NWX-CNCS 

Moderator: Tamika Becton

09-22-15/1:00 pm CT

Confirmation # 5291167

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NWX-CNCS

Moderator: Tamika Becton

September 22, 2015 

1:00 pm CT

Coordinator: Welcome and thank you for standing by. Our participants will be on listenonly mode until the question and answer session of today's conference. At that 

time if you wish to ask a question, you may do so by pressing star 1. 

This conference is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may 

disconnect at this time. I will now turn the conference over to Tamika Becton. 

Thank you and please begin. 

Tamika Becton: Hi. Thank you, (Gabrielle). And welcome to our first Training Technical 

Assistance call for the 2016 RSVP Limited Geographical Area Competition.

As the operator said, my name is Tamika Becton and I'm the Management and 

Program Analyst here with Senior Corps at the Corporation for National and 

Community Service. We're also joined by Katharine Gregg, which is our 

Senior Program Officer.

So during this call we will provide a very brief overview of the Corporation 

for National Community Service and the RSVP Program to give you just 

some context for this competition. Then we will review the highlights of the 
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Moderator: Tamika Becton

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Notice of Funding Opportunities for the 2016 competition and show you the 

available resources on the Web site. At the end of this call, we will be able to 

take questions and answers.

So, a brief overview of CNCS is the mission of the Corporation for National 

and Community Service, or also known as CNCS, is to improve the lives and 

strengthen communities and foster service engagement through service and 

volunteering.

We accomplish this through our programs Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and the 

Social Innovation fund. Today we will be focusing on one of the Senior Corps

programs - but you can also learn more about all of the programs by visiting 

our Web site at www.nationalservice.gov.

So now a brief overview of the RSVP to help you understand the program for 

which this competition's funds are going to be used for. RSVP is one of the 

three Senior Corps programs ran by the Corporation for National and 

Community Service. It actually began in 1971.

RSVP is one of the nation's largest organizations for volunteers, ages 55 and 

older. Each year we have roughly 296,000 RSVP volunteers serving through

about 680-plus projects throughout the country.

RSVP in your community. For this competition if your organization is to be 

awarded through the grant, your organization would be responsible for 

implementing the RSVP project in the awarded service area.

You will likely use the grant funds to hire an RSVP director to run the RSVP 

program at your organization, which would now be known as the RSVP 

sponsor organization. And in your application, you will have explained the 
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needs in your community and how you would recruit and place RSVP 

volunteers in the community to make an impact on meeting those community 

needs. The organizations in which the service activities where you will place 

RSVP volunteers to serve with are known as RSVP volunteer stations. 

So with recruiting RSVP volunteers they are not committed to a certain 

volunteer schedule, so that is the benefit of it. Some volunteers may serve 

once every few weeks. Others may consistently put in the 20 hours a week.

RSVP provides volunteers a large amount of flexibility with their volunteer 

schedules.

Now the service activity options for RSVP are also very flexible. The 

volunteers can serve in a variety of activities and they can choose the activity 

offered that is best for them. Activities might include renovating low-income 

housing, teaching English to immigrants, assisting victims of natural disaster, 

or recruiting and managing other volunteers, or tutoring children.

RSVP volunteers do not receive a stipend or educational award for their 

service as other national service participants may, but instead RSVP 

volunteers receive other benefits. They are covered by accidental personal 

liability and certain - excuse me - certain access automobile liability insurance 

while they are serving. So they also - they can also receive recognition from 

the RSVP project. And depending on your RSVP project budget, then they 

also help them receive a meal while serving and then some transportation 

reimbursement for travel to and from their volunteer service.

Earlier I did mention that the volunteer stations - and these are where the 

RSVP volunteers would serve. They would need to be spread out through the 

entire geographic service area for your RSVP program. And they can be a 

number of - they can be non-profit organizations, propriety healthcare 
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facilities, public agencies. If your RSVP formally works with the volunteer 

stations under a signed MOU, Memorandum of Understanding, and your 

RSVP project would assign RSVP volunteers to that particular volunteer 

station. So when you think about the minimum number of volunteers for the 

opportunity for which you are applying and considering how many volunteer 

stations will be needed to place all of the RSVP volunteers.

Your sponsor organization can also serve as an RSVP volunteer station.

However if the RSVP volunteers are serving in administrative or supportive 

positions at the sponsor organizations, no more than 5% of the total number of 

RSVP volunteers can serve in that assignment.

