National Center on Advancing 

Person-Centered Practices and Systems 

Technical Assistance Application 

NCAPPS technical assistance is intended to help States, Tribes, and Territories to make supports for older adults 

and people with disabilities more person-centered through systems change efforts that ensure the person is at 

the center of thinking, planning, and practice. 

Technical assistance recipients will work with national subject matter experts toward individualized goals for each 

participating State, Tribe, or Territory. Experts will be assigned in the development of the technical assistance 

plan. The Human Services Research Institute will coordinate and deliver technical assistance, in collaboration with 

national organizations and individual subject matter experts. 

Technical assistance will be provided at no charge to States, Territories, or Tribes for up to 100 hours per year, for 

up to 3 years. 

This application is the first of two phases in applying for technical assistance. Once this form is completed and 

submitted, a staff member from the Human Services Research Institute will contact you to complete the request. 

Additional detail and guidance is included in the Technical Assistance Process and Guidance section on the last two 

pages of this form. 

Please complete the following form and submit it to NCAPPS@ACL.HHS.gov by February 12, 2019. 

1. Name 

2. Title 

3. Contact information (telephone/email address) 

4. Lead Organization/Agency 

5. Population Focus Areas (check all that apply): 

☐ Physical disability 

☐ Intellectual and developmental disability 

☐ Brain injury 

☐ Substance use disorders 

☐ Mental health 

☐ Adults 

☐ Children/youth 

☐ Transition age youth 

☐ Older adults with long-term service and support needs 

☐ Other (describe): 

6. Description of overall systems-change goal(s): Please describe the goals you are currently working on, or 

identify new goals you intend to pursue. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7. Brief description of technical assistance needs: Please provide a brief summary of your technical assistance 

needs, target audience, and how the requested technical assistance will assist in accomplishing the abovementioned goals. 

8. Anticipated technical assistance topic(s) (check all that apply): 

☐ Capacity development to ensure person-centered thinking is included in self-directed support options 

☐ Measures of and fidelity to person-centered thinking, planning, and practices 

☐ Stakeholder engagement in developing and sustaining person-centered thinking, planning, and practices 

☐ Cultural and linguistic adaptations to person-centered thinking, planning, and practices to better fit 

community contexts 

☐ Waiver and other program design to promote person-centered thinking, planning, and practices 

☐ Developing tiered service definitions to promote person-centered thinking, planning, and practices as a 

process 

☐ Payment models to support person-centered thinking, planning, and practices 

☐ Information systems development to support person-centered thinking, planning, and practices 

☐ Design of strategy for training and capacity for person-centered thinking, planning, and practices 

☐ Design of strategy for training and capacity for peer-delivered services and supports 

☐ Designing standards and competencies for professionals responsible for managing person-centered 

thinking, planning, and practices 

☐ Promising practices for balancing issues of guardianship with person-centered thinking, planning, and 

practices 

☐ Ensuring informed choice in the person-centered planning process 

☐ When and how to include providers in person-centered planning and practice 

☐ Ensuring fidelity of person-centered planning and practice in managed long-term services and supports 

☐ Other (specify): 

☐ Other (specify): 

9. Collaborating entities (as applicable): Technical assistance to advance person-centered practices and systems 

is often accomplished through effective collaboration. Please note the entities who will be participating in this 

effort. Specify contacts for each relevant agency, and plan to engage relevant agencies if contacts have not yet 

been identified. (The list continues on the following page.) 

☐ Medicaid Agency 

☐ Brain Injury Agency 

☐ State Aging Agency 

☐ State and/or County Behavioral Health Agency 

☐ Developmental Disabilities Agency 

☐ No Wrong Door System/Aging and Disability 

Resource Centers / Area Agencies on Aging 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

☐ Centers for Independent Living (CILs) 

☐ Supported Independent Living Cooperatives (SILCs) 

☐ Local Education Agency 

☐ Vocational Rehabilitation Agency 

☐ Workforce Investment System 

☐ DD Councils 

☐ Advocacy Groups 

☐ Other (specify): 

☐ Other (specify): 

10. Are there any other relevant or related initiatives underway? If so, please note the initiative and 

include a timeframe if relevant. 

11. Have you received any other technical assistance or resources regarding this request? 

☐ No 

☐ Yes If yes, please provide the name of the TA provider(s) and a brief description of the TA and/or 

resources received. 

12. Please briefly describe how program participants (service users) have been and will continue to be 

involved in the design, refinement, implementation, and evaluation of this technical assistance process. 

For additional detail about this section, see note in accompanying Technical Assistance Process and Guidance 

document regarding Scope and Domains of Technical Assistance. 

Thank you for completing this application. Please submit this completed form to 

NCAPPS@ACL.HHS.gov. 

A staff member from the Human Services Research Institute will reach out to you within the next 

two weeks to help finalize this application. If you have any questions as you complete this process, 

please contact us at NCAPPS@ACL.HHS.gov. 
 

 

 

 

 

Technical Assistance Process and Guidance 

Introduction 

State agencies, territorial governments, and tribal governments may all apply for NCAPPS technical assistance. 

