1. Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program Part F – Special Projects of National Significance Pre-Review Call HRSA Improving HIV Health Outcomes through the Coordination of Supportive Employment and Housing Services – Demonstration Sites August 4, 2017
Template for RWHAP discretionary grant programs. Information conveyed must be consistent with the NOFO. No new information (not contained in the NOFO) may be presented.
Chau Nguyen, MPH
Public Health Analyst
Special Projects of National Significance Program (SPNS)
HIV/AIDS Bureau (HAB)
Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)

2. Funding and Collaboration
Developed in partnership with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of HIV/AIDS Housing (OHH)
Supported through funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Secretary’s Minority AIDS Initiative Fund (SMAIF) and the Special Projects of National Significance (SPNS) Program
Please refer to pages i and 1-2 of the NOFO

3. Purpose – Demonstration Sites
To support the design, implementation, and evaluation of innovative interventions that coordinate HIV care and treatment, housing and employment services to improve HIV health outcomes for low-income, uninsured, and underinsured people living with HIV (PLWH) in racial and ethnic minority communities
To decrease the impact of the social determinants of health, such as unmet housing or employment needs, that affect long-term HIV health outcomes for PLWH impacted by employment and housing instability
Please refer to pages 1 to 2 of the NOFO
The Improving HIV Health Outcomes through the Coordination of Supportive Employment and Housing Services—Demonstration Sites award will support project components that either create a new or augment an existing coordinated services intervention that integrates HIV care, housing, and employment services. For the purposes of this initiative, a coordinated services intervention is broadly defined to include the joint management and delivery of RWHAP HIV care services, housing support, and employment services (i.e., DOL-funded services or other employment-related resources). The overall goal of this coordinated services intervention is to decrease the impact of the social determinants of health (such as unmet housing or employment needs) that affect long-term HIV health outcomes for PLWH impacted by employment and housing instability in racial and ethnic minority communities.

4. Please refer to pages 1 to 2 of the NOFO
Key Definitions
HIV care services are defined as all of the HIV care and treatment services allowable through the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program (RWHAP). For more information regarding RWHAP eligible services see PCN #16-02 Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program Services: Eligible Individuals & Allowable Uses of Funds
Employment Services are defined as all services designed to connect individuals to employment or to improve a person’s income through employment.
Housing Services are defined as the full range of rental and mortgage support services offered through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), including the Housing Opportunity for Persons with AIDS Program (HOPWA), to stabilize individuals and families experiencing unstable housing or homelessness. For more information on the HOPWA program go to:
Please refer to pages 1 to 2 of the NOFO
HIV care services are defined as all of the HIV care and treatment services allowable through the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program (RWHAP). For more information regarding RWHAP eligible services see PCN #16-02 Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program Services: Eligible Individuals & Allowable Uses of Funds
Employment Services are defined as all services designed to connect individuals to employment or to improve a person’s income through employment. Such services may include but are not limited to resume building, job search assistance, and resource rooms with internet and resume writing tools, job training or education programs, accessibility and special accommodation services for people with disabilities, etc. Applicants may reference Section VIII of this notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) entitled Other Information for a list of resources and programs offered through the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL).
Housing Services are defined as the full range of rental and mortgage support services offered through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), including the Housing Opportunity for Persons with AIDS Program (HOPWA), to stabilize individuals and families experiencing unstable housing or homelessness. For more information on the HOPWA program, applicants may visit the HUD website at In addition, please see the August 18, 2016 program letter, Using Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program Funds to Support Housing Services.
For more information on the HOPWA program go to:
HRSA HAB Program Letter Using Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program Funds to Support Housing Services. See: (August 18, 2016)

5. Please refer to page 9 of the NOFO
Award Information
Funding will be provided through a grant
Approximately $3,000,000 is available to fund up to 10 applicants
Applicants may request funding amounts of up to $300,000 for each year of the 3-year project period (September 30, – September 29, 2020).
Requests exceeding this amount will be deemed nonresponsive and will not be considered.
Funding beyond first year is dependent on the availability of appropriated funds
Please refer to page 9 of the NOFO

