PA-FPH-22-001 Audio Transcript Word Doc.pdf

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Mousumi Banikya-Leaseburg (OPA): Thank you, Tasha good afternoon and good morning, everyone.

To everyone joining us today from across the United States and our territories and from the Pacific rim.

And thank you so much for joining the technical assistance webinar for the Office of Population Affairs funding opportunity announcement for Title X family planning services grant.

Opportunity number PA-FPH-22-001. My name is Mousumi Banikya-Leaseburg and I am with the Office of Population Affairs, where I serve as the Supervisory Lead for the Title X program team.

I'm joined today by Alissa Harvey, Naomie Gathua, and Shenena Armstrong-Merchant who are Project

Officers on the Title X team.

As well as my colleague from the OASH, or the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health, Grants and

Acquisitions Management Office, Scott Moore, the Grants Management Officer.

The technical assistance webinar is being recorded and will be posted for the duration of the competition.

A few housekeeping items before we begin. All participants have been muted.

We invite you to submit questions throughout the webinar in the chat. We will not be taking verbal questions today, but we will respond to questions during the Q&A session. We will prepare an FAQ document, which will be posted to Grants.gov.

Please do note that the information provided in this call does not supersede any of the content of the

Notice of Funding Opportunity.

The Notice of Funding Opportunity, or NOFO, is the written document that we’ll cover in the competition. We strongly encourage you to subscribe to the NOFO on Grants.gov to ensure that, if there are any revisions or amendment made to it, you will receive notice.

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Again, to reiterate the notice of funding opportunity is the document which covers the competition.

That is posted on Grants.gov and any amendments that might follow.

Next slide please.

I already mentioned some of these logistics.

Please be on mute. You have already been muted on entry, but please make sure that you are muted throughout.

As I mentioned, we will pause for questions and answers, We will actually pause twice and you may chat in your questions throughout the webinar.

There are several ways by which you can submit questions, or, you can email the resource box. That is:

FY22.TitleXNOFO.National@hhs.gov

We have an entire team monitoring the mailbox seven days a week, and we will respond to your questions, either directly or we will post these questions in the FAQ document. The questions that are individually answered are also added to the FAQ document. You may call the announcement hotline at:

(240) 453-2800, and your question will be routed to the correct person who can answer the question and then of course you can submit questions today via the chat.

We have provided the direct link on the OPA website where you can access the FAQ document.

The recording will be posted there as well as the transcripts and as well as on Grants.gov. Next slide please.

Here is your meeting agenda for today. The purpose of today's call is to review the expectations application content and the application submission instructions for the funding opportunity announcement, but also to help prepare applicants to submit responsive and compelling applications by the due date, which is January 11, 2022 by 6pm Eastern Time.

mailto:FY22.TitleXNOFO.National@hhs.gov

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Alissa and I will first cover the programmatic overview, which will include an intro and background expectations of recipients' application content and application review information. Then, Scott Moore from GAM will cover the grants acquisitions portion, which includes the competitive application requirements and process.

And with that I am going to hand it over to Alissa Harvey to go over the introduction and background.

Alissa Harvey (OPA): This is Alissa. Sorry, I'm last minute sharing the slides so I’m not completely sure what people see. The first slide I didn't have audio for hearing, so let me know if anyone needs me to adjust anything.

Mousumi Banikya-Leaseburg (OPA): We see your slide, but you're very loud.

Alissa Harvey (OPA): Okay. No idea how to change that. I will speak quietly.

OPA is a staff division within the US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant

Secretary of Health, or OASH. The primary focus of OASH is leading America to healthier lives, especially for those who have suffered historic disparities. In support of this vision, OPA promotes health across the reproductive lifespan through innovative evidence based sexual reproductive health and family planning programs services strategic partnerships, evaluation, and research.

OPA administers the Title X Family Planning Program, the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, and the

Embryo Adoption Awareness Program. Grants funded through this NOFO will support Title X family planning services to millions of clients nationwide.

The Title X family planning program is the only federal grant program dedicated solely to providing comprehensive family planning and related preventative health services.

Title X grants play a critical role in ensuring access to a broad range of family planning and related preventive health services for millions of low-income uninsured individuals and others.

Family planning services are services that assist in preventing and achieving pregnancy. Title X clinics provide these services to individuals including adolescents, with priority given to persons from low-

4 | P a g e income families. Title X services are voluntary, confidential, and provided regardless of one's ability to pay. For many clients Title X clinics are their only ongoing source of health care and health education.

