Transcript-Informational Call on 5.19.2022.pdf

EIS-HHS-AOA-REG2

Moderator: VICTORIA WRIGHT

05-19-22/1:30 pm CT Confirmation # 2732757

May 19, 2022

1:30 pm CT

Coordinator: Hello and thank you for standing by. At this time all participants are in listen-only mode until the question and answer session of today's conference. At that time you may press Star 1 on your phone to ask a question. I'd like to inform all parties today's - that today's conference is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time.

I'd now like to turn the conference over to Victoria Wright. Thank you, you may begin.

Victoria Wright: Thank you (Dustin). Hello everyone and welcome to the informational call for the National Transportation Accessibility Center Funding Opportunity. I am

Victoria Wright and I work for - I work at the US Administration for

Community Living also known as ACL. I'm the Project Manager for this funding opportunity and I lead the Administration for Community Living

Transportation Team.

With me today is Lori Gerhard, who's the Director of the Office of

Interagency Innovation at ACL and Carla Kirksey who is a Grant

Management Specialist in the ACL of Office of Grants Management. For

05-19-22/1:30 pm CT today's call, we will provide a short background and overview of this funding opportunity, discuss expectations. And then we will open up for - we will open up the call for question and answer where our team will be able to - will be available to respond to your questions.

Just a couple quick items. This call is being recorded, and the recording and transcript of this information call will be posted on branch dot gov now let's get started. First, I'd like to review some key information on this funding opportunity.

The estimated award amount for this grant is $500,000 for each year of the grant subject to availability of funds. The length of the project period is five years. The total grant award over five years is $2.5 million.

Applications are due on June 28. Application that fails to meet the application due date will be reviewed and will receive no further consideration. You are strongly encouraged to submit your application a minimum of three to five days prior to the application closing date.

Please do not wait until the last day in the event you encountered technical difficulties either on your end or with grants.gov. Grants.gov can take up to 48 hours to notify you of a successful submission.

The Letter of Intent is due May 23. While not required the letter - the letters help all ACL prepare for the application review process. If you are planning to apply for this grant, please submit a Letter of Intent to victoria.wright@acl.hhs.gov The anticipated start date of this grant is

September 1.

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Now I would like to provide a brief overview of this funding opportunity. The

Administration for Community Living, ACL is making funding opportunity available to establish a national transportation accessibility center, NTAC for short, that serves as a National Technical Assistance Center that advances, greater awareness, adaptation and use of the assistant technology and other accessibilities - accessibility strategies that make transportation systems, services vehicles, program and enrollment locations and Web sites and apps accessible and responsive to the needs of people with disabilities, older adults and family caregivers and other in the network, - others in the support network.

NTAC will identify and provide materials for NTAC's Web site house on acl.gov. NTAC will create a support, a National Accessible Transportation

Accelerator Network, for sure it's NATAN, to identify, disseminate and support replication of accessibility strategies, inclusive planning and mobility on demand transportation systems, facilitate a community of practice in practice to increase access to and use accessible transportation in a historically marginalized and underserved communities.

The work builds upon work previously done to strengthen coordinated and inclusive transportation planning and system for persons with disabilities and older adults. The successful applicant will leverage and use the transit planning for all Web site materials, technical assistance resources and national peer-to-peer network to promote and expand the availability and use of accessible transportation systems and services.

The successful applicant will collaborate and coordinate the activities with federal transit agency funded technical assistance resource centers and ACL funded transportation related Technical Assistance Resource Centers.

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ACL will award one grant to a domestic public or private nonprofit entity which includes state, local, state and local governments, Indian tribal government and organizations such as American Indian Alaska native and

Native American, faith based organization, community based organization, hospital and institution of a higher education for no more than $500,000 per year for five years, five year project with one - with one year budget period subject to availability of funds.

The award will be made in the form of a property agreement, because ACL will be substantially involved. Applicant must have demonstrated experience a proven track record in supporting states and communities to develop implement inclusive planning that involves people with disability of any age and older adults in the development of transportation systems and services, promoting coordinated transportation system that respond to the need of people with disability and older adults experience supporting communities and implementing mobility on demand transportation system and demonstrate experience in partnering with national stakeholders group that are involved in the provision of transportation services and information to this target populations. Only one application per agency or organization will be accepted.

