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The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is soliciting applications for the establishment of a Marriage Strengthening Research & Dissemination (MAST R & D) Center. The grantee will oversee a 60-month plan that aims to form a nexus between basic research on marriage and families in the United States and programmatic approaches to supporting healthy marriages and families, especially approaches fundable by the federal Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education (HMRE) program. The Center will contribute to the research base relevant to marriage/relationships (including current and future relationships among youth) and HMRE programs/practices; build and support capacity for demographic trends and practice-focused research; and translate and disseminate emerging research. The Center will be expected to have a primary focus on economically disadvantaged families and other under-studied population groups. The Center also will be expected to actively engage a range of stakeholders, including investigators, practitioners, program officials and policymakers, throughout the course of the project.

The National Institute on Aging invites researchers to submit innovative R01 research grant applications on aging and the family.  The objective of this research program is to expand understanding of the role of families and interpersonal relationships in the health and wellbeing of older people. This will be accomplished through increasing scientific knowledge on the effects of family and interpersonal relationships on behavioral and social processes of relevance to aging; and on how these processes change over the life course and across cohorts. A broad range of methods and approaches are encouraged. 

The Office of Planning Research and Evaluation (OPRE) within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) plans to award up to ten cooperative agreements to fund research to conduct secondary data analysis of archived data, specifically the Building Strong Families (BSF), Supporting Healthy Marriage (SHM), and Parents and Children Together (PACT) datasets. These datasets are from large-scale federal evaluation impact studies, which addressed questions related to healthy marriage and/or responsible fatherhood. Successful applicants will demonstrate a familiarity with the proposed data for their analysis and an adequate understanding of the variables, sampling, methodology, etc. used to construct the dataset necessary for completion of the work proposed in the application. Proposed research should address topics relevant to strengthening families to improve the lives of children and parents, as well as promote economic stability. Topics of interest include, but may not be limited to the following: mediators of healthy marriage, relationship education, and/or fatherhood programs; measurement issues related to healthy marriage, relationship education and/or fatherhood programs with low-income families; or father involvement in low-income families. .

The Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) plans to award up to ten cooperative agreements to fund research to conduct secondary data analysis of archived data, specifically the Building Strong Families (BSF), Supporting Healthy Marriage (SHM), and Parents and Children Together (PACT) datasets. These datasets are from large-scale federal evaluation impact studies, which addressed questions related to healthy marriage and/or responsible fatherhood. Successful applicants will demonstrate a familiarity with the proposed data for their analysis and an adequate understanding of the variables, sampling, methodology, etc. used to construct the dataset necessary for completion of the work proposed in the application. Proposed research should address topics relevant to strengthening families to improve the lives of children and parents, as well as promote economic stability. Topics of interest include, but may not be limited to the following: mediators of healthy marriage, relationship education, and/or fatherhood programs; measurement issues related to healthy marriage, relationship education, and/or fatherhood programs with low-income families; or father involvement in low-income families. .

Examples of research topics of interest to MCHB include but are not limited to the following: Health care access and continuity of care, including transition into adulthood (e.g., employment and health care); Family engagement and family partnerships; Family well-being, coping, resilience, and social networks; Variations in access to services affecting family functioning in diverse populations; Service systems and infrastructure including: characterizing the current ASD diagnostic and service utilization patterns in community settings, examining the relationship between diagnosis and services availability for ASD, and evaluating services and intervention outcomes; Increasing identification of ASD including Aspergers in diverse populations, including ethnic minorities and girls; Safety issues including wandering from residential and educational settings.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) anticipates soliciting applications for Behavioral Interventions Scholars grants to support dissertation research by advanced graduate students who are using behavioral science approaches to examine specific research questions of relevance to social service programs and policies. These grants are meant to build capacity in the research field to apply a behavioral lens to issues facing poor and vulnerable families in the United States, and to foster mentoring relationships between faculty members and high-quality doctoral students.Applicants will be required to demonstrate the applicability of their research to practice or policy serving low-income children, adults, and families, especially those that seek to improve their well-being

