The Runaway and Homeless Youth Act, as amended, authorizes federal funding in the form of discretionary grants for three programs to assist runaway and homeless youth. These programs are administered by the Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) within HHS’s Administration for Children and Families (ACF). The three programs—the Basic Center Program, Transitional Living Program, and Street Outreach Program— enable local public and private organizations and shelters in all 50 states and the U.S. territories to compete for grants that allow them to serve runaway, homeless, and sexually exploited youth who may be on the streets and in need of shelter or longer-term support. The Basic Center Program provides temporary shelter, counseling, and other services to runaway and homeless youth under the age of 18. Basic Center grants are awarded competitively to providers and may be awarded for a period of up to 3 years. The Transitional Living Program provides homeless youth ages 16 through 21 with longer-term residential services for up to 18 months. These services include such things as counseling and education in basic life skills, interpersonal skills, educational advancement, job attainment skills, and physical and mental health care. Transitional Living grants are awarded competitively to providers and may be awarded for up to 5 years. The Street Outreach Program provides education, treatment, counseling, and referrals for runaway, homeless youth under the age of 18 who have been subjected to or are at risk of being sexually abused and exploited. Street Outreach grants may be awarded for up to 3 years. See figure 1 for key aspects of these three programs. For fiscal years 2002 through 2009, funding for these programs has been just over $100 million in total, with Basic Center funding representing the largest dollar amount authorized of the three grant programs. Funding for these programs over the past several years is shown in table 1. HHS’s grant award process for Runaway and Homeless Youth grants is comprised of several major steps. HHS’s Family and Youth Services Bureau, which is referred to as the Program Office, and the Grants Management Office are responsible for carrying out and overseeing this process. Some of the steps in the grant award process are performed by contractors on behalf of the agency, and one step in the process is performed by panels of peer reviewers selected by the agency to evaluate grant applications. The grant award process consists of the major steps as illustrated in figure 2. Grant Announcement: Each fiscal year, the agency develops and publishes a grant announcement for each grant program. Announcements provide the information potential applicants need to determine if they are eligible to apply and the instructions on how to complete and submit their application. In addition, they include the criteria used to evaluate applications. Technical Assistance: Each announcement lists the technical service providers responsible for providing technical assistance to potential applicants to help them understand the announcement requirements. Technical assistance can be provided through a webinar, seminar, information on the Web, or upon request. Application Submission: Applications may be submitted electronically via Grants.gov or by hard copy via mail or other delivery service. Applicants may also hand deliver their application to the agency’s contractor responsible for receiving the applications. The deadline for submitting applications is usually 45 to 60 days after an announcement is published. Application Pre-Screening: Applications are prescreened to determine whether they meet two requirements. Applications are eliminated from review if they are received after the deadline or if they request more funding than the maximum amount specified in the announcement. Peer Review of Applications: Applications remaining after pre- screening are submitted to peer review panels. A panel generally consists of three peer reviewers, who apply the evaluation criteria contained in the announcement to applications and score the applications, and a panel chair responsible for facilitating consensus of the peer review panel. Peer reviewers assign points to each application, based upon specific criteria that are outlined in the announcement. The points are added up and the applicant’s average score is derived. This score, ranging from 0 to 100, becomes the basis for the ranked listing of applicants which the agency uses in its award decisions. Because applicants whose score places them below the total available funding limit may be denied a grant, a single point can make a difference between awarding a grant and denying a grant. Final Grant Award Decisions: Taking into account peer review panel scores and comments for each application and, in some cases, other factors, the Program Office and the Grants Management Office make the final award decisions. These decisions are documented in the final funding award decision memos, which contain the listing of all applicants, ranked by their scores, and the final award decisions. Notification of Award Decisions: Each applicant is sent a letter that communicates the grant award decision. Successful applicants are notified before letters are sent to unsuccessful applicants. application, including those for Runaway and Homeless Youth Grants, must receive an objective, “…advisory review...by a minimum of three unbiased reviewers with expertise in the programmatic area for which applications are submitted.” To meet this requirement, the agency relies on the peer review process, in which three reviewers convene to evaluate and score applications based on the criteria outlined in the announcement. The