Services Technical Assistance Conference Call

FTS-DHHS

Moderator: Sue Moskosky
November 5, 2008
1:00 pm CT

Coordinator: Thank you for standing by. At this time all participants are in a listen only mode. During the question and answer session please press star 1 on your touch tone phone.

Today’s conference is being recorded, if you have any objections you may disconnect at this time. I’ll now turn the meeting over to Sue Moskosky, thank you, you may begin.

Sue Moskosky: Hi, and I’d like to welcome everyone to the family planning services Grant Technical Assistance conference call that’s being held this afternoon and welcome all of you that are planning to become applicants or considering become applicants for the titles and family planning services opportunities.

We’re going to be talking today about providing some general technical assistance to you. We won’t be answering any specific individual specific questions that are in reference to any of your individual grant applications.

But we will be providing you with some general information, hopefully all of you have printed the PowerPoint presentation and also have a copy of the application kit in front of you.

The people that will be speaking this afternoon are myself, the Director of the Office of Family Planning is my title, and Karen Campbell who is the Director of the Office of Grants Management for the entire Office of Public Health and Science within the Department of Health and Human Services.

What you’ll be needing to have in front of you are the overview of - or what we’re going to be talking about today actually is the overview of the Office of Population Affairs and Office of Family Planning which administers the Title 10 family planning program.

The 2009 funding analysis for family planning services including application and award information, application required forms and other information, the application narrative, the application budget, a little bit about application submissions, application review and the funding process.

And then we’ll close with a summary and some tips on completing your application. In terms of materials that you need for the call today, first of all the program announcement for 2009, family planning services which can be found in either grant solutions or grants.gov.

And hopefully you have those website addresses in front of you, if you need to plug into those or have it printed out and in front of you. Also we’ll be - we would hope that you would have printed and in front of you some of the application tip materials including the OPHS-1 grant application version 3, the guidelines for Title 10 grant application preparation from July of 2008.

The program guidelines for project grants for family planning services from January 2001 and I apologize, on the PowerPoint it says July 2009 but that’s actually just July 2008 grant application guidance.

But it does apply to the ’09 services announcement, so that’s probably why it ended up having that date on it. In terms of a little overview of the Office of Population Affairs and the Office of Family Planning, if you look at the first slide that has pictures of the current Secretary of Health and Human Services who is Michael Leavitt.

And the Office of Population Affairs is within an office called the Office of Public Health and Science that actually is administered under the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health who is Dr. Joxel Garcia.

If you look at the next slide it shows you a little bit of the organizational structure. As I mentioned the Office of Public Health and Science is one of the agencies within the US Department of Health and Human Services and you can see that the Office of Population Affairs is one of a number of offices within the Office of Public Health and Science.

Although it really is as all of those offices that are listed, the Office of the Surgeon General, the Office of Minority Health, Women’s Health, Office of HIV/AIDS policy, all of those various offices that are listed there, the family planning program is really the only office within those that this service provision, the clinical services provision program.

So while it looks like a number of offices actually the Office of Population Affairs I think our budget probably is the biggest of most of these that are in here.

Within the Office of Population Affairs, the Office of Family Planning has programmatic responsibility for all of the Title 10 program we’re also in Knoxville, the policy office for all OSP programs.

We have oversight of projects that have national scope such as national training centers and the actual management of the service program is a decentralized process and we have programs, activities that are conducted through our ten regional offices that are across the country and we’ll talk a little bit about those a little bit later on.

The Office of Grants Management is actually the Office of Grants Management for all of the OPHS agencies that you saw listed on the previous slide. They have administrative business and budgetary responsibilities for all of the OPHS programs.

They are responsible for grant administration, grant policy directives, the grants policy statement and federal rules that are applicable to all grants and in addition to Title 10 family planning program requirements all of our grantees that are funded are required to be - to adhere to all grants management, directives, the branch policy statement and all of the federal rules that apply to grants in addition to the Title 10 requirements.

The Office of Grants Management is responsible for the pre-award process, the notice of grant award, all of the post award processes such as budget revisions, financial status reports, audit resolution and grant closeout.

