Field-Initiated Approach to Addressing Racial Bias and Inequity in Child Welfare

Overview

The purpose of this NOFO is to fund innovative, community-supported approaches to addressing racial bias and inequity in child welfare systems. Projects will use supporting data to identify and define the problem that needs to be addressed in their community. Projects will work in sync with families with lived experience to co-design and develop solutions to racial bias, disproportionality, and disparities experienced by historically underserved families in their community at a selected point(s) on the child welfare continuum. 

Projects will focus efforts on historically underserved and overrepresented communities and actively work to reduce structural barriers to accessing services wherever possible. Field-Initiated Projects will focus on meeting the following project goals: 

1. Integrate the expertise of community members and establish meaningful roles for families and youth with lived expertise to develop or build upon innovative and effective strategies, activities, and solutions to address disproportionality, racial bias, and inequity in the child welfare system. 
2. Explore and confirm the root cause and local drivers of racial bias and inequity in child welfare and its impact on families in specific communities.
3. Identify a point (or points) along the child welfare system continuum to focus innovative strategies or approaches to addressing disproportionality, racial bias, and inequity. 
4. Develop opportunities to build equity and enhance the capacity of the child welfare system to reduce rates of racial disparities, including in investigation and surveillance. 
5. Reduce racial disparities in family exposure to the existing child welfare system by identifying alternative resources, closing gaps in services and access, and developing community-based approaches to support safety and well-being. 
6. Evaluate strategies and activities implemented using relevant research approaches, including methods to ensure the people who are the focus of the research are engaged in the process. 
7. Enhance collaboration with those partners that are most appropriate for the project to address barriers for families most impacted by racial disparities in the child welfare system.
8. Improve relationships between communities and the child welfare system by changing child welfare norms and values, building trust and confidence, addressing bias in decision making, and improving actual and perceptions of fairness across the system.

Under this Field-Initiated Approach Project, there is an option to receive up to 10 bonus points. Bonus points and priority consideration will be awarded to applicants that:

1. Demonstrate their capabilities and competencies for implementing their proposed project(s) are enhanced because the applicant (or at least one proposed subrecipient) identifies as a culturally specific organization. 
2. Describe how being a culturally specific organization (or funding a culturally specific subrecipient organization(s)) will enhance their ability to implement the proposed project(s). Applicants also specify which culturally specific populations are expected to be served under the proposed project(s).

Expected Number of Awards: 8 Award
Anticipated Project Start Date: 09/29/2023
Length of Project Periods: 60-month project period with five 12-month budget periods