peer reviewers are defined by the agency as experts in the field of runaway and homeless youth programs. Figure 3 provides an overview of the peer review process. HHS awarded grants to about one-quarter of the applicants that applied in 2007 and 2008, as shown in table 2. Based on the grant announcements we reviewed and our observation of the peer review process, the criteria upon which grant applications would be evaluated were not clearly defined in a single location in the announcement. Rather, we found that criteria were scattered throughout various sections of the announcement, had multiple labels, and were not presented in an orderly manner in a single location. For example, for the 2009 Street Outreach Program grant competition, grant applications were evaluated and scored based on how well they addressed criteria contained in three different sections of the announcement. First, applicants must address the “Program Requirements,” found in Section 1 of the announcement. Second, applicants must address the “Project Description,” found in Section 4. Third, applicants must address the “Evaluation Criteria” found in Section 5. However, only the “Evaluation Criteria” section of the announcement explicitly described how their responses would be evaluated and scored. Because the applicant must address criteria contained in different sections of the announcement, if applicants focused primarily on responding to the “Evaluation Criteria” they may not have adequately addressed information in the other sections. If the applicants focused only on the “Evaluation Criteria,” these applicants could have received lower scores, which would have decreased their likelihood of being awarded grants. Figure 4 represents the various locations where we found descriptions of criteria. Additionally, peer reviewers we interviewed noted that consolidation of criteria in the announcement into a single location would aid them in their evaluation of applications by reducing the time it would take to review the application because they would not need to look in multiple places in the application for information. During our observation of the 2009 Street Outreach Program grant competition, we found that the agency provided detailed guidance to peer reviewers to help them evaluate and score applications. This guidance, which was not available to applicants, consolidated information from various sections of the announcement. The federal officials instructed reviewers to focus on specific information when evaluating and scoring applications. Because applicants did not have this detailed guidance, which combined information from various parts of the announcement, applicants may not have had full knowledge of what information was critical to receiving a high score. Table 3 shows examples of the guidance provided to peer reviewers during the 2009 Street Outreach Program grant competition. ACF provides technical assistance to potential applicants for runaway and homeless youth grants, as required by statute. Technical assistance is generally defined as providing expertise or support to applicants and grantees for the purpose of strengthening their capabilities for providing shelter and support services for runaway and homeless youth. In fiscal years 2006 and 2007, the agency provided technical assistance to potential applicants through its regional network of 10 providers, and listed these providers in its announcements. However, beginning in September 2007, ACF centralized its technical assistance in order to provide more consistent technical assistance for all applicants, regardless of where they were located. At that time, the agency entered into cooperative agreements with the University of Oklahoma to provide technical assistance nationwide. Through its providers, the agency coordinates technical assistance, which generally consists of a pre-application conference (webinar) covering the application requirements such as the project description, eligibility, and the evaluation criteria, among other things. After the conference, a recording and transcript is posted on the agency Web site. Potential applicants may also ask specific questions of the contacts listed on the announcement. These contacts include the Program Office officials and technical assistance providers. If the technical assistance providers cannot answer the questions, they coordinate with agency staff to obtain responses that are then posted to the Web site. The technical assistance providers also arrange seminars on broader topics related to runaway youth, such as mental health, crisis intervention, and skills training. Most of the applicants we interviewed who received technical assistance under both systems reported that they found it helpful. For example, 17 of the 20 applicants who sought technical assistance were satisfied with the help they received. However, three of these applicants said they prefer the technical assistance provided by their regional providers because of such things as the regional assistance being more “hands-on,” the regional staff being more responsive and accessible, and the regional staff being more knowledgeable of local programs. Agency officials noted that the agency has moved toward centralized approach to gain a more consistent approach to the technical assistance it provides. ACF’s process for determining which grant applicants will be awarded grants is primarily based on the results of the peer review process, which has weak internal controls to ensure that applications are evaluated consistently. According to GAO standards, internal controls should provide reasonable assurance that the agency’s objectives, such as providing grants to the most qualified providers, are being achieved.