hhs-2025-acf-ofa-zj-0014_rev3.pdf

Family and Economic Stability Demonstration and Innovation Division

Notice of Funding Opportunity

Application due July 29, 2025

Family, Opportunity, Resilience, Grit, Engagement—Fatherhood (FORGE Fatherhood) Opportunity number: HHS-2025-ACF-OFA-ZJ-0014

Contents

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 4 Basic information 5

Eligibility 7

Program description 9

Step 2: Get Ready to Apply 31 Get registered 32

Find the application package 32

Learn more 33

View the webinar 33

Step 3: Prepare Your Application 34 Application contents and format 35

Step 4: Learn About Review and Award 58 Application review 59

Award notices 68

Step 5: Submit Your Application 69 Application submission and deadlines 70

Application checklist 72

Step 6: Learn What Happens After Award 73 Post-award requirements and administration 74

Contacts and Support 76

Before you begin 3

Appendices 78

Modifications 81

Endnotes 82

Contents 2

Before you begin If you believe you are a good candidate for this funding opportunity, secure your SAM.gov and Grants.gov registrations now. If you are already registered, make sure your registrations are active and up-to-date.

SAM.gov registration (this can take several weeks)

You must have an active account with SAM.gov. This includes having a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI).

See Step 2: Get Ready to Apply

Grants.gov registration (this can take several days)

You must have an active Grants.gov registration. Doing so requires a Login.gov registration as well.

See Step 2: Get Ready to Apply

Apply by the application due date

Applications are due by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on July 29, 2025.

To help you find what you need, this NOFO uses internal links. In Adobe Reader, you can go back to where you were by pressing Alt + Left Arrow (Windows) or Command + Left Arrow (Mac) on your keyboard.

Before you begin 3 https://sam.gov/ https://grants.gov/

1. Review 2. Get Ready 3. Prepare 4. Learn 5. Submit 6. Award Contacts

Step 1:

Review the Opportunity

In this step

Basic information 5

Eligibility 7

Program description 9

Basic information Administration for Children and Families (ACF)

Office of Family Assistance

Family and Economic Stability Demonstration and Innovation Division

Supporting responsible fatherhood by promoting healthy marriage, responsible parenting practices, and economic stability activities.

Have questions?

See Contacts and Support.

Key facts

Opportunity name: Family, Opportunity, Resilience, Grit, Engagement— Fatherhood (FORGE Fatherhood)

Opportunity number:

HHS-2025-ACF-OFA-

ZJ-0014

Announcement type:

Initial

Federal assistance listing:

93.086

Statutory authority number:

42 U.S.C. 603(a)(2)

Key dates

Application submission deadline: July 29, 2025

Expected project start date: September 30, 2025

Summary The FORGE Fatherhood—Family, Opportunity, Resilience, Grit, Engagement program will provide funding for projects that promote responsible fatherhood under three broad categories:

• Promoting or sustaining marriage.

• Promoting responsible parenting.

• Fostering economic stability.

This funding will be targeted to projects designed for adult fathers (age 18 and older).

Eligible fathers (or father figures) must have children age 24 or younger and may be:

• Married or unmarried biological fathers.

• Expectant fathers.

• Adoptive fathers.

• Stepfathers.

• Father figures, such as grandfathers or foster fathers.

The activities funded under this NOFO are inspired by these qualities of fatherhood:

Family, Opportunity, Resilience, Grit, Engagement. Projects will provide a broad array of services to adult fathers. In addition to essential services to strengthen positive father-child engagement, ACF seeks projects that provide:

• Robust services to promote or sustain healthy marriage and relationships.

• Robust services to improve employment and economic stability opportunities.

Economic stability activities include job-driven employment and job skills development.

Additionally, projects are expected to include at least 24 hours of curriculum-based workshops and meet program participation targets. We are also interested in projects

1. Review 2. Get Ready 3. Prepare 4. Learn 5. Submit 6. Award Contacts

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 5 https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/ssact/title04/0403.htm that implement one specific program model designed for a service population, such as community fathers or reentry fathers.

This is one of three Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood (HMRF) funding opportunities. The others are:

• Helping Every Area of Relationships Thrive (HEART) (HHS-ACF-OFA-ZB-0109).

• Relationships, Education, Advancement, and Development for Youth for Life (READY4Life) (HHS-2025-ACF-ZD-0013).

Funding details Type: Cooperative agreement

Expected total program funding: $55,000,000

Total expected awards: 66

Minimum award amount for the first budget period (award floor): $400,000

Maximum award amount for the first budget period (award ceiling): $1,250,000

We plan to fund a 5-year project period. The project period has 5 one-year budget periods.

