Transcript - ACL Lifespan Respite New States Informational Call 4-2-2020.pdf

Lifespan Respite Care Program: Grants to New States

HHS-2020-ACL-AOA-LRLR-0402

Informational Conference Call Transcript

Moderator: Lori Stalbaum April 2, 2020 - 1:00 pm ET

Coordinator:

Hello, and thank you for standing by. At this time I'd like to inform all participants that today’s call is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. All lines have been opened for the duration of the conference so if you could please mute your phones when you're not speaking to reduce on background noise. Thank you, and you may begin.

Lori Stalbaum speaking on pages 1-23:

Thank you very much. Good afternoon and welcome, everyone. Thank you for joining this informational conference call. We're going to discuss the funding opportunity announcement for the Lifespan Respite Care program grants to new states.

The goal of the call today is to provide interested applicants such as yourself with some background information on the Lifespan Respite program, walk through the funding opportunity announcement itself and highlight particular things you should pay attention to as you're working on your application and then to answer any outstanding questions you may have.

As the operator said, this call is being recorded. The reason for that is so that a printed copy of today's transcript including the questions and answers at the end of the call can be posted and made available on www.grants.gov Web site. Within about a week or so, we'll get the transcripts in a day or two and then we just have to get them posted. They'll be posted along where the application is now.

My name is Lori Stalbaum, and I'm a management and program analyst at the Administration on

Aging which is a center within the Administration for Community Living. I'm the program officer for all the grants funded under the Lifespan Respite Care program.

http://www.grants.gov/

My responsibility will be to ensure that the awarded grantees are working within the requirements of the act and the funding opportunity announcements for the life of the project. I will be your go-to person, if you will, for any programmatic issues related to each project that's funded.

Also joining me on the call today is (Sherlonda Blue). (Sherlonda) is the grant’s management specialist for the Lifespan Respite Care program. (Sherlonda) handles all the business functions between AoA, ACL/AoA and the grantees that are selected. You would interact with

(Sherlonda) were you to receive an award on questions about budget, financial reporting, drawn down funds and et cetera. (Sherlonda) and I work very closely together as a team to provide the best service we can to our grantees.

And last but definitely not least, (Greg Link), the original project officer for the Lifespan Respite program when AoA first started awarding grants back in about 2009 is also on the phone. As you can imagine (Greg) is the subject matter expert on this program. He is also my supervisor and the director of AoA's Office of Supportive and Caregiver Services.

So to begin, the call is scheduled to go for about an hour. We may not need that much time. We may need a little extra time. We'll see how things go depending on questions and et cetera. I'm here - we're here until the call is done.

So first we want to take the opportunity to go over the funding opportunity announcement and clear up any lingering questions. I'm going to spend a couple of minutes providing an overview of the Lifespan Respite Care program itself. Then we'll go over some key dates to beware of in preparing your application and then we will get to the meat of the funding opportunity announcement and go page by page and highlight key points as necessary. Following that, we'll open the lines for questions and answers.

So Congress passed the Lifespan Respite Act back in 2006 but they didn't appropriate funds until

2009. In fiscal year 2009 they appropriated $2.5 million. With that first appropriation, AoA funded 12 states and some technical assistance activities. Now in fiscal year 2020, Congress has appropriated $6.1 million, which is pretty wonderful and so with this funding opportunity announcement, AoA will fund a new group of states to begin implementing programs under this act.

At this point, 37 states and the District of Columbia that have received funds under the grants to new states. This call focuses only on those funds available for 2020 and only on the funding opportunity announcement targeting new states who have never received Lifespan Respite funding before.

So a brief overview of the Lifespan Respite Care Act. In a nutshell, the purpose of the Lifespan

Respite Care Act is to expand and enhance respite services, improve coordination and improve respite access and quality. This is a very competitive grant program opportunity that requires states to establish state and local coordinated Lifespan Respite Care systems to serve families regardless of age or special need, provide new planned and emergency respite services, train and recruit respite workers and volunteers and assist caregivers in gaining access to the respite care services.

Additionally, the Lifespan Respite Care program can be used to fill gaps in respite services you have where you know they already exist. Those eligible for the respite services under the Act include family members, foster parents or other adults providing unpaid care to adults who require care to meet basic needs or prevent injury and to children who require care beyond that required generally by children to meet their basic needs. The Congressional intent required that states ensure that respite is made more available and accessible regardless of age or disability of the care recipient.