Now I'll turn it over to Lori to highlight some key items in the funding opportunity. Lori, the floor is yours.

Lori Gerhard: Thank you Victoria and good afternoon everyone. All applications will be screened to assure level playing field for all applicants. Applications that fail to meet the four screening criteria described on Page 17 of the Notice of

Funding Opportunity will not be reviewed and will receive no further consideration.

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In addition to screening criteria, we also have responsiveness criteria.

Applications will be reviewed to establish responsiveness to the criteria listed in Section 3 of the Notice of Funding Opportunities also found on Page 17.

The responsiveness criteria include is a national organization as defined in the

Notice of Funding Opportunity, demonstrates national experience in supporting and promoting the use of inclusive planning and the development of coordinated transportation systems that respond to the needs of people with disabilities and older adults.

And the application reflects that applicant is coordinating four plans to coordinate with the Federal Transit Administration and the Administration for

Community Living Funded Transportation Resource Centers. Those that do not meet the responsiveness criteria will be administratively eliminated and will not be reviewed.

For the purposes of this competition, national organizations are defined as those entities established with headquarters and administration for an organized group of bodies. That would be local chapters, affiliates, community based and tribal organizations dedicated to improving transportation services for a major nationwide segment of the older adults and persons with disabilities population.

Applicants must show that they have demonstrated experience and a proven track record in supporting and promoting the use of inclusive planning and the development of coordinated transportation systems that respond to the needs of people with disabilities and older adults.

Applicants must also show that they have demonstrated experience in partnering with national stakeholder groups whose members advocate for

05-19-22/1:30 pm CT and/or serve older adults, people with disabilities, caregivers and/or plan and provide community transportation systems.

Coordination with existing Federal Transit Administration and Administration for Community Living Funded Transportation Resource Center is essential.

Therefore, applicants must show how they are coordinating with the Federal

Transit Administration and Administration for Community Living Funded

Transportation Resource Centers.

This project will also be part of the Federal Transit Administration and

Administration for Community Living Partnership to coordinate the transportation technical (unintelligible) activities provided through the

Technical Assistance Resource Center.

Today the Federal Transit Administration funds the National Center for

Mobility Management, the National Aging and Disability Transportation

Resource Center, the National World Transit Assistance Program, the

National Center for Applied Transit Technology and the Shared Use Mobility

Center. It is expected that this center will collaborate and coordinate with these FTA funded resource effort.

In addition, the Federal Transit Administration Funded Transportation

Technical Assistance Resource Centers ACL Funds Transportation related

Resource Centers that provide data and information that can be used to inform decision makers regarding the need for accessible transportation systems and services, provide quality of life grants to adopt more accessible transportation systems and services and increase awareness of assistive technology that makes aspects of transportation systems and services program, enrollment locations, Web sites and transportation apps more accessible.

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These resources - these resources centers include the Americans with

Disabilities Act Participatory Action Research Consortium, The Paralysis

Resource Center, The AT3 and extensive planning for all.

The National Transportation Accessibility Center will be a critical part of these initiatives. Definitions of the FTA and ACL Funded Transportation

Resource Centers can be found on Pages 12 to 14 of the Notice of Funding

Opportunity.

ACL will fund one cooperate agreement to a lead organization that works in partnership with national organizations, states, communities, tribal organizations, and the disability, aging and transportation sector partners to form a National Transportation Accessibility Center. ACL expects that no single organization will be able to completely fulfill the priority areas addressed in this project.

Therefore, applicants should describe how they plan to partner with other organizations including organizations that advocate for, serve and support people with disabilities of any age, older adults, family caregivers and others in their support network. Traditionally underserved and underserved populations or traditionally unserved and underserved populations including those from racial - racially and ethically diverse populations with intersectional identities in the transportation sector providers, planners, system designers.