And the Office of Grants Management is where the official records for any of our grantees once they are funded reside. So they are the official point of contact for all grants activities.

The next slide is - it’s a bare bones organizational structure of the Office of Population Affairs. The Office of Population Affairs is generally headed by a political appointee known as a deputy assistant secretary for population affairs.

Currently we don’t have a political appointee and Evelyn Kappeler who is a career staff person within the Office of Population Affairs has functioned as the acting director for OPA for the last several months.

And then you can see that there are three offices within the Office of Population Affairs, the Office of Family Planning, which I direct, the Office of Research and Evaluation which is headed by Dr. Pat Thompson and the Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Programs which has an acting director whose name is Alicia Richmond Scott.

And then we have two regional program offices and if you look at the next slide you can see that it - the program or the country is divided into ten public health service regions.

The regional offices for those regions are all located in major cities and each of these particular regions or regional offices actually oversees a group of states and territories and they provide oversight for the Title 10 service grantees and regional training center grantees within those regions.

All of the regional offices are staffed by project officers, some of whom have titles like regional program consultant or nurse consultant or project officer or public health advisor.

And those folks who are actually Office of Family Planning staff monitor grant activity, conduct site visits, conduct program reviews and provide programmatic support and technical assistance to our grantees.

In terms of the Title 10 family planning program there’s several different sections of the Title 10 statute. And the Title 10 and public health service act authorizes our grants programs, all of which are discretionary or competitive grants.

And these are the various sections, section 1001 is the biggest section of Title 10 and it’s the section which actually governs how services are to be provided. Section 1002 which has never been utilized is the section formula grants for family planning services.

Section 1003 gives us authority to conduct training, section 1004 is our research authority, 1005 is our authority for information and education, 1006 is regulations and payment, 1007 is a statute talks about the program being voluntary and participation in the program being voluntary.

And section 1008 prohibits abortion activities in programs that receive Title 10 funds. So in terms of the services program there are more than 4500 clinics throughout the system that receive Title 10 funding.

And approximately 5 million people are served through our clinics every year. Our training authority, actually currently we’re funding 13 different types of training grantees. We have a general training center, one that’s in each of the regions.

We have a national clinical training center, a (Mayo) family planning training center and a national training center. In terms of the Title 10 research activities, we fund a variety of research activities that are all for the purpose of improving the delivery of services under the Title 10 program.

We also with our research funding help to support the national survey of family growth. We collect a number of different types of data through the family planning annual report.

And that’s our research authority through the section 1005 which is the information and education section we fund a Title 10 clearing house that offers publications free of charge.

And also the Title 10 clearing house or OPA clearing house keeps a current list of our clinics and grantees and allows us to do mailings to them periodically.

In terms of the Title 10 program the mission of the program is to provide individuals with information and means to exercise personal choice in determining the number and spacing of their children.

So it’s not just to help prevent unintended pregnancies but also to help people who want to achieve intended pregnancies to be able to do that.

So the purpose of the Title 10 program is to make certain that people who want and need family planning services can receive those services and priority is given to individuals from low income families.

About 91% of the clients that receive services in Title 10 clinics are at or below 200% of the federal poverty level.

Also one of the other purposes of the Title 10 program is to provide individuals with educational, medical and social services that they need to plan their families and another purpose is to include related preventive health services such as pap tests, breast exams, HIV and STD tests and other services that are related to reproductive health and family planning.

In terms of the service grants requirements, Title 10 funded family planning services must be voluntary. Services must be provided confidentially. They must be provided to any person whether male or female desiring services with priority for person from low income families.

And when we say that they have to be provided to any person that means under the same requirements in that they have to be provided to males as well as females based on a sliding fee schedule and provided to them regardless of their ability to pay.

All first services under the Title 10 program are to be provided under the direction of physician with training or experience in family planning.

A lot of the direct services in terms of who actually provides the direct services may be nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives, physician assistants, but there has to be a medical director that actually supervisors provision of care within the Title 10 programs.

