This Notice of Funding Opportunity to support the development and national dissemination of best practices to strengthen the capacity of child abuse hotline staff to distinguish between poverty and willful neglect.
Donor Name: Administration for Children and Families
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 03/13/2023
Size of the Grant: $2,000,000
Grant Duration: 60 months
Details:
This funding will support building a national messaging campaign on how individuals can become a source of support to families in their community by acknowledging the impact of racial inequities and seeking solutions that can help mitigate child safety concerns before they rise to the level of crisis. Funding will also focus on the development of best practices for training and equipping child abuse hotline staff to navigate complex and wide-reaching needs such as understanding the distinction between poverty and willful neglect, implicit bias, addressing social and behavioral health needs, how and when to report child abuse, and providing warm hand offs to local resources whenever possible. Applicants will need to describe plans for continuous quality improvement, evaluating the effectiveness of proposed strategies in a hotline environment, and disseminating findings widely to relevant audiences. Applicants must also demonstrate the capacity and plan to coordinate with the National Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention (CBCAP), Child Welfare Information Gateway, and other hotlines administered by the Administration for Children and Families.
Goals and Objectives
The goal of this NOFO is to support the development and national dissemination of best practices to strengthen the capacity of child abuse hotline staff to distinguish between poverty and willful neglect. To achieve this goal, the project funded under this opportunity will focus on achieving the following project objectives:
- Develop and disseminate best practices for distinguishing between poverty and willful neglect in a child abuse hotline environment.
- Reduce unnecessary reporting to child welfare systems by establishing innovative solutions to link individuals who reach out with a poverty-related concern with relevant local resources and financial supports, with a particular focus on underserved populations as defined by Executive Order 13985.
- Develop and widely disseminate best practices, protocols, and procedures for training and supporting hotline staff to navigate complex and wide-reaching issues such as understanding the distinction between poverty and willful neglect and how and when to report child abuse from a trauma-informed and equitable lens.
- Develop a national messaging campaign that encourages mandated reporters to become a source of support to families in their communities by identifying and acknowledging the impact of racial inequities.
- Evaluate funded efforts to determine the extent to which the strategies and activities have contributed to meeting the goal of this NOFO.
This section highlights project requirements in the following areas:
- Project Activities
- Collaboration
- Dissemination
- Evaluation
Funding Information
- Award Ceiling: $2,000,000 Per Budget Period
- Award Floor: $1,000,000 Per Budget Period
- Average Projected Award Amount: $2,000,000 Per Budget Period
Project Period
60-month project period with five 12-month budget periods
Eligible Applicants
- Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education
- For profit organizations other than small businesses
- City or township governments
- Small businesses
- Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized)
- Independent school districts
- Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities
- County governments
- Public and State controlled institutions of higher education
- Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments)
- Private institutions of higher education
- State governments
- Special district governments
Additional Information on Eligibility
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.
