USDA WIC Telehealth Evaluation Collaborative

The purpose of the Telehealth Intervention Strategies for WIC (THIS-WIC) is to competitively select State Agencies to implement promising and well-designed telehealth innovations that supplement the WIC nutrition education including breastfeeding sup

The role of the grantee will be to support and evaluate the implementation of telehealth innovations by competitively selected sub-grantees (i.e., WIC State agencies). Sub-grants awarded to State agencies fund the implementation of relevant telehealth technologies that show promise for effectively supporting WIC nutrition education and breastfeeding support. These efforts shall be designed to improve customer service and address barriers to access while ensuring WIC participant privacy. Evaluations of the implemented strategies/solutions will be conducted to provide a robust assessment of the implementation process, costs, and impacts on WIC participants as well as WIC program offices and staff. Outcome measures may include, but are not limited to, participant satisfaction, infant feeding practices, dietary habits, and participant retention in WIC. The evaluation results will be summarized in State-level and summary reports.

Eligible entities include public and private colleges and universities and other non-profit research organizations. This Request for Application (RFA) is open to all Accredited Colleges/Universities, and Private or Public Non-profit Research Institutions or Organizations.

WIC participants may benefit from telehealth funded subgrant projects.

See Objectives section above for appropriate uses of grant funds to selected awardee

Assistance is available between September 2019-September 2024. The anticipated award period runs from September 2019-September 2024. All funds must be spent by September 24, 2024.

FNS will pre-screen all applications to ensure the applicants are eligible entities and are in compliance with all program regulations and to ensure that they contain the required documents and information, including but not limited to the project and budget narratives and all supporting documentation. Scoring for Grant Applications 1. Overall Approach (50 points) Evaluation of a grant application's Overall Approach will be based on: Sub-Grant Competition (20 points) • Proposed focus area for sub-grant competition and justification; • Proposed administration plan for executing the competitive RFP process; Sub-Grant Evaluation (20 points) • Relevant evaluation experience, skills in designing and carrying out program evaluations, experience collaborating with program practitioners; • Proposed approach to designing evaluations of sub-grantee interventions that demonstrates familiarity with common challenges specific to WIC; • Proposed evaluation design including specification of main research questions, hypothesis, and outcome measures of interest, approach to data collection, sample size specifications and associated justification, and analysis plans. Dissemination Plan (5 points) • Proposed approach to disseminating insights and findings from funded work as well as sharing resources with the WIC Program. Timeline (5 points) • A reasonable and clearly described timeline for meeting project milestones and providing deliverables. 2. Management Plan (15 Points) Criteria by which a grant application's Management Plan will be evaluated include: • Degree to which the Management Plan articulates how the applicant will provide the oversight necessary to ensure high-quality products, services, or outcomes and to keep the funded projects on time and within budget; • Practicality of the presented project timeline and whether presented milestones and deadlines are realistic and achievable; • Whether the Management Plan demonstrates effective internal controls of funds that are provided to partners and local agencies that ensure funds are used only for project purposes, with an accounting record and audit trail; • Plan for managing personnel associated with the project and for addressing any contingencies such as loss of key personnel. 3. Staffing (20 Points) Criteria by which a grant application's staffing plan will be evaluated include: • Identification and description of the roles and responsibilities of key personnel and other partners and staff involved in the proposed project; • Documentation of key personnel's necessary and relevant education, skills, and experience for their proposed roles on the project, and evidence that staff have expertise in WIC, evaluation, and similar interventions. Documentation includes relevant publications, prior funded activities, and presentations; Resumes of

Following the initial screening process, FNS will assemble a panel group to review and determine the technical merits of each application. The panel will evaluate the proposals based on how well they address the required application components and array the applications from highest to lowest score. The panel members will recommend applications for consideration for a grant award based on the evaluation scoring. The selecting official reserves the right to accept the panel's recommendation or to select an application for funding out of order to meet agency priorities, program balance, geographical representation, or project diversity. FNS reserves the right to use this solicitation and competition to award additional grants in the next fiscal year should additional funds be made available.

Awards are anticipated to be made before September 30, 2019.