Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 83 /Thursday, April 30, 1998 / Notices 23803

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Employment and Training

Administration

Job Training Partnership Act; Project

Title: Systematic Approach-Profile/

Referral Welfare Participants

AGENCY: Employment and Training

Administration, Labor.

ACTION: Notice of availability of funds

and solicitation for grant applications

(SGA).

SUMMARY: All information required to

submit a grant application by eligible

applicants is contained in this

announcement. The U.S. Department of

Labor (DOL), Employment and Training

Administration (ETA), announces the

availability of funds for demonstration

projects to provide additional testing of

a profiling process whereby State and

local officials can allocate

reemployment and training services

under the major requirements of the

new legislation, the Personal

Responsibility and Work Opportunity

Act of 1996. The program will be

funded by the Job Training Partnership

Act, (JTPA), Titles III and IV.

This notice provides information on

the process that eligible entities must

use to apply for demonstration funds,

how grantees are to be selected, and the

responsibilities of grantees.

DATES: The closing date for receipt of

proposals is May 29, 1998, at 2:00 p.m.

(Eastern Time).

ADDRESSES: Applications shall be

mailed to: U.S. Department of Labor,

Employment and Training

Administration, Division of Acquisition

and Assistance, Attention: Marian G.

Floyd, 200 Constitution Avenue, NW,

Room S–4203, Washington, DC 20210,

Reference: SGA/DAA 98–010.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Marian G. Floyd, Division of

Acquisition and Assistance. Telephone

202–219–7300, ext. 142 (this is not a

toll-free number).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: U.S.

Department of Labor, Employment and

Training Administration, is soliciting

proposals on a competitive basis to

provide additional testing of a profiling

process whereby State and local officials

can allocate reemployment and training

services. The announcement consists of

four parts. Part I describes the

application process for eligible

applicants who wish to apply for grant

funds. Part II provides the Government’s

Required Statement of Work. Part III

provides the deliverables and

timetables. Part IV describes the

selection criteria for award.

Part I. Application Process

A. Eligibility

Eligible applicants are State Security

Agencies (SESAs) and Service Delivery

Areas (SDAs) as designated by the State

under JTPA, within States containing a

minimum of 0.50% of welfare recipients

as a percentage of the national welfare

recipient population as of June 30, 1997.

B. Period of Performance

The Period of Performance will be

twenty-one (21) months from date of

grant execution.

C. Funding

The Department anticipates awarding

three (3) to five (5) grants between

$75,000 and $100,000 per grant, for a

total of $400,000. Applications that

exceed $100,000 will not be considered.

Awards will be made on a competitive

basis.

D. Matching Funds

Applicants will be expected to

provide at least a 60 percent match of

the Federal funding with an in-kind or

cash contribution to assure a jointly

administered pilot program. Also,

applicants may use the expertise,

experience, and data and computer

facilities of universities or other

interested research centers. Applicants

are further encouraged to coordinate

with the Temporary Assistance to

Needy Families (TANF) grantee agency

in their areas.

E. Page Limitation

Applicant’s technical proposal shall

be limited to 20 double-spaced, singlesided pages with 1-inch margins. Text

type shall be at least 10 pitch or larger.

Applications that do not meet these

requirements will not be considered.

F. Submission of Proposal

Four (4) copies of the proposal (an

original and three copies) must be

received. Your proposal must be

organized in the following manner:

Section I—Financial and Summary

Information (this section does not count

against your page limitation.)

(1) Standard Form (SF)–424;

‘‘Application for Federal Assistance’’

(Appendix A). The Federal Domestic

Assistance Catalog number 17.246.

(2) A one or two page summary of

your proposed project which shall

include information on the number of

welfare recipients in the State and

proposed target area.

(3) ‘‘Budget Information’’, (Appendix

B). Also include, on separate pages, a

detailed breakout of each proposed

budget line item.

Section II—Technical Proposal

(limited to 20 pages).

Your technical proposal must

demonstrate the grant applicant’s

capabilities in accordance with the

Statement of Work in Part II of this

solicitation. No cost data or reference to

costs shall be included in the Technical

Proposal. Applicants must also include

resumes of proposed staff and an

organizational chart.

G. Hand Delivered Proposals

Proposals may be mailed or delivered

by hand. A mailed proposal should be

mailed no later than five (5) calendar

days prior to the closing date for the

receipt of applications. Hand-delivered

grant applications must be received at

the designated place by 2:00 p.m.

(Eastern Time), on the closing date for

receipt of applications. All overnight

mail shall be considered to be handdelivered and must be received at the

designated place by the specified time

on the closing date. Telegraphed,

electronic mail, or faxed proposals will

not be honored. Applications that fail to

adhere to the above instructions will not

be honored.

H. Late Proposals

A proposal received at the office

designated in the solicitation after the

exact time specified for receipt will not

be considered unless it is received

before award is made and it—

(1) Was sent by U.S. Postal Service

Express Mail Next Day service, Post

Office to Addressee not later than 5:00

p.m. at the place of mailing two working

days prior to the date specified for

receipt of the proposals. The term

‘‘working days’’ excludes weekends and

U.S. Federal holidays.

