The Office of Community Services (OCS) within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) will support a funding opportunity for six (6) three-year cooperative agreements for the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) Communities of Practice (CoP).

Six CoPs will be established to provide training and technical assistance (TTA). These CoPs will include CSBG-funded states, territories, and tribes, and CSBG state associations and eligible entities. The specialized TTA must: account for regional, state, city, county, tribal, and community characteristics (i.e., jurisdictional levels, demographic categories, socioeconomic tiers, community resources, etc.); be based on evidence-informed TTA models specific to the assigned CoPs; and include scalable approaches that states, territories, state associations, tribes, and CSBG-eligible entities can implement to support individuals and families with low incomes as they progress towards economic security.

The six award recipients will be required to provide their respective grouping of CSBG states, territories, tribes, state associations, and eligible entities with capacity-building that creates scalable, evidence-informed interventions that improve earned income, employment stability, and asset development for families with low incomes through coordinated service delivery and systems alignment.

TTA developed under these CoPs will advance community-level strategies that prevent and reduce barriers to attaining economic mobility; education and workforce development; transportation; and access to safe and stable housing, including support for the A Home for Every Child administrative priority. Each CoP is expected to invest in partnerships to support data-driven decision-making and infrastructure that strengthens service delivery, enhances reporting and compliance, and reduces opportunities for fraud, waste, and abuse across the Network.

Government

• City or township governments
• Federally recognized Native American tribal governments
• Public and Indian housing authorities
• Special district governments
• State governments
• County governments

Education

• Public and state institutions of higher education
• Private institutions of higher education
• Independent school districts

Nonprofit

• Nonprofits non-higher education with 501(c)(3)
• Other Native American tribal organizations
• Nonprofits non-higher education without 501(c)(3)

Miscellaneous

• Other

Business

• For-profit organizations other than small businesses
• Small businesses