CGNS Info Call Transcript 6.20.2024 (1).docx

Advancing State Implementation of the National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers Funding Opportunity Number: HHS-2024-ACL-AOA-CGNS-0040 Pre-Application Teleconference Transcript & Recording June 20, 2024

Moderator: Greg Link This transcript has been edited for readability and clarity

Click here for the recording

Greg Link: Great. Thank you, Jill. And thank you to everyone who has dialed in today to hear this presentation and pre-application teleconference for ACL's newest funding opportunity announcement entitled Advancing State Implementation of the National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers.

As Jill stated, my name is Greg Link. I'm the Director of the Office of Supportive and Caregiver Services, the office within ACL that will be overseeing the work of the grantees in this project. The purpose of today's call is to review the contents of the Notice of Funding Opportunity for this particular project.

This call will only address the items associated with this particular funding opportunity announcement. It would be ideal if you all could have a copy of the Funding Opportunity Announcement. It's downloadable in PDF. If you have it available either as a hard copy so that you can go through it as I'm walking through it, or if you have it open on your laptop, that's great.

As Jill mentioned, this call is being recorded. We are also developing a written transcript of the call and that transcript will be available in about a week and will be located on Grants.gov in association with the funding opportunity materials associated with this particular NOFO.

In that transcript, there will also be a link so that you can listen to a downloaded recording of this entire call, including my presentation and the question-and-answer period after. So, with that, I want to get into the Funding Opportunity Announcement itself.

The purpose, what I really want to accomplish is to draw your attention to several critical components within the Funding Opportunity Announcement so that as you determine whether or not you are going to apply for one of these grants, you have the information that you need. And we will be opening the call at the end of my presentation for a question-and-answer period. This is your ideal and optimum time to ask a question because I'm pretty much able to answer most any question that you have, and we can do it in this open and public forum.

So, with that, I want to turn my attention, your attention, to the Funding Opportunity Announcement itself. Beginning on Page 2, at near the bottom of the page, we have a number of key dates for you all to be aware of and that you should be keeping in mind. We are asking for letters of intent to be sent to us no later than COB tomorrow.

I realize that, that's a bit of a tight timeframe and so while it's a due date, that date is flexible, and we will take letters of intent pretty much up until the due date for applications, and I'll talk more about letters of intent later. The due date for applications is 11:59 pm Eastern Time on August 6, 2024. That date is set in stone, it cannot be moved, and I'll be talking a little bit more about that as well later on in this call.

On Page 3, we begin to provide some of the executive summary for the Funding Opportunity Announcement. I've tried to encapsulate the general purpose and a brief overview of what would be expected of grantees should they receive an award under this funding opportunity.

The first thing to know is the origin for this particular funding opportunity. When ACL received its final FY 2024 appropriation from Congress, appropriators included specifically $2 million in our National Family Caregiver Support Program, Section 373 of the Older Americans Act, included $2 million to support demonstration grants that develop, test, and scale models that implement the commitments and recommended actions in the national strategy.

And so, we are implementing, so the purpose of this funding opportunity is to implement the demonstration authority in Section 373(i) of the Older Americans Act. The other important thing to remember is this is also a limited competition. It is only open to State Units on Aging who have the authority to administer programs under Section 373 of the Older Americans Act. And we will award up to four cooperative agreements to State Units on Aging to undertake statewide activities to develop, test and scale activities that implement the goals, recommendations and actions in the strategy.

Each project is going to be fully funded for a period of 24 months with one 24-month budget period. In other words, we call this forward funding, meaning that your access to the entire amount of the award is given to the grantee up front. There is no need for multiple-year continuations. This is a two-year or 24-month project with a single 24-month budget.

The other thing I want you all to be aware of is as you're considering whether or not to apply for this grant, we've laid out some considerations that applicants should at a minimum understand before - as they apply to this opportunity. The first one I've already talked about is that applications will only be accepted from State Units on Aging.

Applications from all other sources, meaning community-based organizations, public or private, not-for-profits, will not be accepted and will be eliminated from consideration. The second thing to consider is that only one application per state will be accepted. Stands to reason if there's one State Unit on Aging per state that only one application would be accepted per state.