Section 1001 of Title X of the PHS Act authorizes grants to assistant establishment and operation of voluntary family planning projects, which offer a broad range of acceptable and effective family planning methods and services, including natural family planning methods, infertility services, and services for adolescents.

Please know that Title X statute requires services to be voluntary. We often get asked about natural family planning methods and services for adolescents. Are these must haves in a Title X project and, yes, they are because they are written into statue.

Title X’s Final Rule in 2021. On October 4, 2021 OPA updated the Title X family planning regulations to restore access to equitable affordable client centered quality family planning services for more

Americans ensuring such access for all clients, especially for low income clients. The Title X program creates opportunities for realigning the nation's family planning program with nationally recognized standards of care and improving the health of communities that have been historically underserved.

The 2021 regulations also reinforce the program's central tenets of quality, equity, and dignity for all individuals who seek Title X services and to modernize it’s more than 50-year-old program to better reflect the current healthcare system.

OPA will be presenting information on PA-FPH-22-001, the Title X family planning services grant NOFO, which announces and anticipated availability of funds for fiscal year 2022 grants under the authority of

Title X of the Public Health Service Act, section 1001. The application deadline is Tuesday January 11, 2022 by 6pm Eastern Standard Time.

The goal of this NOFO is to establish and operate voluntary Title X family planning projects. Family planning services include a broad range of medically approved services, which includes FDA approved contraceptive products and natural family planning methods for clients who want to prevent pregnancy and space births, pregnancy testing and counseling assistance to achieve pregnancy, basic infertility services, sexually transmitted infection services, such as HIV prevention, education counseling testing and referral, and other preconception health services.

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We seek a broad competition for Title X grant awards and are interested in innovative strategies to expand access ensure quality and achieve equity for all clients.

And now I will turn it over to Mousumi again to go over the expectations for application content and application review information.

Mousumi Banikya-Leaseburg (OPA):

Thank you so much Alissa.

Okay, so let us switch gears and I'm going to discuss the expectations for recipients of awards under the

NOFO. Again, please note that the information in this particular section pertains to recipients once they are awarded Title X funds and you will find this information in section B2 from pages seven through 11.

Recipients are expected to comply with Title X statute regulations, legislative mandates, and additional program guidance addressing program priorities and to implement a quality improvement and quality assurance plan, or QI/QA plan.

What you see on the screen here is the first expectation grant recipients are expected to comply with.

The requirements regarding the provision of family planning services under Title X that are in the statutes as Alissa just mentioned, Title X of the Public Health Service Act authorizes the Secretary of HHS to grants for projects to provide family planning services to any person desiring such services with a priority given to individuals from low-income families.

And then Section 1001 of the act, as amended, authorizes grants to assist in the establishment and operation of voluntary family planning projects, as Alissa mentioned before, which shall offer a broad range of acceptable and effective family planning methods and services including natural family planning methods in fertility services and services for adolescents. In addition, Section 1001 of the

Statute requires that, to the extent practicable, Title X service providers shall encourage family participation in family planning services projects. Finally, in section 1001, be it assurance, the rights of local and regional entities to apply directly to the Secretary for Title X grant funds, which means applying to this funding opportunity announcement and then lastly section 1008 of the act as amended stipulates that none of the funds appropriated under this title she'll be used in programs where abortion is a method of family planning. Next Slide.

Moving on to the regulation Title X recipients must comply with implementing regulations which should govern project grants for family planning services that is in 42 CFR part 59 subpart B.

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And Alissa already mentioned that we, actually yesterday, the Title X 2021 Title X family planning final rule just was came into effect. It was released in October, but now it's in effect, and in addition sterilization of clients as part of the Title X program must be consistent with 42 CFR part 50 subpart B, sterilization of persons in federally assisted family planning projects. Next slide please.

Recipients are also expected to comply with the legislative mandates, which have been part of title and appropriations language for last several years.

This NOFO assumes these provisions will be carried forward in Fiscal Year 2022.

Family planning services projects should include administrative clinical counseling and referral services as well as training of staff necessary to ensure adherence to these requirements. Now there are two legislative mandates. Number one is that none of the funds appropriated in this act may be made available to an entity under Title X unless the applicant for the awards certifies to the secretary of HHS that it encourages family participation in the decision of minors to seek family planning services and that it provides counseling to minors on how to resist attempts to coerce minors into engaging in sexual activities and later on in the NOFO, you will see that we are asking for an appendix, a family participation certification appendix, and then notwithstanding any other provision of Law no provider of services under Title X of the PHS Act shall be exempt from any State law requiring notification or the reporting of child abuse, child molestation sexual abuse, rape or incest. Next slide please.

