The Inclusive Healthy Communities (IHC) Grant Program provides funding opportunities to local government and nonprofit organizations in New Jersey to undertake initiatives that support the health and wellbeing of individuals with disabilities in the communities where they live.
Donor Name: New Jersey Department of Human Services
State: New Jersey
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 02/14/2025
Size of the Grant: $500,000 to $1 million
Grant Duration: 2 Years
Details:
The IHC Grant Program is designed to advance efforts that result in tangible and sustainable transformation of policies, systems, and environmental conditions to ensure that people with disabilities benefit from efforts to build healthy communities.
10 Guiding Principles for Inclusive Healthy Communities Initiatives:
- Inclusive – People with disabilities have the right to lead and participate in planning and decisionmaking processes through engagement that is upfront, ongoing, meaningful and authentic.
- Integrative – IHC initiatives advance full and culturally competent integration of people with disabilities as equal members of society with equitable access to conditions and systems that support health and wellbeing, free from limitations imposed through stigma and ableism.
- Aspirational – IHC initiatives go beyond compliance and minimum regulatory standards to advance bold, just, and innovative solutions that ensure equitable and permanent access to the social and structural determinants that drive health and wellbeing.
- Intersectional – IHC initiatives seek to advance social justice and to ensure that people with disabilities leading initiatives and providing expertise come from a diverse range of backgrounds, representative of the communities, with consideration inclusive of, but not limited to race, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, age, language, and cultural background.
- Systems-Oriented – While individual IHC initiatives may include components that target specific services or barriers, those components are nested in broader goals of advancing change in systems, operations, and policies that drive access to the conditions, structures, and processes contributing to health and wellbeing. Systems changes targeted by IHC initiatives may include changes to public policies as well as changes to the decision-making and operational processes of organizations and groups, whether in the public, private, or non-profit sectors, including within grantee organizations.
- Accessible – True inclusion requires providing access in ways that work for everyone. To the greatest extent possible, this should be done routinely as a systematic process providing access to information and environments as universally as possible, as aligned with inclusive and universal design principles, using accommodations to augment these processes as necessary.
- Comprehensive—While some initiatives target the inclusion of people with specific disabilities, each initiative must strive to be fully inclusive, considering those who experience multiple disabilities and health conditions by addressing the full spectrum of accessibility for the whole person.
- Collaborative – Strong cross-sector partnerships, inclusive of people with disabilities, lead to innovative solutions uniquely positioned to create sustainable systems change in support of the wellbeing of people with disabilities.
- Sustainable – IHC initiatives seek to catalyze permanent changes to the systems, policies, and conditions that drive health and wellbeing for people with disabilities, leaving a legacy of improved access and inclusion beyond the award period.
- Growth-Oriented – Advancing meaningful change requires a commitment from IHC partners to implement near-term solutions while continuously striving to advance their content knowledge, skills, and capacity to build long-lasting, adaptable, and transformative solutions well into the future.
IHC Grant Program Priorities
The IHC Grant Program gives priority funding consideration to proposals that include the following provisions that are strongly encouraged, but not required:
- Focus on healthy community outcomes for people with disabilities who also may experience societal discrimination because of, but not limited to age, race, socioeconomic or immigration status, gender, and/or sexual orientation;
- Serve participants in areas of highest need in terms of disability population, economic burden, and underserved communities;
- Leverage matching funds through direct dollars or in-kind services;
- Employ people with disabilities at a fair wage and in meaningful roles;
- Seek to address multiple types of disability and not a single disability;
- Have a lead grantee from outside of the disability-services sector who is committed to partnering with people with disabilities and their organizations to center inclusion in their work; and
- Advance initiatives that are focused on addressing social and structural determinants of health that are the foundation of healthy communities as outlined earlier in Section II of this RFP.
Funding Information
A total of up to $3.5 million dollars of funding is anticipated over two state fiscal years to support the IHC 24-month grant period, with $1.75 million anticipated for year 1 (July 1, 2025 – June 30, 2026), and, contingent upon available funding, $1.75 million anticipated in appropriations for year 2 (July 1, 2026 – June 30, 2027).
Allowable Costs
The following costs are considered allowable under the IHC Grant Program:
- Salaries and fringe benefits
- Strategic planning consultation services and data collection
- Stakeholder engagement consultation services
- Training and facilitation
- Provision of direct services
- In-state travel
- Business meeting costs
- Translation services, including American Sign Language
- Services and supplies to facilitate engagement of people with disabilities
- Community planning and capital investment design
- Equipment purchase(s)
- Capital improvements that are in direct service to the proposed program or activity. For the IHC Grant Program, allowable capital improvements include those that are permanent installations on property that increase the capital value or useful life of the property.
Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible for consideration for an IHC grant, the bidder must satisfy the following requirements:
- The bidder must be a (a) county or municipal government entity, including local and county authorities such as a Board of Education, or (b) an organization with approved IRS 501(c)(3) status at the time of submitting its IHC application; and
- The bidder may be a current or previous grantee;
- For a bidder that has a contract with DDS in place when this RFP is issued, that bidder must have all outstanding Plans of Correction for deficiencies submitted to DDS for approval prior to submission;
- The bidder must be fiscally viable based upon an assessment of the bidder’s audited financial statements. If a bidder is determined, in DDS’ sole discretion, to be insolvent or to present insolvency within the twelve (12) months after bid submission, DDS will deem the proposal ineligible for grant award;
- The bidder must not appear on the State of NJ Consolidated debarment report at: State of NJ – NJ Treasury – DORES or be suspended or debarred by any other State or Federal entity from receiving funds;
- Pursuant to DHS Contract Policy and Information Manual Policy Circular 8.05, the bidder shall not have a conflict, or the appearance of a conflict, between the private interests and the official responsibilities of a person in a position of trust. Persons in a position of trust include Provider Agency staff members, officers and Governing Board Members. A bidder must have written Conflict of Interest policies and procedures that satisfy the requirements of P8.05, thereby ensuring that paid Board members do not participate in transactions except as expressly provided in the P8.05 circular.
For more information, visit NJDHS.