The third and this is really important, each application must demonstrate a collaboration between the State Unit on Aging as the prime grantee and, at a minimum, the State Developmental Disabilities Agency (DD) and at least one other state agency, and that could be, for example, the state Medicaid agency, Public Health, Mental Health, Education, Transportation, Child Welfare, Labor, State Departments of Labor, state universities, or - and / or a Tribal entity in the state over the course of the project.

So, the State Unit on Aging will be the prime. That - the State Unit on Aging must demonstrate a collaboration with the state DD agency and at least one other state agency or tribe. And you can certainly choose more than one state agency to collaborate.

The fourth consideration, and this one is equally as important, is that each application must demonstrate a focus on at least three of the five goals outlined in the strategy. And those include undertaking activities to increase awareness of an outreach to family caregivers, advancing partnership engagement with family caregivers, directly strengthening services and supports in a way that your state has identified, activities that can help ensure financial and workplace security for family caregivers. And then the fifth goal in the national strategy was expanding data and the use of research and evidence-based practices.

So, applications must demonstrate a focus on at least three of those five areas. You're welcome to look at all five, but no less than three can be - will be considered and that will be one of the responses in these criteria. So, at the top of Page 4, we lay out some background information.

At the top of Page 5, ACL articulates the overall goal for this project, which is for states to successfully and sustainably develop tests and scale models that implement commitments and recommendations from the National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers.

So, with that goal in mind is how you should begin to form your collaborations, begin to conceptualize what your project will look like over the course of the two months or the two years, I'm sorry, that the project will be funded.

From Page 5 to the top of Page 6, we just lay out some background and rationale pulled directly from ACL's evaluation of the National Family Caregiver Support Program a few years ago and from what our National Surveys of Older Americans Act participants tell us about what some of the additional needs are for family caregivers that could be addressed by a state in this project.

At about a third of the way down on Page 6, we lay out several priority areas and desired activities. So, you know, keeping in mind that ACL's priority is to implement the principles and recommendations and strategy, we obviously would expect applications to be based on and use the National Strategy as a framework for everything you propose. So applications are going to be scored in large measure on the extent to which the projects are grounded in and can help advance the principles and concepts in the strategy.

And so, I provide direct links to some of the key components of the strategy that you can begin to look at. I would think that the third document that we list is actions for states, communities, and others is where applicants may get the majority of their ideas and how they may want to conceptualize and structure their proposals.

So, we made it really easy for you to provide, to identify, and to begin to work with collaborators in your state to develop your application. And speaking of collaboration, at the top of Page 7, again we lay out the requirement for state agency collaboration with again the State Unit on Aging being the lead, the required partnership with the state's DD agency, and then additional state agency collaboration as we lay out here.

It's really up to the collaborators that come together around your state's application as to whether or not how you demonstrate and document the commitment of these partners. It could be through MOUs or letters of commitment. However, they're - whatever you all choose to use, please make sure that they're detailed and specific to the role of each partner and what each will bring to the project.

And also be sure to weave in flexibility in those documents so that as priorities or reality on the ground shifts, you can pivot but if you need to, to you know, make sure that your project stays on track. We also make provisions for grantees to have a post-award planning and alignment period. We recognize sometimes in, as you're preparing applications, it may be difficult to secure the commitments, the formal commitments of partners to the project.

You may also not have all of your staff fully on board. So, we're encouraging applicants to build into their proposals a post-award and alignment period not to exceed six weeks. It would really give you time to finalize working agreements and your work plan, identify and finalize staffing and other aspects of the project startup. So, this is a little something new that we're trying in some of the programs in my office. So, I would encourage you all to do that as a way to give yourself breathing room for project startup.

At the bottom of Page 7 through Page 8 and 9, we talk about reliance on technical assistance efforts. This project is not intended to exist in a vacuum. And so, we would fully expect that applicants and successful grantees understand the role that all of - many of the other ACL-funded technical assistance and resource centers could play in supporting your work and informing the work that you do.

We also have some really great supports available through the National Academy for State Health Policy through their grant from the John A. Hartford Foundation. They have many, many resources there for states specifically, about how they can begin to implement what's in the strategy.