So before beginning your work on the application, I encourage everyone, you and the people you'll be working with or those who will be completing your application on your behalf to read the full language of the act. Likewise, as you convene your stakeholder groups to discuss your application and program development, it’d be really great if you could make sure that each person on your team has read the Act as well that way everyone is working on the same page.

The Lifespan Respite Care Act is as Congressional documents go, very short; about six pages and very straight forward. By reading the Act, you can also see much of that language repeated in the funding opportunity announcement itself as we try - as often as possible to create our funding opportunity announcements based directly on the language in our authorizing statutes.

In the funding opportunity announcement, on page PDF page six or paper page four of 45, if you look in the bottom right-hand corner, I have provided a direct link to the Lifespan Respite Act and the accompanying committee report so it is readily accessible to you.

Some key dates I want to bring to your attention before we get into the meat of the opportunity announcement. Well, first we have today's teleconference and thank you again for those of you who are able to join us. It is being recorded and we will post the transcript in case you want to refer back or if someone on your team was not able to attend today.

Letters of intent are requested and are due April 21. They are requested and not required. I would like to encourage everyone to consider e-mailing one to me even if you don't ultimately submit an application. Submitting a letter of intent does not commit you to actually completing an application.

What the letters of intent do is they help us plan. They're a great planning tool for me to use when I'm structuring the objective application review process because knowing ahead of time, approximately how many applications might be coming in will help me determine the number of grant reviewers I need as well as how to structure the objective review process.

Because we are going to be doing virtual conference or conference call reviews, knowing approximately how many applications we are getting in helps me and our logistics’ planner plan appropriately for the appropriate number of reviewers and review panels which can expedite the process after applications are received. But, again, it’s not required but it is requested and it does not mean that you're committed to apply.

Letters should be e-mailed to me at Lori.stalbaum@acl.hhs,gov.

The application deadline is 11:59 pm which is always the case with ACL applications on

Thursday, May 28th. Applications must be submitted electronically via the grants.gov Website.

The due date is non-negotiable so if an application is late, we'll go into that in a little detail later but you want to make sure that you've submitted it before five before 11:59 pm on May 28th.

Applications that are received after the due date are not considered for funding and I will talk about that more later.

Now per the funding opportunity announcement, the projected start date for these new projects, new state grants is July 1. However, we recently extended the due date for applications from

May 12th to May 28th, which means the start dates for these projects may actually become

August 1st.

We'll do everything we can to try to keep the July 1 start date, however, I really can't promise or guarantee the projects will start on July 1 because we’ve now decreased the time period between the application due date and the initially proposed project start date quite significantly from our side of the workload.

So remember that July 1st is approximate. It's the approximate date the project is supposed to start. Your actual project start date may be later than this depending on how quickly we're able to process the applications. So those are the key dates to keep in mind as you begin your work.

I'll talk later about the actual grant submission process which you'll want to begin preparing for well in advance of when you actually push the submit button in grants.gov to officially submit your application package.

Okay, so now we are going to walk through the actual funding opportunity announcement page by page. And because I am in a low tech at-home environment, I will be referring to the printed copy of the funding opportunity announcement, which means I will be using the page numbers as they are printed in the bottom right corner of the funding opportunity announcement and not the mailto:Lori.stalbaum@acl.hhs,gov

PDF page numbers you might see if you have it up on your computer because the paper copy and the PDF page numbers don't match up. They're off by two.

So as we walk through the announcement, I'll try to call your attention to those issues I believe to be of greatest importance. If I don't answer your question during this time, please do ask during the question and answer period.

So first we have the cover page which provides the project name, Lifespan Respite Care program, grants to new states. The funding opportunity announcement number which starts where HHS-2020 and the application due date which again is now May 28.

Next we have the table of contents which outlines the key sections that are in every ACL funding opportunity announcement. Hopefully you can use this as you're referring to jump from one section to another because you can click on the blue lines and it will take you to the section you want rather than having to scroll, scroll, scroll which personally I find very helpful.

Now, beginning on page one of 45, again, as noted in the bottom right corner of the funding opportunity announcement, the actual funding opportunity information and requirements begin.

At the top please note that the announcement type states modification. The first funding opportunity announcement we posted the announcement type with initial.

But because we extended the application due date from May 12 to the modified due date of May

28, the announcement type now states modification which means it's not the original version.

So while this is - there are major changes, please be sure you’re referring to the modification -modification announcement type which was published on grants.gov on March 30 when you were preparing your application just so you can be confident that you have the most current version.