Projects will be funded within three scopes of service, each with specific funding levels.

Non-competitive continuation grants will be offered for years 2 through 5 of the project period, subject to the availability of funds, satisfactory progress toward performance benchmarks, and a determination that continued funding is in the best interest of the federal government. For years 2 through 5, your funding level request for each year must be the same as (or lower than) the amount in year 1.

Awards made under this funding opportunity are subject to federal funds availability.

1. Review 2. Get Ready 3. Prepare 4. Learn 5. Submit 6. Award Contacts

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 6 https://grants.gov/search-results-detail/355694 https://www.grants.gov/search-results-detail/355695 https://www.grants.gov/search-results-detail/355695

Eligibility Eligible applicants These types of organizations are eligible for an award:

• State, county, city, and township governments.

• Special district governments.

• Independent school districts.

• Public- and state-controlled institutions of higher education.

• Native American tribal governments (federally recognized) and tribal organizations.

• Public housing authorities and Indian housing authorities.

• Nonprofits with or without a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS.

Individuals, including sole proprietorships, and foreign entities are not eligible.

Other eligibility criteria Faith-based and community organizations that meet the eligibility requirements are eligible for awards under this funding opportunity.

Disqualification factors We will review your application to make sure it meets these responsiveness requirements.

We won’t consider an application that:

• Requests funding above the award ceiling.

• Is submitted after the deadline.

• Is from an individual, including a sole proprietorship, or a foreign entity.

• Is received in paper format that didn’t have a previously approved exemption from

ACF.

Application limits If you submit the same application more than once under this notice of funding opportunity (NOFO), we will only acknowledge the last on-time submission.

An applicant organization may submit only one application in response to this announcement.

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 7

Cost sharing This program has no cost-sharing requirement. If you choose to include cost-sharing funds, we won’t consider it during review. However, we will hold you accountable for any funds you add, including through reporting. If you don’t provide your promised amount, we may have to decrease your award amount or use other enforcement actions.

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 8

Program description Statutory authority 42 U.S.C. 603(a)(2)(C)

Background Programs to promote responsible fatherhood ACF’s Responsible Fatherhood (RF) funding supports organizations across the country in developing or expanding programs aimed at building and enhancing services for fathers and families. These programs have affected thousands of fathers, including low-income, noncustodial, reentering, and recently released fathers, and helped establish and strengthen relationships, improve long-term economic stability, and overcome obstacles and barriers to support these fathers in being stable, supportive, and effective fathers.

Note: The authorizing legislation uses the term “responsible fatherhood grants.”

Therefore, throughout this NOFO, ACF uses the terms “fatherhood” and “fathers.” While programming and services provided under this legislation must be father-focused, mothers may also participate in this programming.

Assuring continued commitment to promoting this program Leadership in your organization, all community partners, and contributors supported through this grant are expected to be made aware of the importance of being equally invested in and committed to achieving all programmatic goals and objectives.

Strategic and structured collaboration among these groups is critical for the collective support of this program.

Program purpose and scope Projects funded under this NOFO will identify strategies to recruit and provide services for eligible adult fathers.

1. Review 2. Get Ready 3. Prepare 4. Learn 5. Submit 6. Award Contacts

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 9

Awards under this funding must develop program designs that incorporate activities in all three of the following areas, and offer them to all eligible fathers and/or father figures:

• Promoting or sustaining healthy marriage.

• Promoting responsible parenting.

• Fostering economic stability.

Scope of services This program has three possible scopes of service. You must choose a scope based on your organizational capacity and must apply for a funding level that aligns with that capacity. You must design a project that aligns your scope with a clear, documented need for that specific level of intensity.

• Large scope: $750,000 to $1,250,000.

• Small scope: $400,000 to $749,999.

• Emerging scope: $400,000 to $749,999. This category is for organizations that are not prior HMRF award recipients and express a need for and willingness to participate in capacity-building technical assistance from ACF. This may include assistance with the following project aspects:

◦ Marketing and outreach of programming.

◦ Fostering partnerships.

◦ Delivering HMRF services—for example, curriculum-driven workshops.

◦ Recruiting and retaining program participants.

◦ Staffing, including hiring and management structure.

◦ Managing data.

Programmatic objectives and outcomes This project will help ACF to continuously improve programming and increase positive outcomes for fathers, couples, families, and children.

The objectives of this program include:

• Case management includes designed, individualized service plans for participant fathers.

• Fathers gain skills and tools that allow them to healthily parent and co-parent.

• Fathers are more engaged with their children.

• Fathers are provided economic stability supports and gainful employment opportunities.