At the bottom of Page 8, we talk about subgrants or subcontracts. We recognize that oftentimes the prime grantee will need the support of subcontracts or subgrantees. And certainly in this case, with the requirement for partnerships, I can see where that would be the case, and perhaps you would have subcontracts or subgrants to other entities to carry out the work so that you're ensuring a statewide approach.

Regarding accessibility and 508 compliance, we require that all information materials developed by grantees and partners be fully accessible, and we can certainly work with you on that. We have plenty of resources available to assist you in that regard.

Sustainability is also a critical component of ACL's funding strategy, and we expect to realize that sustainable outcomes from the grantee and their partners. So, proposals should contain a plan for sustaining the project's work after the two years of federal funding.

And the same with project outcomes and evaluation. We do expect to see clear, measurable outcomes associated with your applications and within your proposals. So, and keeping in mind that outcomes are very different from outputs. Outcomes are the change you hope to see or the changes you hope to make in your state's ability to serve and support family caregivers.

Bottom of Page 9, we talk about award information. These will be cooperative agreements. We are going to award no more than four cooperative agreements. The award ceiling is $490,000 per project period. And the award floor is $450,000 per project period. And so for these being forward funded or fully funded projects, this $490,000 ceiling will be what you would have to work with over the 24 months of the project. So, that's what it means by fully funded.

And we certainly don't want you to come in below the award floor of $450,000. We believe that states have enough opportunity to infuse the principles of the strategy into their state systems of services and supports for caregivers, that $450,000 should be the minimum that you're coming after in terms of the award amount.

Top of Page 9, we lay out the eligibility information. Again, this is a limited competition, as I said that only state units on aging may apply. There is a cost sharing or matching requirement because these are Older Americans Act funds, and they are funds out of Section 373 of the Older Americans Act, the National Family Caregiver Support Program. There is a 25% match requirement. We provide information on pages 11 and 12 for how to calculate the match.

And then starting at the bottom of Page 11, going on to Page 12, we lay out the terms and conditions of the cooperative agreement. And these terms and conditions will be incorporated by reference in your notices of award.

At the top of Page 13, this is another really important section that I want you all to pay attention to, the responsiveness and screening criteria. After you submit your applications, your each application package will go through two phases of screening before they ever get moved on to the review panel.

And the third one, does the state demonstrate collaboration with the state's DD agency and at least one other state agency. Again, if that partnership that collaboration isn't evident in the application, it will be eliminated and not scored. So, those are the programmatic and responsiveness criteria. Your applications are also going to be screened for some additional, like, administrative criteria, basically form and formatting.

Applications have to be submitted by the due date. The project narrative section has to be on 8.5” by 11” size paper with one-inch margins and a font size of no less than 11 points. And your project narratives cannot exceed 30 pages. We've given a few additional pages here because we recognize this could be a project of some significant scope, and so we've bumped it up from the typical 20-page limit to 30 pages.

And keep in mind that the work plan, letters of commitment, resumes, and other things like that are not counted as part of the project narrative for the purposes of the 30-page limit. We lay out some information on the bottom of Page 13 going on through Page 14 and on to 15. And that's making sure that you have your appropriate SAMs [System for Award Management] and DUNS [Data Universal Numbering System] registration completed and that you have Grants.gov accounts.

Your applications have to be submitted electronically through Grants.gov. That's an absolute requirement. If you have technical issues with Grants.gov, we provide a telephone number in here for you to call to get technical support. Please do not call the program officer that is mentioned in the Funding Opportunity Announcement. She will not be able to assist you with Grants.gov. ACL does not own that system or have any ability to provide technical assistance on Grants.gov.

Similarly, please be sure that you have - that's your SAMs and DUNS numbers are current and up-to-date. If they're not or you're not sure, please check them soon so that if - that you can make sure that you have them in place, because oftentimes it can take several days to a couple of weeks to get these issues straightened out, and you don't want to be caught against the deadline of the application submission only to figure out that your DUNS number or your SAMs number are expired or there's problems with it.