(2) Was sent by registered or certified

mail not later than the fifth calendar day

before the date specified for receipt of

applications (e.g., an offer submitted in

response to a solicitation requiring

receipt of applications by the 20th of the

month must be mailed by the 15th);

The term ‘‘post-mark’’ means a

printed, stamped, or otherwise placed

impression (exclusive of a postage meter

machine impression) that is readily

identifiable without further action as

having been supplied in the original

receipt from the U.S. Postal Service.

Both postmarks must show a legible

date, or the application shall be

processed as though it had been mailed

late. ‘‘Post-mark’’ means a printed,

stamped, or otherwise placed

impression (exclusive of a postage meter

machine impression) that is readily

identifiable without further action as
23804 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 83 /Thursday, April 30, 1998 / Notices

having been supplied and affixed by an

employee of the U.S. Postal Service on

the date of mailing. Therefore,

applicants should request the postal

clerk to place a legible hand

cancellation ‘‘bull’s eye’’ postmark on

both the receipt and the envelope or

wrapper.

I. Withdrawal of Proposals

A grant applications may be

withdrawn by written notice or telegram

(including mailgram) received at any

time before the awarding of a grant. An

application may be withdrawn in

person by the grant applicant, or by an

authorized representative of the grant

applicant if the representative’s identity

is made known and the representative

signs a receipt for the proposal.

Part II. Statement of Work

A. Purpose

The purpose of this solicitation is to

fund pilot projects to adapt, test and

implement a profiling and referral

model for welfare recipients. The

Department wants to expand the pilot

sites to include a variety of State

Agencies or SDAs with emphasis placed

on the metropolitan areas with high

welfare caseloads. The projects will be

developing models which:

1. Identify welfare recipients by using

welfare administrative data taken from

applications/initial interviews for use in

determining the participants probability

of finding (or not finding) employment

within a defined time period.

2. Provide a systematic approach for

determining, referring, and following up

participants within the agencies to

determine the efficacy of the model,

with computer communications

available and used by major parties,

including TANF grantees, JTPA entities,

and SESAs.

B. Background

States and localities are facing

significant challenges resulting from the

recent passage of federal welfare reform

legislation. They are confronted with

the dilemma of moving large numbers of

welfare recipients into jobs to provide

reemployment assistance to participants

in Welfare-to-Work (WTW) programs.

Currently, a demonstration in

Kalamazoo, Michigan is testing a

profiling model that will assist States

dealing with this problem. This

solicitation will provide for additional

testing of a profiling process, which, if

successful, will enable State and local

officials to allocate reemployment and

training services in a cost effective

manner and fulfill the requirements of

the new legislation, the Personal

Responsibility and Work Opportunity

Act of 1996 (PWRO).

Profiling is an early intervention

approach for providing welfare

recipients with reemployment services

to help speed their entry/reentry into

productive employment. It consists of

two components: a profiling mechanism

and a set of reemployment services. It is

the goal of welfare profiling to predict

the probability that individual welfare

recipients will find employment, based

on administrative data that is collected

at the time individuals apply for

welfare.

The model developed for a locality is

based on historical data for a recent past

period of one to two years duration. It

can then be applied to current welfare

recipients to determine the level and

kinds of employment services that

should be provided to particular

individuals. Welfare profiling is a

targeting tool that can be used by

program managers to guide them in

their assignment of welfare recipients to

available employment services. It can

also be used as an allocation tool to

assist in determining which welfare

recipients should be assigned to limited

employment services.

The concept of profiling is not new.

The Unemployment Insurance (UI)

program has been profiling since 1994

to assist dislocated workers in their

transition to new employment. The

creation of the Worker Profiling and

Reemployment Services (WPRS) system

represents a major development for the

employment and training system.

Throughout its history, UI had been

concerned solely with providing

temporary compensation to eligible

unemployed people while they look for

a new job. However, as economic

conditions have changed and permanent

dislocation of workers has become a

more common phenomenon, UI has

expanded the scope of its mission to

attend more adequately to the needs of

dislocated workers who are likely to

exhaust their UI benefits before finding

a new job.

UI now profiles claimants to

determine their likelihood to exhaust

their benefits. Claimants who have the

highest probabilities of exhaustion are

referred to reemployment services

—provided by the Employment Service

(ES) and JTPA—as a condition of

continued eligibility for benefits. The

success employment and training

programs have had in the early years of

implementation of WPRS strongly

suggests that this model can be applied

in other areas (like welfare-to-work) to

target services more effectively.

The Kalamazoo Welfare-to-Work

Profiling pilot has developed a PC-based

software program that incorporates into

the client intake system the process of

assigning probabilities of employment

and referring participants to services. It

is designed to be used at the intake site

during the initial orientation as

individuals are enrolled in the welfareto-work program. This software package

can be adapted to welfare-to-work

programs at other sites and is available

at no cost to agencies involved in this

initiative. The program, constructed

using standard database software,

integrates and automates the various

steps in the intake process.

