Grants and Other Financial Assistance Programs: FY2010

Two decades of research reaffirm that the single greatest indicator of a child's academic success is the educational level of the parents. More recent research highlights the challenges to our families, our communities, and our economy posed by our state's high incidence of under-educated and limited English proficient adults/parents. Reports by MassINC found that 12.8% of the Massachusetts population is foreign born and one in three members of the Massachusetts workforce lacks the basic educational foundation needed to succeed in today's increasingly competitive economy.

A key response to these challenges by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (Department), working in collaboration with two dozen state agencies, four statewide organizations, and local providers, is family literacy - coordinated learning among different generations in the same family - that helps both children and adults/parents reach their full personal, social, and economic potential. The key policy foundations to this work are:

1. first, we understand that with an estimated 400,000 parents of school age children who are under-educated and/or limited English proficient, there will not be new and separate funding appropriations to provide comprehensive family literacy services to all of these families. Instead, we must find ways to glue together pre-existing services with a focus on family and community success; and

2. second, it is clear that educational services provided in a stand alone environment cannot succeed adequately on behalf of families confronted with multiple barriers to success. Comprehensive family literacy services must bring education, employability, health, and human services together in order to achieve family and community success.

Thoughtful investment of resources has resulted in a Massachusetts rich in the breadth and depth of education, employability, health, and human services available to residents. The Massachusetts Family Literacy Consortium * (MFLC) brings together representatives of these and other constituencies to forge partnerships that create new ways to coordinate and integrate their respective services on behalf of whole families.

* The MFLC member agencies are: Children's Trust Fund; Commonwealth Corporation; Departments of Career Services, Children and Families, Early Education and Care, Elementary and Secondary Education, Housing and Community Development, Mental Health, Public Health, Transitional Assistance, Youth Services, the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, and the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development. Additional members include representatives of four statewide organizations, service providers, and parents. For more information, visit the MFLC website: http://www.doe.mass.edu/familylit

Many of the organizations represented on the MFLC invest in community-wide efforts to increase the coordination of services and breadth and depth of partnerships working on behalf of a specific population (e.g., children, adults, the unemployed, victims of abuse, etc.) or type of service (e.g., education, health, family protection, occupational training, etc.). The significant benefit afforded by these community coordination efforts is that they bring a wide array of constituencies, resources, and services together on behalf of the population or services they represent. The continuing challenge is to deliver coordinated and integrated services that do not focus solely on a single service or population but on the success and well-being of the whole family.

The MFLC has documented that Massachusetts families would benefit from the comprehensive coordination of the range of services available in communities on behalf of the whole child/whole family and community. The purpose of this RFP is to support community partnerships with the expectation they will work together and in partnership with the MFLC. Applicants must:

1. serve as models for the increased coordination and integration of education, workforce development, health, and human services;

2. use a combination of existing resources and MFLC funding to serve the whole child/whole family by: co-enrolling adults and children in the coordinated and integrated services they need to meet their goals; co-locating those services to the maximum extent possible; and maintaining a minimum enrollment of 12 to 15 families in family literacy services; and

3. work to increase family access to comprehensively coordinated and integrated services and/or reduce unintended administrative barriers to access.

Priorities are to support a community partnership (or subcommittee or working group of the partnership) that will:

1. take steps to increase family access to comprehensively coordinated and integrated services and/or reduce unintended administrative barriers to access for families in the community;

2. provide an in-depth project * that delivers coordinated and integrated family literacy and family support services to at-risk families;

   * An in-depth project is defined as a project that "... identifies specific families from one or more ABE or ESOL target populations in need in the community, provides educational services to children and adults in the same family in the identified target population, and coordinates and integrates these services for children and parents with family/parenting education/support including health and employability and/or interactive literacy activities. It is preferred that these services be co-located."

3. provide guidance and support to an in-depth project. This includes but is not limited to the development and implementation of contextualized curriculum, expanded access to existing services, and resource contributions from individual partners to strengthen the in-depth project and to better serve the whole child/whole family and increase the likelihood of family success;

4. work with the MFLC and its member agencies to document outcomes, lessons learned, and promising practices that are the result of Pathways to Family Success; and

5. help the MFLC increase the investment in and commitment of local and state policy leaders to the comprehensive coordination and integration of services to at-risk families. This may include written reports and/or presentations for policy leaders at workshops, conferences, and other events.

Up to $56,000 may be requested as follows:

1. Funding must support a Coordinator working to achieve the purpose and priorities of Pathways to Family Success. Applicants should indicate the proposed FTE of the Coordinator. They should provide:

   1. a description of the Coordinator's roles and responsibilities;

   2. an explanation of how the Coordinator's hours will be allocated;

   3. an explanation of how the Coordinator will receive supervision and support; and

   4. an explanation of how the Coordinator and partnership will work together to plan for Pathways activities and projects, make decisions, and ensure on-going communication.

2. A minimum of $4,000 must be reserved for evaluation. Pathways to Family Success communities will select jointly one evaluator to do an annual statewide evaluation.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Proposals must be received at the Department by 5:00 p.m. on the date due.

Proposals should contain the following in the order listed.

1.      Part I - General - Program Unit Signature Page - (Standard Contract Form and Application for Program Grants)

2.      Part II Budget Detail Pages (Include both pages.) - Instructions

3. Budget Narrative (Narrative to be developed by the applicant.)

4.     Part III - Required Program Information

5.     Schedule C - Statement of Participation and Support (if appropriate)

6.     Statement of Assurances Form

7.     Service Chart for In-Depth Project

8.     Staffing Chart for In-Depth Project

9.     Certifications Regarding Lobbying; Debarment, Suspension, and Other Responsibility Matters; and Drug-Free Workplace Requirements

10. Proposals should be submitted with a letter of support from the Mayor/CEO of the community as an Appendix. The letter should summarize the community's commitment to for coordinated and integrated services to better serve the whole child/whole family.

For more information about the MFLC and its member agencies and/or family literacy, visit the:

1. MFLC website (www.doe.mass.edu/familylit)

2. National Center for Family Literacy website (www.famlit.org)

3. Goodling Institute for Family Literacy website
   (http://www.ed.psu.edu/goodlinginstitute/)

Submit three (3) proposals, two (2) with an original signature of the Superintendent, President, Executive Director, or other authorized signatory of the applicant in blue ink. Proposals should be addressed as follows and received by 5:00 PM on Monday, June 8, 2009.