The top of Page 14, we lay - provide the name, the program, the main program point of contact for this NOFO. Her name is Nikaela Frederick. She's a new member of the Office of Supportive and Caregiver Services. Her email address is here, and she'll be able to respond to some questions on a limited basis. Bernice Hutchinson will also be one of the program officers on this project, and she will be available, too, as needed.

Here we, I draw your attention to item number two, the letters of intent. We'd like to have them tomorrow, if possible. They're not required, and we only use a letter of intent to help us structure the grant reviews. And knowing approximately how many applications we're going to receive helps us determine how many third-party independent merit reviewers that we need to select and how many review panels we need to put together.

So, letters of intent don't have to be anything more than a quick email to Nikaela to say you intend to apply. That's all we need to know. However, if your state requires something more formal, that's certainly fine, but please do just e-mail them to Nikaela at her e-mail address here.

Bottom of Page 15, going on for several pages, we talk about how your narratives should be structured and formatted and the types of information that the narrative should include. So, please pay attention to that. In the middle of Page 19, we talk about the budget narrative and the work plan. These are both two required elements for your applications.

We provide templates that you can use as an example for how to structure a budget narrative and a work plan. A couple of important things to remember. When you're developing your budget narratives, because these are forward-funded projects, your budget narrative should reflect the full two years of the project and the same for the work plan. You'll want to show a work plan that covers all 24 months of the project.

Bottom of Page 19, going on to top of Page 21, again, a little bit more information about SAMs and DUNS numbers. Top of Page 21, we talk about the application due date, which is August 6, 2024, 11:59 pm Eastern.

There are funding restrictions on Page 22, meaning that we will not fund construction or major rehab, basic research like scientific or medical experiments. That does not include data collection for purposes of the grant. That's perfectly fine. Or the continuation of existing projects without expansion or new and innovative approaches on top of what you're doing.

We also provide some information on the unallowability of meals with federal grant funds, so please pay attention to that because I know some of your initiatives may include meetings or statewide conferences. Just please be aware of the restrictions and the considerations that have to be met in order for grant funds to be used for meals. And I would generally say, please try to avoid using federal funds to provide food.

Page 23, going on for a couple of pages, we lay out the exact criteria by which each application will be reviewed. Our application review process is that we have three independent, meaning non-federal individuals with background and expertise in the particular areas that we're looking for, will be reviewing and scoring your applications against the criteria that we lay out here.

These criteria are all stated as yes-no questions. I would say that if you, once you complete your application package, if you can go through the review criteria and answer yes to all the questions, you probably have an application that's complete.

There's no guarantee that it will be funded, but if you address everything that's in here, the grant reviewers will have a really good picture of what you're doing. And that speaks to also the importance of your project narrative. We give you 30 pages to write your narrative. Please be detailed yet concise and very clear about what it is that you're proposing to do. The grant review panels will not be coming to you with questions.

They will not be able to do any other background or outside research or information gathering on your organization or the work that you're doing. So, your narrative really has to tell it all, as does the work plan serves as sort of that framework for how you're going to approach your projects.

Then, we go on to talk a little bit on Page 26 about the award notices. Given the lateness of our funding year and how late this notice of funding opportunity came out, I can't imagine that folks would receive their notices of award before September 1. More than likely, it will be towards the middle of September for a late September start date, just because of *-how late we got our final appropriation, but you will receive your notices of award electronically via email.

And then the rest of the NOFO just provides, you know, some reporting information and agency contacts. Again, Nikaela Frederick, and Bernice Hutchinson will be the program officers, Aisha Gurley-Perry will be the grant specialist, and then we provide just additional information and instructions that go on through the end of the NOFO.

So, Jill, that concludes my overview of the funding announcement, you may open the lines for questions.

Coordinator: Certainly. Thank you. At this time, if you would like to ask a question, please press Star 1 on your touchtone phone. Please ensure that your line is unmuted, and please record your name when prompted so that I may introduce you. Once again, it is Star 1 at this time. Please stand by for questions.

Greg Link: Thank you. Are there any questions, Jill?

Coordinator: We have a question from Lisa Adetiko. Your line is open.

Lisa Adetiko: Yes, thank you so much. I hopped on about two minutes after two o’clock and I could not find the information that the speaker referenced.

Greg Link: I was reading over the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA).

