HHS-2021-ACL-AOA-LRLR-0046 Informational Conference Call Transcript 4-13-2021.pdf

Lifespan Respite Care Program:

Grants to New States and States Re-Establishing Their Core Respite Infrastructures

HHS-2021-ACL-AOA-LRLR-0046

Informational Conference Call Transcript

Moderator: Lori Stalbaum April 13, 2021 - 2:00 pm ET

Coordinator:

Welcome and thank you for standing by. During today’s conference all lines will be open and interactive. We ask that you use your mute button when you are not speaking to prevent any background noises or you may press Star 6 to mute and unmute your lines. Today’s call is being recorded. If you have any objections you may disconnect at this time. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Ms. Lori Stalbaum. Thank you, you may begin.

Lori Stalbaum:

Thank you. Well, good afternoon and welcome everyone. We have it on silent entry so we won’t know as people join. But I hope that this call is very helpful for those of you interested in the

Lifespan Respite Care Program Grants to new states and states reestablishing their core respite infrastructures.

Before we begin I just want to point out we’re recording this call because they will send me a transcript a couple of days from now. And then - well within a week I’ll get a transcript of this call which I will then post on - can help getting posted on grants.gov where the funding opportunity announcement is currently housed so that if you need to refer back to it there will be a written record of this call.

So today we’re going to discuss the funding opportunity announcement for the Lifespan Respite

Care Program grants to new states and states that want to reestablish their core respite infrastructures. The goal of the call today is to provide interested applicants such as yourselves 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.

My name is Lori Stalbaum. 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 lead program officer for grants funded under the Lifespan Respite Care Program. My responsibility is to ensure that the awarded grantees are working within the requirements of the act and the funding opportunity announcement for the life of the project. I’ll be your go to person if you will for any programmatic issues related to each of the projects that are funded.

Sherlonda Blue, who is unable to join us today is the grants management specialist for the

Lifespan Respite Care Program. (Sherlonda) handles all the business functions between ACL, AoA and the lifespan respite grantees. You would interact with (Sherlonda) were you to receive an award and have questions about budgets, financial reporting, how to draw down funds and etcetera. (Sherlonda) and I work very closely together as a team to provide the best service we can to our grantees.

Also joining the call today from ACL, AoA, are Greg Link and Sara Vogler. Greg Link was the original project officer for the Lifespan Respite Program when AoA first started awarding grants back in 2009. As you can imagine Greg is the subject matter expert on this program. So he’ll be here to help to answer any questions if need be. He’s also my supervisor and the Director of

AoA’s Office of Supportive and Caregiver Services.

Sara Vogler is also a Project Officer for some lifespan respite grants. She’s my backup, my go to, my program partner for these projects.

So to begin the call it’s 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 the number of questions and et cetera. But I’m here until the call is done and your questions are answered.

So first, I want to take the opportunity to go over the funding announcement and try to clear up any lingering questions. I’ll spend a couple of minutes providing an overview of the Lifespan

Respite Care Program itself. I’ll also go over some key dates to be aware of in preparing your application. And then we’ll get to the meat of the funding opportunity announcement. And go pretty much page by page so that I can highlight key points as necessary. Following that we’ll open up the lines for questions and answers.

So first a little background about the Lifespan Respite Act. Congress passed the Lifespan

Respite Act back in 2006 but they didn’t appropriate any funds until 2009. In January 2020 the

Lifespan Respite Act there was added some updated language in Section 2904 of the act which includes information data collection and reporting. At this time the official copy of the reauthorized Lifespan Respite Care Program has not been published by the government printing office. It takes a little while. It was signed into law in January. So we - I don’t have the full act but I do have some references provided in the funding opportunity announcement.

In fiscal year 2009 Congress appropriated $2.5 million to the Lifespan Respite Care Program.

With that first appropriation AOA funded 12 states and some technical assistance activities.

Now in fiscal year 2021 Congress has appropriated $7.1 million which is absolutely wonderful.

This year for the first time with this funding opportunity announcement we are actually expanding the eligibility of our grants to new state which they’ve always been called grants to new states to include those states that have never received funding before. Plus states that may have had a grant to new states a while ago, several years ago, a couple of years ago but feel they need to revive the implementation or infrastructure of their respite program or programs.