So - and the last bullet is the community serve; is also involved in RSVP - in 

the RSVP project, and that would be the RSVP Advisory Council. And so the 

Advisory Council is recruited individuals from the community to serve on the 

Advisory Council. And their role and subset is up to your RSVP program, but 

many of - many Advisory Councils assist and assess the community needs, 

resource development and volunteer recognition.

So on Page 16 of the Notice, which we'll look at later, it includes a link to the 

RSVP regulations, which have a list of prohibited activities for RSVP. And I 

just listed a few here on the side. And that would be RSVP volunteers cannot 

replace staff -- paid staff.

They cannot have volunteer activities that are political in nature, including 

influencing elections or voter registration activities. RSVP volunteers cannot 

give religious instruction, conduct worship service, or engage in any form of 

(unintelligible) as part of their duties. Also the sponsors cannot use grant 

funds directly or indirectly to finance labor or anti-labor organization, or 

related activities.
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So here is some examples of possible budget items for an RSVP program.

And these funds can be used to hire a full-time RSVP director, to set up 

recognition events for RSVP volunteers and recruiting RSVP volunteers.

So funds can be used to communicate with RSVP volunteers and stations 

through newsletters or for the RSVP director to actually travel to meet with 

volunteer station staff throughout the geographic servicing area. The funds 

can also be used for RSVP director to travel to CNCS in training events and 

other relevant training opportunities.

Now all of the grants are subject to Uniform Administrative Requirements, 

and it's also knows as the Uniform Guidance. And that can found on the 

Federal Register Web site, which you see a picture of right here. And you will 

also find the links on Page 15 in the Notice of Funding Opportunity. And 

these - the Uniform Guidance contains the OMB cost principles that do tell 

allowable expenses for the budget.

So, the next section covers criminal history checks. For RSVP programs, only 

RSVP staff are the only ones that are required to have a criminal history 

check. And the criminal history checks are an allowable budget item, so these 

expenses may be fingerprints or state criminal history checks. And those 

fingerprints are required for any staff hired on or after April 21, 2011 that has 

reoccurring access to vulnerable populations. So, the state criminal history 

checks are required for anyone hired on or after October 1, 2009.

Many of these projects have staff that have been with them prior to those 

dates, so you would not have criminal history checks in the budget. So just 

make sure that the criminal history checks are not - just to reiterate, the 

criminal history checks are not required for RSVP volunteers but it is an 
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allowable expense. So - and I did provide the Web site right here for 

additional resources found on the Knowledge Network about the criminal 

history checks.

So the Code of Federal Regulations is actually 45 Part 2553. And it's the 

source of requirements for RSVP. So if you are considering applying for an 

RSVP grant please, please ensure that you please read the CFR for RSVP.

So next we're going to kind of go over the highlights of the Notice of Funding.

And please keep in mind that these are only the highlights and listening to this 

webinar is not a substitute for reading the entire NOFA in detail, as well as the 

grant application instructions, the Frequently Asked Questions document, and 

any other technical assistant resources.

So there are two key dates associated with the notice. The due date for the 

Notice of Intent to Apply is actually Tuesday, September 29, 2015. And the

Notice of Intent, it can be just a simple email. It's not required but it is very 

highly encouraged.

But you send that to 2016RSVPIntent@cns.gov as you can see right here. And 

when you're sending that email just make sure that you're including the 

opportunity number and what you are proposing to serve, how you heard 

about the RSVP competition, the name of the applicant organization, the 

address, the contact person, and the phone number in your Notice of Intent.

And the second date is actually when the application is due and that's 

Tuesday, November 3 by 5:00 pm Eastern time.

So eligible applicants -- here are a list of the eligible applicants that are able to 

apply for funding. Organizations that have been convicted of a federal crime 

or they engage in lobbying activities are not eligible to apply for funding. And 
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previously receiving federal funds is not a prerequisite for submitting the 

application for this competition.

So the application requirements, which is also established in the notice, must 

serve the entire geographic service area associated with the funding 

opportunity for which they are applying.

And to support the minimum number of volunteers associated with the 

funding opportunity, as well as all applications must meet the national 

performance measure requirements and other criteria established in the 

funding opportunity. And we want to make sure that we're minimizing 

disruption to the current volunteers associated with any incumbent projects.

