U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Building Early Childhood-Child Welfare Partnerships to Support the Well-Being of Young Children, Families, and Caregivers

The purpose of this program is to support the development and/or enhancement of strategic multi-system and multi-level collaboration between child welfare, early care and education (ECE), and other relevant partners. Such efforts will support infrastructure- and capacity-building to deliver complementary, coordinated, and holistic services to young children and their families and caregivers. Grant recipients will be expected to be meaningful contributors to building the knowledge base about how to effectively develop and enhance multi-system and multi-level collaboratives, and how to facilitate effective engagement of young children and their families with quality ECE services. To that end, grant recipients will develop and implement project activities that are outcome-focused and include measurable objectives or steps to assess progress in meeting desired outcomes via an evaluation plan, as well as a plan to use data for the purposes of continuous quality improvement.

The target population for this project includes the range of young children ages 0-5 and their families and caregivers across the child welfare continuum. Grant recipients will be required to demonstrate that the appropriate state, local, or tribal child welfare agency and an appropriate ECE agency(ies) are committed to undertaking the proposed work under this project. See solicitation for details.

Grant funding will support the development of policy, coordination mechanisms and procedures, quality practice, and other strategies across systems that work to support children and families with or at-risk of involvement with the child welfare system. This will include efforts to maximize the identification, referral, enrollment, and attendance of infants and young children with or at-risk of child welfare involvement into comprehensive high-quality ECE services.

Grant recipients will focus on meeting the following project goals:
1. Develop and/or enhance strategic coordination and communication among child welfare, ECE, families and caregivers with young children, and other relevant partners.
2. Support the development and institutionalization of policies and/or procedures within a jurisdiction to increase the identification, enrollment, and attendance of infants and young children, with or at-risk, of child welfare involvement into comprehensive, high-quality ECE services.
3. Build infrastructure capacity to ensure the provision of comprehensive and holistic services to young children and their families with or at-risk of child welfare system involvement.
4. Create, implement, and/or strengthen joint efforts to advance racial equity within the child welfare, ECE, and partner systems to ensure that historically underserved and marginalized populations of color have access to high-quality ECE services that build on their strengths and are responsive to their individualized needs.
5. Conduct a program evaluation to determine the extent to which funded efforts have contributed to improved coordination and communication; strengthened networks; and increased referrals, enrollments, and engagement in quality ECE programs, particularly for historically underserved populations.
6. Disseminate information and knowledge gained from project findings and support efforts to allow for programs and policymakers to broadly integrate project knowledge into policy and practice within the child welfare, ECE, and other relevant fields.

Amount: An estimated $2,200,000 is available to make eight awards of up to $275,000 for a three-year project period.

Recipients under this grant program may opt to transfer a portion of substantive programmatic work to other organizations through subaward(s).

Eligibility: Eligible entities include states, Indian tribes, or tribal organizations, or public agencies or private agencies or organizations (or combinations of such entities).

Link: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=343855

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