At this point 37 states and the District of Columbia have received funds under the Lifespan

Respite Care Program. This call focuses only on those funds available for 2021 and only on the funding opportunity announcement targeting new or renewing states who wish to apply for lifespan respite funding.

So in a nutshell, the purpose of the Lifespan Respite Care Act is to expand and enhance respite services improve coordination and improve respite access equity and quality. This is a very competitive grant opportunity. I have to mute my phone for a second.

Greg Link: Do you want me to just take over Lori?

Lori Stalbaum: Could you step in for a minute Greg? I’m sorry.

Greg Link: Sure, no problem. So as Lori was saying, this is a very competitive grant program opportunity which requires the funded states to establish or reestablish state and local coordinated lifespan respite care systems to serve families regardless of age or special need to provide new planned or emergency respite services, train and recruit respite workers, volunteers and generally to assist caregivers in gaining access to the respite care services that they’re seeking.

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

So before you begin working on your applications I want to encourage everyone - you and the people that 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 would be really advisable if you could make sure that each person on your team has read and understands the act. That way everyone’s working from the same page.

The Lifespan Respite Care Act is as congressional documents go fairly short only about six pages and it’s very straightforward. By reading the act you can also see that much of the language repeated in the funding opportunity. You can also see much of that language actually repeated in the funding opportunity announcement itself as oftentimes at ACL we try to create our funding opportunity announcements based directly on the language in our authorizing statutes.

In the funding opportunity announcement on the pdf page 7 or the paper page which is 6 of 49 in the middle of the page we’ve provided a link to the Lifespan Respite Care Act and the accompanying committee report. And this committee report goes back to the 2006 passage of the act. And there’s a lot of really wonderful history and background in there that you’d be welcome to read. It gives a really deep understanding of Congress’ thinking behind creating the

Lifespan Respite Act. There’s also a link to the House Reauthorization Bill which shows the reauthorization language that was signed into law just this past January.

There are some key dates that we want to bring to your attention before we get into the bulk of the funding opportunity announcement itself. First of course we have today’s teleconference and thank you again for all of you who are on the call with us. And like we said it is being recorded and we will post the transcript in case you want to refer back to what was discussed on the call or if somebody on your team wasn’t able to attend today.

The next key date is letters of intent and we are requesting those by this Thursday April the 15th.

They’re requested but not required. But we’d like to really encourage everyone to consider just emailing one to Lori even if you don’t ultimately submit an application. Submitting a letter of intent does not somehow commit you to completing an application. We really use letters of intent as a planning tool. They allow us to know approximately how many third-party reviewers that we’re going to need for the applications. And it’s also a great way for us to maybe weed out any potential conflicts of interest between states who are applying for the grants and potential grant reviewers. We can head those off early in the reviewer selection process.

And also because we’re doing virtual conference call reviews knowing approximately how many applications we’re getting in helps us in our logistics planner plan for, you know, the meetings that will take place for the grant reviews and it all around just helps speed up our grant review process. So again they’re not required but they sure are helpful to us. Letters or email can just be sent directly to Lori at lori.stalbaum - that’s L-O-R-I.S-T-A-L-B-A-U-M@acl.hhs.gov. And her email address is in several parts of the FOA so it should be readily apparent.

The next critical date to be aware of is the due date for applications which is 11:59 pm Eastern on Monday, May the 17th. And all applications must be submitted electronically via the grants.gov Web site. The due date is set in stone. It’s not negotiable. So if an application is late and we’ll get into that detail a little bit later. But you’ll want to make sure that you have submitted it before 11:59 pm Eastern on May the 17th. Applications that are received after the cutoff are not considered for funding and like I said we’ll go into that in a bit more detail just a bit later.

Now, in the funding opportunity announcement the projected start dates for these new projects is

July 1. With the amount of time that we need to review and process applications we’ll do everything we can to try to keep to that July 1 start date. But as I’m sure everyone is aware with all of the stimulus funding activity that has been going on and the additional money that ACL has been providing to states our grant shop is working incredibly quickly and also is incredibly overwhelmed with the amount of work that’s going on. So we’re still looking at a July 1 start date. But it may actually flip a little bit depending on where we are with other grant award activities.

So just remember that this is an approximate date. Your actual project start date may be later than this but it will be indicated clearly in the notice of award what the start date is.