We also expect recipients to follow additional program guidance issued by OPA. This includes providing clinical services consistent with the QFP that is providing quality family planning services, the recommendations from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and OPA.

We have provided a link to the QFP. Most people in the field are aware of the QFP and then the other additional guidance pertains to program policy notices issued by OPA, and these are issued from time to time, and you can find more information on the program policy notices on our website as well. So far, we have two, one is about integrating quality family planning and health centers and the other is on confidentiality, confidential services, and the adolescent population.

So the next expectation is that recipients are expected to address OPA program priorities, which first of all, include advancing health equity for all, including people from low-income families, people of color and others who have been historically underserved, marginalized and adversely affected by persistent poverty and inequality through the delivery of Title X services. This is a priority for HHS for OPA and for the total Title X Program.

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We also expect recipients to ensure that predominantly low-income clients who rely on Title X services as their usual source of medical care has access to the same quality healthcare, including full medical information and referrals that higher income clients and clients with private insurance are able to access.

Recipients are expected to develop a disparity impact statement once they are funded. The disparity impact statement will provide the framework for ongoing monitoring and determining the impact of the project.

Recipients are expected to develop plans and strategies for implementing family planning services in ways that makes services as accessible as possible for clients and recipients should identify and execute strategies for delivering services that are responsive to the diverse needs of the clients and community service.

We expect recipients to provide quality family planning services that are consistent with QFP, as I mentioned before, and other relevant nationally recognized standards of care. And we expect recipient networks to have the capacity to support implementation of QFP.

Next slide please.

So, the next two slides will provide information on the expectation around developing quality improvement quality assurance plans, or a QI/QA plan.

We expect recipients to implement a QI/QA plan that involves collecting and using data to monitor the delivery of quality family planning services that includes modifications to the provision of services, informs oversight and decision making regarding the provision of services, and assesses client or patient satisfaction in the NOFO, so we have provided detailed information on the transition.

From collecting aggregate level data for the FPAR - Family Planning Annual Report 1.0 to FPAR 2.0 as a part of the QI/QA plan all recipients must collect and report FPAR data to OPA is on an annual basis and we have provided the OMB approval number in the NOFO as well.

Recipients are also expected to use their FPAR data to inform their QI/QA activities. Next slide please.

Actually.

Now, go to the next slide.

The next expectation for recipients is around program specific terms and conditions.

Here, we will see pages on pages 40 and 41 mention of a disparity impact statement, where it says successful applicants are expected to develop a disparity impact statement using local data to identify populations at highest risk for health disparities and low health literacy. Again, please note that these expectations are for awarded recipients.

And then in section K B. There is an expectation around ensuring an accurate family planning service site database. And this is where, once awarded, recipients

8 | P a g e are expected to maintain an accurate record of current Title X service sites and are expected to provide timely notice within 30 days to OPA about changes in service sites. And you can find more information in the NOFO.

Next slide please.

Okay, so now we are going to move on to discuss the application content section, which is section F3 from pages 17 to 21, and this is what we expect to see in your application for the program programmatic content from the programmatic content perspective.

As clearly mentioned in the NOFO, the project narrative is the most important part of the application, where you should provide a clear and concise description of the project, including all services to be provided by the project, please provide evidence of ability to comply with the statute regulations legislative mandate. You must also clearly describe the administrative management and clinical capability of your organization and plans for delivering family planning services. To meet the expectations outlined in the NOFO, you should include all services to be provided by the project. As part of the program plan, approved projects must adhere to all requirements of the Title X statute.

Applicable regulations, including the regulations regarding sterilization of persons and federally assisted family planning projects and legislative mandates and you'll hear me say this again and again, because it is very important. Next slide please.

Now going into more details of each bullet point under the project narrative number one is proposed service area and plans to address the need for family planning services. We want to see a description of the proposed service area, including the service area boundaries.

And the need for Title X family planning services and the proposed service area. Describe the current availability of family planning services and the proposed service area and any existing gaps in the availability or accessibility of services.

We also want you to describe your process for assessing the need for services within the proposed service area and how you have or will continue to use the results of your assessment to inform and improve service delivery. Next slide please.

And there is a lot of words, very little white space, but again it's important information.