While the applicant organization must be the fiscal and programmatic lead, applicants should clearly define their key partner's roles throughout the application materials, including the work plan, the budget and their project narrative. Applicants should include Letters of Commitment from initial partners in this application.

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Applicants must include a Memorandum of Understanding from one of the following, minority entities and Indian tribes to carry out activities under the programs authorized under Titles II, III, IV - II, III, VI and VII of the

Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended. Minority entities and Indian tribes to conduct research training, technical assistance or related activity to improve services provided under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended, especially services provided to individuals from minority backgrounds.

Center will be guided by principles of Equity, community living and self-determination and will promote community living, stressing the importance of empowering individuals with disabilities to exercise full choice and control over their lives and to live independently in their community with the appropriate services and supports.

It is expected that the successful applicant will demonstrate how these aims will be advanced particularly through active meaningful collaborations with a diverse array of stakeholders vested in community living, self-advocacy and self-determination.

Successful applicants will provide evidence that individuals with disabilities and older adults including those from culturally, linguistically diverse backgrounds and nontraditional group will be actively and meaningfully engaged throughout all funded activities, including staffing, administration and governance.

The center will leverage collective federal investments and work intended to promote greater access to transportation system services and supports that are accessible, as well as integrating inclusive planning and accessibility strategies into broader work and transportation.

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To this end, the project will launch as states and local communities begin implementing the infrastructure investment and Jobs Act, Public Law 117-58 that will rebuild Americas roads, bridges and rail. It is expected that this project will engage in activities to assure the transportation infrastructure is rebuilt with accessibility for all populations integrated into the process.

The goal of the center will be to create greater access to transportation for people with disabilities and older adults by increasing awareness and adoption of transportation, accessibility strategies, inclusive planning and mobility on -mobility, on demand transportation systems.

To achieve this, the National Transportation Accessibility Center will serve as a national resource and Technical Assistance Center that utilizes a variety of strategies to advance greater awareness, adoption and use of assistive technology and other strategies that make transportation systems services and apps accessible and responsive to the needs of people with disabilities, older adults, family caregivers and others in their support network, promote inclusive planning and invest in work to promote greater access to transportation system, services and supports that are accessible and integrate inclusive planning and accessibility strategies into broader work and transportation.

The activities of the National Transportation Accessibility Center will be initial work on identifying and disseminating successful accessibility strategy, identifying and providing materials for the National Transportation

Accessibility Center Web site that will be housed on acl.gov, establishing and developing the National accessible Transportation Accelerator Network, working with five communities to increase accessible transportation options for historically marginalized and underserved communities and coordinating

05-19-22/1:30 pm CT activities with the FTA funded transportation and ACL transportation related resource centers to leverage resources including dissemination channel.

Outcomes are listed on Pages 8 and 9 of the Funding Opportunity and include both intermediate and long term outcomes. Intermediate outcomes include by the end of the grant on acl.gov includes description and resources needed to replicate and disseminate transportation, accessibility strategies strategy, inclusive planning strategies and mobility on demand transportation systems.

Key consumer facing resources that will be used by the National Accessibility

Transportation Accelerator Network will be available in multiple languages, transportation systems and service providers, Web site designers, vehicle manufacturers, program developers and transportation as developers have more knowledge about accessibility strategies and are incorporating them into the transportation infrastructure project.

And members of the National Accessibility Transportation Accelerator

Network successfully adopted accessibility strategies and communities throughout the country and identify strategies to increase by 10% the adoption of accessibility strategies in the remaining communities throughout the country.

In the five historically underserved communities that participate in the community practice have improved access to transportation services aligned with the goals they developed in their community of practice. Transportation systems and services are more responsive to the needs of people that use transportation to engage in daily activities, social events, recreation, faith-based activities, education, work and healthcare because people with disabilities and older adults are included in transportation system, development planning and operations.

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The long term outcomes are that people with disabilities, older adults, family caregivers and others in their support networks can access and use public transportation systems and services, enroll in transportation programs in person or through Web sites and use transportation related apps without experiencing accessibility challenges.