In terms of the scope of Title 10 service requirements, our grantees are required to provide a broad range of acceptable and effective family planning methods. That means - has meant for the last several years that effective and acceptable means that they have to be FDA approved methods of contraception.

Another Title 10 requirement is for physical exam and related preventive health services, pregnancy diagnosis and counseling, adolescent services, clinical procedures as indicated for the method of contraception that the client has chosen as well as lab tests that are indicated for the method chosen.

Level one infertility services which are basically the services that would initiate a workup to determine if the person might be infertile are required as the provided - or provided as a required service.

And also STD and HIV prevention education must be provided and then testing must be provided either on sight or by referral.

In terms of the current Title 10 service grantee profile, we currently have 88 service grantees across the country. We have at least one grantee in every state and territory across the country, slightly more than half of our grantees are state or local or county health departments.

And then a number of other types of agencies, university based grantees, faith based, community based, not for profit are all the types of grantees that we fund including some planned parenthood.

Currently as I mentioned before we have slightly more than 4500 clinics that receive funds through those 88 service grantees, and there’s at least one Title 10 funded clinic in all US counties and as mentioned before, about 5 million individuals are served annually with family planning and related preventive health care services.

We’re now going to talk a little bit about the family planning funding announcement, and starting with the application and award information as well as application form narrative and budget.

So hopefully all of you have in front of you the 2009 family planning funding announcement.

This lists the availability of funds for family planning service grants. It stipulates that applicants must be able to also comprehensive service program that provide all of the Title 10 required services according to the statute regulations and guidelines.

And family planning services include clinical family planning and related preventive health services, information, education counseling related to family planning and referral as indicated.

Also within the 2009 funding opportunity are OPA program priorities for fiscal year 2009 as well as legislative mandates and key issues, all of which need to be addressed within the application.

The next slide just shows where to find the application related information which is in both grants.gov and grantsolutions.gov and you don’t have to have a password to get in initially to be able to get the application materials.

If you’re not already in the system you can get those just by going on those Web sites. In terms of application and award information, eligible applications include any public or non-profit private entity that is located in a US state or territory.

And if it’s your first time with applying for funding you must provide proof of non-profit status if you’re a private non-profit entity. Also faith based and community based organizations including American Indian, Alaska Native and Native American organizations are all eligible applicants.

And the applicant must demonstrate the capacity to carry out the requirements of the project as illustrated in the application that they are completing.

In terms of the 2009 Title 10 program announcement, it provides information and guidance related to Title 10 applications and please follow the program announcement carefully.

The information that’s provided in the program announcement takes precedence over any other conflicting information in other grant related documents.

For instance if there was some place within the application, the guidelines for Title 10 grant application preparation that would conflict with the 2009 family planning services announcement, this 2009 family planning services announcement requirements take precedence.

I don’t think that there are any conflicts, but if there were the announcement takes precedence.

In the Title 10 program announcement for 2009 there’s a table, I think it’s the only table that’s in the actual announcement, it’s labeled as Table 1, and it includes a listing of the service areas that are competitive in ’09 as well as the approximate funds that are available and application due date for that particular service area.

The application due dates and grant funding dates vary by service area but they are clearly indicated in Table 1 and there may be multiple awards for the service areas that are listed in Table 1.

So for instance it might list an entire state as a service area that’s competitive but that doesn’t necessarily mean that only one grant will be awarded for that state.

The approximate award amount listed includes indirect costs and the total awards will not exceed those that are listed in Table 1. So if you send in an application that far exceeds the amount that’s listed in table one as being available, your application may be viewed as being non-responsive.

In terms of grant application preparation, the OPHS-1 version 3.0 has standard application forms and instructions such as the base pay, the budget forms, the certifications and assurances that must be submitted.

Please be complete, don’t leave any blanks on the forms unless the information is not applicable. If it’s not applicable please indicate that it’s not applicable but please don’t skip any of the blanks.

