[Federal Register Volume 59, Number 245 (Thursday, December 22, 1994)]
[Unknown Section]
[Page 0]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 94-31454]


[[Page Unknown]]

[Federal Register: December 22, 1994]


      
_______________________________________________________________________

Part VIII





Department of Health and Human Services





_______________________________________________________________________



Public Health Service



_______________________________________________________________________




Announcement of Availability of Grants for Adolescent Family Life 
Demonstration Projects; Notice
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Public Health Service
[0905-ZA84]

 
Announcement of Availability of Grants for Adolescent Family Life 
Demonstration Projects

AGENCY: Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Programs, Office of Population 
Affairs, PHS, HHS.

ACTION: Notice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Programs (OAPP) requests 
applications for grants under the Adolescent Family Life (AFL) 
Demonstration Projects Program. These grants are for community-based 
and community-supported demonstration projects to: (1) Find effective 
means of preventing pregnancy by encouraging adolescents to abstain 
from sexual activity through provision of age-appropriate education on 
sexuality and decision-making skills, and (2) establish comprehensive 
and integrated approaches to the delivery of services to pregnant 
adolescents, adolescent parents and their children. Funds are available 
for approximately 10-15 projects, which may be located in any State, 
the District of Columbia, the territories of Puerto Rico, the U.S. 
Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, Commonwealth of the Northern 
Mariana Islands, Republic of Palau, Republic of the Marshall Islands 
and the Federated States of Micronesia.

DATES: To receive consideration grant applications must be received by 
the Grants Management Officer by March 22, 1995. Applications will be 
considered as meeting the deadline if they are either (1) received on 
or before the deadline date, or (2) postmarked on or before the 
deadline date and received in time for submission to the review 
committee. A legibly dated receipt from a commercial carrier or U.S. 
Postal Service will be accepted in lieu of a postmark. Private metered 
postmarks will not be accepted as proof of timely mailing. Applications 
which do not meet the deadline will be considered late applications and 
will be returned to the applicant.

ADDRESSES: Requests for application kits may be faxed to (301) 594-
5980. Application kits may also be obtained from and applications 
delivered by the U.S. Postal Service must be submitted to: Grants 
Management Office, OPA, East-West Towers, Suite 200, West Building, 
5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20857. Applicants hand-delivering a 
proposal or using a commercial carrier such as Federal Express should 
use the following address: Grants Management Office, OPA, East-West 
Towers, Suite 200, West Building, 4350 East-West Highway, Bethesda, MD 
20814.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Grants Management Office at (301) 594-
4012 or Program Office at (301) 594-4004. Staff are available to answer 
questions and provide limited technical assistance in the preparation 
of grant applications.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Title XX of the Public Health Service Act, 
42 U.S.C. 300z, et seq., authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human 
Services to award grants for demonstration projects to provide services 
to pregnant and nonpregnant adolescents, adolescent parents and their 
families. (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number 93.995) Title 
XX authorizes grants for three types of demonstration projects: (1) 
Projects which provide ``care services'' only (i.e., services for the 
provision of care to pregnant adolescents, adolescent parents and their 
families); (2) projects which provide ``prevention services'' only 
(i.e., services to prevent adolescent sexual relations); and (3) 
projects which provide a combination of care and prevention services.
    The Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Programs (OAPP) intends to make 
available approximately $4.5 million to support an estimated 10-15 new 
demonstration projects. An applicant may submit a proposal for a local 
care, prevention or combination care/prevention project or for a 
national multi-site prevention project with at least two sites in 
different States. The awards for care projects will range from $200,000 
to $400,000. The awards for local prevention projects will range from 
$150,000 to $250,000. Funding for national multi-site prevention 
projects and for combination care/prevention projects may be higher, in 
proportion to the effort proposed. These grants will be awarded for a 
period of one year, and the availability of funding for later years is 
uncertain. Therefore, we encourage applications from experienced 
organizations which are currently operating programs and which have the 
capability of expanding and enhancing these services to serve 
significant numbers of adolescents according to the guidelines 
specified in this announcement. Additional funds may be available in 
Fiscal Year 1996 and following years. If funds do become available, 
grantees funded under this program announcement will be eligible to 
reapply for continued funding.
    Grants are funded in annual increments (budget periods). Funding 
for all approved budget periods beyond the first year of a grant is 
contingent upon the availability of funds, satisfactory progress of the 
project, and adequate stewardship of Federal funds. A grant award may 
not exceed 70 percent of the total cost of the project for the first 
year. The non-Federal share of the project costs may be provided in 
cash expenditures or fairly evaluated in-kind contributions, including 
plant, equipment and services.
    The specific services which may be funded under Title XX are listed 
below under Care Programs and Prevention Programs. Applicants who 
propose to provide a Combination of Care and Prevention Services 
Program must meet the requirements for each type of program.
    The Public Health Service (PHS) is committed to achieving the 
health promotion and disease prevention objectives of Healthy People 
2000, a PHS-led national activity for setting priority areas. This 
announcement is related to the priority area of Family Planning. A 
midcourse review of the objectives is presently ongoing, and the 
proposed revisions are contained in a draft. A notice of Availability 
and Request for Comment on the Healthy People 2000 Midcourse Revisions 
was published in the Federal Register on October 3, 1994 (59 FR 50253). 
Requests for copies of the Draft for Public Review and Comment: Healthy 
People 2000 Midcourse Revisions can be faxed to (301) 594-5980 or 
mailed to: OAPP/OPA, East-West Towers, Suite 200, West Building, 5600 
Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20857. A new PHS report, Healthy People 
2000 Midcourse Review and Revisions, featuring the final revisions and 
a status report on progress in achieving targets for the year 2000, 
will be published in 1995.
    The following application requirements contain information 
collections subject to OMB approval under the Paperwork Reduction Act 
of 1980 (P.L. 96-511). These information collections have been approved 
by OMB under control number 0937-0189.