Yes. So information about the opportunity number and the start date, the 

geographic service area, and the minimum number of volunteers in the 

outcome days, assignments, and the funding amount are located in the 

Appendix A. We will actually go over that later when we look at the Web site

itself.

But each opportunity in Appendix A is identified by an opportunity number, 

such as AL-01, which will indicate the first opportunity in Alabama. So any 

eligible organization can apply for any opportunity in Appendix A. Later in 

the session we will actually – I will actually show you exactly what I'm 

talking about.

So I did mention that our previous submission requirements for all 

applications for this competition, they must meet the national performance 

measures. And I - we're actually going to have two training and technical 

assistance calls specifically geared for the national performance measures, but 

I just wanted to bring that to your attention as well. But two - one of the 
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documents that you'll probably be referring to a lot is Appendix B and I'll 

definitely show you that as well on the Web site.

So with the national performance measures there are six CNCS focus areas in 

which RSVP volunteers may serve. For those are RSVP volunteers serving in 

the education focus area. Some examples they will - they would be able -

there are some of the service areas that they would be able to do is provide 

support or facilitate access to services and resources that contribute to 

improve educational outcomes for economically disadvantaged people, 

especially children and for children with special or exceptional needs.

So in the healthy futures focus area, they may assist with meeting health needs 

within the community and this could include access to care, aging in place, 

and childhood obesity.

With the veterans and military families focus area, the service activity is 

focused on the impact of - the positive impact of the quality of life of veterans 

and improved military family strength.

For environmental stewardship, their service areas include supporting 

increased citizen behavioral change leading to increase efficiency, renewable 

energy use, and ecosystem improvements, particularly for economically 

disadvantaged households.

And for economic opportunity, this service area provides support or facilitate 

access to services and resources that contribute to the improved economic 

wellbeing and the security of economically disadvantaged individuals.

And the last one is disaster services. And this focus area helps individuals and 

communities prepare for, respond to, recover from and mitigate disasters.
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Now capacity building is not one of the six focus areas but RSVP volunteers 

may serve in capacity building work plans. And these capacity-building

activities are in direct - activities that allow the organization - that allows 

RSVP volunteers to serve and provide more and better sustained direct service 

maybe after their terms have expired or after they completed volunteering.

However, the capacity building opportunities cannot solely support the 

administration or operations of the organization, so that is very key.

Now the target period for our grants for this competition is three years. The 

funding amount listed in Appendix A is for year one of the three-year project 

period. Grants are eligible for continuation funding for two year - for the 

additional two years out of the three, as long as they demonstrate satisfactory 

performance that indicates that the grant is on track to exceed the proposed 

performance measures at the end of your three-year period.

And they have to demonstrate the capacity to manage the grant, as well as 

they've got to make sure they're in compliance with the grant requirements.

And this includes the terms and conditions of the grant and the requirement of 

biannual reporting of performance measures, and securing the required nonfederal share of the budget. And then also the availability of Congressional 

appropriations.

So now we're going to get into the application submitting. All applications 

will be submitted through eGrants, which is our online grant submission 

system. And we recommend that you begin the process of submitting your 

application in eGrants early, creating that eGrants account, and beginning the 

application at least three weeks prior to the deadline is ideal. We also 

recommend starting your application as a word processing document, so we 
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want Microsoft Word and other word processing software, and then copying 

and pasting it into eGrants no later than ten days prior to the deadline.

The national service hotline is available to answer your questions. I did 

provide the phone number as well as the - the contact link for submitting your 

questions if you have any technical questions related to eGrants. Then the 

hours for the rest of September are Monday through Friday, 9:00 am to 7:00

pm Eastern Time and then in October and November the hours are Monday 

through Thursday, 9:00 am to 7:00 pm.

Also when you're submitting your application, you want to also submit all of 

the required attachments by the application due date. When working on your 

application please keep in mind that RSVP must be included in the project 

title and must be used in promoting the project throughout the duration of the 

project period.

Now I mentioned about the required documents and attachments. The list of 

required attachments can be found in Part 4 in the Grant Application 

Instructions. And so the documents that you would be required to submit you 

will be submitting them to this email address at 

2016rsvpattachments@cns.gov. And in the subject line you will make sure 

that you want to include the application ID and the opportunity number that 

you would be applying for -- that geographic service area that you'll be 

applying for. If you are the incumbent please indicate that as well in your 

email.

