ACF: 2023 Support for Trauma-Affected Refugees (STAR) Program

Deadline: 10/02/2023

Size of the Grant: $600,000

Grant Duration: 48 months

Details:

The goal of the STAR Program is the successful achievement of sustained physical, social, emotional, and economic well-being of newcomers whose experience of trauma is impeding their ability to function effectively at home, school, work or in social settings.

ORR intends to achieve these goals through the following objectives:

• To increase eligible and underserved newcomers’ access to appropriate, effective, and holistic trauma assistance and mental health services at the individual, group, and family levels, taking into account considerations of age and gender.
• To fund and foster the development of a network of culturally responsive providers (recipients) with the capacity for delivering holistic services to address the psychosocial needs of trauma-affected refugees and to facilitate their successful integration and wellbeing.

Objective-Centered Program Activities and Relevant Assessment Areas

Assessment Area I: Core Service Delivery

Required activities in support of this objective include:

• Offering mental health services such as individual and group therapy, to trauma-affected newcomers, including vulnerable or marginalized groups such as survivors of domestic violence (DV), intimate partner violence (IPV) and gender-based violence (GBV); children and adolescents; and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, and intersex (LGBTQI+) individuals who may be experiencing social, mental, emotional, and familial challenges.
• Providing evidence-based family-strengthening interventions that promote healthy family dynamics.
• Holding culturally sensitive training for parents to regain or strengthen their parenting competencies as they encounter unfamiliar cultural norms in education, parenting, and family life.
• Providing emergency assistance in situations where program beneficiaries (clients) are at risk of homelessness or food insecurity.
• Assisting with interpretation and transportation needs for mental health services.
• Working with culturally and linguistically appropriate community health workers to conduct home visits.
• Offering options for onsite and telehealth platforms for individual, group, and family therapy or counseling.
• Offering clients holistic therapeutic programs that foster recovery, resiliency, and creativity.

Assessment Area II: Capacity Building

Required activities in support of this objective include the following:

• Partnering with ethnic community and/or faith-based organizations to develop, deliver, and/or promote culturally and linguistically appropriate services for survivors from those newcomer communities.
• Fostering partnerships with mainstream providers to enhance community capacity to respond to the needs of underserved newcomers impacted by trauma.
• Developing organizational capacity to offer appropriate bi/multilingual interventions and easily applicable screening instruments for trauma, depression, anxiety, suicidality, and/or substance abuse.
• Recruiting from newcomer communities and/or former clients at both operational and leadership levels, ensuring client-centered programming to evaluate project effectiveness, improve service delivery, and promote equity.
• Integrating newcomer survivors/clients within organizational and programmatic structures through establishing advisory boards comprised of former clients and community members, especially through encouraging the participation of minority subgroups such as LGBTQI+ individuals, youth, and female clients to ensure organizational diversity and equity.
• Encouraging and promoting the professional development of bi/multilingual and bi/multicultural staff from newcomer communities to promote healthcare equity through increased representation and visibility of such communities in those professions.
• Ensuring peer support and adequate supervision of client-facing staff with particular attention to client-case worker ratios to ensure workforce sustainability.
• Engaging in rigorous project monitoring and performance evaluation through collection, reporting, and analysis of project data to improve service delivery, outcomes, processes, and systems.
• Identifying sustainable sources of funding to continue the project after the grant has ended.
• Communicating and coordinating at least quarterly with local refugee service providers, State Refugee Coordinators, and State Refugee Health Coordinators to facilitate timely and relevant exchange of information regarding service needs and resettlement trends that may affect service delivery and referral systems.

Funding Information

• Estimated Total Funding: $14,000,000
• Award Ceiling: $600,000
• Award Floor: $400,000

Length of Project Periods

48-month project period with four 12-month budget periods.

Eligibility Criteria

• Eligibility is limited to public and private non-profit agencies.
• Eligibility is open to the following types of entities: state governments; county governments; city or township governments; special district governments; independent school districts; public- and state-controlled institutions of higher education; Native American tribal governments (federally recognized); public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; Native American tribal organizations (other than federally recognized tribal governments); non-profits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS other than institutions of higher education; non-profits without 501(c)(3) status with the IRS other than institutions of higher education; and private institutions of higher education.
• 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, 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.