6. Allowable Uses of Award Funds
Funds may be used to support RWHAP core medical and support services that augment existing resources as well as the infrastructure supports needed to engage PLWH in housing and employment services
PCN #16-02 Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program Services: Eligible Individuals & Allowable Uses of Funds
Funds may not be used to directly support:
Permanent Housing
Employment Services
Please refer to pages 2 to 3 of the NOFO
Hiring dedicated staff or re-organizing staff to coordinate housing, health care, and employment services for clients (e.g., care coordinators, coordinated case management, enhanced peer navigation services, etc.);
Increasing the efficiency of referral process and collaboration between HIV care, housing service and employment providers through data sharing, co-located services, and/or cross-training;
Streamlining intake and assessment forms across programs to increase efficiencies to better identify unmet needs and coordinate services for clients seeking housing, employment and HIV care services;
Dedicating staff for mobile support teams to assess and coordinate HIV care, employment and housing needs of PLWH experiencing homelessness and who are at risk for poor health, employment and housing outcomes;
Expanding IT capacity to support the coordination of HIV care, employment and housing services;
Augmenting existing coordinated HIV care, employment and housing systems to include support services;
Developing a jurisdictional approach by assigning a staff person at the Department of Health responsibilities for coordinating and developing referral processes for the RWHAP program and leveraging employment and HOPWA housing services;
Engaging HOPWA-funded transitional housing supports for RWHAP clients who are involved in education or employment opportunities; and,
Working across programs to find clients who are no longer engaged in care due to housing and employment insecurity, and utilizing existing systems to re-engage the client in care while promoting long-term retention through housing support and employment services.

7. Please refer to page 2 and pages 31 to 33 of the NOFO
Program Expectation - Employment Curriculum & Resources for Collaboration
This project builds upon HUD and DOL’s Getting to Work Initiative utilizing the agencies knowledge and experience
Key personnel including the Principal Investigator, Project Director, Evaluator, and project intervention staff must complete the Getting to Work: A Training Curriculum for HIV/AIDS Service Providers and Housing Providers
Applicants should use the information contained in the curriculum to design their interventions
Section VIII of the NOFO provides Additional Resources including those for housing and employment services
Please refer to page 2 and pages 31 to 33 of the NOFO
Employment Curriculum
In order to provide adequate technical assistance as subject matter experts to the demonstration sites, the ETAP recipient’s key personnel must obtain a certificate of completion for each of the three modules in HUD and DOL’s employment training curriculum entitled Getting to Work: A Training Curriculum for HIV/AIDS Service Providers and Housing Providers.
Key ETAP personnel include the Principal Investigator, Project Director, and Evaluator. In addition, the ETAP should be responsible for collecting demonstration sites’ staff certificates of completion for this curriculum. The information provided within the curriculum shall be used to inform the design of the demonstration sites’ interventions.
ETAP applicants must possess a thorough understanding of both the needs of PLWH in racial and ethnic minority communities experiencing unstable housing and employment barriers such as stigma, lack of access to housing and health care, limited employment or training/skills development opportunities, and other economic vulnerabilities that impact health outcomes for PLWH. Additionally, ETAP applicants should demonstrate an in-depth understanding of coordinated models of care that impact health disparities, as it relates to health, housing and employment outcomes for PLWH.

8. Program Expectations - Demonstration Sites
Applicants must demonstrate the ability to:
Serve racial and ethnic minority communities
Design and implement coordinated intervention
Participate in on-site and remote learning opportunities
Collect and submit evaluation data
Document implementation processes
Develop a sustainability plan
Participate in dissemination of materials to promote replication
Post-award, recipients must obtain and submit Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval on all evaluation activities, for implementation of data collection processes within the first six (6) months of the award
Please refer to pages 3, 4, 6, 13, 14 and 16 of the NOFO
You must demonstrate the ability to:
• Serve racial and ethnic minority PLWH at high risk for poor HIV health outcomes;
• Implement, within 6 months of the award, an innovative intervention that integrates HIV care, housing and employment services offered through HRSA’s RWHAP, HUD’s HOPWA Program, and DOL or other federal, state, or local employment service for PLWH;
• Participate in on-site and remote learning opportunities conducted by the evaluation and technical assistance provider (ETAP) (to be funded through a separate NOFO, HRSA );
• Work with the ETAP to develop and implement a multi-site evaluation plan;
• Collect and submit data to the ETAP to measure the impact of the coordinated intervention on the HIV care, housing and employment status of PLWH;
• Document implementation processes including action steps taken, lessons learned, successes and barriers encountered;
• Work with the ETAP to develop a sustainability and program integration plan that ensures the continuation of funded service strategies beyond the three-year project period; and,
• Participate in the development and dissemination of materials to promote the replication of successful interventions across the United States.
Re: IRB -- Explain that IRB documentation is not needed in the application, but will be required during the first 6 months of the initiative. 