Eligible Applicants

    Any public or private nonprofit organization or agency is eligible 
to apply for a grant. Grants are awarded only to those organizations or 
agencies which are determined to demonstrate the capability of 
providing the proposed services and meet the statutory requirements.

Care Programs

    Under this announcement, funds are available for local care 
demonstrations only and not for multi-site national projects. The 
project site must be identified in the application rather than selected 
after the grant is awarded.
    Under the statute the purpose of care programs is to establish 
innovative, comprehensive, and integrated approaches to the delivery of 
care services for pregnant adolescents and adolescent parents under 19 
years of age at program entry, with primary emphasis on unmarried 
adolescents who are 17 years old or younger and for their families. 
This includes young fathers and their families.
    The OAPP encourages the submission of care applications which 
propose to do the following: (1) Add care services to supplement 
existing adolescent health services in school, hospital or other 
community settings, (2) provide care services to minority or other 
disadvantaged populations, (3) continue services to clients after the 
delivery of the baby to enable them to acquire good parenting skills 
and to ensure that their children are developing normally physically, 
intellectually and emotionally, (4) stress self-sufficiency skills, 
such as school completion (in mainstream or alternative schools and GED 
programs) and/or job training preparation and placement, and (5) 
involve males and promote male responsibility. Applicants should base 
their approaches upon an assessment of existing programs and, where 
appropriate, upon efforts to establish better coordination, integration 
and linkages among such existing programs.
    Applicants for care projects are required to provide, either 
directly or by referral, the following 10 core services:
    (1) Pregnancy testing and maternity counseling;
    (2) Adoption counseling and referral services which present 
adoption as an option for pregnant adolescents, including referral to 
licensed adoption agencies in the community if the eligible grant 
recipient is not a licensed adoption agency;
    (3) Primary and preventive health services, including prenatal and 
postnatal care;
    (4) Nutrition information and counseling;
    (5) Referral for screening and treatment of venereal disease;
    (6) Referral to appropriate pediatric care;
    (7) Educational services relating to family life and problems 
associated with adolescent premarital sexual relations including:
    (a) Information about adoption,
    (b) Education on the responsibilities of sexuality and parenting,
    (c) The development of material to support the role of parents as 
the providers of sex education, and
    (d) Assistance to parents, schools, youth agencies and health 
providers to educate adolescents and preadolescents concerning self-
discipline and responsibility in human sexuality;
    (8) Appropriate educational and vocational services;
    (9) Mental health services and referral to mental health services 
and to other appropriate physical health services;
    (10) Counseling and referral for family planning services.

    Note: Funds provided under Title XX may not be used for the 
provision of family planning services other than counseling and 
referral services unless appropriate family planning services are 
not otherwise available in the community. In accordance with sec. 
2006(a)(17) of Title XX (42 U.S.C. 300z-5(a)(17)), applicants must 
make maximum use of services available under the Title X Family 
Planning Program in providing this required core service.