Vehicles are designed to accommodate mobility devices including wheelchairs, and as the transportation infrastructure is updated, transit systems, vehicles, way finding signage, technology apps, sidewalk and first mile last mile infrastructure includes accessibility features enabling all people to use the transportation.

The project narrative requirements are described starting on Page 20 of the

Notice of Funding Opportunity. The suggested length for the project narrative is 15 to 20 pages and 20 pages is the maximum length allowed. Project narratives that exceed 20 pages will have the additional pages removed and only the first 20 pages of the project narrative will be provided to the merit reviewers for funding consideration.

The project workplan, letters of commitment, organizational charts and resume detail of key personnel are not counted as part of the project narrative for purposes of the 20-page limit. But all the other sections are included in the page limit.

Funding restrict restrictions are noted on Page 26. And the application review criteria begins on Page 27. A total of 100 points are available to score the application. The breakdown of those 100 points include project relevance and current needs. The maximum point value is ten points. The approach, maximum point value is 50 points and that's broken into four subcategories.

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The budget maximum point is 10 points. The project impact area has 15 maximum points, and the organizational capacity area has 15 maximum points.

I encourage you all to take a look at the review criteria. A panel of independent reviewers will review and score applications that meet the screening and responsiveness criteria. Each application will be reviewed and scored by three different individuals.

The reviewers will comment on and score the applications focusing their comments and scoring decisions on the identified review criteria published in the Notice of Funding Opportunity. Final award decisions will be made by the

ACL administrator. In making these decisions, the administrator will take into consideration recommendations of the review panel, reviews for programmatic and grants management compliance, the reasonableness of the estimated cost of the government considering the available funding and anticipated results and the likelihood that the proposed project will result in the benefits expected.

This funding opportunity does not require a match. Again application and submission information are on Pages 18 to 27. The application due date is

June 28. Application (unintelligible) from https:\\www.grants.gov. We are requiring that all applications for this announcement be submitted electronically through the Web site address I just offered, grants.gov. After you electronically submit your application you will receive an automatic notification of receipt that contains a grants.gov tracking number.

If you are experiencing problems submitting your application through grants.gov, please contact the support desk toll free at 1-800-518-4726. You must obtain a grant support desk case number and keep a record of it.

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As mentioned earlier applications are due on June 28 and we strongly encourage everyone to submit your application a minimum of three to five days prior to the application closing date to avoid any issues when submitting your application. Grants.gov can take up to 48 hours to notify you of a successful submission.

If this is your first time using grants.gov or applying for a grant we recommend reading the Notice of Funding Opportunity Requirements carefully. Again letters of intent are not required, however it does help us plan for the application review process. If your organization is planning to apply for this funding opportunity, please submit a letter of intent to victoria,wright@victoria, V-I-C-T-O-R-I-A.W-R-I-G-H-T@acl.hhs.gov. You can send the letter intent to Victoria by May 23.

Now I'd like to turn things over to Carla Kirksey to talk about the budget requirements. Carla?

Carla Kirksey: Thank you Lori. Hi everyone. I'm Carla Kirksey and I just wanted to mention some things concerning the budget part of your funding announcement. First of all, if you're going to list indirect costs on your budget, you - then you need to make sure that you have an indirect cost rate agreement. You would have to attach this to your application.

Also, if you have nonprofit status, you need to also show proof of that. And both of these, the information on indirect cost rate agreement and the nonprofit status list of options can be found on Page 44 of your funding announcement.

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Now as far as the E-I-N, number, I really need for you to pay attention to this, because often states will have the same EIN number for all the entities in their state. It's a nine-digit number. But the question is, well how do we distinguish your organization your entity from someone else's? And that is with an additional letter and additional number.

So let's say the EIN number across the entire state is 123456789. What determines yours is your two - your letter and your number after that maybe

A3. Mental Health Department may be G4. So make sure you put that additional letter and number at the end of your EIN number when you fill out your SS424 form. That little slot there for your EIN number is listed on the first page of that form. And if you do not, it could create delays in identifying your organization and you're being able to access funding from the Payment

Management System that we call PMS.

