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Department of Health and Human Services

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA)

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SM-05-013:

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National Training and Technical Assistance Center for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Cooperative Agreement (Short Title:  NTTAC)

SUMMARY: The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT), announces the availability of FY 2005 funds for National Training and Technical Assistance Center for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Cooperative Agreements.  A synopsis of this Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA), as well as many other Federal Government funding opportunities, are also available at the Internet site: www.grants.gov.  

INF-05 PA

For complete instructions, potential applicants must obtain a copy of SAMHSA’s standard Infrastructure Grants Program Announcement (INF-05 PA), and the PHS 5161-1 (Rev. 7/00) application form before preparing and submitting an application. The INF-05 PA describes the general program design and provides instructions for applying for all SAMHSA Infrastructure Grants, including the State Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment Coordination program.  Additional instructions and specific requirements for this funding opportunity are described below.

I.      Funding Opportunity Description

• Collaboration and Coordination:  NTTAC will be required to demonstrate collaborative efforts across child and family mental health service system partners, including the Council on Collaboration and Coordination (CCC) for the cooperative agreements funded under the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and Their Families Program, also referred to as the Children’s Mental Health Initiative.  The CCC is an organization comprising the leadership of the Child, Adolescent and Family Branch, CMHS-contracted technical assistance providers, and representatives of family members, youth, and leaders from the CMHS-funded Children’s Mental Health Initiative funded communities.  The mission of the CCC is to help the grantee sites envision and implement comprehensive systems of care for children and youth with serious mental health problems, and their families. This is done through a team process of collaboration among the technical assistance providers, which puts the communities at the center of a coordinated approach to technical assistance and support. 

Another area of collaboration is to assist with the Federal National Partnership (FNP) for children’s mental health.  The FNP is a coalition representing over 21 child-serving Federal agencies, over 30 national child-serving organizations, as well as family and youth leaders.  The purpose of the FNP is to implement the child, youth, and family recommendations from Achieving the Promise: Transforming Mental Health Care in America.  The NTTAC shall provide support to coordinate FNP activities, including assisting the Government Project Officer responsible for the FNP implement an annual meeting, and provide ongoing support between annual meetings to help ensure that FNP participants follow through with the implementation of any measurable outcomes proposed at each meeting and approved by SAMHSA in coordination with ongoing SAMHSA efforts.

• Major Meetings and Training Activities:  An effective technical assistance tool has been the use of various institutes and meetings such as Policy Academies, Training Institutes, an Early Childhood Academy, a Workforce Development Academy, System of Care Primer Training, and a Leadership Academy.  It is anticipated that this type of activity will be continued and new training programs developed. 

[Note:  The successful applicant must be prepared and agree to assume responsibility for ongoing hotel and other logistical arrangements that may be underway for the planned 2006 Training Institutes.]

• Cultural and Linguistic Competence/Cultural Disparities:  The NTTAC will be expected to focus specific attention and dedicate resources on strategies to improve cultural and linguistic competence and responsiveness, and to eliminate racial, ethnic and geographic disparities within the health care delivery system.  This includes demonstrating the ability to provide technical assistance to ensure that culture, gender, language, disability and literacy are addressed.
  

• Support to Child and Adolescent Mental Health and Substance Abuse State Infrastructure Grantees:  The NTTAC will be expected to provide technical assistance for State capacity building in cooperation with the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment technical assistance contractor.  As part of this program NTTAC shall assist States in learning new skills and strategies for comprehensive cross-agency planning designed to improve service delivery systems for youth with co-occurring disorders and their families.
  

• Support to States/Collaboration with National Organizations:  The NTTAC will be expected to coordinate efforts with other national organizations to help build knowledge and skill in child, adolescent and family mental health.  As part of this effort, the NTTAC shall assist with State efforts to transform the child, youth and family service system. 
  

• Create Training Forums and Materials – The NTTAC will be expected to develop and conduct a schedule of monthly national conference calls that offer opportunities to discuss strategies that promote systems development and improve outcomes for children and their families.  The applicant will develop and use web-based data and technical assistance resources to provide the most current and relevant information on emerging issues in the field.  The applicant will also produce policy briefs on topical subject areas that could include, but are not limited to, evidence-based interventions, financing strategies, early intervention, early childhood mental health, co-occurring substance abuse and mental disorders, vulnerable populations and data management and accountability.

