As the National Research Center on Poverty and Economic Mobility, the Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison seeks to fund research on the following three programmatic areas: Integrating substance use services and human services programs, Facilitating access to multiple programs; and Social-emotional development and mental health.
Donor Name: Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP)
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 01/10/2023
Size of the Grant: $50,000
Grant Duration: 24 months
Details:
Focal Themes
Applications are welcome from Principal Investigators with research projects that address one of the three following focal areas.
- Focal Theme 1: Integrating Substance Use Services And Human Services Programs
- HHS has a mandate to prevent drug overdoses in the U.S. More than 932,000 people have died since 1999 from a drug overdose. The age-adjusted rate of overdose deaths increased by 31% from 2019 (21.6 per 100,000) to 2020 (28.3 per 100,000). Overdose deaths impact families and communities in detrimental ways because they cause a loss of life, emotional pain, family disruption, and financial instability. HHS’s Overdose Prevention Strategy has four components: primary prevention, evidenced based treatment, recovery support, and harm reduction.
- This research topical theme addresses the harm reduction component of the HHS Overdose Prevention Strategy. It will help HHS better understand issues related to integrating harm reduction services and strategies into existing human services programs. Harm reduction is an approach that emphasizes:
- engaging directly with people who use drugs to prevent overdose and infectious disease transmission;
- improve the physical, mental, and social wellbeing of those served; and
- low-threshold options for accessing substance use disorder treatment and other health care services.
- Focal Theme 2: Toward A More Family-Centered And Equitable Social Safety Net – Facilitating Access To Multiple Programs
- While safety net programs aim to improve the economic and social wellbeing of families and individuals in a time of need, they are often hindered by lack of integration across different programs serving similar populations. Safety net programs provide supports such as housing, nutrition assistance, health care, cash assistance, early care and education, child welfare, education and training, and others. Oversight and administration of these programs span federal, state, and local levels, resulting in significant variation across programs and localities and potentially multiple levels of program guidance. Varying eligibility rules, processes, requirements, and authorities across programs create a confusing and burdensome maze that individuals and families must navigate to receive benefits.
- IRP and HSP seek to support research that identifies barriers and facilitators to accessing multiple programs and promising strategies for more integrated, family-centered service delivery, with a focus on addressing inequities. There is particular interest in strategies related to one or more programs funded or administered by HHS (e.g., child care, TANF, Medicaid, child support, child welfare, Head Start) and coordination with one or more funded or administered by other federal agencies (e.g., SNAP, WIC, housing assistance, WIOA). Projects may utilize a variety of analytic methods, may focus on an array of programs or outcomes, and are encouraged to employ an intersectional lens. Examples of project topics could include, but are not limited to:
- Case studies of innovative state or local efforts to better align policies in safety net programs and the barriers and facilitators of that alignment;
- Examination of leveraging data across programs or systems to improve service delivery or extend outreach efforts to underserved populations;
- Journey-mapping of families’ experiences and outcomes in seeking services from multiple programs, and how those experiences vary by different groups;
- Qualitative assessment of what aspects of program access make families feel more and less supported, and how that varies by program and by race and gender;
- Exploration of whether and how service navigators are used for helping families access and navigate multiple social services programs and what can be learned from navigators in other policy and program contexts (e.g., ACA health exchange navigators); and
- Analysis of level and nature of integration among social services delivery systems in other developed countries and what lessons could be learned in the U.S. from those systems.
- Focal Theme 3: Social-Emotional Development And Mental Health
- The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a surge in children’s mental health needs. Pandemic-related health, social, and economic challenges (e.g., illness, pandemic-related deaths, social isolation, financial hardship) exacerbated existing stressors, resulting in higher rates of mental health challenges among all age groups but is particularly concerning for children and youth still in critical developmental periods. Federal funding for COVID-19 relief (e.g., American Rescue Plan Act) has allocated substantial funding to children’s mental health services, and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has prioritized efforts to address increased need, with the Roadmap for Behavioral Health Integration, the HHS-Department of Education (ED) Dear Colleague Letter on Social-Emotional Development and Mental Health, and the HHS joint letter on Supporting the Mental Health Needs of Children.
- Proposals are invited from Ph.D.-holding scholars at all career stages, from postdoctoral fellows to senior faculty, and from all disciplines who are interested in pursuing policy-relevant research. Researchers will participate in partnership consultations with IRP throughout the grant cycle and will be asked to consider integrating this feedback into their projects and ongoing research.
Funding Information
- Grants may not exceed $50,000.
- The grant contract period is flexible depending on scope of the project not to exceed 24 months from grant start date.
Eligibility Criteria
- The Principal Investigator must hold a doctorate or the highest degree appropriate for their discipline at the time of application. Applicants must be associated with a university. Individuals not associated with a university (domestic or foreign) and foreign entities are ineligible for grants made under this announcement.
- University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty and postdoctoral fellows are ineligible for funding.
For more information, visit IRP.
