[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 49 (Thursday, March 13, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 12030-12032]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-6307]



[[Page 12029]]

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Part VI





Department of Health and Human Services





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Announcement of Availability of Grants for Adolescent Family Life 
Demonstration Projects; Notice

Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 49 / Thursday, March 13, 1997 / 
Notices

[[Page 12030]]



DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

RIN 0905-ZA99


Office of Public Health and Science; Announcement of Availability 
of Grants for Adolescent Family Life Demonstration Projects

AGENCY: Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Programs, Office of Population 
Affairs, OPHS, HHS.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Programs (OAPP) requests 
applications for grants under the Adolescent Family Life (AFL) 
Demonstration Projects Program. These grants are for community-based 
and community-supported demonstration projects to find effective means 
of preventing pregnancy by encouraging adolescents to abstain from 
sexual activity through provision of age-appropriate education on 
sexuality and decision-making skills. Although adolescents under age 19 
are eligible for services, the OAPP is particularly interested in 
projects which target youth ages 9 to 14.
    Funds are available for approximately 40-50 projects, which may be 
located in any State, the District of Columbia, the territories of 
Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, 
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Republic of Palau, 
Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of 
Micronesia.
    Applicants also should be aware that the Department of Health and 
Human Services' Maternal and Child Health Bureau will be issuing 
separate grant application guidance to State Health Agencies for the 
Abstinence education provision contained in the ``Personal 
Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996'', 
Pub.L. 104-193.

DATES: To receive consideration grant applications must be received by 
the Director, Grants Management Office by April 28, 1997. Applications 
will be considered as meeting the deadline if they are either (1) 
received on or before the deadline date, or (2) postmarked on or before 
the deadline date and received in time for submission to the review 
committee. A legibly dated receipt from a commercial carrier or U.S. 
Postal Service will be accepted in lieu of a postmark. Private metered 
postmarks will not be accepted as proof of timely mailing. Applications 
which do not meet the deadline will be considered late applications and 
will be returned to the applicant.

ADDRESSES: Requests for application kits may be faxed to (301) 594-
5980. Application kits may also be obtained from and applications must 
be submitted to: Grants Management Office, Office of Population 
Affairs, 4350 East-West Highway, Suite 200, Bethesda, MD 20814.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Grants Management Office at (301) 594-4012 or Program Office at (301) 
594-4004. Staff are available to answer questions and provide limited 
technical assistance in the preparation of grant applications.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Title XX of the Public Health Service Act, 
42 U.S.C. 300z, et seq., authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human 
Services to award grants for demonstration projects to provides 
services to pregnant and nonpregnant adolescents, adolescent parents 
and their families. (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number 
93.995) Title XX authorizes grants for three types of demonstration 
projects: (1) Projects which provide ``care services'' only (i.e., 
services for the provision of care of pregnant adolescents, adolescent 
parents and their families); (2) projects which provide ``prevention 
services'' only (i.e., services to prevent adolescent sexual 
relations); and (3) projects which provide a combination of care and 
prevention services.
    Under this program announcement, OAPP intends to make available 
approximately $8 million to support an estimated 40-50 new prevention 
demonstration projects only. An applicant may submit a proposal for a 
local  or state-wide prevention project. The awards will range from 
$100,000 to $225,000. These grants will be awarded for a period of one 
year, and the availability of funding for later years is uncertain. 
Therefore, we encourage applications from experienced organizations 
which are currently operating programs and which have the capability of 
expanding and enhancing these services to serve significant numbers of 
adolescents according to the guidelines specified in this announcement. 
Additional funds may be available in Fiscal Year 1998 and following 
years. If funds do become available, grantees funded under this program 
announcement will be eligible to reapply for continued funding.
    Grants are funded in annual increments (budget periods). Funding 
for all approved budget periods beyond the first year of a grant is 
contingent upon the availability of funds, satisfactory progress of the 
project, and adequate stewardship of Federal funds. A grant award may 
not exceed 70 percent of the total cost of the project for each of the 
first and second years and 60 percent for the third year. The non-
Federal share of the project costs may be provided in cash expenditures 
or fairly evaluated in-kind contributions, including plant, equipment 
and services.
    The specific prevention services which may be funded under Title XX 
are listed below under PREVENTION PROGRAMS.
    The following application requirements contain information 
collections subject to OMB approval under the Paperwork Reduction Act 
of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13). These information collections have been 
approved by OMB under control number 0937-0189.

Eligible Applicants

    Any public or private nonprofit organization or agency is eligible 
to apply for a grant. Grants are awarded only to those organizations or 
agencies which are determined to demonstrate the capability of 
providing the proposed services and meet the statutory requirements.

