Technical Support to the FTA Office of Civil Rights to Organize Stakeholder Outreach Events

The summary for the Technical Support to the FTA Office of Civil Rights to Organize Stakeholder Outreach Events grant is detailed below. This summary states who is eligible for the grant, how much grant money will be awarded, current and past deadlines, Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) numbers, and a sampling of similar government grants. Verify the accuracy of the data FederalGrants.com provides by visiting the webpage noted in the Link to Full Announcement section or by contacting the appropriate person listed as the Grant Announcement Contact. If any section is incomplete, please visit the website for the DOT Federal Transit Administration, which is the U.S. government agency offering this grant.

Technical Support to the FTA Office of Civil Rights to Organize Stakeholder Outreach Events: ACTION: Notice and Request for Proposals for Technical Support to the FTA Office of Civil Rights to Organize Stakeholder Outreach Events SUMMARY: This solicitation is for proposals for up to four cooperative agreements to organize between eight and ten workshops for recipients and subrecipients of Federal Transit Administration (FTA) funding. The workshops, which will be held in FTA regions over a fifteen month period, will inform FTA grantees, FTA regional staff, and other stakeholders of recent changes to DOT and FTA civil rights policies and help FTA grantees comply with existing and updated requirements. In addition, the workshops will be used to research promising and effective practices that recipients have adopted to comply with civil rights requirements. The total available funding for this agreement is $550,000. DATES: Proposals must be submitted electronically by December 15, 2006. Anyone intending to apply should initiate the process of registering on the http://www.grants.gov. website immediately to ensure completion of registration before the deadline for submission. ADDRESSES: Proposals must be submitted electronically to http://www.grants.gov. Grants.Gov allows organizations to electronically find and apply for competitive grant opportunities from all Federal grant-making agencies. Grants.Gov is the single access point for over 1,000 grant programs offered by the 26 Federal grant-making agencies. Anyone intending to apply should initiate the process of registering on the http://www.grants.gov. website immediately to ensure completion of registration before the deadline for submission. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. David Schneider at (202) 366-4018 or [email protected]. I. Funding Opportunity Description SUMMARY The objective of this cooperative agreement is to organize eight to ten workshops in FTA regions to educate FTA grantees, regional staff, and other stakeholders on recent changes to DOT and FTA civil rights policies. After completing a workshop participants will have a better understanding of civil rights policies and the procedures that the FTA Office of Civil Rights (TCR) uses to monitor and evaluate compliance. Participants will also be better equipped to ensure that their agency is complying with civil rights provisions and will have a better appreciation of the role of civil rights in transportation. This cooperative agreement will also allow FTA to research and disseminate promising and effective practices that FTA grantees have implemented in order to meet the agencys civil rights requirements. BACKGROUND The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) provides financial assistance to local transit agencies, State departments of transportation and metropolitan planning organizations. The FTA Office of Civil Rights (TCR) works to ensure accessible and non-discriminatory transportation, in support of FTAs mission to enhance the social and economic quality of life for all Americans. TCR is responsible for monitoring and enforcing compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the U.S. Department of Transportations Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) policies, and the Federal Transit Administrations Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) policies. The Office complements its monitoring and enforcement activities with technical assistance and stakeholder outreach. By conducting regular outreach events, TCR ensures that grantees have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to monitor and improve their programs and activities. In addition, outreach events help grantees identify and address civil rights deficiencies before they transform into complaints, lawsuits, or findings on an FTA oversight review. As Federal Civil Rights policies evolve, TCR seeks to continue its stakeholder outreach to ensure that its grantees understand and can comply with new or modified directives. The following modifications to or clarifications of civil rights policy or guidance have taken place in recent years or are anticipated to occur in the near future: 1. On February 27, 2006 the DOT issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to amend the DOT ADA Regulations at 49 CFR Parts 27, 37, and 38. The NPRM signals the departments intent to include in its ADA regulations provisions requiring transportation providers to make reasonable modifications to their policies and practices to ensure program accessibility. Also per the NPRM, DOT would modify the ADA regulations to clarify that transportation providers seeking to provide level-entry boarding from rail stations to rail vehicles should provide this service in the most integrated setting that is readily achievable. A final rule is expected to be published in 2007. 2. In addition to the changes proposed in the NPRM, the Departments Disability Law Coordinating Counsel has recently issued guidance that clarifies how the DOT ADA regulations apply to: 1) full-length, level-boarding platforms in new commuter and intercity rail stations; 2) origin to destination service; 3) paratransit requirements for Section 5311-funded fixed route service operated by private enterprises; and 4) use of "Segways" on transportation vehicles. 