So I also strongly suggest, and I do mean strongly suggest, that you use the budget format sample that is in your funding announcement. This is not a time to get creative with budgets. We just would love for you to use that sample that is in that announcement because when we review the budget, it's very easy to eyeball that particular budget sample. So please, if you could make sure that you use this - the format that's listed in the funding announcement.

Also when dealing with your budget cost breakdowns or justifications are required for any cost of $1000 or more. And information that can be found on

Page 40 of your funding announcement. And information as far as your budget format can also be found on Page 44 as well.

Now before you even start your budget, before you start writing it, I want you to look at Page 26 of your funding announcement because it discusses funding restrictions. Please take a look at that because certain things are just not going

05-19-22/1:30 pm CT to be funded such as construction and generally meals are not funded as well.

So make sure you take a look at that.

On Page 18 of the funding announcement it talks about the UEI number. And that number is very important. Anybody that does business with the federal government will have to have one of those numbers, whether you're an individual, whether you're a company, whether you're institution, whether you're organization, whether you're private or public -- doesn't make a difference.

Everyone has to have a UEI number. And you can register for that number at sam.gov. But please don't wait until the very last minute. Give yourself 24 hours to 48 hours after registering for the number to be able to be available on grants.gov.

And speaking of grants.gov, I just wanted to mention that grants.gov is just not a place where you reach for the funding announcement. It's a great resource. It has training resources and videos, frequently asked questions for applicants, talks about how to apply for grants. It also talks about how to check whether you - whether you're eligible for a particular grant, and how to track your application. So be sure to just take a look at grants.gov. Just play around with it and - because again, it has some excellent resources. And with that I'm going to hand things back over to (Victoria). Thank you.

Victoria Wright: Great, thank you, (Carla). Thank you Lori for that information. Now, we will open the floor for question and answer. (Dustin) do you mind opening the lines for question and answer please?

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Coordinator: Yes, thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please press Star 1, un-mute your phone, record your name clearly. Your name is required to introduce a question.

If you need to withdraw your question, press Star 2. Again, to ask a question, please press Star 1. It's going to a few moments for the questions to come through, please stand by. Our first question's from (Charles), go ahead. Your lines open.

(Charles Rakowski): Yes, thank you. This is (Charles Rakowski), Project Director for Transit

Planning For All. I have several questions. The first, does ACL have any expectation that the five Communities of Practice will be established and supported in the first year of the grant?

Victoria Wright: Lori, do you want to take that answer - I mean, that question?

Lori Gerhard: Thank you. (Charles Rakowski). Yes, ACL does envision that the five

Communities of Practice would launch within the first year of the grant. The whole community practice might not occur during the first year of the grant, but the thought would be that we would be in a process of announcing who the five communities might be and being ready to start the community

(unintelligible).

(Charles Rakowski): I do have a follow-up question.

Lori Gerhard: Okay.

(Charles Rakowski): Understood and does ACL have any expectation of the size of the sub grants that would be made to the communities engaged in the community practice?

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Lori Gerhard: No ACL does not have any expectations around what the size of the sub grants may be, and if there may be sub grants

(Charles Rakowski): Okay. I also have a question relative to the Web site. Will the National

Transportation Accessibility Center Web site be fully supported and hosted on

ACL gov? Would grant funds be needed to support it other than developing and providing content?

Lori Gerhard: So ACL has budgeted funds to stand up the Web site on acl.gov and to post information on this site. The National Transportation Accessibility Center would be expected to, perhaps be identifying materials that could go onto the site or producing materials that would get posted through their activity.

(Charles Rakowski): Okay, thank you, That's very helpful. And the question - I think you've answered it, but you've been discussing the budget ceiling is 500,000. The earlier forecast notice had an amount of 550,000. But I wanted to clarify that the ceiling is 500,000.

Lori Gerhard: That is correct. The ceiling is 500,000. The Web site is - has will be funded through ACL and that is where some of the difference is coming.

(Charles Rakowski): Yes. Okay. And is that 500,000 per year locked in? Is there any potential for that to be increased in subsequent years?