So now I’d like to do is just walk through the actual funding opportunity announcement more or less page by page. And just for your information I’ll be referring to the PDF page numbers you see if you have the funding opportunity open on your computer. If you are referring to a paper mailto:L-O-R-I.S-T-A-L-B-A-U-M@acl.hhs.gov copy, please note that the paper and the PDF page numbers don’t match up. They’re off by one.

So we’ll walk through the announcement and I’ll try to call your attention to those issues I believe are of the greatest importance. And if I don’t answer a question that you have during this phase of this call, then please do bring it up at the Q&A at the end.

So the cover page provides the project name, grants to new states and states reestablishing their core respite infrastructures. The funding opportunity announcement number starts with HHS-

2021. And then again the application due date of May the 28th. There’s…

Lori Stalbaum: Oh sorry.

Greg Link: Yes go ahead.

Lori Stalbaum: I’m back. This is Lori. It’s May the 17th on the cover page.

Greg Link: Oh I’m sorry May the 17th.

Lori Stalbaum: Yes they…

Greg Link: Do you want to pick it up?

Lori Stalbaum: Sorry. I think I got through that bout if you’d like me to let you get a water

Greg and go back in.

Greg Link: Sure.

Lori Stalbaum:

Thank you Greg. I’m so sorry I don’t know what happened but thank goodness I’ve got a team here. So this is Lori again. So following the cover page we have the table of contents which outlines all of the key sections noted by roman numerals as well as subsections and some sub subsections in the funding opportunity announcement. I hope this extended table of contents will be helpful and allow you to use it for reference as you refer back to the announcement if you’re looking for some specific information.

Beginning at the top of Page 4 of 50 again as noted in the PDF document you’ll find the executive summary. Executive summary provides a pretty detailed overview. I thought we put quite a bit of information as executive summary goes into this one. The number of awards we expect to fund, the maximum funding amount you can request per year, the length of the project period which is three years as well as information about eligibility based on statutory authority, ACL’s expectations of awardees will collaborate with multiple states and local agencies as a requirement of the project. We recommend that you collaborate in your state and I hope this will help you address the collaborative efforts called for in your state.

Also just want to call your attention to we reiterate in - we state right here in the opening section what it means to be a new state or a returning state. Basically this funding opportunity is open to everyone. Everyone is an eligible applicant.

I also want to point out the second paragraph talks about we hope to fund - it is our intent to fund up to five cooperative agreements with a funding level of a maximum amount of $200,000 each year for three years which means that the potential maximum funding over the course of the three-year project period of $600,000. I just want to point this out because this funding structure differs from all previous years that grantees that we put out a funding announcement for grants to new states which in previous years grantees were eligible to receive only a flat $200,000 over the course to use over a three-year period. And now grantees are eligible to receive up to $200,000 per year each year.

Moving onto the top of Page 5 is where we come to the funding description. This section is broken into several subsections starting with the description or purpose. In this 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 - I lost my page. I’m working on a laptop I’m sorry. Well anyway this is going to be a highly competitive opportunity. So despite our increased funding there are still limited funds available for this project 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 application to the best of our ability.

Towards the bottom of Page 5 the background section begins that goes through the middle of

Page 8 of 50. The background section provides information focused on getting everyone on the same page and same level playing field and who are family caregivers, what is respite, an overview of the Lifespan Respite Act and Reauthorization Act which again is where the links to the original Lifespan Respite Act and the reauthorization text is located which again is on Page 7 of 50.

The status of the Lifespan Respite Care Program to date - s as well as the background of the evolving nature of the respite environment. A lot have been learned and a lot have improved since 2006, 2009 when these programs were first funded. And as we all know from the past year a lot of things have changed in the world.

In the middle of Page 8 of 50 you’ll see a section called activities and recommended approaches.

I guess it’s a subsection I should say of the funding opportunity announcement. Please note that in Paragraph 1, Sentence 2, the second half of the paragraph, it states that we state, “ACL will only fund projects that propose to serve all eligible respite residents including family members, kinship caregivers, 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.”

The point is that under the Lifespan Respite Care Act Program it is expected that all populations

- all groups, families, co-workers needing respite will be eligible for service immediately upon -promptly upon award and that no phase in of one group or another is allowed.

