family outcomes.OPRE funded the TANF Data Collaborative (TDC) as part of the TANF Data Innovation contract between 2017 and 2022, which provided training and technical assistance to directly support the learning of pilot sites while generating lessons and materials for others interested in understanding and working with TANF data. (More information on TDC is available at https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/report/increasing-data-analytics-capacity-state-tanf-agencies-tanf-data-collaborative-approach.) OPRE anticipates awarding a contract for the TANF Data Collaborative 2.0 in FY 2023, to deliver training and technical assistance to entities awarded TANF Data Collaborative Equity Analysis Awards.Award funding depends on the availability and continued interest of the government.

This announcement is modified. Under section Step 4 Criteria: Bonus Points Project located in a geographically underserved community, both the state of Mississippi and Idaho were listed in error as not having an active CED job creation project. After further review, it is acknowledged that the states of Mississippi and Idaho have an active CED project located in those states; therefore, those states are removed from the bonus points list. Applicants who submit applications from those states will not be considered for the additional points based on State or territory without an active CED grant. However, they can be considered for bonus points under being persistent poverty county or Native American community. The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Community Services (OCS) will solicit applications to award approximately $15.2 million in Community Economic Development (CED) discretionary award funds to Community Development Corporations (CDC) for well-planned, financially viable, and innovative projects to enhance job creation and business development for individuals with low income. CED awards will be made as part of a broader strategy to address objectives such as decreasing dependency on federal programs, chronic unemployment, and community deterioration in urban and rural areas. CED projects are expected to actively recruit individuals with low income to fill the positions created by CED-funded development activities, to assist those individuals in successfully maintaining employment, and to ensure that the businesses and jobs created remain viable for at least one year after the award project period. CED projects can be non-construction or construction projects, however, short-term construction jobs associated with preparing for business startup or expansion are not counted when determining the number of jobs created under the CED program as those jobs are temporary in nature. OCS encourages applicants to target rural and underserved areas in states with current projects.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) plans to solicit applications for awards to support researchers conducting secondary analyses of data to address key questions of relevance to the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF). CCDF is the primary federal funding source for child care subsidies and aims to help eligible low-income working families access child care and to improve the quality of child care for all children. CCDF also aims to improve implementation of high-quality child care programs to 1) promote childrens healthy development and learning and 2) support the education, training, and well-being of child care workers through efforts that include child care licensing, quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS) and professional development opportunities. Analyzing existing data sets may provide researchers an efficient and cost-effective method for answering critical research questions of relevance to CCDF. Findings from these awards are intended to inform policy, program administration, and future research.Topics of particular interest to ACF may include, but are not limited to: reducing barriers to access and/or improvements in access to child care and early education, particularly high-quality programs for those most in need of services; consumer education; recruiting and retaining a qualified early care and education (ECE) workforce; stabilizing the supply of high-quality care and education programs; improving teacher and caregiver competencies through professional development; supporting workforce well-being; and, approaches to engage, support, and meet the needs of families. Data sets of particular interest to ACF may include, but are not limited to, the 2019 National Survey of Early Care and Education and state- or territory-level workforce registry, subsidy, Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS), licensing, monitoring, Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR), or Preschool Development Grants B-5 data.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) plans to solicit applications for Child Care Policy Research Partnerships (CCPRP). These five-year cooperative agreements will support partnerships between Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Lead Agencies in states, territories, or tribes and research partner organizations with demonstrated research capacity to develop rigorous investigations of child care subsidy policies and practices. Sponsored projects will inform local and federal understanding about the efficacy of child care subsidy policies and practices to increase low-income families access to quality child care. To ensure that the funded work is timely and relevant to the current child care context, the CCDF Lead Agency and their research partner organization(s) must collaborate actively throughout all phases of the project and are encouraged to engage other local and state child care entities, as appropriate. This iteration of the CCPRP awards will prioritize research projects implementing rigorous, policy-relevant evaluations that will test whether quality improvement initiatives in states, territories, or tribes implemented through the CCDF quality set-aside increase families access to quality child care, especially access for: children in underserved areas, infants and toddlers, children with disabilities, and children in nontraditional-hour care. Sponsored projects will be expected to participate in a consortium that will meet and communicate regularly to identify opportunities for coordination, such as common data elements and research methods, and to develop collective expertise and resources for the field. The consortiums collaboration will support research capacity and learning within individual projects and across recipients. For further information about prior awards made for CCPRP, see https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/project/child-care-policy-research-partnerships-1995-2023.

The Transitional Living Program (TLP) provides safe, stable, and appropriate shelter for runaway and homeless youth ages 16 to under 22 for up to 18 months and, under extenuating circumstances, can be extended to 21 months. TLPs provide comprehensive services that supports the transition of homeless youth to self-sufficiency and stable, independent living. Through the provision of shelter and an array of comprehensive services, TLP youth will realize improvements in four core outcome areas (i.e., safe and stable housing, education/employment, permanent connections, and social and emotional well-being).