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 10

The short-term outcomes of this program include:

• Increased financial responsibility of fathers.

• Improved healthy relationship and marriage skills.

• Progress toward greater economic stability, including developing skills and finding employment.

• Improved parenting and co-parenting skills.

• Improved quality of father-child engagement.

• Increased frequency of father-child engagement.

• Reduced recidivism (if applicable).

The long-term outcomes of this program include:

• Increased economic stability and mobility.

• Improved family functioning, including:

◦ Improved couple relationships, including marriage.

◦ Improved family stability.

◦ Improved parenting and co-parenting.

• Improved adult and child well-being.

• Increased economic stability and mobility.

• Reduced recidivism (if applicable).

Program activities Program model Your project is expected to implement a specific program model(s), meaning an intervention that serves and is designed to meet the needs of its specific adult service population(s). Your model could serve one or more populations, such as community fathers or reentering fathers. Based on past performance data, we find that implementing one program model will help you achieve your enrollment targets, whether that model serves one or more populations. You may propose more than one model, but we strongly encourage just one.

We seek clear, well-designed projects that can thoroughly articulate their approach and implementation. Important factors include:

• A structure for the activities and services you will offer, aligned with the project’s logic model, objectives, and outcomes.

• Staffing plans.

• Training plans for staff, including refresher training.

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 11

• Partnerships with other organizations, as appropriate, to recruit participants, deliver services paid through this grant, and make referrals.

• Well-developed oversight and monitoring plans for paid partners providing service delivery that include clear detailed line-item budgets and budget narratives.

• A plan for participants that aligns with the target number of participants and accounts for attrition, and includes:

◦ Recruitment, with reasonable plans for project marketing and outreach.

◦ Enrollment, with intake and assessment processes, as applicable.

◦ Retention, with strategies to retain the largest number of participants through the program to completion.

• Curricula that meet standards for hours and delivery format, and a monitoring plan that ensures the fidelity of curricula—that is, whether the curriculum is delivered as intended.

• Whenever practicable, a cohort-based design where a group of fathers receives the programming together, over time, from start to finish. This design should align with participant needs or goals, including online cohorts when appropriate, such as for incarcerated fathers.

• Case management and additional services to address individual participant needs, support participation, and make links to services that are not fundable under this NOFO.

• A broad array of community-centered strategies to promote responsible fatherhood. If applicable, consider promising or innovative approaches to promote economic stability.

• Systematic data collection and protection of personally identifiable information.

• Continuous quality improvement.

Your project should include strategies to ensure that participants complete the program model, meaning they participate in at least 90% of primary workshops.

Additionally, you should ensure that participants are tracked through enrollment, attendance, and completion, as well as other services you provide to address their needs.

Promoting responsible fatherhood: authorized activities You must implement each of the three authorized activities below. Each category contains a range of specific activities, which may be combined to accomplish the outcomes described in this NOFO. Programs are not required to implement all the listed activities under the three authorized categories but must select from the activities under each category.

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 12

Authorized activity #1: Promoting responsible parenting You must provide parenting education and father-child relationship enhancement services. These services must be provided in curriculum-based workshops. These services must include the following critical components:

• Understanding child development and child behaviors.

• Promoting positive communication with children and other family members.

• Setting limits and using nonviolent discipline techniques.

• Showing the importance of being an involved parent.

• Developing or rebuilding trust.

• Reducing family conflict and enhancing family relationships.

• Self-regulating and co-regulating to support healthy parenting and attain shared and personal goals.

Activities to promote responsible parenting, as listed in the legislation, include:

• Counseling, mentoring, and mediation.

• Sharing information about good parenting practices.

• Skills-based parenting education.

• Encouraging child support payments.

• Other methods.

Authorized activity #2: Promoting or sustaining healthy marriage You must provide healthy marriage and relationship education and skills-building services. These services must be provided in curriculum-based workshops. These services must include the following critical components:

• Communication skills, including expression, discussion, and negotiation skills.

• Conflict resolution, anger management, and problem-solving skills.

• Promotion of the benefits of marriage and two-parent involvement.

• Education, counseling, or mentoring on family finances, including household management, budgeting, banking, and handling financial transactions and home maintenance.

In addition to curriculum-based workshops, your project is expected to provide at least one additional activity to promote or sustain healthy marriage and relationships.

Activities to promote or sustain marriage, as listed in the legislation, include:

• Counseling, mentoring, and providing information about the benefits of marriage and two-parent involvement for children.

• Enhancing relationship skills.

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 13

• Education on how to control aggressive behavior.

• Sharing information on the causes of domestic violence and child abuse.

• Marriage preparation programs.