Using and citing current data, please describe the clients in need of services in the proposed service area and any factors associated with access and utilization of family planning services.

Some examples are provided such as geography, occupation, income level etc. Also describe unique health care needs or characteristics that impact health status and delivery of family planning services. Again, more examples are provided such as food insecurity, housing insecurity, language barriers, intimate partner violence, etc. Describe the structure of your Title

X network, including your recipient organization and your subrecipients that will assist in carrying out the proposed project and the proposed services sites where family planning services will be delivered and to the extent that.

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If you as an applicant will not provide all services directly, please describe the process and the selection criteria that you will be using to select sub recipients and service sites, including a description of eligible entities for funding as sub recipients.

Next slide please.

Continuing on, for each direct service site, describe the location of the site compared to the identified need, the days and the hours of planned operation, the estimated number of clients expected, the broad range of acceptable and effective medically approved family planning methods, including naturally natural family planning methods as well as services such as pregnancy testing and counseling, basic infertility services, STI services, etc. from the services that will be provided directly at the site.

And please provide a justification for any methods and services that will not be available at the site, along with a description of how you will ensure client access for the methods and the services not available directly at that site.

And then next will describe how you will address Identified Health Care access and utilization barriers and other factors that impact health status to ensure the availability and accessibility of family planning services within the proposed service delivery area.

And I think we're already on the next slide so you also describe how you will address identified healthcare access and utilization barriers and other factors that impact health status to ensure the availability and I think I already went over this point. So, let's move on.

Apologies.

I haven't addressed the second two bullets, so describe how you plan to educate clients and the broader service delivery area about the availability of family planning services and describe the number of clients in need of services, particularly though income claims to the broad range of services and methods that will be provided and how the proposed project will expand access to Title X services to clients in need of services in the defined service area.

Next slide please.

And as you can see, there is a strong emphasis on really articulating the need and how you will address the need. Describe the number of unduplicated clients that you project to serve on an annual basis, including the number of adolescents and clients include how that determination took into consideration recent or potential changes to vocal healthcare landscape, such as the aftereffects of COVID-19 in public health emergency, potential changes, and insurance coverage, etc. Then the organizational structure and changes in the workforce.

Then describe how grand funds will be used to best address the identified needs, please demonstrate that the cost per client and cost per calendar year reasonable and describe other non-Title X resources available to address the needs for family planning services within the proposed service area and how grant funds will be used to leverage and expand available resources and not duplicate them.

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Okay, so I just talked about the need and addressing the need now we're going to move on to the plan to deliver family planning services in compliance with the statutes, the regulations, legislative mandates and aligned with OPA program priorities. This will sound familiar because we discussed it in the in the expectations for if recipients were funded.

We also need for folks to describe as applicants, how you will implement Title X family planning services that are in compliance with the Title X statute regulations and legislative mandates.

Your plan should include a description of how you will ensure compliance with the Statute and with each provision of the regulation that is in 42 CFR part 59 subpart A section 59.1 to 59.11 and with each legislative mandate.

Next slide please.

Then under the same expectation for application content, please describe plans and strategies for providing family planning services that address OPA program priorities we had discussed those already.

Okay, the priorities of advancing health equity, improving it and expanding accessibility of Title X family planning services for all clients, especially for low-income clients and then, of course, delivering Title X family planning services that are the highest quality and consistent with nationally recognized standards of care. And then we have implementing a QI/QA plan, including but not limited to collecting reporting and using FPAR 2.O data.

Next slide please.

Please clearly describe your project plan, including the goal statements and related outcome objectives that are SMART - specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time frame, designed to provide family planning services that are in compliance with the Title X statute regulations and legislative mandates and that address or OPA program priorities.

The activities proposed or feasible are clearly connected to the identified needs and likely to achieve the stated outcomes. That is what we want to see and describe any major anticipated barriers and describe how you propose to overcome such barriers.

Next slide please.

So, moving on to the project capability and project management.

Describe your project management structure and how it will enable accountability and rapid and effective use of grant funds. Please also describe the expertise and experience of your organization and other organizations that you will partner with on the project to deliver family planning services.

Provide evidence of your experience working in the proposed service area and with the community or communities to be served.

And also describe your experience and expertise, providing clinical health services, specifically quality family planning services, and describe your capacity to deliver the comprehensive clinical family planning preventive health services required, including offering a broad range of acceptable and effective family planning methods and services.

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Next slide.

