YES FAQ 05072019.pdf

Frequently Asked Questions

Youth Engagement in Sports: Collaboration to Improve Adolescent Physical Activity and Nutrition (YES Initiative)

Eligibility

Questions Responses

What is the target population? The target population is racial/ethnic minority and/or socio-economically disadvantaged male and female 6th, 7th and/or 8th graders, particularly those who reside in communities where no or few youth sports programs exist.

Who is eligible to apply? All public and nonprofit private entities and indigenous human resource providers in communities of color are eligible. This includes anywhere from local education agencies such as school districts, to local governments, to nonprofit organizations, private nonprofit institutions, Native American tribal governments, state governments, and nonprofit small, minority, and women-owned businesses. Please refer to the eligibility information section of the FOA for a broader list.

Cost Sharing or Matching? You are not required to provide cost sharing or matching in your proposed budget.

What is a sport? Each applicant is expected to implement sports programming that provides youth with an opportunity to sample different types of sports activities. We have defined sports as “All forms of physical activity, which through organized participation, aim to improve or maintain physical literacy, fitness and mental well-being, form social relationships, and include an element of competition (either with others or oneself).”

Examples of non-traditional sports include: adventure-based sport programming (i.e. hiking, climbing, mountain biking)

Geographic Area Proposals must describe using geographic indicators and data from representative probability-based samples surveys or other representative population data, the demographic characteristics of the populations to be served by the project, including race/ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status and geographic location.

General Information

Is the award amount listed for 1 year or 2?

Budget Period v Project Period

The award ceiling and floor amounts are listed per budget period (12 months). The project period is for 2 years. Please note that due to timing of award issuance or other administrative factors, funding for all approved budget periods beyond the first is generally level with the initial award amount and is contingent upon the availability of funds, satisfactory progress of the project, adequate stewardship of Federal funds, and the best interests of the Government.

When does the program start? Due to timing of award issuance or other administrative factors, we do not have a set date in place. The anticipated start date is September 30th, 2019.

Will this opportunity happen again? This is first time that the YES funding opportunity announcement is being competed. At this time, it is not clear if this FOA will be re-competed in the future.

I am in an Opportunity Zone, now what? Please make sure your abstract and project narrative includes documentation of your area and proposed implementation site(s) are located in the opportunity zone.

Can one of the collaborating organizations carry out a specific task as it relates to the program?

If organization X takes the lead on submitting this application, can some of the expectation for the daily 60 minutes be met by one of the collaborating partners, i.e. the local school district’s physical education program?

Yes, however, you should include a signed Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) for all organizations and entities that have been specifically named as a sub-recipient to carry out any aspect of the project. The signed MOA must clearly detail the specific role and resources (including in-kind) that each entity will bring to the project; state the duration and terms of the agreement; cover the entire project period; and be signed by an authorized representative. The organization’s expertise, experience, and access to the targeted population(s) should also be described in the MOA. You may use any formatting that is common in these types of documents.

Can we include a planning period of 2-3 months?

The submitted program plan should include a timeline that is inclusive of any planning needed within the first year. The expectation of the applicant should not be for there to be reimbursement for a planning period that takes place prior to the project start date but can be included in the year one plan.

Programming

Required Collaboration Each applicant under the YES Initiative must serve as the lead agency for a collaborative partnership of at least two entities, one of which must be an institution of higher education. Other partners can include but are not limited to: local school districts, community and faith-based groups, sports/recreation organizations, public health entities, community health centers, caregivers and family members.

Special Preference Additional preference will be given to projects which will serve communities: (1) with significant disparities in levels of physical activity that indicates a higher prevalence of sedentary behavior (i.e., 45% or more youth report playing video or computer games or using a computer 3 or more hours per day) among youth as measured by Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) or data from other probability-based representative sample surveys; (2) low adherence (i.e., 30% or less for youth grades 6-8th) meeting the recommended levels of physical activity as outlined in the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans among youth as measured by YRBSS or data from other probability-based representative sample surveys; and (3) those located in designated Opportunity Zones.

Cohort

Each project must demonstrate a cohort(s) of no fewer than 130 unique youth in 6th, 7th and/or 8th grade to complete the intervention each year, and must maintain a comparison group equivalent to the intervention group.

