The Administration for Children and Families – ACYF/CB is soliciting applications for its National Center for Adoption Competent Mental Health Services.
Donor Name: Administration for Children and Families
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 05/30/2023
Size of the Grant: $4,000,000
Grant Duration: 60 months
Details:
Goals
The purpose of this funding is to create, through a cooperative agreement, the Center with the capacity to work with state child welfare systems to build bridges with the mental health community for the further development and training of mental health practitioners in issues related to separation, loss, grief and trauma; and to develop strategies for making trauma-based culturally responsive and linguistically appropriate competent mental health services consistently and comprehensively available throughout each state. All work of this entity will be accomplished utilizing a race equity lens.
The development of the Center is expected to raise the level of utilization of existing evidence informed, state-of-the-art adoption competent training for mental health practitioners to increase the access and availability of professionals with trauma-informed competence. The Center will provide individual technical assistance to the child welfare systems of STTs in building alliances with the mental health community to build access to competent mental health services.
The grant recipient will focus on meeting the following goals:
- Create a national center with the expertise and evidence-informed training and technical assistance services that will support and build the capacity of the STTs in building the adoption competence of mental health practitioners and in forming strong alliances with the mental health community to improve accessibility of culturally responsive services to all children/youth in the care of the child welfare system and in adoption/guardianship homes.
- Ensure the Center is a comprehensive repository of knowledge and best practice that will benefit and build the capacity of all STTs.
- Support the on-site work in STTs to build alliances with the mental health system and support improved access to adoption competent mental health services.
Expected Outcomes
- Established Center that is recognized as a center of expertise that can significantly enhance the capacity of child welfare systems to provide accessible and culturally competent mental health services through collaboration with the mental health system.
- Significant increase in the number of STTs providing comprehensive and adoption competent mental health services for children/youth in care as well as those who have exited care to adoptive/guardianship families.
- Enhanced well-being, stability, permanency and behavioral health for children/youth served by child welfare systems and those that have exited the system to adoptive/guardianship families.
Funding Information
- Estimated Total Funding: $4,000,000
- Award Ceiling: $4,000,000
- Award Floor: $3,750,000
Length of Project Periods
60-month project period with five 12-month budget periods
Eligible Applicants
- State governments
- Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities
- Public and State controlled institutions of higher education
- Private institutions of higher education
- For profit organizations other than small businesses
- Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments)
- Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education
- Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education
- City or township governments
- Small businesses
- Independent school districts
- County governments
- Special district governments
- Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized)
Additional Information on Eligibility
Per 42 U.S.C. 5113(b)(4), eligibility is open to public or private agencies or organizations, including adoptive family groups and minority groups. CB will accept applications that represent partnerships among organizations with relevant experience. Applicants may subcontract with organizations specializing in their assigned tasks. Applications from collaborations must identify a primary applicant responsible for administering the cooperative agreement. Applications from individuals (including sole proprietorships) and foreign entities are not eligible and will be disqualified from competitive review and funding under this funding opportunity. Faith-based and community organizations that meet the eligibility requirements are eligible to receive awards under this funding opportunity. Faith-based organizations may apply for this award on the same basis as any other organization, as set forth at and, subject to the protections and requirements of 45 CFR Part 87 and 42 U.S.C. 2000bb et seq., ACF will not, in the selection of recipients, discriminate against an organization on the basis of the organization’s religious character, affiliation, or exercise.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