• Premarital counseling.

• Marital inventories.

• Skills-based marriage education.

• Financial planning seminars, education, counseling, or mentoring on family finances, including household management, budgeting, banking, and handling financial transactions and home maintenance.

• Divorce education and reduction programs, including mediation and counseling.

Finally, your project is expected to integrate and sustain this emphasis on promoting or sustaining healthy marriage and relationships throughout your project.

Authorized activity #3: Fostering economic stability You must provide economic stability services. Activities related to employment are particularly important in the FORGE program. Data from previous fatherhood programs suggests that over 50% of fathers who participated in these programs were unemployed at the time of enrollment—and that fathers are more likely to be employed after enrolling in a fatherhood program.

Your project should:

• Provide at least three distinct economic stability and employment activities.

• Focus case management on economic stability and employment—see the case management section.

You are also strongly encouraged to foster productive partnerships, based on signed, performance-based memoranda of understanding (MOUs), with employment-focused organizations in your community, such as a local American Job Center or other training and employment programs funded under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). See the employment-focused partnerships section.

Activities to foster economic stability and employment, as listed in the legislation, include:

• Work-first services.

• Job search.

• Job training.

• Subsidized employment.

• Job retention.

• Job enhancement.

1. Review 2. Get Ready 3. Prepare 4. Learn 5. Submit 6. Award Contacts

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 14 https://www.careeronestop.org/LocalHelp/AmericanJobCenters/american-job-centers.aspx

• Encouraging education, including career-advancing education.

• Providing employment materials.

• Coordination with existing employment services such as welfare-to-work and apprenticeship programs.

• Referrals to local employment training initiatives.

• Other methods.

Economic stability and employment activities can also include encouragement or help with:

• Resume writing.

• Job searching, online or at job fairs.

• Job referrals.

• Job training, including hard and soft skills.

• Job placement.

• Job enhancement.

Economic stability and employment services should also include post-employment supports and follow-up activities to help participants gain and retain employment as they move toward economic self-sufficiency.

Your economic stability and employment activities, as well as a strong overall focus on employment, will be integrated in your overall program model.

Previous projects have offered comprehensive employment activities that:

• Demonstrated how participants could gain marketable job skills.

• Helped them attain permanent employment.

• Helped them sustain employment.

• Improved fathers’ skills to help them move toward economic stability.

Job-driven employment (optional, as part of economic stability)

We strongly encourage you to consider job-driven employment activities as a component of your economic stability activities. You could include one or more of the following examples of job-driven employment activities:

• Identifying in-demand occupations using up-to-date, publicly available labor market information.

• Aligning education and training approaches to growth sectors identified through labor market analysis.

• Partnering or networking with employers in growth industries, such as technology, health professions, construction, entrepreneurial opportunities, and other income-generating alternatives.

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 15

• Coordinating with local businesses, American Job Centers, or employment training agencies.

• Partnering with adult education agencies, community colleges, and other education service providers to help participants receive a high school equivalency diploma (for example, by taking the GED test), certificates, or other education- and career-advancing opportunities.

• Partnering with institutions that offer advanced vocational training and certifications.

• Partnering with employers that offer apprenticeships.

• Collaborating with Workforce Development Boards and other employment agencies.

If you incorporate job-driven employment, you must follow these principles:

• Build from a solid understanding of local economic conditions and economic growth sectors.

• Make connections to education and training opportunities aligned with these sectors.

• Use partnerships with employers in targeted sectors to increase the likelihood of placement and retention in work.

• Use evidenced-informed programs and practices.

You may also provide subsidized employment through partnerships for fathers participating in your program. If you provide employment services, you must ensure that fathers also participate in RF classes or workshops, case management, follow-up, or program supports while they are enrolled in the employment program.

You may implement job-driven employment and other economic stability services directly or in collaboration with program partners.

Job-driven employment services must not be standalone activities, and participants must remain enrolled in other authorized activities while receiving these services.

Curriculum-based workshops It is expected that:

• Your project will deliver 24 hours or more of curriculum over time, in a primary workshop.

• Your curriculum will include at least eight hours of content and activities devoted to the critical components of Authorized activity #2: Promoting or sustaining healthy marriage, and the programmatic objectives and outcomes related to marriage, relationships (romantic and interpersonal), and family.

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 16

A workshop is a set of structured classes. Primary workshops are workshops that all participants are expected to complete. Additionally, OFA expects primary workshops to be:

• Delivered in more than two sessions.

• Delivered over two weeks or more, and not over a single weekend.