3. Over the past six years, TCR has completed more than 50 assessments of grantees compliance with the ADA complementary paratransit, stop and external announcement, and lift reliability and maintenance provisions of the DOT ADA regulatons. In the course of conducting these reviews, TCR has provided guidance to grantees on an ad-hoc basis on how it interprets specific provisions of the ADA regulations. 4. The FTA is revising and updating its Title VI and EEO Circulars which provide guidance on how FTA recipients and subrecipients should comply with the DOT Title VI regulations at 49 CFR Section 21 and the Federal Transit Laws. These Circulars have not been updated since 1988. FTA is revising these documents to reflect relevant laws, executive orders, court cases, and agency directives that have effected Title VI and EEO in the past 18 years, to better reflect changes in industry practices, and to assist grantees in preventing or resolving civil rights complaints and lawsuits. Final versions of the new Circulars are expected to be published in 2007. 5. On December 14, 2005, the U.S. Department of Transportation issued "Policy Guidance Concerning Recipients Responsibilities to Limited English Proficient (LEP) Persons." This document updated previous guidance, issued in January 2001, on how grantees should provide language assistance to persons who do not speak or understand English well or not at all. 6. In the 2005 Western States decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit held that the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Program administered by the Washington State Department of Transportation was not narrowly tailored because the evidence of discrimination supporting the use of race-conscious measures in the program was inadequate. This decision affects all FTA grantees in the 9th Circuit, requiring them to reevaluate their DBE Programs and their use of race-conscious goals. FTAs March 23, 2006 Federal Register Notice (FRN) provides information on the procedures that FTA will employ as a review process for DBE goal submissions to FTA from 9th Circuit grantees with regard to: race-neutral submissions, the evidence-gathering process to determine evidence of discrimination or its effects in a grantees' market, and action plans for disparity/availability studies or other appropriate evidence gathering processes. In the process of modifying its regulations or guidance documents, DOT has reached out to stakeholder groups and the public at large in order to explain its rationale for making policy changes, seek input from interested parties, and ultimately produce directives that will be accepted by all. This public involvement notwithstanding, TCR recognizes that many individuals and organizations will have questions on how to interpret and abide by the updated directives. In order to respond to this need, we intend to hold a series of workshops that will clarify our new policies and discuss effective practices for compliance. OBJECTIVES The proposed activity will: 1. Support FTAs vision of thriving communities that grow around transportation. 2. Support FTAs objective of conducting research that will identify solutions to provide public transportation for targeted populations, such as people with disabilities and older adults. 3. Support FTAs efforts to ensure recipients comply with applicable civil rights requirements. OVERVIEW OF THE WORKSHOPS Each workshop will last three days, with one day devoted to updates on Americans with Disabilities Act policies, one day devoted to updates on Title VI guidance, a half-day devoted to updates on Equal Employment Opportunity guidance, and a half-day devoted to updates on Disadvantaged Business Enterprise policies. The envisioned schedule for each workshop is as follows: 1. Monday-Selected FTA staff and cooperative agreement recipient staff arrive and prepare for the workshop. 2. Tuesday-Workshop begins. The entire day consists of presentations on ADA. 3. Wednesday-Morning session consists of presentations on DBE, afternoon session consists of presentations on EEO. 4. Thursday-The entire day consists of presentations on Title VI. Workshop adjourns. TCR will prepare a detailed agenda for each workshop. Participants will include FTA regional office planning and grants management staff (who would be selected and would attend at the discretion of the Regional Administrator), representatives from FTAs grantees in each region and, in the case of the sessions on ADA, members of the disability community. For those grantees with staff that specialize in a particular civil rights area, it is our expectation that these individuals would attend only the day(s) of the workshop that pertain to their issue area. Those staff who are responsible for all aspects of civil rights compliance may attend the entire workshop. No more than 60 participants (not including civil rights staff) shall attend each workshop. TCR will not charge attendance fees and will provide a limited number of scholarships that will cover travel and lodging expenses. Scholarships will be determined on the basis of need. Each workshop will take place in conference space offered by a hotel in the city where FTAs regional office is located. FTA will reserve a block of hotel rooms in the same hotel to facilitate participation. R TASKS Task 1: Coordinate with FTA Office of Civil Rights/Develop Work Plan and Schedule 1.A. The recipient shall develop a work plan and schedule that will identify recipient staff assignments for organizing the workshops. 1.B. Fifteen (15) days after receiving the notice to proceed from TCR, the recipient shall forward a work plan to the FTA project manager. The work plan shall include the following information: . Specific procedures for the workshop organizing that each member of the recipients team will follow; . Identification of personnel assigned to specific tasks, their backgrounds and prior qualifying experiences, and responsibilities during this project; . Explanation of the recipients quality control procedures; and . A schedule for conducting the research and analysis; Task 2: Determine dates and locations for each workshop 2.A. The recipient shall coordinate with TCR and with FTA regional offices to select the FTA regions where the workshops will be held and to select a block of dates for each workshop. 