Regional Partnership Grants to Increase the Well-Being of, and to Improve the Permanency Outcomes for, Children and Families Affected By Opioids and Other Substance Abuse | HHS 2022 ACF ACYF CU 0094

Opportunity Information: Apply for HHS 2022 ACF ACYF CU 0094

The Regional Partnership Grants (RPG) opportunity (HHS 2022 ACF ACYF CU 0094) is a discretionary, competitive funding program from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Children and Youth Services/Children's Bureau. It is designed to help communities respond to the child welfare impacts of opioids and other substance use by funding regional partnerships that can coordinate services across systems. The central aim is to improve child and family well-being and to strengthen permanency outcomes, meaning helping children achieve stable, lasting family arrangements (such as reunification, guardianship, or adoption) more safely and more quickly when appropriate.

The grants focus on children who are already in out-of-home care, as well as children at risk of entering foster care, when parental or caregiver substance use is a driving factor. The expectation is that applicants will not work in isolation; instead, they must operate as a structured, interagency regional partnership that integrates programs and services spanning substance use treatment and child welfare. In practice, that means building a coordinated local approach where child welfare agencies, treatment providers, courts, and other family-serving systems can align referral pathways, share responsibilities, and reduce gaps that typically cause delays or fragmented care for families.

A major feature of the program is its emphasis on using interventions that are specific, well-defined, evidence-based, trauma-informed, and tailored to the target population. The intent is not just to deliver services, but to implement approaches that have credible support and can be replicated or strengthened through learning. This is paired with a strong evaluation requirement: grantees must choose and report performance indicators and evaluation measures, and they must conduct an evaluation rigorous enough to add to the broader evidence base about what works, for whom, at what cost, and under what implementation conditions. In addition to local evaluation activities, grantees are required to participate in a national cross-site evaluation that examines implementation and outcomes across funded sites, helping the federal government and the field compare strategies and identify effective models.

The award mechanism is a cooperative agreement, which typically means the funding agency anticipates more active involvement during the project period than in a standard grant (for example, alignment with federal evaluation activities and ongoing coordination). The total project period is 60 months, organized into five 12-month budget periods. Funding is structured in two legislatively required phases: a Planning Phase followed by an Implementation Phase. The Planning Phase can last up to two years, and spending during this phase is capped at $250,000, signaling that early work should concentrate on partnership development, readiness building, detailed implementation design, and evaluation planning before scaling full service delivery in the Implementation Phase.

Financially, the notice lists an award ceiling of $600,000, with an anticipated 18 awards. The program is listed under CFDA 93.087 and falls within the broad federal activity category of Income Security and Social Services. Eligibility is described as "Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification)," indicating that eligibility is not limited to a single standard applicant type and depends on the specific criteria in the full NOFO, but the overall design clearly expects applicants capable of leading or coordinating a multi-entity regional partnership.

Key dates included in the source information show the NOFO was created May 9, 2022, with an original closing date of July 1, 2022, and electronic submissions due by 11:59 pm Eastern Time on the deadline. Overall, the opportunity is structured to fund cross-system regional collaborations that can deliver integrated, evidence-based, trauma-informed services to families affected by substance use, while also producing credible data and lessons learned that can inform future child welfare and treatment system practice nationwide.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families - ACYF/CB in the income security and social services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Regional Partnership Grants to Increase the Well-Being of, and to Improve the Permanency Outcomes for, Children and Families Affected By Opioids and Other Substance Abuse" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.087.
• This funding opportunity was created on May 09, 2022.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jul 01, 2022 Electronically submitted applications must be submitted no later than 1159 pm Eastern Standard Time on the listed application due date.. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $600,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 18 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for HHS 2022 ACF ACYF CU 0094

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