Below that is the funding opportunity number which we saw on the cover page but you will need that funding opportunity number to access the application materials and submit your completed application package in grants.gov, the key dates which I mentioned earlier and then an executive summary.

Executive summary provides an overview of the number of awards we expect to fund, the maximum funding level, the project period, 36 months as well as information about eligibility based on statutory authority and ACL's expectation that award - awardees will collaborate with multiple state and local agencies as a requirement of the project. Please, I recommend that you collaborate in your state and submit a single application. This will help you address the collaborative efforts called for in your state.

I wanted to return to page two of 45, bottom right, we come to the funding opportunity description. This section is broken into several subsections starting with the purpose. In the purpose section we expand on the information provided in the executive summary with some priority considerations drawn directly from the Act itself, so please be sure your application speaks to them.

Please be sure that as you write your application, you clearly demonstrate your activities will build or enhance the capacity of your state's long-term care system. To respond to the comprehensive needs including the respite needs of your residents.

Also, in particular, please note the last paragraph in this section which states that this will be a highly competitive opportunity. As despite our increased funding there is still limited funds available for this project for these - to support these proposed projects which is why we want to make sure everyone is aware and clear about what we're looking for in the applications to the best of our ability.

Towards the middle of the page two of 45, the background section begins. That goes through the top of page five of 45. The background section provides information focused on getting everyone on the same page level playing field. Who are the caregivers, what is respite, a short overview of the Lifespan Respite Act which is where the link to the full act is located, that’s page of 45, and the status of Lifespan Respite Care program to date.

In the middle of page five of 45, you'll see a section called activities and recommended approaches or subsection I should say of the funding opportunity announcement. Please note that in paragraph one - hold on. That's not paragraph one. Excuse me. I lost my place. I'm sorry, second sentence.

ACL will only fund projects that propose to serve all eligible respite recipients including family members, foster parents or other adults providing unpaid care to adults needing care to meet basic daily needs or prevent injury and to children who require care beyond that required to meet their basic needs. This is a very important component of the Act and it's a very important component of your application.

Near the top of page six is a subsection called, Additional Application Elements, which lays out some of the specific components for you to address, components or elements for you to address in your application. The first paragraph under the section on page six of 45 is really critical. We know that some states may have already been at this a while. We know other states may be just starting down the Lifespan Respite path and others may fall somewhere in between so and that's okay.

So as you’re writing your application, please be sure that you demonstrate the extent of progress you expect to make beyond where your programs currently. This the crucial piece. In the application review process, you'll not be compared to others. You’ll be reviewed based on the information you provide about your current respite system and the extent of progress you expect to make.

So it's very important to know because we understand everyone is in different places but that doesn't mean we can't - there is no room for expansion or growth. So first you want to be sure you show going to the numbered items your understanding of the population to be served. You can demonstrate this by using multiple sources such as census data, service data or other research data that you may have in your state.

Oh, I'm going to jump ahead. Excuse me. Page 14 of 45. Pages 14 through 18 of 45 of the announcement lays out some specific items that should be included in your application and addressing the populations to be served in these other items. And these bulleted items are drawn directly verbatim from the Act. We'll talk about those when we get there but I just wanted to bring them up.

Next you're going to explain how your proposed programs will help families choose and control their services they receive. So in your application you want to - you want to explain how your proposed activities will further enable the families in your states to choose, control and navigate service options.

And additionally how they will gain access to those services, so be sure think through and describe how the program you propose in your application brings together and coordinates the various respite programs in your state and describe how your proposed program will make accessing services and awareness of services easier for the families in your state.

Moving on to how far all family members regardless of age or disability will be served. Be sure you propose a program for a project that takes a comprehensive and systemic approach. The program you propose must serve all populations, all age groups and people of all disability or with just of any type of disability or chronic condition.

The program you propose should address the full range of respite needs and serve all population groups from the beginning of your project. Phasing in over time to gradually address the full spectrum of respite needs will not be permitted. This is an all end program.

Next we highlight the page seven of 45, item number four, stakeholder collaboration, partnerships and consumer inclusion. Remember the purpose of the Act is to reduce or eliminate duplication of effort and assist in the development of a statewide respite care infrastructure.

So please note bulletin items under number four, stakeholder collaboration, et cetera, that should be included - that you should include when describing the eligible state agency’s role and the program proposal. It’s noted later in the funding opportunity announcement is AoA/ACL will screen out applications.