Also the individual that is signing the OPHS application forms must have the legal authority to act on behalf of the organization. In terms of guidelines for Title 10 grant application preparation which is the document that’s listed as Guidelines for Title 10 Grant Application Preparation, July of 2008.

This particular document provides a detailed description of all the application requirements including the application style and sequence, the application submission mechanism, the required forms and where to find them, application content including narrative and budget requirements, the required exhibits and also information on appendices.

Please pay close attention to these guidelines and the program announcement when you’re preparing your application. In terms of other information that is important for you to pay attention to, refer to grantsolutions.gov for additional required forms such as Title 10 assurances and the HHS 690 application checklists and notification forms.

Also federal grants management requirements related to all federal grants, the Title 10 statute regulations and guidelines, program instructions and other related family planning background information, the Title 10 program reporting requirements and the regional office contact information.

And all of these documents are important for informing the development of your successful Title 10 application and they can all be found up in grant solutions.

In terms of the general application content, your application must clearly describe the administrative management and clinical capability of your - of the applicant to deliver the required services.

And the proposed project must include all of the required clinical services and you can refer to the regulations in the Title 10 guidelines in determining what that means.

Also characteristics of a successful application are included in the announcement such as evidence of systems for services provisions, a quality assurance system, monitoring of delegate agencies, reporting of abuse, personnel administration and fiscal management.

In terms of application content, you’re going to need to provide the required forms, table of contents, a project narrative which is limited to 65 pages and includes a needs assessment, the applicant and project information which includes organizational management, clinical service systems, community education and outreach, quality assurance, financial management, a family planning service delivery plan that includes the work plan and an evaluation plan.

And then finally your budget information which will include a detailed budget and budget justification. The project narrative is the part that’s limited to 65 pages, that does not include the table of contents and the budget information.

In terms of application required forms and other information, if you are a new applicant meaning you haven’t received funds through us before, you need to submit a Dunn’s number, a one page HHS project abstract that will be used as an application summary, the SF424 application for federal assistance, the SF424A budget information.

All of these do have to be included with any application for new funding, so a competing application needs to include all of these. The OPHS check list, the disclosure of lobbying activities, the HHS 690 assurance of compliance, the Title 10 assurance of compliance, the grant application checklist for competing family planning service grants, the notification of project management forms, evidence of non-profit status if applicable, this would be if you were a brand new applicant, and an indirect cost rate agreement if you are claiming indirect costs.

In terms of the application narrative, the suggested sequence and format for the narrative and budget sections of the application are provided in the guidelines for Title 10 grant application preparation.

As I mentioned already a couple of times the application narrative is limited to 65 double spaced pages using 12 point font. Again this does not include the required forms, the budget, the budget justification, the assurances, certifications and the abstract.

If the application exceeds 65 pages, only the first 65 pages will be read, and please limit the appendices that are included with the application to only those which are absolutely necessary.

If an application is supposed to be 65 pages and a reviewer receives an application of 300 pages, I can tell you that it does not encourage objective reviewers to look very favorably on having to review a lot of extraneous information.

So please be very vigilant in just limiting the appendices to what’s absolutely required. Also do not include brochures or bound materials in your application because all of the materials that’s in there has to be reproduced multiple times.

And if things are bound, a lot of times those pieces are just discarded because we can’t reproduce them equally.

In terms of the project narrative, along with the budget, this is the heart of your application. It provides information related to the need for your project.

It describes your organizational capacity and it provides specific information related to how the applicant will develop and implement the required services. And it also details the scope of your services or your Title 10 project.

It includes goals and objectives that are smart, or specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time framed, and it establishes a specific work plan and evaluation plan.

In terms of the project narratives, just provide details and this is very, very important. On the scope of your services or project and activities that are described in your application if approved for funding becomes the agreement between the federal government and a successful applicant.

So this is what we refer to as your Title 10 project so whatever you have described as being within is what we will hold you to in terms of what you’re expected to carry out once you’re funded.

So this is referred to as the scope of the project or the scope of services. And you need to refer to the Title 10 statutes, the regulations, the program guidelines, the legislative mandates, program priorities and other key issues for a full description of what is required for the project scope.

