Deadline: 21-Jun-21
The Administration for Children and Families, Administration on Children, Youth and Families’ Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) have announce the availability of funds under the Basic Center Program (BCP).
Goal
- Provide temporary emergency shelter and counseling services to eligible youth under the age of 18, who have runaway or left home without permission of their parents or guardians, have been forced to leave their home, or are street-youth or homeless youth who might otherwise end up in contact with law enforcement or in the child welfare, mental health, or juvenile justice systems.
Vision
- Establish and/or strengthen community-based projects that meet the immediate needs of runaway, homeless, and street youth through the provisions of temporary shelter and services that encourage family reunification, when in the best interest of the youth.
Funding Information
- Estimated Total Funding: $24,000,000
- Expected Number of Awards: 120
- Award Ceiling: $200,000 Per Budget Period
- Award Floor: $50,000 Per Budget Period
- Average Projected Award Amount: $125,000 Per Budget Period
- Anticipated Project Start Date: 09/30/2021
- Length of Project Period: 36-month project period with three 12-month budget periods
Outreach Plan
Projects utilize an outreach implementation strategy that includes the following:
- BCP Outreach Plan: BCP projects will develop a plan and actively find runaway, homeless, and street youth, or youth at risk of becoming runaway or homeless, who might not use RHY program services due to lack of awareness or active avoidance, providing information to them about services and benefits, and encouraging the use of appropriate services.
- Public Outreach and Awareness: BCP projects inform the community about the BCP through social media, public service announcements, and collaborations with other youth and family-serving organizations; the National Runaway Safeline; culturally specific, community-based organizations; sexual violence organizations; anti-trafficking agencies; law enforcement; health care providers; legal services; and other stakeholders. Public education includes the development and distribution of materials providing information about services and benefits, and encouraging the use of appropriate services.
Case Management
BCP projects identify and assess the needs of each youth and, as appropriate, arrange, coordinate, monitor, evaluate, and advocate for a package of services to meet their specific needs.
The following list includes specific programmatic requirements for case management planning for youth:
- Individualized Service or Treatment Plan: BCP projects develop a written service or treatment plan based on the assessed needs for and input from every youth receiving services.
- Service Coordination Plan: BCP projects have a suitable referral plan based on an assessment of the youth’s needs to ensure appropriate system of care services are accessible. The system of care services each BCP project shall coordinate with includes, but is not limited to, social services, law enforcement, educational services, vocational training and employment training services, welfare, legal services, anti-trafficking agencies, health care programs (including health insurance options) affordable child care, and/or child education programs. Projects must also take steps to ensure that youth who are under the legal jurisdiction of the juvenile justice or child welfare systems receive services from those systems until they are released from the jurisdiction of those systems.
- Education Plan: Projects shall develop an adequate plan for ensuring coordination withMcKinney-Vento school district liaisons, designated under section 722(g)(1)(J)(ii) of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 11432(g)(1)(J)(ii)), to assure that runaway and homeless youth are provided information about the educational services available to such youth under subtitle B of title VII of that Act.
Expect Outcomes
BCP projects are responsible for consistently enhancing four core outcome areas for youth, to include the following:
- Social and Emotional Well-being: Youth will connect to trauma informed, system of care providers to assist with physical health, substance abuse treatment, mental health, personal safety (e.g., identify potential trafficking situations), and sexual risk behaviors they may face.
- Permanent Connections: Youth will experience positive ongoing attachments to families, communities, schools, and other social networks.
- Education or Employment: Youth will connect to school or vocational training programs, improve interviewing skills or job attainment skills, and obtain employment.
- Safe and Stable housing: Youth will transition to safe and stable housing that appropriately matches their level of need after leaving a BCP to include the following: moving in with family, when appropriate, or other permanent supportive housing; rapid re-housing; or residential treatment center or substance abuse treatment facility.
Geographic Location
- BCP projects are located in areas where runaway, homeless, and street youth under the age of 18 can easily access BCP services. These areas may include rural or tribal communities, or areas outside of metropolitan areas.
Eligibility Criteria
- Public and nonprofit entities and combinations of such entities are eligible to apply unless they are part of the juvenile justice system. For-profit organizations are not eligible. Private institutions of higher education must be non-profit entities. In selecting applications for award under this FOA, the Secretary shall give priority to eligible applicants who have demonstrated experience in providing services to runaway and homeless youth.
- Faith-based organizations may apply for this award on the same basis as any other organization, as set forth at and, subject to the protections and requirements of this part and 42 U.S.C. 2000bb et seq., the Department will not, in the selection of recipients, discriminate against an organization on the basis of the organization’s religious character, affiliation, or exercise.
Project Requirements
Consistent with the statutory mandates set forth in the RHY Act, as well as the regulatory requirements set forth in the RHY Rule, BCP projects must include the following components:
- Shelter and Counseling
- Projects shall provide youth under the age of 18 with temporary, emergency shelter or safe and stable housing for up to 21 days and individual, family, and group counseling, as appropriate, with FYSB funding.
- BCP shelters must accommodate no fewer than 4 and not more than 20 youth under the age of 18 in a single structure, providing services for not more than 21 days; with FYSB funding.
- BCP services must be accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and have a publicly available shelter telephone number answered by staff on a 24 hours a day basis.
- BCP projects utilizing a host family home model to provide emergency shelter are exempt from the minimum number of four youth per structure requirement as defined by the RHY Rule (see Appendix A. Definitions: Host family home); however, projects still must have the ability to accommodate no fewer than four youth across multiple homes.
- BCP projects ensure all shelters they operate, including host family homes, are licensed and determine that any shelters that they regularly refer clients to have evidence of current licensure in the states and/or localities with licensure requirements.
- BCP funds may not be used for providing respite care. Respite care services provide parents and other caregivers with short-term child care services that offer temporary relief. A legal guardian cannot bring youth to a BCP shelter with the intention of abdicating their responsibility to provide shelter. If a youth is forced to leave their residence, whether that was the home of their parent or any legal guardian, and has no safe alternative living arrangement, then they are considered homeless and eligible to receive BCP shelter services.
- BCP projects should contact the parents, legal guardians, or other relatives of each youth as soon as feasible, but no later than 72 hours of the youth entering the program.
- BCP projects serving youth who run away from foster care, child welfare must create Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between their program(s) and child welfare agencies that clarify roles, responsibilities, and define the provision of services at the time youth enter the shelter. This MOU should also clarify what financial obligations are associated with the provision of services.
- Specific to BCP projects, prevention is defined as services provided to a youth and/or their family before and/or after their shelter stay, including at least 3 months of after-care for the express purposes of preventing youth from running away or otherwise becoming homeless. Prevention services are also offered as part of optional home-based services and can include individual, family, and group counseling services.
- BCP projects ensure staff are prepared and trained to interact with runaway, homeless, street, and in-crisis youth as well as youth victims of human trafficking (e.g., sex and labor) and other type of victimization (i.e., sexual assault, sexual, and physical abuse). Shelter services and other referrals for trafficked youth should be carefully identified by the appropriate staff. Transportation to the shelter is available for youth, as needed, and barriers to entry are low enough that it is easily accessible by youth.
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=328867