2.B. The recipient shall use the following factors to select workshop dates: . Dates where the FTA regional office is already planning an event for its grantees should be given high priority for the civil rights workshops, in order to allow grantees to make one trip for multiple purposes. . Dates where the regional administrator is available to make introductory remarks on the first day of the workshop should be given priority. . The workshops should ideally be spaced one month apart with no more than two workshops occurring in the same month. . All of the workshops should take place within the fifteen month period of performance. . Workshops should not be scheduled on weekends, weeks with a Federal holiday, or during the last two weeks of December. 2.C. The recipient shall forward to the FTA project manager for his/her review and approval a preliminary schedule of workshop dates. This preliminary schedule should be provided within fifteen (15) days following FTA acceptance of the final work plan. A final workshop schedule shall be issued within ten (10) days of receiving FTA comments on the preliminary schedule. Task 3: Reserve Facilities and Lodging for each workshop 3.A. The recipient shall reserve meeting space and a block of rooms at a hotel to coincide with the dates established for each workshop. 3.B. The recipient shall select workshop facilities and lodging according to the following criteria: . Facilities should be located in the same city as FTAs regional office and within ½ mile of a transit station. . Facilities should have available a meeting space that can seat 60 people as well as two breakout rooms that can seat 20 persons each. . Conference space, hotel rooms, and other space in the facilities should be accessible to people with disabilities. . Facilities should allow FTA to release back to the hotel any rooms in the reserved block that have not been filled. . Facilities should offer the Federal government lodging rate as well as a discounted rate for reserving a block of rooms. 3.C. For each workshop, the recipient shall reserve the following items: . A meeting space that can seat 60 people as well as two breakout rooms that can seat 20 persons each. The large group meeting space should include a head table and round tables with chairs. The breakout space should also include tables and chairs. . A block of 35 rooms for participants and FTA staff. . Audiovisual equipment, including a power point projector and screen, a television, and VHS/DVD player, a podium with microphone, and two hand-held microphones. . Six (6) flip-charts with magic markers. . A contintental breakfast buffet to be served each morning of the workshop and snacks to be served each afternoon of the workshop. 3.D. Prior to reserving space at facilities, the recipient shall provide a preliminary facilities list to the FTA Project Manager for his/her review and approval. This list shall be provided within fifteen (15) days following FTA acceptance of the final workshop schedule. Final reservation shall be made within ten (10) days of FTA approval of the preliminary facilities list. Task 4: Prepare letters inviting grantees and other stakeholder groups to the workshops. 4.A. For each workshop, the recipient shall draft a letter inviting FTA grantees in each region and members of the disability community to attend the workshops. The letter shall be signed by the Director of the Office of Civil Rights and emailed by the FTA Regional Civil Rights Officers to grantees in their region and other potential attendees. 4.B. The recipient shall draft a letter that describes the purpose of the workshop, states the time and place of the event, notes that scholarships will be available on a limited basis to cover travel and lodging, and establishes a registration deadline (which should generally be two weeks prior to the start date of the workshop). The letter shall also include a preliminary agenda, a registration form, a scholarship request form, and instructions on how to apply for the scholarships. Participants shall be instructed to return the registration form to the contractors. 4.C. The recipient shall provide these letters, with attachments, to the FTA project manager within fifteen (15) days following FTA approval of the facilities list. Task 5: Maintain records of participants and conduct follow-up activities 5.A. The recipient shall maintain files of persons who have registered for each conference and shall provide regular updates to FTA on the registrees. 5.B. The recipient shall establish a registration binder for each workshop and shall include Registration forms in the appropriate binder as they are received. 5.C. The recipient shall provide updated attendance lists for each workshop to the FTA Project Manager every 30 days between the date the letters are issued and the date of the workshop. 5.D. The recipient shall respond to participants who contact them with questions concerning the workshop agenda or who encounter problems registering at the hotel. 5.E. For persons who register for a workshop after the registration deadline, the recipient shall consult with the FTA Project Manager to determine whether their attendance is permissible. Task 6: Administer scholarships for the workshops 6.A. The recipient shall assist FTA with providing selected grantee representatives with scholarships to attend the workshops. 6.B. The recipient shall evaluate requests for scholarships submitted by the grantees and members of the disability community and make a recommendation on which entities should receive the scholarships. The evaluation and recommendation shall be made on the basis of entities responses to the scholarship request form that will be transmitted along with the invitation letter. 6.C. The recipient shall submit to the FTA program manager a list of scholarship recommendations for each workshop no later than sixty (60) days prior to the start date of each workshop. 6.D. Once FTA has approved the proposed scholarship list, the recipient shall inform the scholarship winners that they have been selected for funding and facilitate payment of their travel an