Lisa Adetiko: Yes, and where might I access that, because I cannot find it.

Greg Link: It may be found on Grants.gov. You can search by the funding opportunity number. I will get that for you.

Lisa Adetiko: Okay.

Greg Link: The funding opportunity is HHS-2024-ACL-AOA-CGNS-0040

Lisa Adetiko: Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Greg Link: Sure.

Coordinator: Thank you for your question. Our next question is from Tanya Bautista. Your line is open.

Tanya Bautista: Thank you. I have two questions. One is regarding the budget. So, based on the information you provided, is it okay to have the budget associated with a November 1, 2024 start date?

Greg Link: No. It must be before November 1, 2024. The start date must be September, to start in this fiscal year. So, if we anticipate a September 1, 2024, or a September 30, 2024, start date, then your budget would have to show a start date of that date.

Tanya Bautista: Okay. So, just to be on the safe side, I'll do September 2024. Okay. And then I had another question and I have completely lost track of my thoughts on this. But anyway, thank you very much.

Greg Link: Okay. And if you think of the other question, just pop back in.

Tanya Bautista: Perfect.

Coordinator: Thank you for your question. Our next question is from Amy Harris. Your line is open.

Amy Harris: I was wondering what the previous caller; Tanya was just talking about. I think if we don't get our award letter until September 30, it's just sort of tricky on our part because we can't execute any contracts if we don't have the award letter. So, I don't know if there's a “work around” for that. So, that's one question and then a second question is with respect to the 25% Match Requirement. Does any amount of the Match have to come from the state, or can it come from any source?

Greg Link: If the Match are from non-federal sources, then it can be state funds or other in-kind contributions. It just can't be federal funds.

Amy Harris: Okay.

Greg Link: And with respect to the budget, if the award date is September 30, you could technically start work on your project October 1. But it all depends on when we get the award notices out and the actual start date that is posted on the award. We generally don't like to send out a notice of award at the very end of September and then say you had a September 1 start date because that then cuts the awardee short.

So, I would say that you could, when you develop your budget, it can just be for the first of the month of the project notice of award whatever that date would be. I hope that didn't confuse things.

Amy Harris: Okay. Yes. I think that it's more just about our spending authority and the way our state works, we must have spending authority before we can execute contracts, and then it's a whole process. But, if there's the way that we can say that we are starting work on it right away without having the contracts executed, necessarily. Like, if we have dedicated staff time where you don't need a contract, you know, like me, for example.

Greg Link: Sure.

Amy Harris: I think we can get around that.

Greg Link: Yes.

Amy Harris: I'm just kind of thinking out loud now, but I think I solved my question.

Greg Link: No, that's fine. And that's the reason we built in that post-award alignment period, to allow for just exactly what you said. There are so many states that actually can't award contracts or enter into any kind of agreement until they have the notice of award in hand. So, we tried to build in some cushion time for you to have time to accomplish some for those things.

Amy Harris: Okay. Great, thank you.

Coordinator: Thank you for your question. Our next question is from Amy Maseer. Your line is open.

Amy Maseer: Hi, I have a question.

Greg Link: Hey, Amy.

Amy Maseer: Hi, Greg. How are you?

Greg Link: Good.

Amy Maseer: I have the question about the eligible participants. So, I'm just wondering, this question came up in our internal discussions, because this funding is tied to the Older Americans Act, does that mean that we can only target populations that fall under the eligible program participants for the National Family Caregiver Program?

Greg Link: Correct. That should be the primary population.

Amy Maseer: Okay.

Greg Link: Amy, because we're ACL, we're working to break down silos and make connections between the worlds of aging and disability. Recognize that there are populations of people with disabilities who fall into the Old Americans Act eligibility categories.

Amy Maseer: For example, children with special healthcare needs whose parents or caregivers are younger than 55 really should not or could not be a target population?

Greg Link: Correct.

Amy Maseer: Okay.

Greg Link: If it is a parent under the age of 55, and they're caring for a child ages 18 to 59, then that falls into the eligibility category.

Amy Maseer: Yes.

Greg Link: Child with a disability.

Amy Maseer: So, that group really shouldn't be referred to in the application or targeted in the application.

Greg Link: Correct.

