Pre-Application Teleconference Transcript HHS-2024-ACL-AOA-CGPS-0034 10-19-23 Clean (2).docx

Advancing Aging Network Capacity to Recognize and Support Family, Kinship and Tribal Caregivers: Financial and Workplace Security

Funding Opportunity Number: HHS-2024-ACL-AOA-CGPS-0034

Pre-Application Teleconference Transcript & Recording

October 19, 2023

Moderator: Greg Link

This transcript has been edited for readability and clarity. A recording of the Teleconference is available here.

Coordinator: Thank you for standing by. Participants are in a listen-only mode until the question-and-answer session of today's conference. At that time, you may please press star 1 on your phone to ask a question. This call is also being recorded. If you disagree, you may disconnect. I would now like to turn the call over to your host, Mr. Greg Link. Thank you and you may begin.

Greg Link: Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining this information call to learn about ACL's funding opportunity entitled Advancing Aging Network Capacity to Support Family, Kinship and Tribal Caregivers, Financial and Workplace Security. I am the federal program officer for this project. I'm also the director of the Office of Supportive and Caregiver Services. We will be going through the details of this particular funding announcement, which is funding announcement number HHS-2024-ACL-AOA-CGPS-0034.

There will be a transcript and a recording of this call available a few days after today. I want to do is walk through the Funding Opportunity Announcement with those of you on the call and then later on give you an opportunity to ask any questions that you might have. Hopefully, those of you who are interested in applying for this funding opportunity have a copy of the funding announcement in front of you, either printed out or open on your desktop. I'm going to walk through and call your attention to specific parts of the funding announcement that I would like for you to pay particular attention to as you consider, whether or not to submit an application.

I'm going to begin on Page 2, of the PDF, which offers some key dates for this notice of funding opportunity. The first date is/was - the due date for letters of intent, which was October 17, 2023. Now I realize that date has already passed. There is no deadline for that. You could still submit a letter of intent. Letters of intent are not a requirement, but they're very helpful for me as the program officer when I am beginning to set up the review panels for the applications that come in and knowing approximately how many applications we'll be getting, helps me determine the number of grant reviewers I need to recruit and the number of panels that I need to set up.

So please feel free to still send me a letter of intent. It can be as simple as an email to me saying we intend to apply or we're interested in applying. It does not have to be anything formal. It does not have to be a letter or on letterhead, it's simply really just information for me to use for planning purposes.

The next critical date that you should be aware of is the due date for applications, which is December 11, 2023. Applications are due at 11:59 pm on 12-11-2023. That date is set in stone. There are no exceptions given to or extensions for the due dates for this Funding Opportunity Announcement. Moving through the Funding Opportunity Announcement, we provide an Executive Summary which gives a quick snapshot of the overall funding opportunity.

On Page 4, we get into the heart of the funding opportunity description. I want to call your attention to ACL's goal for this project because it fits into a larger initiative that ACL launched in late September of this year in which we are providing and supporting direct technical assistance to the Aging and Tribal Services Network funded under the Older Americans Act Title III-E or Title VI-C, National Family Caregiver Support Program or the Tribal Caregiver Support Program.

The successful grantee to this Funding Opportunity Announcement will be joining four other grantees who have already started their work. They're just getting underway. You will be joining them to focus your efforts on implementing the National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers in Older Americans Act Family Caregiver Support Programs. The goal for this project is the improved recognition, support and inclusion of family caregivers served by Older Americans Act Caregiver Support Programs and greater alignment with other efforts to improve supports to family caregivers.

ACL wishes to ensure that the National Family Caregiver Support Program and the Native American Caregiver Support Programs are well positioned to respond to and evolve in a rapidly shifting policy and service delivery landscape, which we know has been shaped by a number of critical factors that I'll mention in just a moment.

On Page 4, of the Funding Opportunity Announcement, we also provide some contextual framing for the importance of this work, including the numbers of Tribal Caregiver and Kinship Family Caregivers, as well as some background on the programs themselves.

At the bottom of Page 5 and going over to Page 6, and to Page 7, we provide some broader contextual environment for why this Funding Opportunity Announcement is out and why the overall caregiver activities of national significance initiative that this project will be part of - is so important. We know that as we have moved out of the COVID-19 pandemic, that service delivery landscapes have changed dramatically. We also know that caregiving, the needs and the challenges that family caregivers have, were only made more obvious and more urgent as a result of the pandemic.

We also know that there is a severe direct care workforce shortage in the United States. And we also understand that family caregivers oftentimes work hand-in-hand with the paid direct care workforce and we can't have one side of the care economy supported without the other. We really are looking to bolster and strengthen the family caregivers who can't do it alone and rely on the paid direct care workforce. But likewise, the direct care workforce is inadequate at this point and we rely greatly on the family members who step in to provide services and supports for their loved ones.

This new initiative also comes on the heels of ACL and the Family Caregiving Advisory Council's delivery last year of the National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers. This particular Funding Opportunity Announcement is rooted in Goal 4 of the National Strategy, which is addressing the financial and workplace security issues of family caregivers.