So the application page limit is 15 pages as they print from eGrants. This 

includes the executive summary, the project narratives, and the cover page of 

the face sheet. It does include the budget or the national performance measure 

work plans. But we do encourage you to check the principle version of your 
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application in eGrants prior to submitting so you know that you are within the 

page limits. Reviewers will stop reading applications after Page 15, so make 

sure that you're checking eGrants before submitting. There is a button to be 

able to print the application in eGrants before submitting to ensure that you're 

in - within that page limit.

So the - one of the other things is in the application, you're also going to 

include the required non-federal share. So in year one of the project the 

required non-federal share is 10% of the total project budget. And in year two 

of the project the non-federal share will increase to 20% of the total project 

budget. And in year three and subsequent years the required non-federal share 

will be 30% of the total project budget. So current RSVP grantees are required 

to have the 30% non-federal share only when they are applying for the 

opportunity where they are the incumbent. If they are not the incumbent, then 

you would only have to meet the 10% share.

Applications must include a DUNS Number as well as the EIN -- the 

Employer Identification Number. And all applicant organizations must be 

registered with the Systems for Award Management, or SAM. And we urge 

you to begin this registration process as soon as possible. And you'll be able to 

see in Page - on Page 7 in the Notice, we'll have the links and the information 

in regards to signing up and registering for that.

CNCS may consider an application after the deadline but only if you submit 

an email explaining the extenuating technical circumstances which caused the 

delay. Advance requests to consider late applications will not be considered.

So the email that I have right here is the one that you would send. And it must 

be sent within 24 hours after the deadline.
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So getting into the application selection criteria. So all of the applications will 

be assessed against the 16-question selection criteria in the notice. And here 

you will see that the selection criteria's - and their respective weights. So the 

program design as you can see is worth 50% with a subcategory of the 

strengthening communities and recruitment and development. As well as the 

organizational capacity is 30% with a subcategory of program management 

and organizational capability. And then the last category is cost effectiveness 

and budget advocacy, which is worth 20%.

Now each selection criterion will be assessed on an excellent/good/fair and 

does not meet and a yes/no. So - and you will - you can see on Page 10 

through 12 in the Notice for the list of all of the selection criteria questions.

Now the stages in the review process are that first is going to be the 

compliance review. And in this, CNCS staff will review all of the applications 

to determine if they are compliant. And next we will have a panel of external 

and staff - and CNCS staff reviewers that will assess the applications for -

based on the selection criteria.

Now the results will be reviewed for fairness and consistency. And some 

applications may be selected for quality control assessment. Now we - if an 

applicant is proposing evidence-based programming in their application, there

will actually be an external - external reviewer that will be reviewing that 

portion of the application if an applicant is proposing to - evidence-based 

program.

Now in their risk assessment evaluation, that's where CNCS will evaluate the 

risk of the program posed by each applicant, including conducting due 

diligence to assure that an applicant's ability to manage federal funds. And 
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during clarification, applications - applicants may refuse requests to provide 

clarifying information to resolve questions and issues.

And finally, the CEO selects the final portfolio based on the results of the 

review and selection process. And also following the grant awards each 

applicant will receive a summary of feedback pertaining to their application.

Now there are a number of technical assistant resources that are going to be 

available to you and they are listed in the notice. But we would like to 

highlight a few of them on this call. So any questions that you have can be 

submitted to 2016rsvp@cns.gov. And all the answers to the submitted 

questions will be added to the FAQ, or the frequently asked questions 

document, posted on the notice Web site.

And additional technical assistance calls will be held while this competition is 

open. And the dates and times for those calls are also listed on the Web site.

And you will also be able to have the WebEx link and the replay numbers for 

after the technical assistance calls as well. Those will be posted within a day 

or two.

So now we're going to go ahead - let's go ahead and visit the notice Web site.

Just to kind of show you all the Web site in itself. So this is the 

nationalservice.gov Web site. We will type in the rsvpcompetition right here.

And this will be the Notice Web site.

And here we're going to - you have a table of contents. And this is probably 

the most common place that you're going to find anything that has to do with 

the Notice and the RSVP competition. So this will be updated frequently, so I 

would definitely check this as much as possible because this pretty much has 
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all of the information that you will need to submit a grant application for the 

RSVP program.

So the table of contents, the application deadline -- we've already covered 

that. The funding opportunity and application exceptions, so I'm going to click 

on that. And I'm actually going to show you all this section too; is where this 

is the notice of funding opportunity. This is the RSVP grant application 

instructions. This will be the appendices that go with the NOFO so - or the 

Notice of Funding Opportunity.