Amy Maseer: Okay.

Greg Link: There may be some tangential activities, or work that may feed into some of those populations, or could be used to inform, but that shouldn't be the primary focus, or one of the primary populations. I would think of it this way: could you use these funds to serve this particular individual? Could you use these Older Americans Act funds to serve a particular individual? If the answer is no, then that would be your answer.

Amy Maseer: Okay.

Greg Link: You wouldn't want to fund that.

Amy Maseer: Okay. Yes. Okay. Thank you. That's helpful.

Coordinator: Thank you for your question. Our next question is from Gene Hogan. Your line is open.

Gene Hogan: Okay. I was wondering about the evaluation component that you were talking about. Would it be reasonable if we wanted to have an external evaluator and fund just a nominal amount for that?

Greg Link: Sure. That's absolutely fine.

Gene Hogan: Right. Okay. It looks like the total project that we are funded would be about $653,000.00.

Greg Link: No.

Gene Hogan: It would be $490,000.00 in federal, and then $163,000.00, $333,000.00 in match.

Greg Link: So, when you're computing your match, please make sure you follow the formula that's laid out in the NOFO, because you're technically supposed to develop your budget and develop your project before you determine your match. First, develop your project, create the budget, and then that will tell you what your match should be. So, you know, a lot of times, people hear, well, it's a 25% match, well, you know, we'll just match that. We'll get 25% and tack it on to the 490,000.00. In this case, and that's not technically the correct way to compute your match. So, what you don't want to do is undermatch in your application.

Gene Hogan: Right.

Greg Link: And you certainly don't want to overmatch either because while overmatch is certainly allowable, it won't get you extra points and you would be held to the overmatch amount and if you can't make the match, then it can create problems down the road.

Gene Hogan: Okay. So, the total amount of federal funding for each project is capped at $490,000 and whatever it will be.

Greg Link: Correct.

Gene Hogan: Okay. All right. Thank you.

Coordinator: Thank you for your question. Our next question is from Claire Irwin). Your line is open.

Claire Irwin: Hi, I have a question about the collaboration between state agencies. We are a large health and human services agency that has Medicaid and aging services and services for people with developmental disabilities, et cetera. So, would the collaboration - obviously, we would be collaborating within ourselves to do the application, but would we also need to then include a separate state agency?

Greg Link: Well, it's so, it sounds to me like you have it. It sounds to me like, for example, under a single administrative umbrella in your state, you have the state unit on aging and the state Medicaid agency like an operating division.

Claire Irwin: Yes.

Greg Link: Yes. So, in cases like that where you have a large umbrella health and human services, then I think you would want to look between operating divisions under that umbrella for the logical partners.

Claire Irwin: Okay.

Greg Link: But that's not to say that you couldn't also go outside of the operating division you are in and maybe look at, for example, the Department of Transportation, education, or child welfare in your state. If those are entities in your state that you would like to bring into your project, then maybe you would have a mix of operating divisions within your health and human services, but also a couple of agencies on the outside, maybe a tribe too, if that's where you're going to go with your project.

Camden Frost: Hi, everybody. Can you hear me all right?

Greg Link: Sure can.

Camden Frost: Wonderful. I have two quick questions and Jean Hogan asked one of them about the evaluation component. So, it sounds like an external evaluator is not required, but it's acceptable, correct?

Greg Link: Yes, that is correct. It's not required, but it is acceptable. You know, we certainly, I certainly believe that independent outside evaluators probably are in a better position to look at your projects, but we also recognize there is a limit on the funding.

Camden Frost: Yes.

Greg Link: So, you can. Yes.

Camden Frost: Okay. Thank you. And the other quick question has to do with the specific criteria for testing and scaling those components. Is there more of a definition for that as far as how it's referenced in the grant application and how it's referenced in the measurable outcomes for testing and scaling?

Greg Link: So, there is not. We did not articulate anything additional in the Notice of Funding Opportunity if that's what you're asking.

Camden Frost: Yes.

Greg Link: The phrase for testing and scaling in the NOFO is exactly as written in our appropriations language, it is exactly what Congress wants done. And so, that is all the guidance we received from Congress. So, I think it would be up to the state to determine the scaling and testing. What does that mean for your state? And then you base your performance measurement and your evaluation on that.

