Procedural Justice Informed Alternatives to Contempt (PJAC)

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This funding opportunity announcement has been modified. Section I.Program Description and Section IV.2.The Project Description have been updated to provide details for applicants who may be implementing random assignment in another child support-led demonstration project. The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) invites eligible applicants to submit competitive grant applications to develop and implement programs that offer an alternative to contempt by incorporating procedural justice principles into child support business practices as part of a national demonstration framework. The national demonstration, titled Procedural Justice Informed Alternatives to Contempt (PJAC), will consist of the following core components: 1) initial screening; 2) outreach/engagement; 3) case conferencing, assessment, and action planning; 4) enhanced investigation; 5) enhanced child support services; 6) other support services; and 7) case management. Each of these components will incorporate procedural justice principles into their design. The grant project period will be five years. The first year will be a planning year devoted to start-up and development of the program design and pilot testing. Enrollment into the project will last for a three year period, and the final year will focus on evaluation and close-out of the project, as well as continued services to those already enrolled, and sustainability work. Section 1115 grant funds awarded to each project will be treated as state or tribal expenditures under Title IV-D that, for purposes of the demonstration project, will be reimbursed by the regular Title IV-D federal financial participation (FFP) match. The total approved cost of the project is the sum of the ACF grant award under Section 1115 and regular FFP. Grantees do not need to provide matching funds. Estimated award ceilings for the five-year project period are as follows: FY 2016 - $200,000; FY 2017 - $225,000; FY 2018, 2019, and 2020 - $118,738.The expected funding for the five-year project period totals $781,214 in Section 1115 funds, plus FFP. Grantees will not conduct their own evaluations, but must support and fully participate in an OCSE-funded cross-site evaluation. Random assignment of potential participants into treatment and control groups will be required. The evaluation of these grants will be funded through an OCSE cooperative agreement under a companion FOA for evaluation of and technical assistance to these projects. Applicants for this grant may also submit an application under the companion funding opportunity announcement, but it is not a requirement for application or selection under this announcement. A successful applicant under this FOA may also be selected as a successful applicant under the companion funding opportunity announcement but one award is not dependent on the other. The recipient under the evaluation FOA will not conduct evaluation activities but will be required to select a third-party organization to conduct the evaluation.

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