OpportunityTitle: Initiative to Reduce Long-Term Foster Care
AdditionalInformationOnEligibility: Collaborative efforts are strongly encouraged, but applicants must identify a primary applicant responsible for administering the cooperative agreement. If the primary applicant responsible for administering the cooperative agreement is a non-profit organization or institution of higher education, the applicant must document a strong partnership with the public child welfare agency(ies) with responsibility for administering the child welfare program(s) in the targeted geographical area(s) and courts having jurisdiction over the targeted child welfare population.  Faith-based and community organizations that meet eligibility requirements are eligible to receive awards under this funding opportunity announcement.
Description: The purpose of this funding opportunity announcement is to fund demonstration projects that support the implementation and test the effectiveness of innovative intervention strategies to improve permanency outcomes of subgroups of children that have the most serious barriers to permanency in spite of the reform efforts in the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997(ASFA). Many provisions of ASFA focused on moving children and youth to permanent families more quickly while maintaining children&apos;s safety. Even so, many jurisdictions struggle with a growing population of children who are aging out of foster care. These projects will address site specific issues in order to help children leave foster care in fewer than three years. The cooperative agreements will fund activities that include: the planning necessary to develop effective intervention strategies; collaborative planning to leverage other Federal, State and local investments of existing funding streams into effective permanency achievement programs and practices; the range of activities and services needed to develop, adopt, implement, assess, and sustain effective permanency achievement programs; the services which address barriers to children&apos;s placement with permanent families outside of the foster care system; active participation in rigorous site-specific and cross-site evaluations that include process/implementation, outcome, and cost study components; and dissemination of information about grantee experiences. All applicants must identify local barriers to permanent placement and implement innovative intervention strategies that mitigate or eliminate those barriers throughout the continuum of service to reduce the likelihood that future children entering foster care encounter similar barriers upon entry or during their stay in care. The cooperative agreements allow flexibility in identification of the target population and the design of the interventions. If cooperative agreement funds are used to provide direct services they should not supplant Federal, State, or local funding. Innovative intervention strategies and program models may focus on, but are not limited to: reducing the number of children who enter care; intervening at the point of entry with the families of children who typically remain in care for lengthy periods of time; targeted assessment of children and/or families to determine their strengths, challenges, trauma history, and individualized service needs; intervening with children who have already experienced long stays in foster care; revising practices that impact child and family well-being to expedite achievement of permanency; State/Tribal collaboration to reduce the length of stay for the foster care population with Tribal heritage; innovative interventions for populations of children and youth who have long stays in foster care; recruitment of foster homes in communities with the highest rate of removal; or any combination of the above services. Projects will be eligible for incentive payments if they achieve targets for permanency and well-being outcomes. Projects will be given flexibility in how to use the incentive payments to fund enhanced project-related activities. This Funding Opportunity Announcement has been modified. Changes have been made to Section I, which now includes a clarification of the term &quot;long term foster care&quot; and no longer requires that applicants engage independent evaluators. In addition, broken weblinks in Section I have been corrected.
GrantorContactEmailDescription: ACF Applications Help Desk
GrantorContactText: ACF Applications Help Desk&lt;br/&gt;app_support@acf.hhs.gov&lt;br/&gt;
CloseDateExplanation: See link to full announcement for details. IMPORTANT NOTE: Applications submitted electronically via Grants.gov must be submitted no later than 4:30 p.m., eastern time, on the due date referenced above.