If your application is funded any significant changes to the scope of the project or significant change in the activities or use of funds requires prior approval of the Office of Grants Management and also the Office of Family Planning program office.

I’m going to turn it over to Karen to talk about specifically grants management and budget requirements.  The project budget information is the 424A budget page which includes a detailed budget and budget justification. It must be consistent with requirements of the project guidelines for the Title 10 family planning services.

Budgeted costs must be derived by the proposed activity. Excuse me, the 424 budget information has the form directions as written in the OPHS-1, identify all sources of project funds.

That would be either state, local, it can be third party in kind. Indicate the approved indirect cost rate with the division of cost allocation, you must submit the forms with that as written by the division of cost allocation.

And project costs for future years, this program allows up to a five year project series so you must do it for all project years or out years.

Detailed budget and budget justification provides the details of the budget, the breakdown for each line item, provide adequate justification, etcetera, or for an example the cost per unit.

Detail personnel by salary, FTE charge and fringe benefit information, line by line breakdown for federal and non-federal sources.

The application budget, the OMB circular defines cost principle for federal grants and describes how to manage financial aspects of the award, allowable costs, personnel supplies, equipment, etcetera, restrictions on the use of funds such as lobbying, construction renovation and fund raising.

Please refer to OMB circular for cost principles when preparing budgets at the following address, OMB circular A21 is for institutions of higher education, A87 is state and local government, A122 non-profit and 45CFR 74 appendix E is for hospitals.

The OPHS Office of Grants Management is responsible for the oversight of all financial and business related to the grant. Sorry for that, that got kind of small.

The Title 10 budget and cost sharing, Title 10 cannot make up to 100%, excuse me, of the project’s estimated costs. Projects - do you want to weigh in on that?

Oh I thought you put your hand up. Projects must include resources from other sources such as Medicaid, patient fees, etcetera.

Applications must clearly identify the amount and sources of funding contributed to the project on the 424A and budget justifications.

Contribution of other fundings has historically been interpreted as a minimum of 10%. Program income is expected and is generated from third party payers and patient fees, may be counted as part of the cost sharing requirement, must be reinvested to further the objectives of the project.

Title 10 service grants applications submission, the submission mechanism we have two, one is grants.gov - or two electronic, one is grants.gov website portal and grantsolutions.gov, grants management systems.

If you have a previous business relationship with OPHS you can file your application through grantsolutions.gov. If you do not have a previous relationship with OPHS, you must file through grants.gov.

The application must be submitted by 11 pm eastern time on the due date. All hard copy original signatures and mail in items must be received by OGM no later than 5 pm eastern time on the next business day after the due date.

When submitting your hard copy information, please do not resubmit the application, only the applicable materials for the application. We will not compare nor will we review the paper application once an application is submitted electronically.

Hard copy submission, OPHS Office of Grants Management, we do have the address in the RFA and that is to our contractor, must be submitted no later than 5 pm eastern time on the due date and must submit the original and two hard copies.

Additional submission information, applications submitted after the deadline will not be accepted. Applications not conforming to the requirements will not be reviewed and be deemed ineligible.

Applications will not be considered valid until all electronic components, hard copy original signatures and mail in items are received by OGM according to the due dates.

Applicants are encouraged to initiate electronic applications early in the development process to address any problems with submission prior to the deadline, and I will put a little footnote there that if the transmission does not take by the deadline, we are not responsible unless it is at the error of the government.

If it is a transmission error, that is not the responsibility of the federal government, so please submit your electronic applications early.

Application submitted under this announcement are subject to the requirements of the intergovernmental review of federal programs and applicants should discuss the project with a single point of contact or (SPOC) as appropriate.

Our list is in your application kit on what states must or do not have to submit to (SPOC). The application review, applications are reviewed according to the criteria listed in the program announcement.

By the OGM staff or administrative and business compliance and by the regional office, program staff for programmatic compliance, eligible applications will be reviewed and scored by a panel of independent reviewers with technical expertise in the applicable fields.