You must deliver workshops that use curricula that are:

• Evidence-informed: Evidence-informed or promising practices bring together the best available research, professional expertise, and/or input from fathers, families, and communities to identify and deliver services that have promise to achieve positive outcomes for fathers, families, and communities.

• Skills-based: The curriculum should teach concrete skills and engage participants in trying out the skills.

• Relevant to the community context and the populations being served, including being age appropriate, particularly when serving younger fathers 18 to 24 years old.

• Clearly and directly aligned with all NOFO programmatic objectives and outcomes as well as any project-specific goals and objectives.

Some fatherhood programs use a curriculum that has already been prepared and tested (sometimes called “off the shelf”), and other programs adapt or develop their own evidence-informed curriculum designed to meet the unique needs of their participants. If you adapt an “off-the-shelf” curriculum to make it more relevant, you will need to obtain written approval from the curriculum developer, and potentially OFA. Adaptations may include:

• Adjusting curricula to better meet the needs of fathers served.

• Stitching together curriculum modules.

• Integrating additional modules into an existing curriculum.

• Implementing your own evidence-informed curriculum.

All curricula materials, including trainer guides, participant workbooks, and other tools, must be maintained in both digital and hard-copy options by the program.

Curricula are expected to be delivered with fidelity and consistency across program cohorts.

Curricula and workshops must:

• Be father-focused.

• Promote positive relationships, including father-child, father-spouse, or father-co-parent.

• Include staff development and training components.

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 17

• Use technical support provided by the curriculum developer to ensure fidelity when implementing the curriculum.

To ensure curriculum integrity, curricula designed for group-based settings must be delivered in groups, and you cannot use them in a one-on-one setting (except for make-up sessions).

You may also offer supplementary workshops, that is, workshops to supplement the primary workshops you provide, such as workshops to address specific topics that would benefit some, but not all, participants, like understanding credit scores or thriving in step-families.

Domestic violence Given high rates of domestic violence (also called intimate partner violence), it is likely that you will serve people who are experiencing or have experienced domestic violence, or who have engaged in abusive or aggressive behaviors that meet the criteria for domestic violence or intimate partner violence.

You must commit to consulting with experts in domestic or teen dating violence, or relevant community or state domestic violence coalitions, when developing your program model and activities. You must work collaboratively with these experts to ensure that:

• All participants are provided access to accurate information about domestic violence and dating violence, including where to go for support or services.

• All participants are provided safe opportunities to disclose if they are or have been victims of domestic violence or dating violence.

• Project staff and volunteers receive training to respond to disclosures of domestic violence or dating violence by offering confidential referrals to domestic violence services.

You might consider some of these strategies as part of a comprehensive approach to addressing domestic violence in your project:

• Comprehensive training for staff on how domestic violence or dating violence affects program participants and what to do if the victim or perpetrator discloses abuse after initial screening or later in the program.

• Comprehensive domestic and dating violence screening and assessment as a first step in providing services and interventions.

• Universal education on domestic violence and/or dating violence to program participants, as an addition to or alternative for screening and assessment.

• Partnerships with community-based domestic violence agencies.

1. Review 2. Get Ready 3. Prepare 4. Learn 5. Submit 6. Award Contacts

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 18 https://www.cdc.gov/nisvs/about/index.html

• Safety planning to prepare for and respond to disclosed incidents of domestic or dating violence, intervene in crises, and make referrals to other community-based domestic violence services.

Child maltreatment You must ensure that your employees are aware of and trained on your state’s reporting requirements for child abuse and neglect. OFA expects that projects will consult with expert organizations on preventing, detecting, and responding to child maltreatment. Your project must include teaching participants about preventing child maltreatment throughout childhood.

Participant eligibility and service populations Fathers served must be actively engaged in raising a minor child or actively engaged in the life of a young adult up to age 24 who is the child of a partner or relative. The child may or may not live in the same home. Eligible fathers must be age 18 or older. They may be:

• Married or unmarried biological fathers.

• Expectant fathers.

• Adoptive fathers.

• Stepfathers.

• Father figures, such as grandfathers or foster fathers.

Eligible fathers include those in the general population (“community fathers”) and reentering fathers (including those who are currently incarcerated and intend to return to their families and communities, as well as formerly incarcerated fathers who have already returned).

We recognize that some fathers would benefit from our programs and services if they are able to participate with a supporting individual. You may design your programs to include the supporting individual. This supporting individual may be a current or former romantic partner, or another person who is actively involved with the father to raise the child, especially a relative of the child and/or the father. However, the participating father must be the primary participant.

Fathers across every demographic and socioeconomic spectrum are eligible, not just fathers who are noncustodial, have low income, or have had contact with the criminal justice system.