At the top of Page 9 we lay out some minimal key items that applicants should clearly and completely describe in their project narrative. Following that we state that funds awarded should be used for the following required services. And at this point I’d like to make - I need to make a clarification because the second bullet uses the term evidence based - the provision of evidence-based quality respite care service. We are aware there’s little to no evidence-based research on respite care service. And this really should have read evidence based, evidence informed, lessons learned but evidence based when applicable.

Finally at the bottom of Page 9 we list examples of optional services that may be developed using Lifespan Respite Program funding. And you’ll see that we move into a section called additional application elements which I think I really should have called program priority areas.

But it’s called additional application elements. This section lays out some of the specific components or elements you need to address in your application. The first paragraph in the section is critical. We know that some states may have already been at this a while even if it not received lifespan respite funding. We know other states may just be starting down the implementation - the coordination and implementation of building a statewide lifespan respite coalition path. And that others may fall somewhere in between and that’s okay.

As you’re writing your application please be sure that you explain the current state of your respite program or programs. And include a discussion that demonstrates the extent of progress you expect to make beyond where your programs currently are over the course of the three-year funding. This is a crucial piece because in the application review process you will not be compared to others. Your application will be reviewed based on the information you provide about your current respite system and the extent of progress you expect to make over the three-year project period.

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

Moving to Page 10 you’ll see a list of two items which ACL expects applicants to address in their proposal. These two items are specified in the act. Oh here I go. First even though this is a grant for new or returning states, because of the multiyear funding up to $200,000 maximum per year of federal funds per year for each of three years we do expect that all grantees will begin to provide respite services as identified in the act no later than the second year of your project.

In your project narrative as well as in your annual budget justification which are required you’ll want to explain how much of your funding will be devoted to respite services. Accompanying that you will want to ensure the reviewers understand your knowledge of your state’s family caregiver population for whom the services will be provided.

Following these first two items there are four more items - number three through six which you’ll want to be sure to address as well in your application. These include explaining higher proposed programs will help families choose, control and navigate available service options and gain access to those services via through your program or other state programs.

Next number four is a reminder that as I just stated above and I’m just going to reiterate from the beginning of your project all family members regardless of age, disability or chronic condition of the person they care for should be able to access respite services.

Number five -- Page 11 - focuses on applicants explaining how they as a grantee will coordinate with existing public or private respite programs while demonstrating the broadest possible collaboration of stakeholders from across the aging and disability spectrum. Under the main heading of number five “stakeholder collaboration partnerships and consumer inclusion” we’ve tried to provide as much detail as possible about what should be described or explained about the eligible state agency’s role in facilitating the coordination of respite programs in your state to reduce or eliminate duplicative efforts to achieve the goal of developing a statewide respite care infrastructure.

Now near the top of Page 12 you’ll see the word important written in all caps and bolded.

Hopefully you didn’t miss it. We tried to draw your attention to that. And the reason we did is that in the act and as a responsiveness criteria which I’ll talk about in a little bit again is the fact that a memorandum of agreement is required as part of every application package. It’s kind of one of those things that you can have ready and sometimes can be - we just don’t want it to be accidentally excluded from your package.

So when you’re drafting the memorandum of agreement, you know, we encourage you to write it so it allows flexibility to all the parties of the project - of all the parties involved in your project.

So as the project unfolds because and evidently they do some things might work better than others do. And we might have to make adaptation - adjustments or 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 in the memorandum of agreement, make sure you include a clause that allows for modifications by any of the parties.

And we don’t have a template or a format for letters. Some states have official documents from the governor or the legislature. It’s a memorandum of agreement. It’s how you put it - we don’t have a required format but we do require it be included because it is a key component in the act.

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. Just be sure your application talks about how you plan to ensure that the required activities are to be conducted by your project.

And finally number six focuses on sustainability. Even as you’re starting or restarting your lifespan respite programs you should think about or explain how you’re planning for sustaining your project as that is the ultimate goal. Remember Lifespan Respite Care Act are used to supplement not supplant or replace other services already funded to provide respite care services.

So to assist you with this we provided a link to a tool that the lifespan respite technical assistance center has developed managed by Arch. We encourage you to look at that to get an idea of the materials and resources that are on there for developing sustainable programs based on the experience of grantees who’ve come before you. I think it’s a very useful tool which is why we always include it. It’s been very helpful to people.