Then continuing on under the project capability and project management project narrative section, please describe the key management team for your project.

Describe how the makeup and distribution of functions amongst the management staff and their qualification support the operation and oversight of the proposed project.

Also, please describe the facilities, where your project will be administered, and the family planning services that will be delivered and describe how the location of the project facilities will ensure continued access to family planning services for clients in the proposed service area.

Next slide please.

Continuing on under project capability and project management, please provide a staffing plan which is reasonable and adheres to the Title X regulatory requirements.

The family planning medical services they performed under the direction of clinical services provider, the services offered, with their scope of practice and allowable under State law and with special training or experience and family planning.

Providing clinical services should be licensed and function within the applicable professional practice act for the State in which they practice. Please demonstrate that proposed staff have the expertise needed to implement Title X family planning services and also please describe how the size, the demographics and the health care needs of the service area, the client population that were considered when determining the number, and number of staff, and how you maintain documentation of licensure and credentialing and verification for clinical staff.

Next slide please.

Next, under project capability and project management, please describe your plans for providing ongoing training and professional development across your recipient network.

Describe how you will monitor and oversee provision of titles and family planning services and to ensure compliance and continuous quality improvement throughout the network, including detailed plans for sub recipient monitoring.

Please describe how your financial accounting and internal control system will align with the requirements of 42 CFR 15 subpart A, sorry 42 CFR 59 subpart eight, section 59.5 and section 59.7 and demonstrate your ability to make use of non-federal resources, like a such as Title X non-Title X funds within the Community to be served and the degree to which those resources are used to enhance the range of family planning services provided through the project.

Next slide please.

This is just a little glimpse into the budget requirements, and Scott, will provide a more detailed presentation on the budget later. Here are a few points to remember. Your budget request should be based on the number of clients who receive services, the broad range of methods and services that will be provided, the average cost of providing family planning services per client in the service area in the

12 | P a g e past, availability of Title X funds to support the provision of family planning services and the defined service area and activities that enhance quality access or equity that would impact the cost of services.

Next slide please.

Moving on to the appendices, you'll find this information on pages 28 to 30.

All the items in the application dependencies will count towards the total page limit of your application and Scott, please confirm that that is true in your presentation. You must submit them as a single electronic file uploaded to the attachments section of your Grants.gov application.

A little bit about the content of each appendix, your work plan should reflect and be consistent with the project narrative and budget narrative and must cover the five-year project period, your work plan should include a statement of the projects overall goal, anticipated outcomes, key objectives, and the major task action steps or products that will be pursued or develop to achieve the goal and the outcomes and for each major task action step or product. Your work plan should identify the timeframes involved, including start and end date and the lead person responsible for completing the task.

The second appendix is the schedule of discounts.

Please include a schedule of discounts for your projects and the methodology for how you developed or will develop the schedule.

If you propose to have the subrecipient or recipient develop their own schedules of discount, you should include guidance on how the schedules of discounts are developed and how you intend on monitoring subrecipient development and implementation of the schedule of discounts.

The third appendix is the coverage map, and you must include a coverage of the areas you propose to serve indicating the vocation of proposed Title X services compared to the need for services.

The fourth appendix is the letters of commitment, and you may include sign letters of commitment for the organizations that have been specifically named as referral entity.

That is organizations that provide services that are not paid with Title X money, but this may contribute to continuum of care for clients to carry out any aspects of the project not provided by subrecipients.

Next appendix is for the curriculum CVs or their resumes of all key personnel.

And the sixth appendix is the family planning participation certifications. And you must include a written statement certifying that is funded your Title X family planning services project will encourage family participation in the decision of minors to seek family planning services and that they will provide counseling to minors on how to resist attempts to coerce minors into engaging in sexual activities.

Next slide please.

And I've already discussed the content of this, so we can skip the appendix, appendices slides.

Let's go to supplementary materials and on pages

51 to 52, and this is section K-1. And, I believe, to the maximum extent possible, 13 | P a g e recipient organizations should segregate responsibilities, and these are for custody of cash, and I think

Scott is going to discuss this later, but there are two supplementary, two considerations under supplementary materials, and one is for recipient plans for oversight of federal funds and the second is the disparity impact statement which I already discussed.

Okay, I know we're kind of running out of time very fast, but let's go on to the next section that is the application review information, and this is where I'll discuss the content of the scoring criteria and you'll find in Section G, pages 36 and 37.

