The Department of Community Services and Development (CSD) has released a Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for the Farmworker Resource Center Grant.
Donor Name: California Department of Community Services and Development (CSD)
County: Selected Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 12/21/2022
Size of the Grant: $833,000
Details:
The purpose of the Farmworker Resource Center Grant NOFA is to inform interested counties of the availability of grant funding to support the establishment or expansion of Farmworker Resource Centers in their respective counties to provide access to services and programs designed to address the needs of farmworkers and their families.
CSD anticipates awarding three grants from this NOFA subject to the availability of funds and the quality of applications received. A total of $2.5 million is available to support the establishment or expansion of county-level Farmworker Resource Centers. Activities under the Farmworker Resource Center Grant must be conducted in a culturally and linguistically appropriate manner to effectively meet the needs of the target populations. Grant Applicants must demonstrate their experience providing similar services and their history of successfully conducting outreach campaigns to reach culturally diverse populations that have been traditionally hard to reach and underserved.
Goals
- Build trust and relationships with farmworkers, their communities, employers, farmers, and advocates to develop successful, valued services and activities.
- Address the challenges and needs faced by farmworkers.
- Provide increased access to services and activities for farmworkers and their families.
Objectives
- Conduct a population assessment of the communities the Farmworker Resource Center would serve, including, but not limited to, an assessment of languages other than English or Spanish that would need to be accommodated by the center.
- Develop and deliver services and activities designed to meet the identified needs of farmworker populations for information or access to services through either traditional brick-and-mortar resource centers or mobile centers that reach farmworkers where they live and work.
- Establish Farmworker Resource Centers that provide farmworkers and their families information and access to services related to, among other things, labor and employment rights, education, housing, immigration, and health and human services.
- Partner with trusted organizations in the community to implement effective outreach and service activities.
- Disseminate clear, accurate, and consistent information to target audiences in English, Spanish, and other appropriate languages as identified in the population assessment conducted by the grantee.
- Reach culturally diverse and historically underserved populations to increase awareness of relevant available services.
- Maintain a database that collects, tracks, and reports outcomes on outreach and service activities.
Increase access to existing services for farmworkers and their families through the:- Establishment of new Farmworker Resource Centers.
- Extension of hours of operation.
- Improved recruitment and retention of high-quality staff and volunteers.
Characteristics of a Successful Farmworker Resource Center
While CSD recognizes that there are operational differences among agencies that provide services to farmworkers, below is a list of recommended practices. They are intended to inform the development of Farmworker Resource Centers funded through this grant. These suggestions were developed by the Farmworker Resource Center Workgroup. Qualities of a successful Farmworker Resource Center are:
- A welcoming central hub for farmworker services that is culturally and linguistically sensitive and appropriate for the community.
- A focus on building deep, lasting relationships with participants that foster trust and demonstrate commitment to the community.
- The ability to perform multi-faceted outreach campaigns in-person and online.
- The ability to provide warm hand-offs when referrals are made. Agency staff should coordinate with the referral agency and the participant whenever possible.
- The goal should be to establish the referral for and with the participant rather than just providing the participant with contact information.
- Accessibility for farmworkers and their families. The Farmworker Resource Center should accommodate farmworkers’ work schedules to ensure accessibility to services.
- Inclusion of farmworkers in the center’s design and direction.
- Staff commitment to establishing strong relationships with agencies that serve farmworkers and farmworkers’ employers.
- Ability to be accessed by local phone numbers instead of generic “800” numbers.
- Deep connections with local community-based organizations that have experience serving farmworkers and proficiency in relevant indigenous languages.
- Demonstrated ability to identify, recruit, and retain quality volunteers and staff
Target Regions
To focus the limited funding available through the Farmworker Resource Center Grant to counties with significant farmworker populations, target regions were identified based on either the absolute or proportional number of farmworkers in each county.
Region 1 – San Joaquin Valley and Northern California
- Colusa County, Glenn County, Fresno County, Kern County, Kings County, Madera County, Merced County, Modoc County, San Joaquin County, Stanislaus County, Siskiyou County, Tulare County
Region 2 – Central Coast and Southern California Regional Awards
- Imperial County, Monterey County, Napa County, San Diego County, San Luis Obispo County, Santa Barbara County, Santa Cruz County, Sonoma County, Riverside County, Ventura County
Funding Information
Pursuant to AB 941, to be eligible for grant funding applicants must provide 25 percent of the center’s funding. To this end, for a grant of $833,000 an awardee will be required to contribute a minimum of $208,250 during the grant term.
Criteria
Grant requirements include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Funds must be spent to serve the intended purposes of AB 941, Farmworker Assistance: Resource Centers.
- Funds must be used for cost-effective activities that have measurable, trackable outcomes.
Grant funds must support new farmworker resource center activities or expand upon existing efforts. These funds are not intended to replace or supplant existing services and activities that provide information and access to services to farmworkers. Reported activities and outcomes must be attributable to funding from this grant. - Applicants must be a county government entity from a county from identified above.
- Grantees must provide 25 percent of the funding for the life of the grant.
- Grantee administrative costs cannot exceed 15 percent of the operating budget submitted during contract execution.
- The operating budget is defined as the grant award and grantee matching funds.
- Grantees must complete a population assessment sufficient to determine the ideal model for Farmworker Resource Center service delivery (e.g., hours and days of operation, etc.) and the language and service needs of the community the Resource Center would serve.
- Grantees should monitor local trends on an ongoing basis and adjust services and activities accordingly. Grantees must provide services in English, Spanish, and at least one indigenous language to allow equitable access for the target community based on assessed needs.
- Grantees must provide services to farmworkers and their families through either traditional brick-and-mortar locations or mobile outreach, depending on local needs.
- Grantees must maintain a cost-effective database and provide this data to CSD upon request. At a minimum, this database must include the following:
- The number and types of calls received
- Referrals made and their outcomes
- Claims filed and their outcomes
- Service and activity outcomes
- Participant demographic information
- Grantees must provide quarterly programmatic and fiscal reporting to CSD per the following proposed schedule:
- March 31, 2023
- June 30, 2023
- September 30, 2023
- December 31, 2023
- March 30, 2024
- May 15, 2024 – Final Report
- Grantees must comply with fiscal and programmatic evaluations, which may extend until June 30, 2024. To ensure adequate time to provide the activities and services designed to address the needs of farmworkers and their families within the contract term, grantee Farmworker Resource Centers must be established, operational, and providing services by July 15, 2023.
- Grantees must maintain participant files sufficient to document activities and services provided as well as outcomes achieved.
- Grantees must participate in mutually agreed upon check-in calls with CSD.
- Grantees must establish or utilize existing linkages with local and/or statewide community-based organizations currently serving farmworker communities.
- Grantees that utilize subcontractors are responsible for ensuring all participants within their coalition adhere to NOFA and contractual requirements. This includes, but is not limited to:
- Effective monitoring and communication processes that ensure adherence to both financial management and participant demographic and service data collection.
- Ensuring any subcontractors or community partners understand their role in delivering services successfully and the processes by which funds are requested and distributed.
- Ensuring the protection of all personally identifiable information
For more information, visit Farmworker Resource Center Grant.