So I'm going to click on Appendix A because these are the available funding 

opportunities for this competition. These are the only opportunities that are 

available for this competition. I do want to make sure that that is - oh - that 

everyone is aware of that. So these are the service areas that - opportunity 

numbers that are available for this competition.

And Appendix B, this has the list of the national performance measures. These 

are the instructions. So this is the - within those six focus areas it breaks down 

the service activities and the strategic plan, and the objective, and the 

outcome. So whichever one you're proposing you definitely want to ensure 

that your - performance measures are aligned with this document.

The evidence-based programs. So if you are - which if you are proposing to 

serve evidence-based programs for additional money, this is definitely an

appendix that you will want to look at just because this has the list of 

proposed evidence-based registries. So you want to make sure that this is 

aligned with what you are proposing in your grant application.

And terms and definitions is just the appendix for learning the quick terms or 

the terminology for RSVP.
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The required documents. So in the grant application instructions, this section 

right here you'll - it will list - I'll actually click on it. And I'm just going to do 

a quick search for required documents. And we're going to scroll down to find 

the required documents. So right here.

So in eGrants you're going to have this list right here. But this is the list that 

you need to see which required documents are, like, go with your grant 

application. So this will be the list of things. And if you have a Yes, a No, 

Only Obtains, this will be the required document.

And these two are the only forms that you would actually complete. I know 

the Financial Management Survey is one that everybody will have to submit 

the Financial Management Survey, so that is one document that we provide 

for you, as well as the aggregated dollar amount of funding if that applies to 

your organization.

So Section 4 we have the Frequently Asked Questions document. And I did 

put the email address here just for convenience as well. But this document will 

be coming soon. The more questions we get we'll definitely be updating it as 

frequently as we can.

So the Resources for Applicants, this is eGrants. And I'm going to go ahead 

and click on this because this shows that - I have a pop-up blocker, clearly.

But this is where - this is the system that you will be entering your grant 

application, as well as the RSVP program regulations. And this is definitely 

very - this one is very important because you want to make sure when you're 

submitting your grant application for funding, you want to make sure that 

you're complying with the regulations that RSVP has.
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Now the Training and Technical Assistance, this is the times and the dates. It 

may be changed, so that's why I say you definitely want to ensure that you're -

that you are checking this Web site very frequently.

Now the WebEx is clearly - I'm going - you just click on this link and you 

type in your name, and your email address, and then you're logged in. And the 

code is right here. So - and I will be updating this to show the replay, as well 

as the transcription and possibly the webinar replay as well. But we do have 

some upcoming ones. We have one next week.

We pretty much have one probably once or twice a week, so definitely ensure 

that this is - whichever one you're - I will recommend sitting on all of these 

just because they're all pertaining to a specific topic. Technical Assistance call 

5 and 7 will be the exact same thing. But it's kind of going in and submitting 

that application in eGrants.

So that is all I have I believe. I'm going to make sure that - and so, yes. And so 

the application due date is actually Tuesday, November 3, 2015 at 5:00 pm 

Eastern Time.

So, (Gabrielle), can you open the lines for questions?

Coordinator: Of course. At this time if you wish to ask a question please ensure your phone 

is unmuted, press star 1 and record your name when prompted. Again that is 

star 1 to ask a question. And those questions will take one moment to queue 

up. Please stand by.

And again it is star 1 to ask a question. One moment. I'm sure we currently 

have no questions.
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Tamika Becton: Okay. Well thank you, (Gabrielle). And I'm actually going to just remember 

to, I guess, reiterate that the Web site is 

www.nationalservice.gov/rsvpcompetition and that will be updated regularly, 

so I would definitely probably save it as a favorite. But if we don't have any 

more questions I just wanted to - actually, let's see. You might have a question 

coming in. Okay.

But if anybody has any questions, (Gabrielle), can you check and see if there's 

anybody else that has a late coming question?

Coordinator: Oh yes, of course. Again it is star 1 to ask a question. One moment.

I'm sure we have no questions.

Tamika Becton: Okay. Thank you so much, (Gabrielle). And thank you all for listening in on 

the first T&TA call for the RSVP competition. Thank you.

Coordinator: And with that we'll conclude today's conference. Thank you for your 

participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time.

END