The first is the proposed service areas and plans to address family planning services. The first one is the extent to which the applicant substantiates justifies that Title X services are needed locally within the proposed service area and its allocated 15 points, the extent to which the applicant identifies the number of clients and, in particular it's a number of low income clients to be served, and describes the broad range of methods and services that will be provided to address client need for applicants, that will not provide all services directly to the extent to which the applicant has documented the process and selection criteria it will use to identify qualified subrecipients to fulfill Title

X activities, and this has been allocated 15 points.

The next is the compliance with the Statute regulations legislative mandates and aligned with OPA program priorities to the degree to which the project plan adequately provides for the requirements set forth in Title X statute regulations and legislative mandates, which has been allocated 20 points. The ability of the applicant to advance health equity, including evidence that the structure of the recipient network effectively addresses the need for services and results in increased access to quality family planning services for all clients, especially for low-income clients has been allocated 20 points.

Next.

Next is the project management and capability. The purpose is relative need of the applicants, including to the extent to which the applicants project management plan shows the applicant need for funds and the applicant's capability to make effective use of funds.

This has been allocated five points and the adequacy of the applicants' facilities and staff, including evidence of an infrastructure that is sustainable in ensuring continued access to family planning services for clients and the proposed service area, 10 points, and the capacity of the applicant to make rapid and effective use of the federal assistance. Applicants must demonstrate and explain how they propose to use the federal assistance to provide quality family planning services that meet the needs of, and improve access for, clients in the proposed service area, 10 points.

Next slide.

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And finally, the budget, the relative availability of non-federal resources within the community to be served and the degree to which those resources are committed to the project, including the degree to which the budget and the budget narrative identify other sources of revenue, including but not limited to the estimated amount of program income and how the applicant proposes to invest it back in the proposed Title X project, and that has been allocated five points.

And then finally for the programmatic portion.

GAM will cover some more content on the review and selection process, but I wanted to highlight this for you that in Section G 2 of the NOFO, page 37.

We have what we call the DASPA criteria, and it's the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs will take into consideration the following additional factors when they propose awards to GAM, and these are the geographic distribution of services within the identified service area. The extent to which funds requested for the project maximize access for the population and need within the entire service area. The extent to which projects that rely on subrecipients to provide services can provide the required services and best serve individuals throughout the anticipated service area.

The extent to which projects best promote the purposes of Section 1001 of PHS that, within the limits of funds available for such priorities, and referring to 42 CFR.

59.7.

Okay, so we're going to pause here for just a few minutes before I turn it over to Scott to take some questions. OPA has a list of questions that we already received through the resource mailbox so we're going to answer those first. And then, at the end of the webinar we will start answering the questions from the chat and for any of those that we are not able to answer, we will make sure that those are added to the FAQ document and updated.

Naomie? I'm not hearing anyone. Alissa? Nena?

Mousumi Banikya-Leaseburg (OPA): ... and she just noted that she's speaking, but we cannot hear her.

Okay.

So how about... I actually do have the question, so I can go ahead and start. I could go ahead and start and Naomie if you can hear us or hear me, once you get your audio figured out just hop on feel free to interrupt okay. So, the first question we received through the resource mailbox was actually regarding the disparity impact statement and whether it is optional or required whether it needs to be submitted along with the application and, as I mentioned the disparity impact statement is actually for recipients.

Successful recipients who are awarded Title X funds, and it's an expectation for them, so the information provided in the NOFO was for informational purposes. However, you will see information about how we want applicants to address, how you will be able to provide services equitably and I encourage folks to look at the part of the NOFO for more information.

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The next question that we received is: Does OPA have any type of template they prefer for the work plan on the competing application? We did not include a sample of a preferred work plan template in the NOFO, so please refer to pages 28 and 29 of the NOFO for what should be included in the work plan.

The next question we received is: There is a mention in the NOFO about a staffing plan that appears that

Title X requirements that family planning medical services be performed on the direction of a clinical services provider, what kind of providers is OPA talking about and we're referring to.

Clinical services providers are actually defined in the regulation under 59.2 and includes: physician, physician assistant, nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives, and registered nurses with an expanded scope of practice trained and permitted by state specific regulations to perform all aspects of the family planning user physical assessment recommended for contraceptive related preventive health and basic infertility care.

The next question okay.

Naomie Gathua (OPA): Hi Mousumi, can you hear me?

Mousumi Banikya-Leaseburg (OPA): Yes, we can hear you, welcome back.