On Page 7 and Page 8, I want applicants to pay close attention to the target audiences for project activities and the family caregiver populations to be addressed. First are the target audiences. As I stated a little bit earlier, the target audiences for the technical assistance and capacity building efforts of this particular initiative are the state units on aging, area agencies on aging, tribal entities, local aging services, network providers, family caregiver support providers, kinship and grand family service providers and other entities that may be part of the aging and or tribal services network.

And because the National Family Caregiver Support Program and the Native American Caregiver Support Programs include populations of family caregivers that support adults with disabilities and those with early onset dementia, proposals should identify how they're going to work to increase capacity of the program to reach and serve these populations more effectively.

And then finally, the caregiver populations to be addressed are those that are outlined as eligible service recipients in the National Family Caregiver Support Program or Title III-E Statute of the Older Americans Act.

On Page 8, of the Funding Opportunity Announcement, we lay out the priority area description. This grant will be one of a cluster of five, each of which focuses on one of the goals of the national strategy. This particular Funding Opportunity Announcement will focus on developing training and technical assistance and related activities for the target audiences that I just went over around strengthening financial and workplace security for family caregivers. We're going to be awarding one cooperative agreement at up to $750,000 per year for four years, pending the availability of federal funds.

Near the bottom of Page 8, we describe the importance of this particular priority area because we know that family caregiving for many can be an expensive undertaking in many ways. Through this project, ACL seeks to increase the awareness of and access to the resources available to address financial and workplace security for family caregivers, as well as identify unmet needs and develop approaches for addressing those. We lay out some of the activities that may be considered by applicants to this funding opportunity announcement starting at the bottom of Page 8, and going over to the top of Page 9.

Midway through Page 9, I want you to pay attention to the additional application elements and considerations because these are going to be scored significantly by the grant application reviewers at the time that the merit review gets underway. The first and most important thing to be aware of is that we want your activities that you propose grounded in the National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers. This whole initiative hinges on the importance of the National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers and making sure that the Aging and Tribal Services and Caregiver Support Networks are able to begin infusing the principles found within the strategy in their approaches to service delivery.

The second area that I want you to look at under the additional elements is organizational capacity and a national scope. We will not fund activities that look to provide local services or services in a part of a state or to a state. The entities that apply to this Funding Opportunity Announcement are expected to work on a national level. We are not funding individual services. We are not funding individual state or community-based organizations unless they demonstrate the capacity to work and have meaningful impact on the national level. So please be very cognizant of that.

If you are looking to fund a local initiative or work on something in your community, we will not fund that type of a project. It must be national in scope. We do make provision in here for subgrants and subcontracts. We recognize that this is a broad topic and the prime applicant to this funding opportunity is more than welcome to bring along partners that will be working with you as subcontractor to your project. We also expect cross-collaboration coordination with other technical assistance efforts, certainly with the other four grantees to this project, as well as the Technical Assistance Support Center that we're just standing up and other grantees and technical assistance efforts both funded by ACL and otherwise.

Pages 11 and 12, talk about applicants' abilities and the allowance for steering committees and advisory committees. We talk about the methods of technical assistance and capacity building that we're looking for. On Page 12, we talk about website and web presence. ACL will be hosting the website for this project. The successful grantee to this funding announcement will be expected to produce 508 compliant materials and products, all of which will be housed primarily on this new ACL website that we are standing up. You should also pay attention in this section to our expectations for measurable outcomes, as well as a robust project evaluation and your plans for sustainability of the project once federal funds have ended.

At the very bottom of Page 12, we list the statutory authority for this funding opportunity, which is Title III-E Section 373(i) of the Older American Act of 1965 as amended. On Page 13, begins the award information. This grant is actually being funded as a cooperative agreement. A cooperative agreement assumes and states that there will be substantial involvement by ACL and the program officer, me, at this point, throughout the life of the project. And we lay out the terms and conditions what ACL will do in fulfillment of the cooperative agreement.

On Page 14, we list the responsibilities that the grantee has to the cooperative agreement. The terms and conditions in this cooperative agreement language will be incorporated by reference in the notice of award. As noted, we will be making one award only to a single organization. The award ceiling is $750,000 per year for four years, pending the availability of federal funds. And the award floor should be no less than $300,000 per year. We believe that a project of national scope should be resourced well enough that it can have the national reach that ACL intends.

On Page 15, we talk about eligible applicants. This is an open competition and it is available to domestic, public or private nonprofit entities states, including state and local governments, tribal governments and organizations, faith-based communities, community-based organizations, hospitals and institutions of higher education. Priority is going to be given to national organizations that demonstrate the capacity to work on a national level. Applicants must demonstrate that they have a proven experience and track record in promoting improvements in family caregiver financial and workplace security as part of their application.

At the bottom of Page 15, we talk about match. There is a 25% match. We explain how to calculate your match for this particular project. Match can be derived from both cash and in-kind or non-cash resources. All matched to this project must be non-federal and cannot be used for more than one particular project. So please be cognizant of that and the sources of match that you're looking to spend. Also please pay attention to the examples for how to calculate your match correctly.