Prevention Programs

    Under this announcement, funds are available for local or state-
wide projects.
    The primary purpose of prevention programs is to find effective 
means of reaching adolescents, both male and female, before they become 
sexually active in order to encourage them to abstain from sexual 
activity. There is general agreement that early initiation of sexual 
activity brings not only the risk of unintended pregnancy but also 
substantial health risks to adolescents, primarily infection with 
sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including HIV. Accordingly, 
applicants must provide services that help pre-adolescents and young 
adolescents acquire knowledge and skills that will instill healthy 
attitudes and encourage and support abstinence from sexual activity. 
Any information provided for adolescents who may be or become sexually 
active, which relates to reducing the risk of unintended pregnancy and 
disease, must be medically accurate and must be presented within the 
context that abstinence is the best choice and is what the project 
recommends.
    Under this announcement, applicants may propose to develop and test 
new prevention curricula, update existing curricula or use existing and 
available educational materials/curricula which are consistent with 
this program

[[Page 12031]]

announcement within their demonstration projects.
    Programs must be consistent with abstinence education as defined in 
the ``Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act 
of 1996'', Pub. L. 104-193. Accordingly, the term ``abstinence 
education'' means an educational or motivational program which--
    A. Has as its exclusive purpose, teaching the social, 
psychological, and health gains to be realized by abstaining from 
sexual activity;
    B. Teaches abstinence from sexual activity outside marriage as the 
expected standard for all school age children;
    C. Teaches that abstinence from sexual activity is the only certain 
way to avoid out-of-wedlock pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, 
and other associated health problems;
    D. Teaches that a mutually faithful monogamous relationship in 
context of marriage is the expected standard of human sexual activity;
    E. Teaches that sexual activity outside of the context of marriage 
is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects;
    F. Teaches that bearing children out-of-wedlock is likely to have 
harmful consequences for the child, the child's parents, and society;
    G. Teaches young people how to reject sexual advances and how 
alcohol and drug use increases vulnerability to sexual advances; and
    H. Teaches the importance of attaining self-sufficiency before 
engaging in sexual activity.
    Under the statutory requirements of Title XX, applicants for 
prevention programs are not required to provide any specific array of 
services, OAPP encourages the submission of applications which focus on 
educational services relating to family life and which teach the 
social, psychological and health gains to be realized by abstaining 
from sexual activity.
    The legislation also permits a proposal to include any one or more 
of the following services as appropriate:
    (1) Educational services relating to family life and problems 
associated with adolescent premarital sexual relations including:
    (a) Information about adoption,
    (b) Education on the responsibilities of sexuality and parenting,
    (c) The development of material to support the role of parents as 
the providers of sex education, and
    (d) Assistance to parents, schools, youth agencies and health 
providers to educate adolescents and preadolescents concerning self-
discipline and responsibility in human sexuality;
    (2) Appropriate educational and vocational services;
    (3) Counseling for the immediate and extended family members of the 
eligible person;
    (4) Transportation;
    (5) Outreach services to families of adolescents to discourage 
sexual relations among unemancipated minors;
    If an applicant chooses to provide any of the above services in 
addition to educational services relating to family life and problems 
associated with adolescent premarital sexual relations, the applicant 
must justify how these services ((2) through (5)) will support or 
promote the educational component.

Evaluation

    Section 2006(b)(1) of Title XX requires each grantee to expend at 
least one percent but not more than five percent of the Federal funds 
received under Title XX on evaluation of the project. As this is a 
demonstration program, all applications are required to have an 
evaluation component of high quality consistent with the scope of the 
proposed project and the funding level. All project evaluations should 
monitor program processes to determine whether the program has been 
carried out as planned and measure the program's outcomes. Waivers of 
the five percent limit on evaluation (see sec. 2006(b)(1)) may be 
granted in cases where a more rigorous or comprehensive evaluation 
effort is proposed.
    Section 2006(b)(2) requires that an organization or an entity 
independent of the grantee providing services assist the grantee in 
evaluating the project. The OAPP strongly recommends extensive 
collaboration between the applicant organization and the proposed 
evaluator in the development of the intervention, development of the 
evaluation hypothesis(es), identification of the variables to be 
measured and a timetable for initiation of the intervention, baseline 
measurement, and ongoing evaluation data collection and analysis.