Note: 130 is the required minimum number of unique participants per budget year (12 months beginning at the effective date of grant). However, the group size needed to detect significant differences in outcomes between the intervention and comparison groups may exceed the required minimum number of 130 program participants in the intervention group depending on the effect size specified by the applicant. Each individual participant will count only as one participant during each 12 month budget period, but may be counted again during the second 12 month budget period, (i.e., Julius and Maria will count as 2 out of 130 in year 1 and again as 2 out of 130 in year 2 should both participate in both budget years).

Project A investigators plan to recruit and retain 150 students to participate in a program in the fall 2019 and a program in the spring 2020. Both programs fall within the September 30, 2019 – September 29, 2020 budget period. The investigator plans to retain 100 of the students who participated in Year 1 and to

Can my cohort be composed of only 6th graders for example?

recruit and retain an additional 60 students in the fall of 2020 and Spring of 2021. Does Project A meet the cohort requirement? Yes: 150 students are served in year 1 (September 30, 2019-September 29, 2020) and 160 students are served in year 2 (September 30, 2020-September 29, 2021)

Project B investigators have proposed recruiting 80 students to participate in a program in the fall 2019 and will retain 60 of fall participants, adding 40 more students for a new program in the spring 2020. Does Project B meet the cohort requirement for year 1? No, as they would only have 120 unique individuals served in year 1 (September 30, 2019-September 29, 2020) and thus fall short of the minimum requirement.

Yes, programs may choose a cohort of only 6th graders.

Daily physical activity requirement

Projects will need to schedule regular programming that allows for youth to complete at least 60 minutes (daily) of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity (in line with the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans) each week of programming.

It is up to applicants to determine how the 60 minutes per day of moderate to vigorous exercise will be achieved; fox example, eligible programs can: a). Break up that 60 minute session into two, thirty-minute periods; or b). Use a combination of sports and other physical activity (multi-sports sampling).

Additionally, you may have 60 minutes of supervised physical activity Monday-Friday, but then are set up with a weekend action plan to achieve their weekend PA requirements, documented via a logbook, or through partnerships with those local community centers or recreation leagues and organizations.

Evaluation

May our evaluator be internal? OMH recommends use of an external evaluator for all aspects of program evaluation.

When should baseline and outcome measures be collected?

Baseline should be collected for a two-week period prior to program intervention; Then data collection should take place at three months after the start of the intervention; and at six months after the start of the intervention and every six months thereafter.

What is a measurable outcome? A "measurable outcome" is an observable end-result that describes how a particular intervention benefits program participants. It demonstrates the "impact" of the intervention.

For example, increasing participation rates in sports programming among girls from 25% of girls in community (baseline) to 45% of girls in the same community (post--intervention) is a measureable outcome.

What measures must be included? 1. A measure of participation rates in sports programming among the target youth and comparison group.

2. A measure of physical literacy among participating children and youth that includes running, locomotion, object control (upper and lower body) and balance stability.

OMH recommends the Physical Literacy Assessment for Youth Basic Form.

3. A measure of daily moderate or vigorous physical activity for youth participants.

4. A measure of the proportion of youth who meet the level of physical activity as recommended by the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans.

5. Measures of consumption of dark green, orange, and red vegetables and whole fresh fruits and reduced consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages.

How should evaluation findings be disseminated? When are they due?

We expect that nationwide dissemination of products and knowledge will occur through conference presentations and submissions to peer-reviewed journals. We may publish (including on a website) all appropriate findings and products.

Manuscript submissions and publications are dependent on factors such as data availability.

This is why we ask that you provide us with a plan describing your intentions to disseminate your findings, whether that is periodically or upon completion.

What research design must I use? YES projects are expected to develop and evaluate project goals, objectives and performance measures to include baseline and periodic data using experimental or quasi-experimental designs. There must be a clear and appropriate description of your research design (e.g., cross-over, repeated measures, parallel) and how that will be used to test the proposed intervention against a control group.

http://physicalliteracy.ca/play-tools/

Grants Management

Must we apply through both CFDA numbers available?