Note that although your services must be father-focused, your project and activities must be available to mothers and expectant mothers who can benefit from the activities.

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 19

Voluntary participation You must ensure that participation in programming is voluntary and inform potential participants that their involvement is voluntary.

Program participation targets This program counts a father as “served” when he has received at least 90% of primary workshops. You should serve as many fathers as reasonable, given the amount of funding requested and your program design. We have established the minimum number of participants you must serve per year, based on your funding level request.

• If you are requesting $750,000 to $1,250,000 in funding, your project is considered large scope. You must serve at least 160 individuals per year, who will complete at least 90% of primary workshops.

• If you are requesting $400,000 to $749,000 in funding and have prior experience conducting activities under this funding, your project is considered small scope.

You must serve at least 100 individuals per year, who will complete at least 90% of primary workshops.

• If you are requesting $400,000 to $749,999 in funding, are not a prior HMRF award recipient, and are willing to participate in capacity-building technical assistance, your project is considered emerging scope. The minimum number of fathers to be served per year are outlined here:

◦ In year 1, you must serve at least 25 individuals who will complete at least 90% of primary workshops.

◦ In year 2, you must serve at least 50 individuals.

◦ In year 3, you must serve at least 75 individuals.

◦ In years 4 and 5, you must serve at least 100 individuals.

To account for the project planning period, in year 1 large- and small-scope projects must serve, at a minimum, half of the number of individuals listed here.

You will be held accountable to meeting the targets you propose in your application.

Addressing client needs Intake, enrollment, and assessment of needs Your project should incorporate rigorous intake, enrollment, and strategies to assess participants’ needs, skills, and interests. You should use assessment processes or tools that help project staff make decisions about:

• The match between the program and the needs of the participant.

• Ways to increase participation in the program.

• Any additional strategies for each individual based on their abilities and needs.

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 20

• The participant’s placement in training, education, or employment programs, if applicable.

Your strategies for intake, enrollment, and assessment should include the following, as appropriate:

• Comprehensive intake tools that provide information about participants to help staff determine their needs, skills, and interests.

• Training to help the intake staff and potential participants determine whether the program will meet their needs or whether they should be referred to a different program.

• Initial goal-setting by gathering information to determine how best to serve the participant. This information may be used to develop an Individual Development Plan (IDP) when appropriate.

• Assessments, such as domestic violence screenings, intake surveys, increase in participation, or family supports.

• Discussion about next steps after enrollment, such as assigning a case manager, reviewing the class or activity schedule, and attendance expectations.

Case management Your project must include intensive case management strategies that either provide direct services or link participants to community-centered support services. Based on needs identified in the assessment, case management is expected to focus on economic stability and employment activities, including planning for or enrolling in training, and identifying and linking fathers to employment opportunities.

Case management may include:

• Regular contact with each participant, to facilitate program retention, completion, and access to needed support services.

• More intensive services related to employment and economic stability.

You are expected to provide, on average, eight individual service contacts per client during the program. An individual service contact is a substantive interaction between a staff member and a participant, focused on programming (for example, to make up a missed workshop session) or an issue related to the participant’s needs. You should also include strategies to ensure that you follow up when referring participants to services outside the program. You should:

• Make regular contact with participants to facilitate program retention, completion, and access to needed supports.

• Have an orientation process, risk and needs assessment, and intake and enrollment procedures.

• Chart the participant’s goals, objectives, progress, and milestones.

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 21

• Include employment and education plans.

• Provide follow-up support services to help participants with job placement, retention, and advancement.

We encourage you to integrate nontherapeutic or peer counseling or mentoring.

Counseling can allow fathers to discuss a variety of issues and receive guidance from trained staff in a group or one-on-one setting. Mentoring offers an opportunity to provide guidance in the form of role models, who can model behaviors when dealing with challenges.

If you serve reentering fathers, your project should include strategies to assess and meet their transitional needs.

You must be able to design your project to meet the needs of all potential service populations.

Grant-funded participation supports If needed, your project can include participation support costs that will cover services to increase participation and improve program recruitment, retention, and outcomes.

Some past grant projects provided transportation assistance, childcare, or meals during in-person workshops. We will discuss these services with you after award.

Partnerships We encourage you to use partnerships with other organizations in your community when designing and implementing your project. Strong partnerships are critical to maximizing the effects of your project by leveraging resources, building community support, and increasing access to eligible service populations. Partnerships should be formalized through performance-based MOUs or third-party agreements.

Partners may serve as:

• Sources for recruiting program participants. However, you should not rely solely on partners for recruitment and outreach.

• Sources for developing, refining, and shaping materials and plans.