The proposed state agency's only purpose is to serve as a conduit or pass through for funding so another agency can lead the project. We expect the applicant agency to have an active role in your Lifespan Respite program. You should be sure that you fully address each of these four listed items that I just discussed in your application. The top of page eight, this is a requirement of the Act where it is important in all caps because it’s important.

The Act requires that the application include a memorandum of agreement for MOA regarding the joint responsibility for the eligible agency’s program between that agency and any public or private nonprofit statewide respite coalition or organization you'll be working with. You must submit this memorandum of agreement with your application.

When drafting the memorandum of agreement, I encourage you to write it so to allow flexibility to all the parties as the projects unfold because it inevitably projects, some things work better than others, and we have to make adaptations and that's okay. That's part of the learning and growing process.

So, for example, if you spell out specific roles and responsibilities for each of the organizations and groups on all the responsible parties in the MOA, make sure you include a clause that allows for modifications by any of the parties.

If your state currently doesn't have a formal respite coalition, then an organization in your state that provides or coordinates respite can also be used. Be sure your application talks about how you plan to ensure that the required activities are to be conducted by your projects.

Following the memorandum of agreement information we come to the final item, number five, sustainability. Remember, Lifespan Respite Care Act funds are to be used to supplement, not supplant or replace other services already funded to provide respite care services.

So we want to look at, and we provided a link to a tool that the current Lifespan Respite

Technical Assistance Center has developed and we encourage you to look at that to get an idea of the materials and resources are on there for developing sustainable programs based on the experience of grantees who have come before you. So I think that could be a very useful tool.

It’s just why we included it.

Items considered important to sustainability include product development, reporting and evaluation, technical participation and technical assistance efforts, grants and grant contracts. It is expected you will develop products for your program such as how-to manuals, training materials, brochures, et cetera, that you'll use within your program but that may also be used to help other programs implement new things. The Lifespan Respite grantees if it's collaborative within your state and it's collaborative within the program.

Regular progress reports are required. Narrative reports submitted two times a year. Financial reports are required to be submitted quarterly. With regard to project evaluation or performance measures, your applications should explain how you will measure the effectiveness and impact of your program. We do not have a formal evaluation tool or data sets for you to report.

What we want to know is how you - what we want you to tell us is how you will measure success. Note that the section about participation and technical assistance efforts, this covers a gamut of things. So for instance, as a project officer for the awarded grants, it's my job to help you be successful.

So regular discussions with me on an as-needed, also on a semiannual basis, as needed at your need, semiannual is required and a cooperative agreement as well as participation and learning collaborative and other activities provided by the Lifespan Respite Technical Assistance Center which is actually being competed for a new application this year is expected of all grantees.

Also note that in regards to technical assistance, one thing we strongly encourage everyone to do is budget funds for travel and participation in the annual and National respite conference that is convened by the Lifespan Respite Technical Assistance Center. This conference provides an excellent form for networking and sharing. We're learning about best practices with other

Lifespan Respite programs.

I believe the conference is usually about two days or a day and a half and I don't know where it is so you just make a best estimate to budget funds and that is completely acceptable for the purpose of this project. So these sections pertaining to product information sharing and collaboration, the technical assistance efforts are provided as much as a heads up for applicants as anything else.

We believe that these activities are essential for new program developed and we will be doing – you, we, we’ll all be doing a great service to the field of respite and caregiver support if the products that are developed are also disseminated broadly.

The resource center activities are ongoing via a separate grant and are integral to your development efforts. So to reiterate, should your application be successful, you will be expected to work with a TA provider and participate in conference calls and other activities designed to assist you with your program development and ultimately the sustainability of your program.

On the bottom of page nine of 45, we discuss grants and subcontracts which may be awarded by the grantee to carry out required and optional activities. However, the state agency, this would be the applicant's agency, who's leading the coalition, if you will, must demonstrate an active role in program development, implementation and management.

So while grants and subcontracts are allowable, do not propose a project that simply passes funds to another entity. We will not fund what we call pass-through projects. If you do decide to subcontract these specific activities, you want to be sure to clearly describe the process for this and how you as the applicant/grantee will continue to be the lead in the role.

Also be sure describe the role of the project director of the state applicant agency and the role and makeup of the entire stakeholder group including the partners and the coalitions and grant, subgrantees or subcontractors. Stakeholder involvement and partnerships are discussed more fully in the next section on this page.

I think we’ve seen that in states where Lifespan Respite activities and programs are successful, there's strong collaboration among all relevant stakeholders so please be sure you address this in your application.