Camden Frost: Okay, but we should just be clear in the narrative as to how we are testing and how we are scaling for each of the goals?

Greg Link: Exactly. For example, if Goal One is one of the areas and goals that you're going to address, then what are the elements within Goal One that you're going to test and scale? And then how are you going to evaluate or assess your success on those?

Camden Frost: Okay. Thank you so much.

Coordinator: Thank you for your question. We have a question from Adam Frank. Your line is open.

Adam Frank: Hi, Greg, as a follow up for clarity to your response to Amy earlier, if the caregivers are over 60, but they're caring for somebody younger than 60, with a disability, would that be an eligible activity?

Greg Link: Yes, if it is an individual with a disability, ages 18 to 59. So, the eligibility categories for the National Family Caregiver Support Program for caregivers are as follows. A caregiver 18 years of age and older, providing supports to an older individual, ages 60 and older.

The second category is a family caregiver ages 18 and older, caring for somebody, an adult of any age with early onset dementia. So, that could be in the younger age category. The person with dementia could be in their 40s or 50s. We know that dementia can present in earlier years.

And then on the older relative side, it's grandparents or older relative caregivers who are ages 55 and older, either caring for a child under the age of 18, or they're an older relative including a parent who is caring for an adult with a disability ages 18 to 59. Those are the four categories.

Adam Frank: Great. Thank you. Just two more questions. I think I'll be quick. I see that the in-kind contributions are eligible as a match for subgrantees. Is in-kind eligible for the State Unit on Aging, as well?

Greg Link: Yes.

Adam Frank: Okay. Earlier, you mentioned Department of Transportation as a possible state level partner on the grant. We were looking at Department of Labor for category number four. Would that be acceptable?

Greg Link: Sure. Yes.

Adam Frank: Oh, great.

Greg Link: Absolutely.

Adam Frank: Thank you so much.

Coordinator: Once again, if you would like to ask a question, please press Star 1 and record your name. We have a question from Devin Bowers. Your line is open.

Devin Bowers: Thank you. I have two questions. The first is about the Steering Committee. Is it recommended or required?

Greg Link: A Steering Committee is recommended or suggested, but it is not a requirement.

Devin Bowers: Okay. And due to this being a cooperative agreement, I think, there was language that the members of the steering committee, ACL, would want to have input in terms of whose appointed and serving on that steering committee. I was wondering if we already have an entity, a committee that's meeting that could serve as oversight for our project, how would we navigate that with ACL in terms of the cooperative agreement.

Greg Link: If you receive a grant award, then you could work with the program officer, as a matter of just presenting who the people are. It's unlikely that we would say no to any particular individual or entity.

Typically, when we work with our grantees to help them build out their steering committees or advisory committees, it's getting you to think to make sure that you have the representation you need for the success of your project. It is important to look at the types of Subject Matter Experts you are assembling. The technical assistance and input ACL would provide is not a discussion of specific people, but rather, it may be more about, have you thought about somebody with a particular background of work or expertise to lend strength to your project? That's the type of input ACL would provide.

Devin Bowers: Great. Thank you so much.

Coordinator: Sir, we have no further questions at this time.

Greg Link: Okay. Well, you all certainly had a lot of great questions and I really appreciate that. If there are no other questions, then we will conclude this call. I want to thank everyone for your interest in this funding opportunity. These are certainly exciting times for the Administration for Community Living and for the opportunities that the National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers has given us to advance the field of caregiver support.

And so, we look forward to kicking this project off later this year with the four states that we will fund. So, with that, I wish you all the best in your application process and we will conclude the call.

Coordinator: This concludes today's conference call. We thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect and have a great rest of your day.

END

Questions Received After the 6/20/24 Information Teleconference Q: Was the call recorded and, if so, is it possible to get a copy of the recording?

A: Yes. The call was recorded and should be available next week on grants.gov.

Q: Is this grant only available to state agencies, or can a nonprofit apply to serve as the lead?

A: Correct, per the eligibility guidelines outlined on page #3 of the NOFO, only State Units on Aging are eligible to apply.