Best Practices to Strengthen Family Support in Child Maltreatment Reporting and Prevention
HHS-ACF-CB
Status:
Forecasted
August 3, 2023
Posted:
Deadline:
April 30, 2024
Funding
2500000
Program:
2000000
Award Floor:
Ceiling:
2500000
Match Required?
No
Eligibility
All
States:
Entity Types:
State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public & State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations, Nonprofits (with 501(c)(3) status), Nonprofits (without 501(c)(3) status)
This Notice of Funding Opportunity will support the development and national dissemination of best practices to strengthen the capacity of child abuse hotlines to distinguish between poverty and willful neglect. More than 60 percent of maltreatment determinations are for neglect without abuse (Childrens Bureau, 2021). Further, poverty, implicit bias, and systemic inequalities continue to fuel disproportionate child abuse reporting and child welfare system involvement among families of color and other marginalized communities across the country. As a result, there has been a growing national awareness and interest in encouraging mandated reporters to become mandated supporters, whereby equal importance is placed on supporting families who would benefit from economic and concrete supports to avoid unnecessary contact with the child welfare system. This funding will support building a national messaging campaign on how individuals can become a source of support to families in their community by acknowledging the impact of racial inequities and seeking solutions that can help mitigate child safety concerns before they rise to the level of crisis. Funding will also focus on the development of best practices for training and equipping child abuse hotline staff to navigate complex and wide-reaching needs such as understanding the distinction between poverty and willful neglect, implicit bias, addressing social and behavioral health needs, how and when to report child abuse, and providing warm hand-offs to local resources whenever possible. Recipients must have plans for continuous quality improvement, evaluation of the effectiveness of proposed strategies in a hotline environment, and dissemination of findings widely to relevant audiences.Recipients must have the capacity to coordinate with other Administration for Children and Families (ACF)-funded entities including the National Resource Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention (CBCAP), Child Welfare Information Gateway, and other hotlines administered by ACF.