On page 10 of 45, we move into section two, award information. As you can see after allocating funds which go towards continuation grants, state program enhancement grants, the new technical assistance and the resource center grants plus other administrative costs associated with grants, administration, we have allocated approximately $400,000 for grants to new states.

We're currently planning to fund approximately two grants at maximum of $200,000 each for a

36-month project period. And what this means is that should you receive funding, you will receive your full grant funding of $200,000 with your initial grant award and you will have up to three years to use those funds as because it’s a three-year project period, you will receive all funding in first year.

A rationale for the 36-month project was to give states who are not as far along and the development of the Lifespan Respite programs or who may not have begun the work necessary to bring relevant stakeholders together, adequate time and resources to plan and implement programs and to supplement respite services where necessary and have enough time to do this work well and build lasting and sustainable infrastructures without the worry of - I mean we fund our continuation grants but you know exactly what you have to work with and you know exactly how long you have to do it and we found that that has been very helpful.

You can also - you can use the 36-month project period to fine tune your programs, increase your reach, try new approaches to meeting respite needs and filling gaps more effectively, et cetera.

And since awarding the first round of new state grants in about 2009, we have seen a benefit to these three-year project periods to planning, ramping up grant activities and for staffing purposes.

The staffing in particular can often take -- if you need to bring on additional staff -- can often take a little bit of time and that’s understandable. We’ve used similar funding strategies for our

Aging and Disability Resource Center, No Wrong Door programs and some of our Alzheimer grants as well and it has proven to be a successful approach.

You’ll notice that the funding instrument type says these are cooperative agreements which means AoA anticipates active collaboration with each grantee throughout the life of the project.

As the projects get underway, we’ll devise a communication plan for regularly scheduled conference calls for TA updates and general programmatic discussions. We’ll work with each of the grantees to develop and finalize your work plans which will be completed within 45-days of the award.

Moving on to page 11 of 45, begins section three, eligibility information. Please be sure you read and understand these requirements because later when I talk a bit more about screening applications that we receive against responsiveness criteria before sending them to the review panels, this is one of the first things that will be looked at. Whether or not the applicant meets the eligibility requirements as specified in the statute.

Applicant agencies must be the State Unit on Aging, the state’s Medicaid agency, or another state agency that’s identified by the Governor to administer the Lifespan of Respite Care Act

Program. No other entities are eligible to apply.

So, if you’re listening on the call now and are not from the state agency, that’s OK. You may not be eligible to apply but you should contact and work with the eligible entity in your state to encourage them to submit an application. Additionally, the eligible agency must work with the state’s Aging and Disability Resource Center, which are sometimes now referred to as, No

Wrong Door, systems of entry, points of entry as part of your collaboration with a public or private non-profit state-wide respite coalition or organization.

In this case if there isn’t a formal respite care coalition in place, again a respite organization working in the state on behalf of the entire state would suffice.

And then, note - excuse me - final set of - well that’s pretty much it. I’m just, for your reference, the act (unintelligible) and Aging and Disability Resource Center is an entity administering a program established by the state as part of the state system of long-term care to provide a coordinated system for providing, one, comprehensive information on available public and private long-term care programs, options and resources.

Two, personal counselling to assist individuals in assessing their existing or anticipated long term care needs and developing and implementing a plan for long term care designed to meet their specific needs and circumstances. And third, consumer access to the range of publicly supported long term care programs for which consumers may be eligible by serving as a convenient point of entry for such programs.

You want to be sure that you have an entity in your state that is part of the state’s long-term care system that provides those three things. Information, counselling and access.

Based on the Act’s definition and description of an Aging and Disability Resource Center or

ADRC, you should be able to determine if your state has such an entity and describe how that entity will work in your project.

Make sure you write to the definition and functions of an ADRC at is it is in the Act and make sure the reviewers, the - your most important audience, have a full appreciation for how your state application addresses the criteria for an Aging and Disability Resource Center - No Wrong

Door point of entry and how that entity will be involved in the administration of your lifespan respite program on a state-wide basis.

Okay we’re still on page 11 of 45 and another important issue is match or cross-sharing, number two. By statute cross-sharing or match is required at 25%. Match can be cash or in-kind.

Congress has not permitted us to allow waivers to this match requirement. As with most other federal grants, match must be from non-federal sources.

Cash match can come from non-federal funds, such as cash contributions from individuals or organizations. In-kind contributions can be non-federal third-party non-cash contributions that are made directly to the grant project and include things like donated time, real and non-expendable property, and goods and services.