Naomie Gathua (OPA): I am so sorry. Good afternoon everyone, good morning everyone I've been having audio trouble with zoom, so I called in, and I was not able to unmute apologies. So, I can take over for the questions.

I will be honest that was scrambling to fix my zoom, so I may have missed the first one that you responded to, but please let me know if this was it the question is: Will the applicant technical assistance webinar... did you address that one?

The one about the reporting? Perfect. Will this recording for this webinar be accessible after the webinar is over?

Mousumi Banikya-Leaseburg (OPA): Yes, it will be, and we will post the recording. It takes about, I would say about a week, but sometimes less to post the recording. We will post it and if someone can help you with this to post the direct link to where it will be available on our website, if you can put it in the chat.

We also encourage you to subscribe to the NOFO on Grants.gov. We will be posting the FAQ document and supporting materials there as well.

Naomie Gathua (OPA): Perfect. The other question, which is a great segue for Scott Moore, is:

How can applicants get updates to the NOFO?

Mousumi Banikya-Leaseburg (OPA): Right, and that is the same answer. If you subscribe to the NOFO on Grants.gov you will be alerted as soon as any amendments are posted, or any materials are posted.

And we can take one more question because I want to give Scott enough time to be able to cover the

GAM portion and I'm sure there'll be tons of questions after.

Naomie Gathua (OPA): Great.

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Mousumi Banikya-Leaseburg (OPA): I mean for the chat.

Naomie Gathua (OPA): Right, I want to check with you, did you already cover who may apply for the grant for the NOFO for this grant.

Mousumi Banikya-Leaseburg (OPA): So, you know any nonprofit, public or private nonprofit, may apply to this grant, and you can also be a current grantee and apply to this grant as well.

Thank you so much Naomie! So, with that, Scott, I hope you're ready. I'm going to turn it over to you.

Scott Moore (GAM): Great, thank you Mousumi. Good afternoon everyone. Good morning, if it's still morning, where you are. I know we're spanning many, many, many time zones, reaching all the way out to the Pacific Islands. We do appreciate everybody's attention and interest in the opportunity.

My name is Scott Moore, I am the Chief Grants Management Officer for the Office of the Assistant

Secretary for Health. We provide administrative support, business services, and manage essentially all of the mechanical pieces of the grant making process, including for the Office of Population Affairs.

If you apply for this opportunity, and if you are a recipient, you will be dealing with our office for quite some time. We manage everything from receipt of applications, the review process and the award process, the actual grant during their lifetime and then we're with you all the way through to the close out process, which can go for many months after the end of the active period of the award.

A lot of the things that I'm going to say are routine, although there may be some changes for those of you who have experienced applying for grants for our office, and in the interest of the time that we have let's go ahead and move on to the next slide and try to go through some of the business side of things. I will try to make it as interesting as possible, it is important information, even though it can be a little dry and tedious sometimes.

The most important thing for you to know as a potential applicant is that your application is due by 6pm

Eastern Time on January 11, 2022. That is a hard and fast stop of 6pm, not 6:01, not 6pm and 30 seconds, it is 6pm.

Your submission time will be determined by the date and timestamp provided by Grants.gov. When you complete your submission, we receive all of our applications through Grants.gov and you will get a timestamp.

We strongly encourage you to submit your application, a minimum of three to five days prior to the application closing date. Grants.gov is not a system that we own, it is a system that we use as required, and being that it is a system, it is a database, it is a web-based portal. It is not perfect; it can sometimes glitch and we want to make sure that you have a chance to get your application in and are not rushing at the very last minute and missing the deadline by a minute.

Now please note also that the reason for submitting an application a few days early, is that Grants.gov may take up to 48 hours to send you that notification of a successful submission.

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So, if you don't want to sleep that weekend or a sleepless couple of nights wondering if your application was successfully entered into the system, try to get ahead of the game and get that application in early.

If you to fail to submit your application by the due date and time, we will not review it and it will receive no further consideration.

Next slide please.

Following up on the question that was just asked about eligibility to apply for this Notice of Funding

Opportunity, you must be any public or private nonprofit entity located in a state, which includes, by definition, one of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia, Guam, the

Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, the US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, the US outline islands, including the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia and the

Republic of Palau, so, all of those meet and satisfy the definition of located in a state, and if you are there, your public or private nonprofit entity, you're eligible to apply for this grant announcement.

Faith based organizations, and American Indian Alaska native, native American organizations are all eligible to apply for Titled X family planning services grants

Next slide please.