The Maternity Group Home (MGH) program provides safe, stable, and appropriate shelter for pregnant and/or parenting youth and young adults ages 16 to under 22 who have runaway or are experiencing homelessness, and their dependent child(ren), for 18 months and, under extenuating circumstances, up to 21 months. Service providers must accommodate for the needs and safety of the dependent children to include facility safety standards for infants and children on the premises. MGH services include, but are not limited to, parenting skills, child development, family budgeting, and health and nutrition education, in addition to the required services provided under the Transitional Living Program to help MGH youth and young adults realize improvements in four core outcome areas. The MGH combination of shelter and services is designed to promote long-term, economic independence to ensure the well-being of the youth and their child(ren).

The Basic Center Program (BCP) provides temporary shelter and counseling services to youth who have left home without permission of their parents or guardians, have been forced to leave home, or other homeless youth who might otherwise end up in the law enforcement or in the child welfare, mental health, or juvenile justice systems. BCPs work to establish or strengthen community-based programs that meet the immediate needs of runaway and homeless youth and their families. BCP award recipients provide youth under 18 years of age with emergency shelter, food, clothing, counseling and referrals for health care. BCP award recipients can provide up to 21 days of shelter for youth and seeks to reunite young people with their families, whenever possible, or to locate appropriate alternative placements. Additional services may include: street-based services; home-based services for families with youth at risk of separation from the family; drug abuse education and prevention services; and at the request of runaway and homeless youth, testing for sexually transmitted diseases.

The Administration for Children and Families, Children's Bureau announces the availability of funding to tribes and tribal consortia for designing and implementing projects and/or activities that assess, expand, or enhance the effectiveness of tribal courts and/or legal representation in cases related to child welfare, family preservation, family reunification, guardianship, and adoption. In doing this work, recipients are required to engage in and demonstrate meaningful, ongoing collaboration with the relevant tribal social service agencies.The funding is intended to help tribal courts:(1) Conduct assessments of the courts handle child welfare proceedings;(2) Implement changes to address the results of court assessments;(3) Ensure that the safety, permanency, and well-being needs of children are met in a timely and complete manner; and(4) Continuously improve the quality of court hearings and legal representation, including the engagement of all parties in child welfare proceedings.These awards will be for 4-year projects.

The Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) anticipates soliciting applications for the Family Self-Sufficiency Demonstration Development (FSSDD) Continuation Awards. FSSDD award recipients who participated in the initial awards (HHS-2021-ACF-OPRE-PE-1944) are eligible to apply for the cooperative agreements that are intended to build the capacity of human services organizations to strengthen and evaluate coordinated, client-centered approaches to improving family self-sufficiency.The FSSDD funding has two main purposes. The first purpose is for recipients to contribute to the evidence on interventions serving low-income families with children who are eligible for or at risk of becoming eligible for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).The second purpose is for recipients to increase their internal research and evaluation capacity to develop and implement evidence-informed programming that improves participant outcomes.During the initial awards, recipients conducted foundational evaluation capacity-building activities relevant to their interventions. During this continuation, award recipients will move towards formalizing, implementing, and testing the interventions developed during the initial award to determine if the interventions can be implemented with fidelity and demonstrate promise as evidenced through positive participant outcomes. Recipients will be required to work with a federally funded, third-party technical assistance provider.