In the funding opportunity announcement, we’ve given you a sample formula, which is in that section under cross-sharing or match, to help you calculate the match. Be sure your match is based on the project’s total cost, not just the amount you request from the federal government.

This essentially requires you to develop your project work plan and budget first before determining how much you request from the feds - from AoA.

Detailed instructions for calculating match are also included in Attachment A of the funding opportunity announcement.

So, a few times I’ve alluded to the responsiveness and screening criteria. Section three eligibility, subsection three, we now get to responsiveness and screening criteria. You’ll note on the top of page 12 of 45 we have application response of missed criteria.

We screen each application internally to ensure that both the responsiveness and screening criteria are addressed before we give the applications to the reviewers. Excuse me. Failure of an application to comply with either the responsiveness or screening criteria will result in that application’s elimination from further review or consideration for funding.

As you can see, if you’re looking at the funding opportunity announcement or when you look at the funding opportunity announcement, responsiveness criteria include the following four factors. Applicants have not received a previous grant award under the life span respite care act program from ACL, whether it - when it was run under AoA or in prior years under our Center for Integrative Programs, also known as CIP.

We’ll look to see if the eligible applicant - if the applicant is eligible as outlined in section three, part one of the funding opportunity announcement. We’ll look to see that the memorandum of agreement has been included in the application package and it includes an agreement between the eligible state agency and the respite coalition or organizations.

I will also look to make sure that the applicant is not proposing conduit or pass-through funding for another agency that will lead the project. Coming back to meaning you are not proposing to pass the funds through to another agency to actually do the work.

If all of the above conditions are not met, the application will not be reviewed. So be sure to incorporate these elements in your application.

The application screening criteria closer to the middle of the page are a bit more technical in nature but of equal importance as a responsiveness criteria. These include once the application is submitted via grants.gov by 11:59 pm Eastern Time on the due - by the due date, which is May

28. Is the project narrative, which we’ll discuss shortly, double spaced, on 8-1/2 by 11 plain white paper, with one-inch margins on both the right - on all sides, using a standard font size of not less than 11, preferably Times New Roman or Arial. And is the narrative within the page length limit of 20 pages maximum.

Again, if your application misses any of these technical screening criteria, your application will not be reviewed. If all other criteria are met but your project narrative is longer than 20 pages, only the first 20 pages will be reviewed and any remaining pages will be removed from your application and not provided to the reviewers, which I believe it states in there.

Now, moving to the bottom of page 12 of 45, section four, application and submission information. This section provides guidance on where to get the application package, which is www.grants.gov, as your best source as well as steps you need to take to register on grants.gov so you can successfully submit your electronic application.

http://www.grants.gov/

This section also includes some helpful information should you require assistance with setting up an account on grants.gov if you don’t already have one as well as information on using grants.gov, including a toll-free number to call if you have issues or problems.

From time to time there have been issues with grants.gov with respect to it locking up or freezing during submissions. We’ve had this from an internal side as well when we’re trying to post things.

So, should this occur please use the toll-free number to call them for assistance. AoA, neither myself nor (Sherlonda) can assist with grants.gov issues as it’s not our website.

And while I’m on the - talking about grants.gov, let me just add a few more things. If you are not already registered with grants.gov, please start now. It may take a few weeks to get completely registered and if you wait too long you may miss the deadline.

If you’re already registered with grants.gov, please make sure your passwords have not expired.

I just had to update a password on something today that I don’t use all that often because grants.gov passwords actually have to be renewed annually.

Remember that only certain authorized users can submit applications on grants.gov so make sure you know who in your agency can actually submit the application. And then, with just future reference, there’s something called a Dun & Bradstreet number, a D-U-N-S number, which you’re required to have and registry in the System Access Management, SAM.

You will want to make sure you have a D-U-N-S number and you’re registered in all the systems that are required which can help you (unintelligible) submit your application in grants.gov. So this is why we recommend you start these processes early as each of them can take several days and longer if there’s a technical problem.

And finally, they recommend on grants.gov that you review the compatibility of your hardware and software ahead of time. Ours is kind of old but some, like, when I go into grants.gov on

Internet Explorer, I have all kinds of problems. When I use Chrome it’s OK. Different internet browsers work differently. Different Microsoft or Office products work differently so just want to make sure the hardware and software and the browser you’re using are all efficient for you.

Everyone’s computers are a little bit different.

Now on page 14 of 15 you’ll see my contact information and this is followed by more information about the letter of intent. Once again, not required but if you are going to submit one by April 21, my email address is right there along with my phone number. If you would email to lori.stalbaum@acl.hhs.gov.