• Implementors of programming.

• Referral agencies for services that are needed but not available through your project. That is, your staff might refer participants to these agencies for additional services.

If you partner with other organizations by issuing subawards, please see the limitations in the subawards section.

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 22

Employment-focused partnerships OFA expects you to partner with at least two employment-focused organizations in your community, such as a local American Job Center or other training and/or employment program funded under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). These organizations should provide training to your fathers and/or link fathers to employment opportunities, including services to help fathers retain employment or advance in employment. These should be productive partnerships, based on signed, performance-based MOUs. These employment-focused partnerships are critical to ensuring that the fathers you serve find and retain employment.

Housing We encourage partnerships with organizations providing housing assistance because you may not use grant funds to subsidize housing or provide housing vouchers or rental assistance. Consider working with community partners to connect participants to transitional, temporary, or permanent housing. Stable housing is a key factor associated with increased parent-child contact, family stability, and reentry. This is particularly important for projects whose service populations include homeless or reentering fathers and fathers with other housing stability challenges.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Some parents and/or their children may receive cash assistance or other supports from the local TANF agency. You may want to establish collaborative relationships with the state or local TANF agency. The TANF agency can provide you with potential participants, and your project can provide activities that can help young parents meet their TANF work requirements.

Child support We encourage partnerships with local child support agencies because you may not use grant funds for child support payments or assistance. Many fathers served by RF projects are in the child support system or have child support obligations. You might consider establishing strong, positive referrals to or in-kind collaborations with local child support agencies. These collaborations can help fathers understand their child support rights and responsibilities.

Other possible partners You must make sure that your assessment of the community needs and service population align with those of partnering organizations. We encourage you to consider partnerships with federal initiatives, local agencies, or other community programs.

Potential partners include:

• Employers who offer apprenticeship programs.

• State, local, and tribal TANF agencies.

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• Child welfare agencies and organizations.

• Legal aid and community action agencies.

• Criminal justice agencies, including prisons, jails, prerelease centers, courts, and probation and parole officers.

• Head Start programs.

• Healthy Start programs.

• Local substance and mental health agencies.

• Public health services, including health insurance navigators and enrollment specialists.

As a reminder, grant funds must be spent on activities that are reasonable and necessary for the goals of the program, which means that grant funds may not directly fund:

• Health services, including health care, mental health treatment, or substance abuse treatment; nor

• Legal support, in child support or in other areas such as criminal record expungement.

However, you may partner with organizations that provide these kinds of support.

Organizational requirements Project management and staffing Your organization and staff must demonstrate the capacity and experience to carry out the project activities. You must include the following key project positions:

• Project director.

• Project manager.

• Data manager.

• Financial officer.

The project director should not be the authorized organizational representative. You must plan to hire one full-time project director or a combination of a part-time project director and a project manager, where the two positions equal at least one full-time position and where the project director holds at least a 0.5 full-time equivalence (FTE) position. We strongly recommend hiring at least one full-time lead responsible for the day-to-day operation and implementation of the program and to oversee, monitor and manage the project.

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Geographic location You must have a physical presence in the community, city, or county where you provide services, even if some of your services are virtual. A physical presence means a demonstrated ability to directly monitor and oversee:

• Service provision.

• Staff and facilitator training.

• Programmatic, legal, and regulatory compliance in the service area.

• Agreements with partner organizations.

This physical presence is critical to ensure an understanding of the needs and resources of each community in which your program participants live, work, and strive to strengthen their families. In addition, having a physical presence enables participants to connect in real life with other caring adults.

Entrance conference and annual OFA-led HMRF recipient meetings You must attend the entrance conference, which will be held during the first year of the grant. You must also attend annual OFA-led HMRF recipient meetings throughout the project period. The project director and up to three additional key staff must attend the entrance conference and annual meetings.

Planning period Large- and small-scope recipient organizations will be given up to six months for intensive and comprehensive implementation planning. Planning activities include:

• Updating and refining the need for assistance.

• Finalizing MOUs, interagency agreements, or other third-party agreements.

• Obtaining curriculum deviation approvals from curriculum developers, if needed.

• Finalizing domestic violence protocols.

• Undertaking procurement activities, such as identifying needed goods or services, selecting vendors, and establishing purchase and delivery schedules.

• Hiring and training staff.

• Obtaining security clearances for project staff to work with correctional facilities, if applicable.

• Training staff and setting up operations to collect performance measurement data in the Information, Family Outcomes, Reporting, and Management (nFORM) system.

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• Developing a continuous quality improvement plan and program flow diagram—that is, a pictorial representation of the sequence of the program from start to finish.