Coming through some of that very long-winded version of the eligibility, we boil it down to examples.

Examples include: state governments, US territories, county governments, city or township governments, especially district government, independent school districts, public and state control institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments, federally recognized public housing authorities, and Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations, other than federally recognized tribal governments. Nonprofits having 501 C3 status with the IRS, as well as nonprofits not having 501 C3 status with the IRS, and nonprofit private institutions of higher education.

Also, another very long list, but basically if you are a for-profit institution or you are an individual, you are not eligible to apply You must be a public or a nonprofit institution.

While there is not a fixed cost sharing percentage or amount, you must include cost sharing as part of your application.

The proposed project budget should reflect financial support, in addition to the Title X funds on both the standard form 424 A and in the budget narrative and justification. The amount and sources of these funds must be clearly identified separately from the requested Title X support.

Now it's my staff and the Grants and Acquisition Management (GAM) Division that will review the applications to ensure that the requested amount of Title X funding is in compliance with the regulation, which is presented in more detail in section E2 of the NOFO.

Please note: the cost share requirements are waved for any grant made to the US Virgin Islands, Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Guam, Republic of Palau, Federated

States of Micronesia, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands.

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As mentioned previously, the notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) provides all of the necessary information and guidance related to application. Please read the entire funding announcement carefully.

Again, read it, read it again, and read it again. This becomes the guidance and the process by which we run the competition for the awards.

Nothing that we say in any other form is going to take precedence over the NOFO.

If the NOFO requires an update, and thank you to those of you who have identified a couple of typos that we are going to go in and fix in the NOFO and update and post by the end of the week. We do, on occasion, need to revise or update NOFOs. The best way to get immediate notification of when that happens is to subscribe to the notice in grants.gov. It will automatically send an email to you as soon as we're able to update and will tell you what the updates or the changes are.

Now if you'd like to obtain an application package electronically, you’re going to do this through grants.gov. You’re going to find that by searching the assistance listing number. We used to call them

CFDA numbers if you've been around for a while. That's going to be found on page two of your NOFO or here on this slide, the assistance listing number for this opportunity is going to be 93.217.

Now we have multiple listings, multiple opportunities listed under this assistance listing number, but when you do the search that will pull them all up for you.

Be sure to subscribe to the announcement on grants.gov so you’re receiving immediate notification of any updates to the NOFO or any of the supporting documents that accompany it online.

Now we do in OASH require that all applications be submitted electronically by grants.gov unless you receive an exemption, as described in Section F5 from the Grants Management Officer, so that would be from me, ahead of time. If you submit an application by any other electronic communication such as email, please note, it will not be accepted for review, please do not email your application to us.

I say that every year, in every TA webinar, and at least one person or one entity will send me an application through their email. It's not going to count.

Grants.gov is a website portal. All funding opportunities and grant application packages are made available through grants.gov, which is conveniently www.grants.gov.

An application will not be considered valid until all application components are entered into grants.gov and received by OASH in the GAM division, according to the deadline specified in the data section on the

NOFO. That would be January 11, 2022, no later than 6:00 PM Eastern.

Please contact grants.gov directly with any questions or concerns regarding the electronic application process. We provided the phone number here (800-518-4726), and when you go to the grants.gov page, there is a help or contact link that you can press, it is not our system, it is managed by another office.

They keep all of their information up to date online. They can provide you the fastest assistance if there is a technical glitch.

We just suggest that you get a ticket number when you are working with them, in case we need that ticket number later on to verify the process.

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All applications must be submitted as three separate files three files, not four, three files.

File number one is going to be your entire project narrative, and this is going to be described in section

F3 A of your NOFO.

File two is going to be the entire budget narrative, including supporting documentation, as described in the budget narrative content section of the NOFO section F3 B.

And then, all documents that make up your appendices for your application should be uploaded in a single combined document or a single combined file. That's going to be uploaded in the attachments section of your grants lack of application that's described in F3 see in your NOFO.

Please note: when we do start talking about page numbers that required standard forms are not going to apply toward your page count limits as they're described in the submission requirements and in the disqualification criteria section E3 and we'll talk a little bit more through that.

Any files that you upload or attach to your application in grants.gov must be one of the following file formats: Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Adobe PDF, or one of the following four image formats: jpg, gif or

Jiff depending on how you prefer to say it, tif or bmp bitmap.

Please note: Microsoft Excel files will not be accepted.