You only need to use one of the CFDA numbers. We encourage you to follow the step-by-step instructions provided at http://www.grants.gov/web/grants/applicants/apply-for-grants.html to ensure successful submission of your application.

Determining 501 (c)(3) status When submitting your application please upload a copy of IRS 501(c)(3) determination letter with your budget documents.

If your nonprofit has misplaced your 501(c) determination letter from the IRS, you can get a copy of the determination\affirmation letter to have “proof” of your tax-exempt status.

Call the IRS Customer Service for nonprofit organizations at 1-877-829-5500 and give them your nonprofit's name and Employer Identification Number (EIN). Another reliable way to demonstrate your nonprofit's tax status is to confirm that you are listed on the IRS's Exempt Organization List.

Which DUNS number needs to be provided?

If I am partnering with another organization would I use that organization's DUNS number?

You are required to provide a Dun and Bradstreet (D&B) Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number when applying for Federal awards through Grants.gov. Should you successfully compete and receive an award, all first-tier sub-award recipients must have a DUNS number at the time you, the recipient, makes a sub-award.

As the lead agency, the applicant must have their own DUNS number.

Why must we have an IRB? The IRB serves as an objective third party, an oversight committee, governed by Federal Regulations with the purpose of protecting and managing risk to human participants involved in research. The applicant must submit with the application a signed letter by the authorized official assuring that, if funded, the applicant will submit an application to an Institutional Review Board (IRB) for approval.

Proposed Budget Plan You must complete the required budget forms and submit a budget narrative with detailed justification as part of your application which must cover all years (2) of the project period. The budget narrative consists of a detailed line-item budget that includes calculations for all costs and activities by "object class categories" identified on the SF-424A and justification of the costs.

http://www.grants.gov/web/grants/applicants/apply-for-grants.html

Additional Questions

How many participants should I recruit?

Attrition

What if we are in a minority community with smaller numbers of individuals and the cohort size is difficult to achieve?

Each project must demonstrate a cohort(s) of no fewer than 130 youth in 6th, 7th and/or 8th grade youth complete the intervention each year, and must maintain a comparison group equivalent to the intervention group.

Because of the nature of cohorts (numbers of participants in cohorts may decline due to attrition), a larger number of youth should be selected when the grant program commences in order to maintain sufficient participants throughout the grant period and detect significant differences.

While we understand the difficulties around participant recruitment and retention, we must stand by the minimum cohort requirement identified above in order to detect significant differences in outcomes between treatment and control groups. We encourage smaller communities to identify nearby communities that will allow through innovative collaborations the opportunity to meet the criteria. Keep in mind that projects should strive to demonstrate the effectiveness of collaborations that include institutions of higher education, community recreation groups, sports organizations, public health entities, local schools, community based organizations and parents, to increase opportunities for sports participation among racial/ethnic minority and/or socio-economically disadvantaged youth.

What is physical literacy?

How is physical literacy defined?

Physical Literacy refers to an individual’s ability to use fundamental movement skills to move with competence and confidence in a wide variety of physical activities (sports, open play, daily tasks such as climbing stairs, etc.) in multiple environments (competitive, recreational, etc.) in order to benefit the healthy development of the whole person including physical, social and psychological components.

What about a confidentiality plan?

Who should sign the confidentiality plan?

The applicant must submit with its application a confidentiality plan written for participants/clients that covers the entire two-year period of the project. The plan must include the signature of all partners and be signed by an authorized representative of each YES partner.

Our coaches have “X” training as opposed to the “Y” training suggested.

Is that allowed?

Training is required. While the trainings listed in the FOA such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s HEADS UP to Youth Sports concussion training course are suggestions and can be substituted with comparable training courses, please note that any training that is in progress must be completed within the first year of funding in order to secure funding for secondary year.

Is a transportation plan required? You must provide a transportation plan for youth participating in the program to travel safely to the program site and home upon completion. If this is an after-school program, transportation should be provided from the school to the facility/site and after the program from the facility/site to the youth participants’ home (to avoid transportation as a barrier and ensure youth are returned home safely). It is important to note that transportation plans can be innovative. For example, supervised walking is an acceptable plan. It is important to provide adequate detail explaining your proposed plan in order to meet this criteria.