Now, pages - from pages 14 through 19 of 45 - of the 45 paper pages numbers, this is critical information on structuring your project narrative.

Remember the narrative is the heart of your application. This is where you tell your story and lay out your project. This is your opportunity to tell reviewers what you will do and the - and is the primary means on which application are scored. But remember you only have 20 pages on which to do this so planning and careful writing is key.

We will be using outside review panels, meaning non-federal subject matter experts in the field of life span respite care coordination across the life span, to review and score each application.

The narrative is your only opportunity to fully describe your project and respond to all the elements of the program announcement. We don’t send attachments to the reviewers. They get the 20-page narrative.

So I want to specifically at the moment call your attention - some of the items will sit under project narrative, some very abstract are fairly basic and it’s standard text but in a few of the areas, particularly under the problem statement section, which is on page 15, and the proposed intervention section of the narrative, which is on page 16, we’ve included custom specific bullets relevant to the life span respite program and items that are taken directly from the Life Span

Respite Care Act law itself.

mailto:lori.stalbaum@acl.hhs.gov

So, the law does require that applications address each one of these elements. So again, please note the bulleted items under problem statement, which will also help - will help you in writing your project narrative of things we’ll be looking for under the problem statement.

And then under the proposed intervention, which looks rather long, but we want to lay out so you have a good clear sense of what we’re asking the reviewers to look for and what we’re expecting to receive from you.

And another section I want to point out - oh hold on. Moving for - I have a paper copy in front of me. Submission dates and times just briefly go back over that on page 19 of 45, section three includes even more details on the requirements for submitting your application through grants.gov. This is where it talks about the staff who are allowed or eligible to submit your application as we talked about earlier, making sure you know who that person is because you have to have a special kind of access and I don’t believe everyone can get it.

Well it’s more information, but what to do if you have technical issues submitting your application project. Earlier was technical issues with setting up an account if you don’t have one. This is technical issues with submitting your package - application package.

And so please also note that if you wait until the last minute to submit your application and you encounter technical issues, this section also indicates what ACL will need from you if for some reason your application is not submitted on time.

And this is why it’s very important to submit your application before the last minute because if you go to submit it and you have a problem and you just tell us you had a problem, we will not accept your application. There has to be a correspondence between you and grants.gov that records the technical problem. So that’s why we put that in there so that you’re aware of those pieces of information.

On page 20 of 45 I just want to point out the funding restrictions that are listed under item number five. As these are non-negotiable but rather required by law. We’re not allowed to fund construction, research or continuation of existing projects without expansion or new innovative approaches which is the act. Also, there is additional guidance on that - the serving of meals and other things which are not allowable.

Finally, you’ll notice that we once again addressed the requirement for the applicant agency to have a memorandum of agreement at the bottom of page 20 through the top of page 21, as a part of the application.

I just want to make sure it’s a big little thing that we don’t want you to leave out of your package so we kind of run it through there several times. And you’ll recall this is the responsiveness criteria so without it your application will not be submitted for review.

Now beginning on page 21 of 45 and going through page 25 of 45, are a whole lot of application review criteria. Each of the sections project relevance and current need, approach, budget, project impact, and organizational capacity have a maximum number of scoring points.

Within the sections there are some subsections which may indicate the breakout of the points for how they work. In the approach there’s goals and objectives for five points, work plan five points, methods of addressing the problem 10 points, coordination and linkage 10 points.

And we lay out this exact criteria against which your application will be scored. In other words, the scoring forms that the reviews use will have these exact questions on them and when they read your application, they will be reading your application to look to see how you address these many, many questions.

So my suggestion is always to read through and make sure your application - you feel comfortable that your application has answered each of these questions or addressed them in some way so as the reviewers are reading them, they - this is part of telling your story. It’s also a way for us to further explain what we’re looking for in your application because it’s what the reviewers are going to use to score you.

And keep in mind that these are the only criteria against which reviewers will be scoring your applications. I said earlier, it will compare applications against each other. They rank your application based on how well you addressed these items in the review criteria section.

Then at the bottom of page 25 after the review criteria question, we give you an overview of the review and selection process that will take place after you submit your applications.

As we mentioned, each of the applications that comes through is initially screened and then if it goes - if it clears the screening and responsiveness criteria, it will be reviewed by a panel of three experts in the field. Their recommendations will be included in the final award decisions. They will use scoring forms that contain each of the questions in the five review sections on the previous pages.