The second screening that will happen is a screening criteria for some technical aspects of the application and we lay those out here. Your project narratives can be no longer than 40 pages long and that excludes letters of commitment, the work plan, the budget narrative, vitae for key project personnel. None of those things are counted as part of the 40-page narrative.

Applications have to be double-spaced on 8 1/2 X 11 paper with 1-inch margins and a font size of no less than 11 point. As an example, there was an applicant last go-around that single-spaced their application. We rejected the application without even looking at it. Please make sure that you pay attention to the formatting requirements for submitting this Funding Opportunity Announcement.

Pages 17, 18. To the top of Page 19, is some very important information to make sure that you know where to get the application. And that you have the necessary registrations through SAMs and for your DUNS number to make sure that you have all of that in place at the time that you apply. If you're unsure whether you have an active Grants.gov profile, a SAMs number or a DUNS number, my suggestion would be to check that as soon as possible. What you don't want to do is wait until you're ready to submit the application right at the deadline to see if you have an active Grants.gov profile or your SAMs registration is still current and active or you have a DUNS number, because oftentimes those take several days to get squared away. So please make sure all of that is in place at the time that you submit your application.

On Page 19, we talk about letters of intent. Again, I know the date has passed for that. Don't worry about it. If you're still interested, please send that to me. I will use that as just a planning tool and nothing more. Pages 19, 20 through the bottom of 22, we talk about the project narrative. Again, that 40-page maximum project narrative. Please be sure that your narrative has each one of these sections - that your narrative includes each one of these sections and that you write clearly and concisely what you're proposing to do.

Remember that the project narrative is the only means by which the reviewers of your application will have to determine whether your project is viable. That's the only thing they'll have to go on, and the work plan and the budget. The reviewers will not be contacting you to ask any questions. They won't be reaching out for clarification. So please make sure that your narratives tell the story that you want to tell.

At the bottom of Page 24 is the due date for application, it's 11:59 pm on December 11, 2023. We state some funding restrictions on Page 25 and 26. Please make note of what we cannot and will not fund. It's very clearly laid out there, so please pay attention to that. At the bottom of Page 26 and going through the bottom of Page 29, we lay out the exact criteria by which your applications will be reviewed by third-party independent outside review panels. You can use the criteria to determine how complete your application is and then take the application through this review criteria. If you can answer “yes” to every one of those questions, more than likely you have a complete application. It doesn't guarantee that you're going to be funded, but it certainly does tell you that you've addressed what we're looking for applicants to address.

From Pages 29 on to the end, we provide additional information about the grant pack - the application package, how to complete the standard form. We provide templates and examples for budget narratives and work plans. You are welcome to use the templates that we make available or you can adapt your own as you deem appropriate. But please do be sure that your budget narratives provide sufficient detail so that when we're doing business review we can assess each of the cost categories and make sure that your work plans provide a clear statement of the goals, the objectives and the tasks and the timelines for which you propose carrying out the various activities that you're going to be proposing as part of your project.

That concludes my overview of the Funding Opportunity Announcement. Do you want to go ahead and we can see if folks have questions?

Coordinator: Yes, please. Now, we would like to being the question-and-answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star 1, unmute your phone and record your name clearly when prompted. Your name is required to be introduced a question. If you need to withdraw that please press star 2. One moment while the questions do come in. At this time, there are no questions.

Greg Link: Okay. If folks have any questions at all, this would be the time to ask them. It is very difficult, it's next to impossible for me to respond to questions outside of this call, so please be aware of that. If you email me afterwards asking questions - any of the questions, I may not be able to answer them as that - providing. Yes, go ahead.

Question: Yes. Hi. Thanks. Just a question about the lead applicant and the capacity to operate at a - on national scale. Is it - are you saying that the lead applicant should be able to demonstrate that or would it also be acceptable for the – I guess, the coalition of the lead applicant combined with subcontractors, et cetera, that could demonstrate that capacity?

Greg Link: You could take it either way. I believe we even talked about that in the Funding Opportunity Announcement where we talk about the permissibility of subcontracts and subgrants. You know, it is possible. You just have to be very clear if you're bringing in a range of partners via subcontract or subgrant or some kind of an arrangement that you clearly articulate how they're going to ensure the national reach and national scope. Also keep in mind that if you do have subcontractors that you - that the prime grantee is responsible for the performance and all work of the subcontractors.

Question: Hi. Good afternoon. I would like to understand what is the timeline for the selection for when the award will be given?

Greg Link: The due date for applications is 11:59 pm on December 11, 2023. We anticipate - and we're going to have the holidays in there. We anticipate making the award sometime in January - early January with a project start date of around February - January 1 or February 1.

Coordinator: And once again, if you'd like to ask a question please press star 1 unmute your phone and record your name. There are no additional questions.

Greg Link: Okay. Well thank you. And folks, thank you for tuning into this information call. Keep in mind that my ability to answer questions beyond this will be very limited, if not impossible. So I thank you for your time and I thank you for your interest. I wish you all the best of luck and we look forward to reviewing the applications that come in. So with that we will conclude the call. Thank you all so much.

Coordinator: Thank you for participating in today's conference. You may now disconnect.

END