Application Requirements

    Applications must be submitted on the forms supplied (PHS 5161-1, 
Revised 5/96) and in the manner prescribed in the application kits 
provided by the OAPP. Applicants are required to submit an application 
signed by an individual authorized to act for the applicant agency or 
organization and to assume for the organization the obligations imposed 
by the terms and conditions of the grant award. Applications sent by 
FAX will not be accepted.
    Applicants must be familiar with Title XX in its entirety to ensure 
that they have complied with all applicable requirements. A copy of the 
legislation is included in the application kit.
    It should be noted that grantees may not teach or promote religion 
in their AFL project. Each grant project must be accessible to the 
public generally, not just to those of a particular religious 
affiliation.
    Under sec. 2011(a) of the Act, AFL projects may not provide 
abortions or abortion counseling or referral either directly or through 
subcontract and may not advocate, promote or encourage abortion. 
However, if both the adolescent and her parents request abortion 
counseling, a project may provide referral for such counseling.

Additional Requirements

    Applicants for grants must also meet the following requirements:
    (1) Requirements for Review of an Application by the Governor. 
Section 2006(e) of Title XX requires that each applicant shall provide 
the Governor of the State in which the applicant is located a copy of 
each application submitted to OAPP for a grant for a demonstration 
project for services under this Title. The Governor has 60 days from 
the receipt date in which to provide comments to the applicant.
    An applicant may comply with this requirement by submitting a copy 
of the application to the Governor of the State in which the applicant 
is located at the same time the application is submitted to OAPP. To 
inform the Governor's office of the reason for the submission, a copy 
of this notice should be attached to the application.
    (2) Review Under Executive Order 12372. Applications under this 
announcement are subject to the review requirements of E.O. 12372, 
``Intergovernmental Review of Federal Programs,'' as implemented by 45 
CFR part 100, ``Intergovernmental Review of Department of Health and 
Human Services Programs and Activities.'' E.O. 12372 sets up a system 
for state and local government review of proposed Federal assistance 
applications. As soon as possible the applicant (other than federally-
recognized Indian tribal governments) should contact the Governor's 
Office in the state to be served for information regarding the 
particular review process designed by the state. The State comment(s) 
should be forwarded to the Grants Management Office, Office of 
Population Affairs, 4350 East-West Highway, Suite 200, Bethesda, MD 
20814. Such comments must be received by the Office of Population 
Affairs by August 11, 1997, to be considered.

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    The application kit contains information to guide applicants in 
fulfilling the above requirements.

Application Consideration and Assessment

    Applications which are judged to be late or which do not conform to 
the requirements of this program announcement will not be accepted for 
review. Applicants will be so notified, and the applications will be 
returned. All other applicants will be reviewed by a multidisciplinary 
panel of independent reviewers and assessed according to the following 
criteria:
    (1) The capacity of the proposed applicant organization to provide 
rapid and effective use of resources needed to conduct the project, 
collect data and evaluate it. This includes personnel, time and 
facilities. (30 points)
    (2) The applicant's rationale for use of the proposed approach and 
its worth for testing and/or replication based upon its previous 
demonstration, review of the literature and/or evaluation findings. (20 
points)
    (3) The applicant's presentation of an appropriate project design, 
consistent with the requirements of Title XX, including a clear 
statement of goals and objectives, reasonable methods for achieving the 
objectives, a reasonable workplan and timetable and a clear statement 
of results or benefits expected. (30 points)
    (4) The applicant's presentation of a detailed evaluation plan, 
indicating an understanding of program evaluation methods and 
reflecting a practical, technically sound approach to assessing the 
project's achievement of program objectives.
    Final grant award decisions will be made by the Deputy Assistant 
Secretary for Populations Affairs. In making these decisions, the 
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs will take into 
account the extent to which grants approved for funding will provide an 
appropriate geographic distribution of resources, the priorities in 
sec. 2005(a), and the other factors in sec. 2005, including 
consideration of:
    (1) The applicant's capacity to administer funds responsible;
    (2) The incidence of adolescent pregnancy and the availability of 
services in the geographic area to be served;
    (3) The population to be served;
    (4) The community commitment to and involvement in planning and 
implementation of the demonstration project;
    (5) The organizational model(s) for delivery of service;
    (6) The usefulness for policymakers and service providers of the 
proposed project and its potential for complementing existing 
adolescent healthmodels;
    (7) The reasonableness of the estimated cost to the government 
considering the anticipated results.
    OAPP does not release information about individual applications 
during the review process until final funding decisions have been made. 
When these decisions have been made, applicants will be notified by 
letter of the outcome of their applications. The official document 
notifying an applicant that an application has been approved for 
funding is the Notice of Grant Award, which specifies to the grantee 
the amount of money awarded, the purpose of the grant, the terms and 
conditions of the grant award, and the amount of funding to be 
contributed by the grantee to project costs.

    Dated: January 17, 1997.
Thomas C. Kring,
Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs.
[FR Doc. 97-6307 Filed 3-12-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4160-17-M