After the May 28 application deadline, applications will be made available to the reviewers within approximately three to seven days depending on the number of applications we receive and the number of review panels we have to convene.

Reviewers generally have about 10 days or so to review the multiple applications that they are given so in general, best case scenario, we should be conducting the review panels by mid-June possibly more likely late June.

And so, notifications will go out to successful applicants most likely in late June to mid-July, which is why the start date of July 1 is very iffy and more likely to be August 1. But again, that will all depend on how long the review and internal approval process takes and that’s about as specific I can be at this point with respect to timelines.

Along with the other key dates we talked about earlier, you should have a pretty good idea of what will be happening as this process unfolds over the Summer and what happens after you submit your application and the work moves over to us for additional review - for final review, sorry.

And finally - oh sorry - page 26 and 27 of the announcement just contains some information about the award notices, administrative and national policy requirements as well as reporting requirements for both fiscal reporting and program progress reporting.

I wanted to bring this to your attention because it’s (unintelligible) administration information and it’s pertinent should you be funded and receive a new grant award but not something that needs to be addressed in your application.

This is followed by my contact information again, for about the third time I think and then

(Sherlonda Blue)’s contact information as well.

Then finally on the bottom of page 27 of the 45-page paper document to - through to the end of the announcement is other information which - section eight, which incorporates other elements of the application and provides templates that are included to the - as attachments to the applications. We have templates for the work plan, the budget narrative, and etcetera in the back of the application.

I’d like to point out that the templates are for sample purposes. We provide a sample of a work plan and then we provide a plain document of the work plan with nothing filled in. You’re welcome to use these templates or if you have something else you prefer to use that is perfectly acceptable too. The reviewers are not looking at whether or not you used our template or template of your own. We just offer these as assistance.

And I guess this concludes my portion of the call. (Shalanda) or (Greg) do you have anything you’d like to add?

Greg Link: This is Greg. No, I don’t.

Sherlonda Blue: Hi this is Sherlonda. I don’t have anything to add.

Lori Stalbaum: Okay thanks guys. Then I’d like to open the line to questions. We just have full and open lines so we’ll do the best we can to go one at a time and we look forward to answering any questions you may have. Go ahead please.

Don’t forget to unmute if you have a question. Are there no questions?

Male 1: Yes, I have a question.

Lori Stalbaum: Thank you.

Male 1: Yes, are there - is there any system for submitting questions as we’re going through the process or would those be sent to you or is there any - what’s the system for sending in questions?

Lori Stalbaum: If you have questions as you’re working through the process you may email them to me. Depending on the nature of the questions, I can answer questions in a general way. I cannot answer - send your questions to me, Lori, and I will answer them to the best of my ability based on the guidelines of a full and open competition.

Male 1: Thank you.

Lori Stalbaum: Thank you. Oh, and if it’s budget or other related then I’ll share it with

(Sherlonda). You can just send them to me, and I’ll figure out if I need

(Sherlonda)’s help, which grateful to have. She’s a wonderful team member.

Lori Stalbaum: Anyone else please?

Male 2: When you’re discussing expanding upon an existing program or building upon, you’re speaking only of programs that were started that were not through life span federal funds previously, correct?

Lori Stalbaum: Correct.

Male 2: Or can’t participate I mean.

Lori Stalbaum: Correct and (Greg) feel free to jump in. This - because this is for states that have never been funded so we know states have respite programs and a lot of -some states do not have coalitions but a lot of states have respite work they’re doing and coalitions that they’re working with but they’ve not received funding under this program.

Lori Stalbaum: So, if you have an existing program that’s never been funded from the Life

Span Respite Care Act fund, then you’re eligible to apply and then what we would like to see in your application is how you are going to advance your current system of care. We don’t want you to just - your application wouldn’t be, like, well we’re going to get this money and then we’re going to keep doing what we’ve been doing.

Your application will be, this is what we - where - what we’re doing right now and with these additional funds we would - we want to reach into this area. I mean it’s supposed to go state-wide but there’s a large population of an ethnic minority group or limited English speaking group or something like that that you haven’t had the resources to maybe fully target.

We’d like to expand our reach to this group, or we’d like to do more with tele-health or we’d like to have more trainings, or we have very few volunteers.

We want to expand our volunteer services and not just use paid providers.

Lori Stalbaum: So, what you have now is the foundation for where you want to go.

Male 2: Right, thank you.

Lori Stalbaum: Thank you. Anything to add (Greg)?

Greg Link: No that was comprehensive, just so you know, maybe just a sentence or two more on background.