Quality Improvement Center on Child Welfare Involved Children and Families Experiencing Domestic Violence

The summary for the Quality Improvement Center on Child Welfare Involved Children and Families Experiencing Domestic Violence 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 Administration for Children and Families ACYF CB, which is the U.S. government agency offering this grant.

Quality Improvement Center on Child Welfare Involved Children and Families Experiencing Domestic Violence: The purpose of this funding opportunity announcement is to award a 5-year cooperative agreement to establish one Quality Improvement Center (QIC) to develop, implement and support innovative collaborative models, policies, procedures and interventions targeted toward improving the safety, permanency and well-being for families that are: (1) pregnant and/or have young children, (2) involved in the child welfare system, and (3) experiencing domestic violence. The QIC on Child Welfare Involved Children and Families Experiencing Domestic Violence will generate and nationally disseminate knowledge regarding best practices and effective policy and practice models for collaborative practices and interventions for these children and families.
The following are the expected objectives of the QIC:
- Collect, develop and disseminate information that helps child welfare agencies, domestic violence programs, court professionals and early childhood programs to better serve the needs of families that are (1) pregnant and/or have young children, (2) involved in the child welfare system, and (3) experiencing domestic violence;
- Identify evidence-based and/or evidence-informed, promising and innovative strategies that focus on building collaborative response models, practices and system interventions - including the infrastructure necessary to support these services;
- Develop, support and implement four to six projects in state, county, and/or tribal child welfare systems to pilot identified collaborative response models and/or systems interventions to better serve the needs of these families;
- Assist selected project sites in assessing, developing and strengthening partnerships, policies and procedures with domestic violence programs to implement services that are responsive to victims of domestic violence and their children, including, being trauma-informed and programmatically responsive to the safety needs of these families throughout their engagement with child welfare;
- Rigorously evaluate, through site-specific and, if applicable a cross-site evaluation, the work of the four to six projects that will further build the knowledge in this field and allow for the transfer of knowledge and implementation of these piloted strategies in other child welfare systems; and
- Improve the safety, permanency and well-being for pregnant and/or parenting families experiencing domestic violence involved in the child welfare system.

QIC
The QIC will be awarded funds for a 1-year planning phase and, pending successful completion of that phase, a 4-year implementation phase. During the planning phase, the QIC will engage in a collaborative process to review the literature, and relevant child welfare policies and practices, develop a conceptual framework that can be used across jurisdictions, clarify the focus of the project, and refine the implementation plan for the remainder of the project. In addition, the QIC will consult with key subject matter experts and representatives from relevant research, practice and policy fields, to support the QIC in successfully completing the project goals. During the implementation phase, the QIC will support, monitor, and provide training and technical assistance to 4-6 projects. The projects will test and evaluate using innovative practices that focus on building collaborative models, policies, procedures and interventions targeted toward improving the safety, permanency and well-being for children in families that are: (1) pregnant and/or have young children, (2) involved in the child welfare system, and (3) experiencing domestic violence. The QIC will evaluate each of the projects using agile methodology (agile methodology provides the opportunity to assess the direction and relevance of a project throughout the developmental life cycle). This methodology will help to ensure customer focus and impact, further the evidence base, and disseminate knowledge in the field. The evaluations will include process, practice, cost and outcome evaluation components.

Projects Sites
The QIC will support 4-6 projects in selected child welfare agencies working in partnership with a domestic violence coalition/program to support the piloting of evidence-based and/or evidence-informed, promising, and innovative practices to improve the safety, permanency and well-being for these young children and families. The projects will also focus on building the necessary infrastructure to support these services, including the development of collaborative policies, practices and procedures. Projects will engage in rigorous evaluations in order to document effective implementation and practices, and assess cost and outcomes. If the child welfare agency or the domestic violence coalition/program is not the lead for the project site, the applicant must have written commitments from these agencies.
The project period for this cooperative agreement is 5 years with five 12-month budget periods. In years 2 through 5, CB anticipates the funding level will be up to $3.5 million per year.