Emerging-scope recipient organizations will be given up to 12 months for intensive and comprehensive planning, capacity-building, and initial implementation, based on an individualized assessment of capacity strengths and needs.

Large- and small-scope recipient organizations may pilot their program models, or portions of their program models, during the planning period, as early as January 2, 2026, if they meet specific readiness criteria.

Emerging-scope recipient organizations may pilot their program models, or portions of their program models, during their planning period, as early as April 1, 2026. They must also meet specific readiness criteria before piloting their programs.

Program performance measurement, continuous quality improvement, and research Performance measurement data You must collect, store, and report data on standardized performance measures in the nFORM system. These measures fall into three areas to provide information on what you are doing and who you are serving:

• Services provided through the grant.

• Client characteristics and outcomes.

• Program operations.

Among other activities, you will need to ask all participants to fill out two online surveys: one at the beginning of the programming and one at the end of the last workshop session. You will also need to record information on participants, such as when each one attends a workshop session. The HMRF Grant Resources nFORM page links to the surveys, the user manual, and other related documentation. You may use grant funds to purchase computers or tablets so participants can take the online surveys, headphones for those who wish to hear the computer read the surveys, and maintenance plans.

Continuous quality improvement Continuous quality improvement (CQI) is the process of identifying, describing, and analyzing program strengths and problems, followed by testing, implementing, learning from, and revising solutions. Collecting data through nFORM will give you

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You must develop, implement, and regularly update a CQI plan that uses data and resources to improve program performance and identify areas for further analysis and improvement. You must develop your initial plan within three months of award. You will be expected to show evidence that you are carrying out, updating, and refining the plan. Your CQI activities should be linked to the project’s objectives.

Federal research activities The federal government sponsors federally led evaluations and other research activities. The federal evaluations will be conducted by independent contractors with experience engaging communities meaningfully at each stage of the research and evaluation, mounting small- and large-scale demonstrations, descriptive and impact evaluations, and a range of other research activities.

If you are asked to participate in federally led research activities, whenever feasible and where there is interest, you are asked to engage fully and adhere to all research and evaluation protocols established by ACF to be carried out by its designee contractors.

Local evaluations Post award, you will have the opportunity to submit a proposal to implement a grantee-led evaluation, often called a “local evaluation.” You are not required to propose local evaluation activities in your application for this grant or after award. If you wish to propose a local evaluation post award, you should include funds in your first-year budget to partner with an evaluator to develop the evaluation plan proposal.

If your local evaluation plan proposal is approved, you will receive supplemental funds for the evaluation. See local evaluation reports from the 2015-2020 cohort of grants.

Cooperative agreement—Description of ACF’s involvement OFA will work in close partnership with you and be substantially involved in various aspects of projects funded under this NOFO. Projects will be funded in the form of cooperative agreements that outline the roles of both ACF and the recipient. ACF’s involvement includes:

• Assigning a Family Assistance Program Specialist to monitor and evaluate performance and provide guidance and technical assistance to help you achieve project objectives and ensure that you manage federal funds properly.

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• Providing significant guidance, consultation, and timely review on all project-related materials and deliverables.

• Reviewing, providing feedback on, and approving the project scope, activities, work plan, publications, and products produced with grant funds and changes to key personnel.

• Collection of de-identified performance data.

• Keeping you informed about expectations for successful performance. This includes discussing noncompliance as soon as possible and providing clear feedback on the conditions necessary for compliance.

• Organizing frequent consultations, meetings, briefings, teleconferences, and webinars to review current and planned activities, share information, and promote national coordination.

• Keeping you informed about OFA, ACF, and HHS priorities.

We do not expect that the cooperative agreement will change the project requirements for the recipients under this NOFO.

NOTE: Consistent with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995 (44 U.S.C. §§ 3501-3521), OFA will not conduct or sponsor—and a person is not required to respond to—a collection of information covered by such Act, unless it displays a currently valid Office of Management and Budget (OMB) control number. If activities under this cooperative agreement are subject to PRA, OFA will work with the funding recipient to obtain OMB approval.

Funding policies and limitations General policies

• We will only make awards if this program receives funding. If Congress appropriates funds for this purpose, we will move forward with the review and award process.

• Support beyond the first budget period will depend on:

◦ Appropriation of funds.

◦ Satisfactory progress in meeting your project’s objectives.

◦ A decision that continued funding is in the government’s best interest.

• If we receive more funding for this program, we will consider:

◦ Funding more applicants.

◦ Extending the period of performance.

◦ Awarding supplemental funding.

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ACF does not allow funds awarded under this NOFO to support any costs related to diversity, equity, and inclusion…