A New Strategy for Funding Outreach, Network Development and Quality Grant Programs

In FY 2008, the Office implemented a new strategy for managing the community-based grant programs which staggers the competitive cycle between programs. By doing this, the Office will bring consistency to its grant funding cycle and each program (Quality, Network Development and Outreach) will be able to fund grantees in the same cycle allowing for more peer to peer learning and better coordinated technical assistance. This approach is the same approach used in funding the State and Research grant opportunities and allows the Office to achieve efficiencies in funding and therefore award several more grants per year.

Old approach - New Grants awarded every year for most community grants

– Pros: Unsuccessful applicants can reapply for a grant the following year

– Cons: Difficult for grantees, technical assistance (TA) providers and HRSA

New approach - Grant awards will be staggered every 2-3 years

– Pros:

• More grant awards funded every year
• Improves grantee peer-to-peer learning and TA
• Focus on sustainability of programs

– Cons: All grants will not be offered every year

With this new strategy, ORHP plans to pay particular attention to the issue of sustainability in FY 2008 which continues to be the greatest challenge of the Outreach program. ORHP plans to concentrate on ways to address this issue and help the current grantees continue their program for a long time. Please refer to the table below to determine when each grant program will be competed during the next five fiscal years.

Competitive Funding Cycles for Outreach, Network Development and Quality Improvement

*Network Planning will be offered yearly because it is a one-year program.