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The purpose of this FOA would be to establish, by awarding one cooperative agreement, a National Child Welfare Workforce Institute (NCWWI) to advance federal priorities to improve safety, permanency, and well-being by building the capacity of child welfare professionals and improving the organizations that recruit, train, supervise, manage, and retain them. The Workforce Institute will play a national leadership role in the field of child welfare in the following broad areas: (1)Demonstrating how university partnerships support workforce development; (2) Implementing organizational interventions to improve workforce recruitment and retention; (3) Providing leadership training across the child welfare career spectrum; (4) Developing cross system approaches to improve worker and child outcomes; and (5) Building evidence of best practices in workforce development. A broad range of activities will be undertaken by the Workforce Institute to promote effective child welfare practice, enhance agency efforts to create supportive work environments, and improve worker recruitment and retention outcomes by: Implementing an innovative, comprehensive and integrated organizational, educational, and professional development approach to effective child welfare workforce development building on the last two iterations of NCWWI work; Implementing effective workforce organizational interventions that result in improved agency climate, worker preparation, recruitment, and retention outcomes for agencies; such as reduction in emotional stress and worker burnout, increased length of stay for workers, changes in worker attitude and satisfaction, increased recruitment, etc.; Demonstrating expertise in collecting and disseminating information about effective and promising workforce practices in innovative ways;

When children are placed in out-of-home care (also called foster care), it is important that child welfare agencies find safe, permanent homes for them as quickly as possible. In many circumstances, children can be reunited with their families, but in some cases, children find homes with relatives or adoptive families. Child and Family Services Reviews (CFSRs) have consistently found that many child welfare systems need to improve their adoption work, as evidenced by their difficulty in achieving substantial conformity on permanency outcomes. These shortcomings include failure to make concerted efforts towards timely permanency for adoption and preserving family connections; inadequate engagement of parents, children and youth in case planning; limited and ineffective service provision; insufficient frequency and duration of child visitations/parenting time; punitive uses of visitation/parenting time; delays in establishing the goal of adoption; a lack of meaningful concurrent planning; and lengthy appeal processes for contested termination of parental rights. These permanency outcomes relate to basic social work, legal, and judicial practices that impact adoption outcomes and also have effects on the safety and well-being of children in care. The purpose of this funding opportunity is to award up to five 5-year cooperative agreements for the development, implementation, and evaluation of strategies that focus on better adoption outcomes by improving basic social work, legal, and judicial practice in order to eliminate systemic barriers to: adoption; preventing entry into foster care; and other forms of permanency. Due to the intersection of permanency, safety, and well-being, an effective system reform effort focused on improving adoption outcomes by improving concurrent planning and reducing time to permanency will also require attention to safety and well-being outcomes.

Applicants may propose multiple studies. Funding through this cooperative agreement must only be used to fund impact evaluation design, implementation, analysis, and dissemination and must not be used to fund projects or interventions. Proposed impact evaluations must: 1) provide evidence that will be relevant to informing the design and effectiveness of a project or government policy that has direct or indirect effects on child labor or forced labor; 2) utilize partnerships between researchers, contractors, and/or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and local organizations in the country where the proposed impact evaluation will take place; 3) ensure that impact evaluation results will be available within the time-period of the cooperative agreement; 4) build the evidence base on child labor or forced labor in OCFT's intervention areas and/or outcomes of interest; 5) test interventions or combinations of interventions; 6) examine interventions that are relevant and promising; 7) ensure that study designs, surveys, and analysis conform to international and national definitions and standards on child labor and forced labor; and 8) use RCT designs.

Purpose of Small Grants: Public Affairs Section Dakar invites proposals for programs that advance strategic objectives and strengthen the ties between the United States and Senegal or between the United States and Guinea-Bissau. All programs must include an U.S. element, or a connection with U.S. expert/s, organization/s, or institution/s in a specific field that will promote increased understanding of U.S. policy and perspectives. This can also include the involvement of Senegalese or Bissau-Guinean alumni of U.S. government exchange programs. Priority Program Areas: Suggested project topics include: - Promoting democratic values and good governance - Countering violent extremism - Countering trafficking in persons/forced child begging - Increasing opportunities for youth - Promoting women's empowerment

The DePaul University Humanities Center (DHC) is inviting applications for Visiting Fellows for 2020-2021. All applicants must have a Ph.D. or equivalent, and research projects must be in the humanities. International applications will be considered. Fellowships may run for nine months (from September 2020 to June 2021) or six months (from January 2021 to June 2021). During their tenure, Visiting Fellows are required to make an intellectual contribution to the DePaul community and participate in the programming and activities of the DHC and the university. We are especially interested in applications that involve a project around the theme of "Age," broadly construed. All applications regardless of topic will be considered, but preference will be given to applicants who draw connections between their proposed project and the 2020-21 DHC theme, "Age." NB: The DHC will be hosting events that touch on such topics as the analog age and the era of cassette tapes; child liberation; birth & infancy; the juvenile justice system; the gendering of age; childhood, games, and gaming; and sexuality and privacy in the golden years. Ultimately, we are interested in interdisciplinary, creative, innovative projects that take up the theme of "Age."

Purpose of Program: The Institute's purpose in awarding these grants is to provide national leadership in expanding fundamental knowledge and understanding of (1) developmental and school readiness outcomes for infants and toddlers with or at risk for a disability, and (2) education outcomes for all students from early childhood education through postsecondary and adult education. The Institute's research grant programs are designed to provide interested individuals and the general public with reliable and valid information about education practices that support learning and improve academic achievement and access to education opportunities for all students. These interested individuals include parents, educators, students, researchers, and policymakers. In carrying out its grant programs, the Institute provides support for programs of research in areas of demonstrated national need. Competitions in This Notice: The Institute will conduct 10 research competitions in FY 2018 through two of its centers: The Institute's National Center for Education Research (NCER) will hold five competitions: One competition for education research; one competition for education research and development centers; one competition for partnerships and collaborations focused on problems of practice or policy; and two competitions for low-cost, short-duration evaluation of education interventions. The Institute's National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER) will hold five competitions: One competition for special education research; one competition for research training programs in special education; two competitions for low-cost, short-duration evaluation of special education interventions; and one competition for research networks focused on critical problems of policy and practice in special education.