9. Applicant Coordination of Service Partnerships
The project period from start to finish is 3-years; thus, successful applicants must be able to implement the integrated program intervention quickly!
This includes implementation, within 6 months of the award, of an innovative intervention that integrates HIV care, housing and employment services offered through HRSA’s RWHAP, HUD’s HOPWA Program, and DOL or other federal, state, or local employment service for PLWH
Therefore, applicants must demonstrate appropriate partnerships between RWHAP HIV care services and HOPWA/housing support services through either:
Dual HOPWA and RWHAP funding
Written agreements between RHWAP and HOPWA service providers
Partnerships must demonstrate:
Access to RWHAP and HOPWA Services;
Enrollment of clients and collection of required client-level data; and
Data reporting to the ETAP
Please refer to page 3 to 4 of the NOFO
The project period for this award is three years; therefore, successful applicants must be able to implement the integrated program intervention quickly.

10. Program Expectation - Working with the ETAP
A primary duty of the demonstration site will be to work with the ETAP recipient throughout the project period.
ETAP funded under companion NOFO HRSA : Improving HIV Health Outcomes through the Coordination of Supportive Employment and Housing Services – Evaluation and Technical Assistance Provider
ETAP responsibilities include:
Design and lead the implementation of the multi-site evaluation
Provision of technical assistance (TA) to the Demonstration Sites and RWHAP recipients and subrecipients
Lead dissemination of project findings and lessons learned
Please refer to page 4 to 6 of the NOFO
and HRSA NOFO to learn on the requirements for the ETAP
Because award recipients under both NOFOs (HRSA and HRSA ) will need to work together closely to be successful, HAB encourages you to read the companion announcement and be familiar with all program expectations within both NOFOs.

11. Application Review Information
Review Criteria are used to review and rank applications. For this opportunity, there are 6 review criteria:
Criteria
Points
Criterion 1: Need 15
Criterion 2: Response 30
Criterion 3: Evaluative Measures 20
Criterion 4: Impact 10
Criterion 5: Resources/Capabilities
Criterion 6: Support Requested
Total Points
100
Adjust points per Section V of the NOFO. Note the importance of crafting the application with these criteria in mind.
Please refer to pages # to # of the NOFO

12. Application Review Crosswalk
Review Criteria correspond to the applicant’s written response to the Project Narrative and required attachments:
Project Narrative Section
Review Criteria
Project Abstract
(1) Need
Introduction
Needs Assessment
Methodology
(2) Response; (3) Evaluative Measures; and (4) Impact
Work Plan
(2) Response; and (4) Impact
Resolution of Challenges
(2) Response
Adjust points per Section V of the NOFO. Note the importance of crafting the application with these criteria in mind.
Please refer to pages 17 to 18 of the NOFO

13. Application Review Crosswalk - Continued
Review Criteria correspond to the applicant’s written response to the Project Narrative and required attachments:
Project Narrative Section
Review Criteria
Evaluation and Technical Support Capacity
(3) Evaluative Measures
Organizational Information
(5) Resources/Capabilities
Staffing Plan
Project Organizational Chart
Budget and Budget Narrative
(6) Support Requested
Adjust points per Section V of the NOFO. Note the importance of crafting the application with these criteria in mind.
Please refer to pages 17 to 18 of the NOFO

14. HRSA Contacts
Program Contact Grants Contact Adan Cajina Beverly Smith SPNS Branch Chief Grants Management Specialist HRSA HIV/AIDS Bureau HRSA Office of Federal Assistance Management (301) (301)
If you have any programmatic questions related to the application, please contact the Program Contact. Please note that we cannot provide assistance for grants.gov-specific questions.
If you have any grants administration related questions, please contact the Grants Contact.

15. Q&A - Your Questions are Welcome!
We will now begin the question and answer period
We will alternate between questions from the Q&A chat pod and any operator assisted questions from the phone.
Thank you and we will be posting the slides and the transcript of Q&A on the HAB TARGET Center in five to seven business days.
HAB TARGET Website 18