The purpose of this funding opportunity announcement (FOA) is to award one cooperative agreement to develop a state-of-the-art foster/adoptive parent training program to include intensive preparation and development components that reflect the capacities required of successful foster/adoptive parents. This is intended to be a product that could be utilized by all states, tribes, and territories and consistently applied wherever implemented. Development of this program would include research on the common characteristics of individuals and their foster/adoptive families that have succeeded in terms of well-being and stability. Common characteristics of families that are more likely to foster and/or adopt harder to place children/youth and are successful and remain committed to the relationship will be identified and integrated into the program. The program would be inclusive of development, training, and capacity needs of individuals/families that are interested in becoming foster parents, as well as those who are interested in fostering with the intention to eventually adopt; therefore many concepts would be in common for foster and adoptive parents. There would be particular focus for foster parents on working on reunification efforts with birth parents and for adoption there would be particular focus on the common adoption issues pertinent to all types of adoption, i.e., child welfare, private domestic, and international. The initial year would entail an extensive review of all current training and preparation programs and include new intervention strategies that foster/adoptive parents should be skilled in as they develop as foster and adoptive parents. The initial year would also involve the basic development of the new intensive training modules.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), will solicit applications for Family Strengthening Research Scholars grants to support dissertation research on healthy marriage/responsible fatherhood policy issues. These grants are meant to build capacity in the research field to focus research on questions that have direct implications for healthy marriage/responsible fatherhood policy decision-making and program administration, and to foster mentoring relationships between faculty members and high-quality doctoral students. These grants are intended to address issues of significance to inform policy decisions and solutions, particularly for underserved/understudied populations (e.g., low-income families, minority populations), utilize rigorous research methodology (both primary data collection and secondary data analysis), and help inform the development of future intervention research.

Disability Grant Program funds will be used to establish and strengthen multidisciplinary collaborative relationships; increase organizational capacity to provide accessible, safe, and effective services to individuals with disabilities and Deaf individuals who are victims of violence and abuse; and identify needs within the grantee's organization and/or service area, and develop a plan to address those identified needs that builds a strong foundation for future work.

The purpose of this funding opportunity is to fund cooperative agreements that support the development, implementation, and evaluation of strategies that prevent child maltreatment, reduce entry into the public child welfare system, and enhance the overall well-being outcomes of children and families. Funding will be used to improve the safety and stability of all families and reinforce supportive, nurturing relationships by: enhancing the capacity of communities to offer broad-based family supports; using data to inform and align strategies across sectors to address site specific barriers; supporting strategic collaborations with traditional family serving agencies and non-traditional partners; and coordinating, monitoring, and reporting on strategies and outcomes across multi-sector partners. The project period is for 5 years.

The Administration for Children and Families, Children’s Bureau announces the availability of one grant to: (1) implement a multi-system approach among public and private agencies integrating community and faith-based to promote effective partnerships; (2) develop or enhance a navigator program to meet caregivers own needs and the needs of the children they are raising; (3) utilize intensive family-finding activities, including search technology, effective family engagement, collaboration with child support, and other means to identify biological family members for the target population to create a greater volume of relationships and connectedness within their families and establish permanent family placements when appropriate; and (4) implement family group decision-making (FGDM) meetings for children in the child welfare system. The project funded under this announcement will be implemented through strong collaboration between the grantee and the public child welfare agency. The successful applicant will facilitate cross collaboration and data sharing among relevant agencies, including the courts, child welfare, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), aging and family caregiver support programs, child support, fatherhood programs, education, domestic violence, mental health and substance abuse in order to better identify, assess, and service kinship caregivers and at-risk families within the child welfare system.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), will solicit applications for Family Strengthening Research Scholars grants to support dissertation research on healthy marriage/responsible fatherhood policy issues. These grants are meant to build capacity in the research field to focus on questions that have direct implications for healthy marriage/responsible fatherhood policy decision-making and program administration, and to foster mentoring relationships between faculty members and high-quality doctoral students. These grants are intended to address issues of significance to inform policy decisions and solutions, particularly for underserved/understudied populations (e.g., low-income families, minority populations), utilize rigorous research methodology (including primary data collection and/or secondary data analysis), and help inform the development of future intervention research. For further information about OPRE, see http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/. For information about previous Family Strengthening grantees, see https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/research/project/family-strengthening-scholars.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has issued a Request for Proposals for its Evidence for Action: Making Health a Shared Value program. The purpose of the program is to improve the foundation's understanding of the Action Area 1 drivers and outcomes related to health, well-being, and equity, particularly with respect to disadvantaged children and families. To that end, the foundation seeks evidence on the extent to which Action Area 1 drivers - mindsets and expectations, sense of community, and civic engagement - can be changed through intervention at the individual or population levels, resulting in better health, well-being, and equity outcomes. An ideal study to provide such evidence would experimentally manipulate a driver, measure changes in that driver, and then measure resulting health impacts. However, RWJF recognizes that a variety of constraints could preclude such a design within the parameters of this funding opportunity. Consequently, the foundation has established two key aims for funding through the program. 1) Aim 1: To test the effects of specific interventions on the Action Area 1 drivers, in order to determine the extent to which they can be changed; and 2) Aim 2: To establish evidence of causal relationships between Action Area 1 drivers and health outcomes.

The Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) plans to solicit applications for Early Care and Education Research Scholars: Head Start Dissertation Grants. Funds aim to support dissertation research by advanced graduate students who are working in partnership with Head Start programs and with faculty mentors. These grants focus on building capacity in the research field by addressing questions relevant to early childhood programs that serve low-income children and families, as well as on fostering mentoring relationships between faculty members and doctoral students. OPRE is looking for research that addresses questions that directly inform local, state, or federal policies and should be relevant to multiple early care and education settings. Applicants should consider pursuing data collection across contexts, including child care, pre-k, home-visiting programs, Head Start, Early Head Start, and/or others. Applicants are expected to demonstrate an established partnership with their early care and education program partners that should be apparent throughout the research plan, from development and refinement of the research questions through the proposed data collection, interpretation, and dissemination of findings.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) is soliciting applications for Behavioral Interventions Scholars grants to support dissertation research by advanced graduate students who are using behavioral science approaches to examine specific research questions of relevance to social service programs and policies. These grants are meant to build capacity in the research field to apply a behavioral lens to issues facing poor and vulnerable families in the United States, and to foster mentoring relationships between faculty members and high-quality doctoral students. Applicants are required to demonstrate the applicability of their research to practice or policy serving low-income children, adults, and families, especially those that seek to improve their well-being.

This FOA, formerly HHS-2017-ACF-OPRE-PD-1209 will now be listed under HHS-2017-ACF-OPRE-PR-1209. The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), will solicit applications for Family Strengthening Scholars grants to support dissertation research on healthy marriage policy issues. These grants are meant to build capacity in the research field to focus research on questions that have direct implications for healthy marriage policy decision-making and program administration, and to foster mentoring relationships between faculty members and high-quality doctoral students. These grants are intended to address issues of significance to inform policy decisions and solutions, particularly for underserved/understudied populations (e.g., low-income families, minority populations), utilize rigorous research methodology (both primary data collection and secondary data analysis), and help inform the development of future intervention research.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), will solicit applications for Family Strengthening Research Scholars grants to support dissertation research on healthy marriage/responsible fatherhood policy issues. These grants are meant to build capacity in the research field to focus on questions that have direct implications for healthy marriage/responsible fatherhood policy decision-making and program administration, and to foster mentoring relationships between faculty members and high-quality doctoral students. These grants are intended to address issues of significance to inform policy decisions and solutions, particularly for underserved/understudied populations (e.g., low-income families, minority populations), utilize rigorous research methodology (including primary data collection and/or secondary data analysis), and help inform the development of future intervention research. For further information about OPRE, see http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/. For information about previous Family Strengthening grantees, see https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/research/project/family-strengthening-scholars.

The Brady Education Foundation seeks to close the achievement/opportunity gap for children at risk for poor school outcomes due to environmental factors associated with poverty. To advance this mission, the foundation is accepting stage-one applications for projects related to the development and evaluation of programs that are consistent with a strength-based approach and show promise of being feasible, effective, and sustainable. 1) Program Development: One-year grants will be awarded to projects aimed at developing and testing the feasibility of new programs that promote positive cognitive and/or achievement outcomes for children (birth through 18 years) from underserved groups and/or low-resourced communities. Priority will be given to programs/projects that represent strong collaborative relationships between researchers, practitioners, and other community stakeholders (as appropriate), and where the community/population being studied is reflected by the composition of the project's leadership team; programs/projects consistent with strength-based approaches rather than deficit models; programs/projects that leverage other funding; and/or programs/projects that, in addition to showing promise of being effective, show promise of being affordable, accessible, and sustainable. Past Program Development grants have ranged between $25,000 and $276,000.

The Administration for Children and Families, Administration on Children, Youth and Families' Family and Youth Services Bureau announces the availability of funds under the Title V Competitive Sexual Risk Avoidance Education (CSRAE) Program. The purpose of the CSRAE is to fund projects to implement sexual risk avoidance education that teaches participants how to voluntarily refrain from non-marital sexual activity. The goals of CSRAE are to empower participants to make healthy decisions, and provide tools and resources to prevent pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and youth engagement in other risky behaviors. Successful applicants must agree to use medically accurate information referenced to peer-reviewed publications by educational, scientific, governmental, or health organizations; implement an evidence-based approach integrating research findings with practical implementation that aligns with the needs and desired outcomes for the intended audience; and teach the benefits associated with self-regulation, success sequencing for poverty prevention, healthy relationships, goal setting, and resisting sexual coercion, dating violence, and other youth risk behaviors such as underage drinking or illicit drug use without normalizing teen sexual activity. The SRAE legislation requires unambiguous and primary emphasis and context for each of the topics to be addressed in program implementation. Additionally, there is a requirement that messages to youth normalize the optimal health behavior of avoiding non-marital sexual activity.