NCAPPS technical assistance is intended to support States, Tribes, and Territories to make supports for older 

adults and people with disabilities more person-centered through systems change efforts that ensure the person 

is at the center of thinking, planning, and practice. 

Technical assistance recipients will work with national subject matter experts toward accomplishing specific goals 

individualized for each participating State, Tribe, or Territory. The Human Services Research Institute (HSRI) will 

coordinate and deliver technical assistance, in collaboration with national organizations and individual subject 

matter experts. Technical assistance will be provided at no charge to a limited number of recipients for up to 100 

hours per year, for up to three years. Experts will be assigned in the development of the technical assistance plan. 

Application Process 

This brief application is the first of two phases in applying for technical assistance. Within two weeks of 

submission of this application, a staff member from HSRI will contact you to finalize the request. The second 

phase involves a phone call between the HSRI NCAPPS team (and subject matter experts if needed) and the 

applicant to gather more information about the application, explore goals in greater detail, and confirm that the 

applicant is in a position to effectively advance needed change. 

Scope and Domains of Technical Assistance 

It is priority that program participants (service users) inform the design, refinement, implementation, and 

evaluation of the policies and practices that flow from NCAPPS technical assistance. Technical assistance 

recipients must describe how program participants have been—and will be—involved in this person-centered 

system change effort and describe how they will continue this engagement to inform ongoing system 

improvements. Applicants are also strongly encouraged to consider integrated approaches to implementing 

person-centered thinking, planning, and practices across sub-systems serving a wide range of programs, funding 

streams, and agencies serving people with disabilities and older adults. 

Technical assistance activities will fall within four interrelated domains: policy, practice, payment, and participant 

engagement. As the focus of NCAPPS is on systems change, applicants should consider how technical assistance 

goals and objectives affect and are affected by other entities and processes in the system. If selected, technical 

assistance recipients will work with NCAPPS to develop specific technical assistance goals in at least one of the 

four domains. Examples include of focus areas include: 

1. Practice Domain – Examples may include: technical assistance for developing training of staff/providers 

in effective practices related to person-centered thinking, planning, and service delivery; adoption of 

specific and customizable practice guidelines/criterion across a State/Tribe/Territory; the role of 

assessments, resource allocation methods, and natural supports in the planning process; developing and 

executing organizational change strategies for increasing person-centered practice within and across 

systems; ensuring full participation by people under guardianship; implementing effective conflict of 

interest strategies; designing, adapting, and implementing culturally appropriate approaches; etc. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Policy Domain – Examples may include: issuance of policy guidance to enhance specific service 

coordination/case management processes to support person-centered plan development, 

implementation, and monitoring; adoption of specific requirements across all long-term services and 

supports (LTSS) providers related to the provision of person-centered planning and services; 

implementing person-centered planning facilitation competency requirements; creating policy that 

addresses cultural variation, language, competency, and humility; etc. 

3. Payment Domain – Examples may include: working with LTSS payers to develop specific standards for 

the effective provision of person-centered thinking, planning, and practice in LTSS service delivery; 

technical assistance for implementing cost-effective training strategies for person-centered planning; 

revisiting of service parameters and rates/reimbursement for various elements of person-centered 

planning; identification of strategies for measuring outcomes for person-centered planning; 

implementing alternative payment models based on quality measures and strategies to incentivize 

systems and organizational change to fully implement person-centered thinking, planning, and practices; 

creating flexible payment structures that support culturally and linguistically specific approaches; etc. 

4. Participant Engagement Domain – Examples may include: how to meaningfully engage participants with 

direct lived experience with the specific targeted programs in all facets of the design, refinement, 

implementation, and evaluation of person-centered thinking, planning, and practice; culturally 

responsive participant engagement strategies; supporting participants to serve on oversight boards and 

committees; establishing processes for incorporating participant feedback into program design and 

implementation; the use of participatory action methods to ensure participant perspectives are 

incorporated into program evaluation and quality improvement activities; etc. 

It is not a requirement that applicants identify a specific goal in each domain. However, in the absence of a 

specific goal in one or more domains, the applicant is encouraged to explore how the other domains are 

systemically related to the stated goals and how each non-goal domain would need to be sufficiently developed 

to support the goal(s). 

Please note that NCAPPS does not pay for training in the mechanics of person-centered thinking, planning, and 

practice. NCAPPS will provide assistance in developing goals, objectives, and strategies related to the 

development, selection, implementation, funding, and evaluation of training approaches. 

Evaluation of the Impact of Technical Assistance 

Selected applicants, with HSRI support, will submit a specific evaluation plan for collecting, analyzing, and 

reporting evidence demonstrating how each technical assistance goal will be met. Evidence could include specific 

products and implementation activities, surveys and/or focus groups that demonstrate organizational change, 

enhanced experiences of people receiving services funded by the program, etc. Specifically, evaluation plans will 

address the following: 

• Specific person-centered planning model(s) or approaches implemented 

• Increased use of person-centered practices among those systems or parts of systems that are the focus 

of the technical assistance 

• Numbers and types of actions taken as a result of the technical assistance 

• Increased implementation of best practices for monitoring of person-centered planning requirements 

• Increased rating by individuals and staff regarding their person-centered experiences