About midway through Page 12 we have this duplicate heading - additional application elements which is the correct title for this section. And I am sorry about that. It is a little confusing. But the bottom line is that both sections titled additional application elements are very important for your planning and writing process. In this section we talk about broader issues less specifics than the prior one. Things such as program performance and outcome measures and product development. And ACL’s expectation that grantees will participate in technical assistance or training activities provided by the Lifespan Respite TA Center.

We also strongly encourage but cannot require that state grantees and their partners attend the

Annual National Respite Conference which this year I believe it will be held in mid-July. That date is still pending but I believe mid-July is the goal because this conference provides an excellent forum for networking and sharing and learning from others and providing your own ideas to help others.

And last but not least, we include information on grants and subcontracts. Please note that we state that due to the nature of this program state project director must maintain an active role in the implementation and management of this project. That’s the second sentence in the first paragraph at the very bottom of Page 14. While grants and subcontracts are perfectly allowable they should not negate the role of the state project director.

Also in your application, please be sure to clearly describe the role of any sub awardees in your process for awarding activities to others as a grant or a subcontract. So while these are allowable do not propose a project that simply passes funds from the state agency to another entity. We will not fund what we call pass through projects. So if you do decide to subcontract some specific activities you just want to be sure to clearly describe the process for how you’ll do this and how you as the applicant grantee will continue to be the lead in the role.

Moving onto Section 2 funding opportunity announcement. We have award information starting in the middle of Page 14 of 50. As you can see after we’ve allocated funds to go towards continuation grants, state program enhancement grants and other administrative costs associated with grants administration, we have an estimated total funding of $1 million for grants to new states or states looking to revitalize their respite programs.

And again, we’re currently planning, hoping to fund approximately five grants. The maximum amount that can be requested per year called per budget period per year is $200,000. The minimum amount to be requested which is called the floor is $75,000. What this means is that over the course of the three-year project were you to request $200,000, your federal funds could equal up to $600,000 over the project period. So we believe that more funding and more time by which I mean annually funding each of the three years for a 36-month period will allow states more flexibility to develop a broader range of services and again begin implementing services by the second year of the project.

You’ll notice that in the middle of Page 15 of 50 smack in the middle first sentence of the paragraph it says this is - that these grants will be new cooperative agreements. This means ACL anticipates active collaboration with each of the grantees 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 new grantees to develop and finalize the workplans which will be completed within 45 days of the award. We include the terms and conditions of the cooperative agreement in the funding announcement so each applicant knows what is expected of them and us – ACL, AoA -- once the awards are issued.

Moving onto the middle of Page 16 of 50 begins Section 3, eligibility information. Please be sure you read and understand these requirements because later when it talks a bit more about the screening applications that we received on responsiveness criteria before we send them to the objective review panel, this is one of the first things that we looked at whether or not the applicant meets the eligibility requirements of Section 5 specified in the statute.

Applying 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 Respite Care Act Program.

No other entities are eligible to apply. The next section under Item 2 is cross sharing or match.

By statute again cost sharing or match is required at a 25% match rate. Match can be cash or in kind. And it needs to be clear that Congress has not permitted us to allow waivers to this match requirement. So as with most other federal grants also know that match cannot be from - match must be - sorry, match must from non-federal sources. You cannot use federal funds to match the federal grant.

So 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 includes things, like, donated time, real and non-expendable property or goods and services.

In this funding opportunity announcement we’ve given a sample formula which is in the section under cost 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 which essentially requires you to develop the project workplan and budget first before determining how much you request from the federal government from ACL.

Again also there are additional detailed instructions for calculating match with a formula laid out mathematically included in Attachment A. So a few times I’ve alluded to the responsiveness and screening criteria, Section 3 eligibility - Subsection 3. We now get the responsiveness and screening criteria which starts up near the bottom - at the bottom of Page 17 of 50. We screen each application internally to ensure that both the responsiveness and screening criteria are addressed before we give the applications to the objective review panel.

Failure of an application to comply with these as a responsiveness or eligibility screening criteria will result in that application’s elimination from further review or consideration for funding. So as you can see from looking at the funding announcement the responsiveness criteria include two factors. Applicants must meet the eligibility criteria outlined in Section 3 that we just discussed and a memorandum of agreement between eligible state agency and the statewide respite coalition or organizations must be included. If these two responsiveness criteria are not met the application will not be reviewed. So please be sure to incorporate these elements in your application.