American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) children are nearly 3 times more likely to enter foster care, compared to non-Native children. These four year grants are intended to generate evidence for how best to effectively implement child welfare practices and ongoing active efforts to maintain AI/AN families by funding state and tribal partnerships to jointly design and operate Indian child welfare best practice implementation demonstration sites. The evidence generated and lessons learned through this effort are intended to contribute to implementation efforts nationally to help maintain and preserve AI/AN families and allow their children to remain connected to their communities and cultures. The purpose of this notice of funding opportunity is to create and implement intergovernmental partnership models to improve implementation of child welfare best practices that are culturally appropriate for federally recognized AI/AN children to prevent maltreatment, removal from families and communities, and improve safety, permanency, and well-being. Recipients will serve as demonstration sites to design and implement projects to effectively implement culturally appropriate best practices in Indian child welfare, including research and evaluation of improvements in child welfare practice, Indian child welfare codes, legal and judicial processes, case monitoring, case planning, data collection, in-home family preservation services, infrastructure, and systems change. Partnerships must include the state Court Improvement Program, the state child welfare agency, and one or more tribal governments or tribal consortia including corresponding tribal court(s). The "Tribal government" partner(s) may be tribal child welfare agencies where appropriate under tribal law or custom.Effective culturally appropriate best practices for implementation require a high degree of collaboration between state and tribal courts and Indian child welfare agencies. Thus, both states and tribes must identify, build, and enhance necessary capacities. State/tribal collaborations will work together to craft solutions for longstanding challenges to providing effective best practices in Indian child welfare in ways that work best for their communities. This funding opportunity is intended to encourage state and tribal governments to work together to find creative, rational ways to meet the needs of AI/AN families with culturally appropriate best practices in Indian child welfare, with active efforts to retain or reunite Indian children with family as the gold standard for best Indian child welfare practice. The award also provides an important opportunity for states and tribes to build or strengthen relationships of trust by working together toward common family preservation goals. As part of the project, recipients may also consider the role of civil legal services in implementation efforts. Assessment of the effectiveness and/or need for legal representation to parties in Indian child welfare cases may be included in project work, as may provision of direct civil legal services, to the extent that such legal services are an identified part of a pilot or practice model to be tested.For purposes of this funding opportunity, "Tribal courts" are defined consistent with the Bureau of Indian Affairs regulations as "a court with jurisdiction over child custody proceedings and which is either a Court of Indian Offenses, a court established and operated under the code or custom of an Indian tribe, or any other administrative body of a tribe which is vested with authority over child custody proceedings.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), announces funding for a new Refugee Children and Youth Resilience Program. Through this award, ORR intends to establish a program that will strengthen support for ORR-eligible children, youth, and the adults caring for them by building staff capacity with child welfare knowledge at refugee-serving agencies. The goals of this new program are three-fold: 1) to provide virtual Training and Technical Assistance (T) through a child protection lens to ORR-eligible children, youth, and their families, as well as refugee-serving agencies, to ensure the safety and well-being of children and youth as they navigate the refugee resettlement and integration processes, 2) to provide in-person and group trainings to local agency staff to enable better communication and coordination between local child welfare agencies and refugee-serving agencies and to increase local capacity to support refugees children, youth, and their families, and 3) to provide virtual and emergency in-person child welfare and protection case consultations and deploy culturally competent social work, mental, and behavioral health staff to facilitate on-the-ground interventions, including during emergency crises involving refugee children, youth, and their families. The recipient is expected to foster and engage with a network of subject-matter experts (SMEs) with child welfare experience in the fields of refugee resettlement and social work to provide both remote and on-site training, technical assistance, and consultations on critical topics, such as family strengthening, family reunification, mental health, and integration.The recipient will be expected to conduct regular needs assessments to determine the T focus areas. Additionally, the recipient will be required to develop an online resource hub with resources related to refugee children and youth resiliency. This resource hub will contain relevant information about the research and best practices that support ORR-eligible children, youth, and families as they navigate the resettlement and integration processes in the United States.ORR-eligible children, youth, and families include those eligible for refugee benefits and services including refugees, asylees, Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) holders, victims of human trafficking, Cuban and Haitian entrants, Amerasians, children in the Unaccompanied Refugee Minors (URM) program, and other populations as determined eligible by Congress.

The purpose of this notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) is to establish by cooperative agreement a National Resource Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention (Center). The Center will be the Childrens Bureaus primary provider of training and technical assistance to build the capacity of Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention (CBCAP) recipients, (to include states, tribes, tribal organizations, and migrant programs) and their partners to implement successful strategies that strengthen families and prevent child maltreatment. The key focus of the Center will be to enhance the ability of CBCAP recipients to effectively implement the requirements of the program and support evidence-informed and evidence-based child maltreatment prevention programs and activities. The Center will facilitate CBCAP recipients work to plan for and develop a network of interdisciplinary community-based programs and activities that offer a continuum of services and resources that strengthen and support families to prevent child abuse and neglect. The Center will also promote CBCAP recipient efforts to engage individuals with lived expertise in critical decisions related to planning, implementing, and evaluating their CBCAP programs, and foster enhanced linkages between CBCAP recipients and child welfare, as well as other child and family systems to ensure families can access community supports tailored to address their unique needs. The project will have a 60-month project period with five 12-month budget periods.

The purpose of the Title V Competitive SRAE Program is to fund projects to implement sexual risk avoidance education that teaches participants how to voluntarily refrain from non-marital sexual activity. Successful applicants are expected to submit plans for the implementation of sexual risk avoidance education that normalizes the optimal health behavior of avoiding non-marital sexual activity, with a focus on the future health, psychological well-being, and economic success of youth. Applicants must agree to: 1) use medically accurate information referenced to peer-reviewed publications by educational, scientific, governmental, or health organizations; implement an evidence-based approach integrating research findings with practical implementation that aligns with the needs and desired outcomes for the intended audience; and 2) teach the benefits associated with self-regulation, success sequencing for poverty prevention, healthy relationships, goal setting, and resisting sexual coercion, dating violence, and other youth risk behaviors such as underage drinking or illicit drug use without normalizing teen sexual activity. The Title V SRAE legislation requires unambiguous and primary emphasis and context for each of the A-F topics to be addressed in program implementation. Additionally, there is a requirement that messages to youth normalize the optimal health behavior of avoiding non-marital sexual activity.