    In addition to the 10 required core services listed above, 
applicants for care projects may provide any of the following 
supplemental services:
    (1) Referral to licensed residential care or maternity home 
services;
    (2) Child care sufficient to enable the adolescent parent to 
continue education or to enter into employment;
    (3) Consumer education and homemaking;
    (4) Counseling for the immediate and extended family members of the 
eligible person;
    (5) Transportation; and
    (6) Outreach services to families of adolescents to discourage 
sexual relations among unemancipated minors.

Prevention Programs

    Under this announcement, funds are available for both local and 
national projects. A national project must have at least two sites in 
different States.
    The primary purpose of prevention programs is to find effective 
means of reaching adolescents, both male and female, before they become 
sexually active in order to encourage them to abstain from sexual 
activity. There is general agreement that early initiation of sexual 
activity brings not only the risk of unintended pregnancy but also 
substantial health risks to adolescents, primarily infection with 
sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including HIV. Accordingly, 
applicants must provide services that help pre-adolescents and young 
adolescents acquire knowledge and skills that will instill healthy 
attitudes and encourage and support the postponement of early sexual 
activity. Such services must also include the provision of medically 
accurate information relating to reducing the risk of unintended 
pregnancy and disease for adolescents who may be or become sexually 
active.
    Under this announcement, OAPP will not fund proposals to develop 
new prevention curricula. Applicants must propose to use existing and 
available educational materials/curricula which are consistent with 
this program announcement.
    The OAPP encourages the submission of prevention applications which 
propose to do the following: (1) Add prevention services to supplement 
existing adolescent health education programs or health service 
programs in school or other community settings, (2) provide prevention 
services to minority or other disadvantaged populations, (3) use 
curricula which have been demonstrated and evaluated to be effective, 
(4) include medically accurate information on sexuality, contraception, 
sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and HIV/AIDS, (5) offer 
educational services to parents to assist them in communicating with 
their children about sexuality, contraception, STDs and HIV/AIDS, and 
(6) involve males and promote male responsibility.
    Applicants for prevention programs are not required to provide any 
specific array of services; a proposal may include any one or more of 
the following services as appropriate:
    (1) Educational services relating to family life and problems 
associated with adolescent premarital sexual relations including:
    (a) Information about adoption,
    (b) Education on the responsibilities of sexuality and parenting,
    (c) The development of material to support the role of parents as 
the providers of sex education, and
    (d) Assistance to parents, schools, youth agencies and health 
providers to educate adolescents and preadolescents concerning self-
discipline and responsibility in human sexuality;
    (2) Appropriate educational and vocational services;
    (3) Counseling for the immediate and extended family members of the 
eligible person;
    (4) Transportation;
    (5) Outreach services to families of adolescents to discourage 
sexual relations among unemancipated minors;
    (6) Pregnancy testing and maternity counseling;
    (7) Nutrition information and counseling; and
    (8) Referral for screening and treatment of venereal disease.

Combination Care and Prevention Services Programs

    Applicants proposing to provide both care and prevention services 
must meet the requirements for both categories as described above. They 
must also propose to make a substantial effort in each of the two areas 
and indicate clearly in the application and budget the proportion of 
effort to be expanded in each component.

Evaluation

    Section 2006(b)(1) of Title XX requires each grantee to expend at 
least one percent but not more than five percent of the Federal funds 
received under Title XX on evaluation of the project. As this is a 
demonstration program, all applications are required to have an 
evaluation component of high quality consistent with the scope of the 
proposed project and the funding level. All project evaluations should 
monitor program processes to determine whether the program has been 
carried out as planned and measure the program's outcomes. Waivers of 
the five percent limit on evaluation (see sec. 2006(b)(1)) may be 
granted in cases where a more rigorous or comprehensive evaluation 
effort is proposed.
    Section 2006(b)(2) requires that an organization or an entity 
independent of the grantee providing services assist the grantee in 
evaluating the project. The OAPP strongly recommends extensive 
collaboration between the applicant organization and the proposed 
evaluator in the development of the intervention, development of the 
evaluation hypothesis(es), identification of the variables to be 
measured and a timetable for initiation of the intervention, baseline 
measurement, and ongoing evaluation data collection and analysis.

Application Requirements

    Applications must be submitted on the forms supplied (PHS 5161-1, 
Revised 7/92) and in the manner prescribed in the application kits 
provided by the OAPP. Applicants are required to submit an application 
signed by an individual authorized to act for the applicant agency or 
organization and to assume for the organization the obligations imposed 
by the terms and conditions of the grant award. Applications sent by 
FAX will not be accepted.
    Applicants must be familiar with the entire statute, which is 
included in the application kit, to ensure that they have complied with 
all applicable requirements.
    It should be noted that grantees may not teach or promote religion 
in their AFL project. Each grant project must be accessible to the 
public generally, not just to those of a particular religious 
affiliation.
    Under section 2011(a) of the Act, AFL projects may not provide 
abortions or abortion counseling or referral either directly or through 
subcontract and may not advocate, promote or encourage abortion. 
However, if both the adolescent and her parents request abortion 
counseling, a project may provide referral for such counseling.