The intake administrator can use this

program in the following way. First,

client information that has been

previously collected is entered into the

database. Second, the administrator is

notified of missing information, which

can be updated by asking the client to

furnish that information during intake.

Third, based on the client information

and the predetermined weights

generated from the statistical model,

probabilities of employment are

assigned to each individual. Fourth, the

administrator enters the number of slots

available in the various services, and the

program refers clients to these services

based upon their probabilities and a preassessment of the efficacy of these

services for clients with various needs.

Fifth, referral slips are printed for each

client as a reminder of their assignment

to services. Sixth, all relevant

information is stored in the database.

C. Project Design

Starting with the experience derived

from developing and implementing the

Kalamazoo model, the purpose of the

project is to adapt or modify, test, and

implement a profiling system geared to

assisting welfare recipients in acquiring

the services needed to obtain gainful

employment.

The pilot will be based on the

Kalamazoo WTW profiling model

which, in turn, takes as its starting point

the approach used by the Worker

Profiling and Reemployment Services,

which was mandated by Congress (Pub.

L.103–152). (The WTW profiling paper

for the Kalamazoo, Saint Joseph County

SDA is available from the W.E. Upjohn

Institute for Employment Research, as a

working paper on their website at: http:/

/www.upjohninst.org/publication/wp).

This model should have value for

welfare recipients because it uses a

targeting approach to allow custom

targeting of scarce resources for welfare

recipients.

The major tasks are as follows:

• The State Agency/SDA will adapt

or modify and test a profiling model for

the selected area that requires a two step
Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 83 /Thursday, April 30, 1998 / Notices 23805

process. First, appropriate data for

estimating the statistical profiling model

will be developed using recent welfare

and work history of recipients eligible

for welfare. Second, a statistical model

will be adapted that uses the data to

estimate the probability that an

individual participant will find

employment. This involves

benchmarking results from a sample and

applying results to characteristics for

predicted levels for individuals.

• The State Agency/SDA will

implement the profile and referral

system within the area using the

characteristics of each welfare recipient

to generate probabilities of long term

welfare recipiency for individuals

entering the welfare program. Based

upon the probabilities, welfare

participants will be referred to services

that best meet their needs. This will

require participant data collection and

processing. Successful implementation

and outcomes of the profiling and

referral system will require the ability of

states and SDAs to vary their mix and

intensity of services to participants

according to their estimated

probabilities of employment.

• The State Agency/SDA will assess

effectiveness of the project within the

area and based upon its experience,

provide a general evaluation strategy for

other SDA’s/other states. They further

agree to provide the model and

documentation for further testing and

evaluation to a sample of SDA’s within

ETA’s pilot program and work with and

provide data to related research

contractors funded by ETA as part of

this project.

Part III. Deliverables and Timetables

The Period of performance is 21

months from the date of execution of the

grant. The deliverables and due dates

are as follows: (The due dates are

subject to negotiations between the

grantee and the Grant Officer’s

Technical Representative (GOTR).)

• Paper illustrating the adaptation

and testing of the profiling model. This

includes the appropriate data, recent

welfare and work history of welfare

eligibles for estimating the model. This

includes a benchmark for assessing the

accuracy of the model. This will be due

approximately 150 days after award.

• Paper describing implementation of

the profiling and referral system

focusing on the results from the area.

This will involve tracking and

processing information on a sample of

participants. (A process and impact

analysis) This would be due 180 days

after award.

• Grantees will prepare periodic and

final program and financial reports as

stipulated in the grant agreement.

Part IV. Selection/Evaluation Criteria

Selection of grantees for awards will

be made after careful evaluation of grant

applications by a panel selected for that

purpose by DOL. Panel results shall be

advisory in nature and not binding on

the Grant Officer. Panelists shall

evaluate applications for acceptability

based upon overall responsiveness to

the Statement of Work, with emphasis

on the factors enumerated below.

Applicants are advised that awards may

be made without further discussions.

a. Design and implementation plan for

a profiling model for the area served. (40

points)

b. Plan for participating in the

assessment of the effectiveness of the

project (it will include a process and

impact analysis). (25 points)

c. Relationship and linkages with

other organizations and agencies within

the service area. (20 points) This should

include agencies which traditionally

serve the target population (welfare

recipients).

d. Experience and qualifications of

key staff. (15 points)

Applicants are advised that letters of

support are not necessary.

Signed at Washington, DC, this 27th day of

April 1998.

Janice E. Perry,

Grant Officer.

Appendices

Appendix A—Application for Federal

Assistance (Standard Form (SF)–424)

Appendix B—Budget Information

BILLING CODE 4510–30–P
23806 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 83 /Thursday, April 30, 1998 / Notices
Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 83 /Thursday, April 30, 1998 / Notices 23807
23808 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 83 /Thursday, April 30, 1998 / Notices

FR Doc. 98–11490 Filed 4–29–98; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4510–30–C