Lori Gerhard: At this time the ceiling for the award is 500,000 per year based on the availability of funds.

(Charles Rakowski): Okay, thank you. Those were my questions.

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Lori Gerhard: Thank you for the questions. They were great questions.

Coordinator: I show no further questions at this time. Again, as a reminder, please press

Star 1 on your phone and record your name if you have a question. One moment, please.

Our next question's from (Eric). Go ahead, your lines open.

(Eric): Yes. Hello, good afternoon. In addition to (Charles Rankowski)'s questions, I was just wondering, in terms of your definition of community, are you referring to communities in either the geographic sense or in terms of, say the historically disadvantaged population? Or maybe a combination thereof?

Lori Gerhard: Thank you, (Eric) for that question. That is a great question. And in the - now it's a funding opportunity, we described the five communities, the five communities needs to at least include two rural communities.

And we don't have any further definition beyond that. And how grants

(unintelligible) might choose to form those five communities. But they do need to include historically underserved or un-served and marginalized communities.

It could be defined - two of them need to be defined geographically and need to encompass people living in rural community. And then the rest can be defined geographically or could be defined in another way.

(Eric): Oh, thank you. I have one other question that I think is related to that, if I might. And that's related to on Page 6, the requirement about obtaining an

MOU from an ITO or tribal organization.

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And I know you refer to specific titles, that kind of reference back to the definitions there. But would you be looking for a specific ITO or would you maybe be looking for also a national organization that might represent local tribal groups for example?

Lori Gerhard: So (Eric) thank you for that question. Before I answer that I wanted to go back to the answers that I provided to your question about the community because I got to the place where we have this described in the notice of funding opportunity.

And it's on Page - I'll tell you in a minute here, Page 11 of 53. And on Page 11 of 53, that's facilitating a community practice with five communities with historically underserved populations. The applicants should describe how they will establish and support communities of practice with five geographically defined communities.

So it should be geographically defined, of historically underserved populations. The community practice should include transportation providers, people with disabilities and older adults, their caregivers and others in their support network and organizations that serve them, and publicly assisted housing providers, operators.

The focus of the community of practice will be to increase transportation access and utilization in the historically underserved communities. Some of the funding should be used to make sub grants to the communities engaged in the COP, the community of practice, to support their activities conducted through the community in practice, including public engagement, using ASL interpreters, and developing resources in multiple languages.

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At least two of the five communities should be in rural communities.

(Unintelligible).

(Eric): Thank you. That's great. Yes, I appreciate that.

Lori Gerhard: And then could you ask your second question again please?

(Eric): Oh, sure. Regarding the requirement of submitting an MOU from a tribal entity as referred to on Page 6. Would you require that to be an ITO? Or would you also be - would it be acceptable to have an MOU from a national tribal organization, for example?

Lori Gerhard: So we'll take that question and provide a written response to it. We'll have to think that up with some other members of the team.

(Eric): Okay, wonderful. Thank you.

Lori Gerhard: Yes.

Star 1 on your phone and record your name if you have a question. One moment please.

And I show no further questions at this time.

Victoria Wright: Okay. Lori, do you think we can wrap it up now? Or do you want to check...

Lori Gerhard: I think (unintelligible) we can just ask one more time if there are any questions. If there are no questions then we can move to wrap things up.

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Victoria Wright: Sounds good (Dustin). Can you please double check to see if there's any other questions on the floor please?

Coordinator: All right. Right now I show no questions. Again, as a reminder please press

Star 1 on your phone and record your name if you have a question.

All right this question's from (Eric). Go ahead, your lines open.

(Eric): Hello, thanks one more. And I guess the follow-up to my last question about the MOUs. On Page 6, the paragraph that I'm thinking of refers to including an MOU from one of the following minority entities and Indian tribes. And then it continues. Would you look at that as being either or, or is it both, and?

I guess.

Lori Gerhard: Thank you, (Eric), for that question. So I'm going to see if I'm at this place where you're talking about. So in the Notice of Funding Opportunity on Page

6 that says applicants must include a memorandum of understanding, MOU, from one of the following minority entities and Indian tribes to carry out activities under the programs authorized under Titles 2, 3, 6 and 7 of the

Rehab Act of 1973 as amended.