Additional Requirements

    Applicants for grants must also meet the following requirements:
    (1) Requirements for Review of an Application by the Governor. 
Section 2006(e) of Title XX requires that each applicant shall provide 
the Governor of the State in which the applicant is located a copy of 
each application submitted to OAPP for a grant for a demonstration 
project for services under this Title. The Governor has 60 days from 
the receipt date in which to provide comments to the applicant.
    An applicant may comply with this requirement by submitting a copy 
of the application to the Governor of the State in which the applicant 
is located at the same time the application is submitted to OAPP. To 
inform the Governor's office of the reason for the submission, a copy 
of this notice should be attached to the application.
    (2) Review Under Executive Order 12372. Applications under this 
announcement are subject to the review requirements of E.O. 12372 State 
Review of Applications for Federal Financial Assistance, as implemented 
by 45 CFR part 100 (Intergovernmental Review of Federal Programs). E.O. 
12372 sets up a system for state and local government review of 
proposed Federal assistance applications. As soon as possible the 
applicant (other than federally-recognized Indian tribal governments) 
should contact the Governor's Office in each state in the area to be 
served for information regarding the particular review process designed 
by the state. For proposed projects serving more than one State, the 
applicant is advised to contact the Governor's Office of each affected 
State. The State comment(s) should be forwarded to the Grants 
Management Office, Office of Population Affairs, East-West Towers, 
Suite 200, West Building, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20857. Such 
comments must be received by the Office of Population Affairs by May 
22, 1995 to be considered.
    The application kit contains information to guide applicants in 
fulfilling the above requirements.

Application Consideration and Assessment

    Applications which are judged to be late or which do not conform to 
the requirements of this program announcement will not be accepted for 
review. Applicants will be so notified, and the applications will be 
returned. All other applications will be reviewed by a 
multidisciplinary panel of independent reviewers and assessed according 
to the following criteria:
    (1) The capacity of the proposed applicant organization to provide 
rapid and effective use of resources needed to conduct the project, 
collect data and evaluate it. This includes personnel, time and 
facilities. (30 points)
    (2) The applicant's rationale for use of the proposed approach and 
its worth for testing and/or replication based upon its previous 
demonstration, review of the literature and/or evaluation findings. (20 
points)
    (3) The applicant's presentation of an appropriate project design, 
consistent with the requirements of Title XX, including a clear 
statement of goals and objectives, reasonable methods for achieving the 
objectives, a reasonable workplan and timetable and a clear statement 
of results or benefits expected. (30 points)
    (4) The applicant's presentation of a detailed evaluation plan, 
indicating an understanding of program evaluation methods and 
reflecting a practical, technically sound approach to assessing the 
project's achievement of program objectives. (20 points)
    Final grant award decisions will be made by the Deputy Assistant 
Secretary for Populations Affairs. In making these decisions, the 
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs will take into 
account the extent to which grants approved for funding will provide an 
appropriate geographic distribution of resources, the priorities in 
sec. 2005(a), and the other factors in sec. 2005, including 
consideration of:
    (1) The applicant's capacity to administer funds responsibly;
    (2) The incidence of adolescent pregnancy and the availability of 
services in the geographic area to be served;
    (3) The population to be served;
    (4) The community commitment to and involvement in planning and 
implementation of the demonstration project;
    (5) The organizational model(s) for delivery of service;
    (6) The usefulness for policymakers and service providers of the 
proposed project and its potential for complementing existing 
adolescent health models;
    (7) The reasonableness of the estimated cost to the government 
considering the anticipated results.
    OAPP does not release information about individual applications 
during the review process until final funding decisions have been made. 
When these decisions have been made, applicants will be notified by 
letter of the outcome of their applications. The official document 
notifying an applicant that an application has been approved for 
funding is the Notice of Grant Award, which specifies to the grantees 
the amount of money awarded, the purpose of the grant, the terms and 
conditions of the grant award, and the amount of funding to be 
contributed by the grantee to project costs.

    Dated: November 1, 1994.
Felicia H. Stewart,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs.
[FR Doc. 94-31454 Filed 12-21-94; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4160-17-M