Guidance for Electronic Submission of Applications

SAMHSA is now offering the opportunity for you to submit your application to us either in electronic or paper format.  Electronic submission is voluntary.  No review points will be added or deducted, regardless of whether you use the electronic or paper format.

To submit an application electronically, you must use the www.Grants.gov apply site.  You will be able to download a copy of the application package from www.Grants.gov, complete it off-line, and then upload and submit the application via the Grants.gov site.  E-mail submissions will not be accepted.

You must search the Grants.gov site for the downloadable application package, by the Catalogue of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) number.  You can find the CFDA number on the first page of the funding announcement.

You must follow the instructions in the User Guide available at: www.Grants.gov apply site, on the Customer Support tab.  In addition to the User Guide, you may wish to use the following sources for help:

• By e-mail:  support@Grants.gov

• By phone:  1-800-518-4726 (1-800-518-GRANTS).  The Customer Support Center is open from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday.

If this is the first time you have submitted an application through Grants.gov, you must complete four separate registration processes before you can submit your application.  Allow at least two weeks (10 business days) for these registration processes, prior to submitting your application.  The processes are:  

• DUNS Number registration, 

• Central Contractor Registry (CCR) registration, 

• Credential Provider registration, and 

• Grants.gov registration.

It is strongly recommended that you submit your grant application using Microsoft Office products (e.g., Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, etc.).  If you do not have access to Microsoft Office products, you may submit a PDF file.  Directions for creating PDF files can be found on the Grants.gov Web site.  Use of file formats other than Microsoft Office or PDF may result in your file being unreadable by our staff. 

The Project Narrative must be a separate document in the electronic submission.  Formatting requirements for SAMHSA grant applications are described above, and in Section IV-2.3 and Appendix A of the standard grant announcement.  These requirements also apply to applications submitted electronically, with the following exceptions only for Project Narratives submitted electronically in Microsoft Word.  These requirements help to ensure the accurate transmission and equitable treatment of applications.

• Text legibility:  Use a font of Times New Roman 12, line spacing of single space, and all margins (left, right, top, bottom) of one inch each.  Adhering to these standards will help to ensure the accurate transmission of your document.  If the type size in the Project Narrative of an electronic submission exceeds 15 characters per inch, or the text exceeds 6 lines per vertical inch, SAMHSA will reformat the document to Times New Roman 12, with line spacing of single space.  Please note that this may alter the formatting of your document, especially for charts, tables, graphs, and footnotes.

• Amount of space allowed for Project Narrative:  The Project Narrative for an electronic submission may not exceed 25,750 words.  Any part of the Project Narrative in excess of the word limit will not be submitted to review.  To determine the number of words in your Project Narrative document in Microsoft Word, select file/properties/statistics.

Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit their applications to Grants.gov early enough to resolve any unanticipated difficulties prior to the deadline.  You may also submit a back-up paper submission of your application.  Any such paper submission must be received in accordance with the requirements for timely submission detailed in Section IV-3 of the grant announcement.  The paper submission must be clearly marked:  “Back-up for electronic submission.”  The paper submission must conform with all requirements for non-electronic submissions.  If both electronic and back-up paper submissions are received by the deadline, the electronic version will be considered the official submission.

After you electronically submit your application, you will receive an automatic acknowledgement from Grants.gov that contains a Grants.gov tracking number.  It is important that you retain this number.

The Grants.gov Web site does not accept electronic signatures at this time.  Therefore, you must submit a signed paper original of the face page (SF 424), the assurances (SF 424B), and the certifications, and hard copy of any other required documentation that cannot be submitted electronically.  You must reference the Grants.gov tracking number for your application, on these documents with original signatures, and send the documents to the following address.  The documents must be received at the following address within 5 business days of your electronic submission.  Delays in receipt of these documents may impact the score your application receives or the ability of your application to be funded.

For United States Postal Service:

For other delivery service (DHL, Falcon Carrier, Federal Express, United Parcel Service):

If you require a phone number for delivery, you may use (240) 276-1199.