The application screening criteria begins at the top of Page 18. And it’s a bit more technical in nature but of equal importance as a response of criteria. These include, like, the application must be submitted via grants.gov by 11:59 Eastern time on the due date - May 17. Is the project narrative which we’ll discuss shortly double spaced on 8 1/2 by 11 plain whitepaper with one inch margins 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 of 20 pages maximum?

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

Moving to the bottom Section 4, bottom of Page 18. Application and submission information.

This section provides guidance on where to get the application package which is www.grants.gov as well as steps you need to take to register on grants.gov so you can successfully submit your electronic application. This section also includes some helpful information should you require assistance setting up an account with grants.gov if you don’t already have one as well as information on using grants.gov there’s a toll-free telephone number to call if you have issues or problems.

From time to time there have been issues with grants.gov with respect to a locked number freezing during submissions. We’ve had this from an internal site as well when we’re trying to post them. So should this occur please use the toll-free number to call them for assistance.

Neither myself nor Sherlonda, nor Greg nor Sara can assist with grants.gov issues because it’s not our Web site.

And while I’m 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 application deadline. If you’re already registered with grants.gov please make sure your passwords have not expired. 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 just for future references there’s something called a Dunn & Bradstreet number which you are required to have and registry in the system access management or SAM. So there’s a lot of prep work you want to just make sure you have cleared up before you get started.

And finally on grants.gov they recommend that you review the compatibility of your hardware and software ahead of time and these are good tips. Like when I go into grants.gov on Internet

Explorer I have all kinds of problems. When I use Chrome it’s okay. Different Internet browsers work differently. Different Microsoft Office products work differently. So you just http://www.grants.gov/ want to make sure the hardware and the software and the browser you’re using are all working for you within grants.gov because everyone’s computers are a little different.

Now onto Page 20 of 50. 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 my email address is there along with my phone number if you’d like to email me. Oh my phone number’s not there at this time, okay.

Starting on the bottom of Page 20 the project narrative. Going through Page 25 of 50. Project narrative is the critical information - is your application. And the components listed within here are the crucial pieces in terms of structuring your project narrative because 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 primary means on which your application is scored. But remember you only have 20 pages in which to do this so planning and careful writing is the key.

We will be using outside review panels meaning non-federal subject matter experts in the field of lifespan respite care coordination 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 because it’s a 20-page narrative.

Therefore I want to specifically call your attention to some of the items in the project narrative.

Some of the items are fairly basic in a standard text. But in a few areas particularly - oops under the project statement - just enlarged my screen. Under the problem statement which is on Page

21 and the proposed intervention section of the narrative on Page 22 we’ve included custom specific bullets relative to the Lifespan Respite Program and items that are taken directly from the Lifespan Respite Care Act itself. So those are things to pay attention to.

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

Under the proposed intervention it looks rather long. We wanted to lay out information 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. Please note the second and third paragraphs - oh moving onto project management, sorry, Page 24. Second and third paragraphs under project management discusses the importance of the state project director maintaining an active role in managing the project.

On Page 25 of 50 this is very important is information about the budget narrative or justification as well as the required workplan. Please be aware that since these projects will receive federal funding each year for three years you must include a budget justification as well as a workplan for each individual project year plus a consolidated budget justification that covers the whole three years in one budget narrative and a workplan for the entire three years.

So you may have noticed that under both of these sections we have written in bold font the failure to include either of these items will result in a score of zero by the objective reviewers for that specific review criteria - or on that again soon.

Page 27, moving to 27 of 50. I want to point out funding restrictions that are listed under Item

No. 5 because these are also non-negotiable but rather required by law. We’re not allowed to fund construction. Basically research for the continuation of existing projects without expansion or new innovative approaches which is also in the act. In addition there’s a guidance on serving

- the fact that serving meals is not allowable.

Coming down the homestretch 28 of 50 and going through Page 31 of 50 are a whole lot of application review criteria. And you may notice if you’re looking at the PDF right above the application review criteria there’s another reminder about the memorandum of agreement. I just can’t overstate it enough.

Each of the sections for the application review criteria - each of the sections there are five sections - project relevance and current need, approach, budget, project impact and organizational capacity. Each of them having a maximum of points, each of the sections combined adding up to 100 points. Within the sections there are some subsections which may indicate the breakout of the points for how they work.

