OpportunityTitle: Tribal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program: Development and Implementation Grants
AdditionalInformationOnEligibility: Eligible applicants are federally recognized Indian tribes (or consortia of tribes), tribal organizations, and urban Indian organizations, as defined by section 4 of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, Public Law (Pub.L.) 94-437. Applications from individuals (including sole proprietorships) and foreign entities are not eligible and will be disqualified from competitive review and from funding under this announcement.
Description: This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) provides fiscal year (FY) 2016 funds for the Tribal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Grant Program (Tribal MIECHV) Development and Implementation Grants. Funds will support 5-year grants (cooperative agreements) between ACF and federally-recognized Indian tribes (or a consortium of Indian tribes), tribal organizations, or urban Indian organizations to: conduct community needs assessments; develop the infrastructure needed for widespread planning, adopting, implementing, expanding, enhancing, and sustaining of evidence-based maternal, infant, and early childhood home visiting programs; and provide high-quality evidence-based home visiting services to pregnant women and families with young children aged birth to kindergarten entry. This FOA is intended for tribal entities that do not have prior experience with implementing evidence-based home visiting models, performance measurement systems, and rigorous evaluation. A separate FOA (Tribal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Grant Program: Implementation and Expansion Grants HHS-2016-ACF-OCC-TH-1162) will be published in FY 2016 for entities with such prior experience. Home visiting programs are intended to promote outcomes such as improved maternal and prenatal health, infant health, and child health and development; reduced child maltreatment; improved parenting practices related to child development outcomes; improved school readiness; improved family socio-economic status; improved coordination of referrals to community resources and supports; and reduced incidence of injuries, crime, and domestic violence. The goals of the Tribal MIECHV program are to support healthy, happy, successful American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) children and families through a coordinated, high-quality, evidence-based home visiting strategy, and to continue to build the evidence base for home visiting in tribal communities. The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the agencies collaborating to implement the Tribal MIECHV program within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), also intend for the program to result in a coordinated system of early childhood home visiting in tribal communities that has the capacity to provide infrastructure and supports to assure high-quality, evidence-based practice. During the 5-year project periods of the cooperative agreements, funds will support: - Conducting a needs and readiness assessment of the tribal community that that considers community characteristics and the quality and capacity of existing home visiting programs and other supportive services, examines community readiness to implement a quality home visiting program, is coordinated with other relevant needs assessments, and involves community stakeholders; - Collaborative planning efforts to address identified needs by developing capacity and infrastructure to fully plan for, adopt, implement, and sustain high-quality home visiting programs that have strong fidelity to evidence-based models; - Providing high-quality culturally relevant, evidence-based home visiting services to pregnant women, expectant fathers, and parents and primary caregivers of young children aged birth to kindergarten entry; - Engaging in activities to strengthen the ability of early childhood programs to work together and develop a network of supports for expectant families and families with young children; - Developing and implementing performance measurement and continuous quality improvement systems; and - Conducting rigorous local program evaluations utilizing quality research methods that answer questions of interest to grantee communities and the broader field. A developmental approach will be taken to inform the focus of these rigorous evaluations, with an expected emphasis placed on formative and descriptive evaluations that support high quality development, implementation, adaptation, and enhancement of culturally- and contextually-appropriate home visiting programs. Year 1 funds will be awarded to grantees to: (1) conduct a comprehensive community needs and readiness assessment; and (2) develop a plan and begin to build capacity to respond to identified needs (including developing or updating a plan for performance measurement and continuous quality improvement and conducting rigorous local evaluation activities). During Years 2-5, grantees will implement approved plans to provide high-quality evidence-based home visiting services; implement performance measurement systems and engage in continuous quality improvement activities; engage in activities to strengthen early childhood supports for families; and conduct in rigorous local evaluation activities.
GrantorContactEmailDescription: ACF Applications Help Desk
GrantorContactText: ACF Applications Help Desk&lt;br/&gt;app_support@acf.hhs.gov&lt;br/&gt;
CloseDateExplanation: Electronically submitted applications must be submitted no later than 11:59 p.m., ET, on the listed application due date.