Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) Training and Technical Assistance (T/TA) Organizational Standards Center of Excellence (COE)

archived

The Office of Community Services (OCS) within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) announces that competing applications will be accepted for a cooperative agreement to support an enhanced ongoing State, regional and national training and technical assistance (T/TA) strategy for building accountability and organizational performance standards in the Community Service Block Grant (CSBG) Network.?This two-year cooperative agreement will fund one Center of Excellence focused on?increasing accountability and organizational performance by creating tools that assist States and local CSBG-eligible entities to set and meet high performance standards that can be used across the Network in areas such as organizational leadership, human resource management, financial operations, consumer input and involvement, community engagement, and board governance.??The CSBG T/TA Organizational Standards Center of Excellence (COE) will coordinate the development and dissemination of?a core set of standards?with input from the State, regional and national partners, including the CSBG T/TA Regional Performance and Innovation Consortia (RPIC).? The central mission of this effort will be to ensure that all CSBG-eligible entities have the capacity to provide high-quality services to low-income?individuals and communities,?and are able to meet high-quality organizational?performance?standards.?The core functions of the CSBG T/TA Organizational Standards COE will be to create tools for organizational assessment that can be utilized by States and local CSBG-eligible entities to set and meet high-quality organizational?performance standards?and accountability. ?These efforts will be focused on the following central objectives.To facilitate input from CSBG-eligible entities, State CSBG Lead Agencies, the RPIC grantees, State Associations of eligible entities, and?national CSBG technical assistance organizations regarding existing organizational standards being utilized to assess organizational capacity and performance in the CSBG Network;To create a set of core national standards for organizational performance that will ensure that CSBG-eligible entities have the organizational capacity to effectively address the needs of low-income people and communities;To utilize core organizational standards to develop curricula, training materials, tools for organizational self-assessment, and tools for State assessment that will? ensure that all CSBG-eligible entities can be assessed according to consistent performance standards;To develop a strategy to partner and collaborate with CSBG T/TA RPIs, the Results Oriented Management and Accountability (ROMA) Next Generation Center of Excellence (COE), and other relevant CSBG stakeholder organizations, and to support performance standards they administer throughout the CSBG Network;To participate in the web-based CSBG T/TA Resource Center in which State CSBG Lead Agencies, State Associations, and CSBG-eligible entities have access to a web-based shared calendar, T/TA Request System, Consultant Bank, Discussion Forums, and several additional features.It is expected that the CSBG T/TA Organizational Standards COE will participate in a CSBG Network-wide approach in partnership with OCS; the?established national CSBG TA centers focused on performance management, risk mitigation and quality improvement, and legal compliance; the Fiscal Year (FY)?2012?CSBG T/TA RPIs?(Funding Opportunity Number: HHS-2012-ACF-OCS-EQ-0293);?and the new FY 2012 ROMA Next Generation COE (FON: HHS-2012-ACF-OCS-ET-0301), funded under a separate announcement.? The Organizational Standards COE will collaborate with RPIs and the ROMA Next Generation COE?to gain input from CSBG-eligible entities and to disseminate the training materials developed under this announcement.

High