For example project relevance and current need there’s five points and then, will approach maximum points is 30. And then we have several subsections, goals and objectives 10 points, workplan 15 points. Note again failure to include a workplan with the application will result in a score of zero for this section. So if you don’t include the workplan the reviewers will move on and you’ll get zero rather than a 15 or a portion thereof.

And on Page 31 after the review criteria it’ll give you an overview of the review and collection process. As we mentioned each of the applications that come through a screening, after clear screening it will be reviewed by a panel of three experts in the field. These recommendations will be included in the final award decision. They’ll use scoring forms that contain these exact questions from the funding opportunity announcement in these five section areas to respond - to review your application.

After the May 17 deadline applications will be made available to the reviewers within approximately three to seven days depending on how many 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 I should be convening the review panels by early June.

Therefore do still hope for notifications of success. Notices of awards to applicants to go out the first of July start date but as Greg indicated earlier there are a lot of things going on in our grant’s management office - very good things but that may slow things down.

Page 32 to 33 of 50 provides information about award notices, policy requirements and et cetera.

I wanted to bring that to your attention because it’s administrative information and it’s pertinent should you receive a new grant award but not something that needs to be addressed in your application. It’s followed by my contact information again for about the third time I think and then Sherlonda’s contact information.

Finally on the bottom of Page 34 of 50 of the PDF all the way through the end is Section 8 titled other information which incorporates other elements of the application and provides sample templates of items such as the budget justifications and workplans that are required attachments.

We also have optional - we also have templates of the workplan, the budget narrative, et cetera in the back of the funding opportunity announcement. The templates are there for sample purposes.

You’re welcome to use them, provide a sample. And then filled and then we provide a plain document with nothing filled in. So you’re welcome to use these templates. Or if you have something else, you’re welcome to use these or if you want to use something else that’s perfectly fine. The reviewers are not looking at whether or not you used our template or your own template. We just offer these as an assistance. And I’m sorry I ran longer than I expected.

Thanks to Greg for jumping in for me. But Greg or Sara, do you have anything you’d like to add before we move to question time?

Greg Link: Nope I don’t.

Sara Vogler: I don’t either thank you though.

Lori Stalbaum: Thank you. Anyone have any questions or anything we can respond to? No question is too small. No question is too big.

Woman 2: Hi I have a question.

Lori Stalbaum: Yes.

Woman 2: Can you again talk about - so having a memorandum of agreement with a respite coalition. Again can you talk about what are options if a state does not have an existing coalition what would be an acceptable kind of agreement or…

Greg Link: Okay so this is Greg. I can attempt to answer that.

There could be a statewide organization perhaps that provides respite services or coordinates respite services that may not necessarily be labeled a coalition per se. That would be an acceptable alternative. But there must be - we interpret the law in congressional intent to mean that there must be some type of a statewide respite organization that coordinates or provides respite on behalf of the whole state or a coalition in place and then an MOU or an MOA between the state applicant and that particular entity. We don’t have the ability to waive that requirement.

Woman 2: Sure.

Lori Stalbaum: And Greg that group could be another - could be a state version of a national organization is that correct?

Greg Link: It could be if that’s how they choose to identify themselves. There’s really no

- the law does not lay out any specific criteria for that. So it’s pretty much what is in the state.

Lori Stalbaum: Other questions or anything?

Greg Link: Okay well I need to drop because I’ve got that three o’clock so I will let you handle any other questions.

Lori Stalbaum: Yes, thank you. Thanks, Greg. Anyone have any other question of any kind otherwise you know, this isn’t the only time. My email is in the funding opportunity announcement. It’s a little bit easier to get emails but my phone number is in there as well with this telework my sound is not always on on my phone like it is when I’m sitting at my desk in my office instead of in my back bedroom in my house.

But if you have any additional questions if I can answer them, you’re welcome to email me. If I think it’s outside my bailiwick or you can email me and Sherlonda but if I think it’s outside my area of expertise, I’ll bring in Sherlonda and Sara and we’ll all talk about it and get you a response as promptly as possible.

If there are no other questions I’d just like to make sure. Thank you very much for joining us today. I hope it was helpful and I hope if you do have other questions as you’re working on your proposals that you will reach out and know that we are available after today. And I hope everyone is well and healthy and I wish you good luck. Thank you for joining us.

Sara Vogler: Thank you, Lori.

Lori Stalbaum: Bye.

END