Minority entities and Indian tribes to conduct research, training, technical assistance or related activity to improve services provided under the Rehab

Act of1973 as amended. Especially services to provide the individuals from minority backgrounds. So it needs to be one, at least one, of those entities.

(Eric): Excellent, thank you very much. Yes, I think that's probably clearer than I was making it out to be. Thank you very much.

Lori Gerhard: Sure it's a good question, thank you for asking it.

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(Eric): Yes.

Coordinator: And our next question's from (Mary). Go ahead, your line's open.

(Mary): Hello, thank you. Thank you all so much. My question is about how sub-awardees would function under this grant? It refers - the FOA refers to providing sub grants to communities of practice to assist with technology or things like that, to facilitate the communities.

But I'm curious when it comes to partners and the letters of intent from partners that we would submit, is the intention that we would also be sub-awarding money to those partners? And how would that work in the context of the grant? Thank you.

Lori Gerhard: Thank you. And if you just give me one minute here, I'll have an answer for you, (Mary).

(Mary): Thank you.

Lori Gerhard: So in the grant, one applicant will receive the grant and that applicant will be the fiscal and programmatic lien. In the application, applicants should clearly define their key partners roles throughout the application materials, the work plan, the budget, the project narrative, and they should also include in letters of commitment from - and they should also include letters of commitment from these initial partners in this application.

So if there are any arrangements that are worked out in the work plan, budget, project narrative, the letters of commitment from the initial partners should

05-19-22/1:30 pm CT mirror what the primary applicant has in their application. And how they will work with that part. Does that answer your question (Mary)?

(Mary): Yes. So just to clarify, it's optional. Essentially if we decide to use some of our budget to award to partners.

Lori Gerhard: The primary applicants should decide who their key partners...

(Mary): Okay.

Lori Gerhard: ...are - their application. They can have as many partners in their application as they choose. And they just have to describe what the roles would be of those partners. And then be clear about how those roles would be carried out in the work plan budget and project narrative. And the letters of commitment from the partner organization should align with what is in the application.

(Mary): Thank you.

Lori Gerhard: Does that answer your question?

(Mary): Yes, thank you.

Lori Gerhard: Yes. Thank you. That was a great question.

Star 1 on your phone and record your name if you have a question.

And I show no further questions at this time.

Victoria Wright: Okay, I think it's time to wrap up Lori. Is that - are you good with that?

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Lori Gerhard: I'm good with that, Victoria.

Victoria Wright: Awesome. Well thank you all for all your questions and interest in the

National Transportation Accessibility Center funding opportunity. In closing, I'd like to share against some few reminders.

The letter of intent is due May 23. The due date of the application is June 28.

And again we are requiring that all application for this announcement be submitted electronically through www.grants.gov. It is important to register to grants.gov, registration process can take several days. So if your organization is not currently registered, please begin to process immediately.

For assistance with grants.gov you can contact support at grants.gov, or you can contact them at 800-518- 4726, between 7:00 am and 9:00 pm Eastern time. We strongly encourage, again just a reminder, we strongly encourage everyone to submit your application a minimum of 3-5 days prior to your application closing date, to avoid any issue when submitting your application.

And grants.gov can take up to 48 hours to notify you of a successful submission. The award notice for the successful applicant will be sent out prior to the project start date. The anticipated start date of this grant is, again, September 1. The recording and transcript and the frequently asked questions will be posted at grants.gov.

If you have additional questions please email me at victoria.wright@acl.hhs.gov. Again, it's Victoria, V-I-C-T-O-R-I-A .wright, W-R-I-G-H-T @acl.hhs.gov. We wanted to thank all of you for joining us today.

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Best of luck as you complete your application, and we look forward to working with a successful grantee. Have a good rest of the day. And thank you. This concludes our call.

Coordinator: That concludes today's conference. Thank you for participating. You may disconnect at this time. Speakers, please allow a moment of silence, standby for your post conference.

END