Objective review committee process is formal and confidential, OGM and regional staff is available for questions to ensure the process. The funding decisions, input from the objective review committee and from the federal reviewers as well as the likelihood of achieving the benefits expected are considered when making the funding decisions.

Final grant award decisions are made by the regional health administration or administrator in consultation with OPA, Office of Family Planning. The length of the project period awarded can be from one to five years and is generally three to five years.

Non competing continuing applications are submitted in the interim years that include progress reports, work plans, budgets and budget justifications.

Budget periods are for one year only. The funding process, the Office of Grants Management and regional program partnership, the OGM is the official contact for the grantee.

All official communicate related to the grant is between the Office of Grants Management and the successful application. Applicants who are unsuccessful will be notified by the regional program office.

Grantees communicate regularly with the program office, program project officer who oversees the programmatic aspects of the grant. OGM maintains the official grant file.

The regional program office maintains working files for each grant and forwards records to OGMs for the official grant file. The Office of Grants Management and the regional partnership, regional program partnership, excuse me.

The final project budget, excuse me, the final project budget will be negotiated at the selection. The total amount will not change but the allocation to various activities may be modified.

Flexibility in schedule and resource planning is expected and will enable the successful applicant to respond to emerging needs, lessons learned and annual Title 10 priorities.

All activities and budget will be approved by the OFP, regional office prior to their implementation. The notice of grant award notifies successful applicant of the selection, award amount, project and budget period.

Includes any conditions on the awards, e.g. requirements that must be met as a condition of receiving grant funds, includes standard terms, reporting requirements and contact information for OGM and regional program office.

Excuse me, OGM grants management post award process and concerns as determined by the US Department of Health and Human Services. We are the official signatory for obligating federal grant funds, official signatory for all grant businesses.

Manages prior approval requests, monitors the business and financial transactions for compliance with federal grant requirements including interpretation of federal regulations.

The post award process and concerns, the budget development, allowable expenditures, items and budget revisions, budget forecasting indirect cost issues, approval of change of scope, notice of grant award issuance, financial reporting requirements such as the financial status report, audit resolution, carry over requests and offsets and closeouts.

And I’m going to turn it back to Sue Moskosky for the summary ending.

Sue Moskosky: Okay. So we’re just going to go ahead and review some of the high points that we hit in going through what the requirements are. As was mentioned before the program announcement is your primary guide to the Office of Population Affairs, Office of Family Planning program requirements.

It’s your primary guide to information related to the Title 10 statute, regulation and guidelines, the grants management requirements and the OMB cost circular, please follow the information that’s provided in the program announcement.

Analyze what is requested and respond appropriately. Also I would urge you all to make sure that if you’re going to be submitting a hard copy application or even if you’re submitting something in e-grants, please proof your applications.

We do get applications that are missing pieces or that exceed page requirements so please take seriously all of the information that we’ve provided today.

The application kit has useful information that will assist in the development of a complete application, in particular pay attention to the OPHS-1 grant application for the required forms and the instructions for completing those forms.

The guidelines for Title 10 grant application, July 2008 which includes application content and sequence.

In terms of completing your application, be clear, complete and concise in the description of your project. Follow and address exactly what is requested in the program announcement and the guidelines for Title 10 grant application preparation.

Don’t make the reviewers search for the required information, headings are helpful, generally the easier it is for you - for - the easier you make it for an application to be reviewed the better the score that you’ll receive on that application.

So please be really clear, identify the sections of the application and indicate which of the components is being addressed. The project narrative must include all of the required information within the 65 pages, do not use appendices to expand the page limit.

As I mentioned those appendices may or may not be even reviewed, they are only for supplemental information, not for information that is basic to understanding your project.

The use of a systematic approach to planning implementing, monitoring and evaluations such as a logic model is encouraged. Make your goals and objectives in the work plan smart, as I mentioned that means specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time framed.

There’s actually some examples in the application guidance that may be helpful for you in terms of framing your objectives or developing your objectives.

The activities that you’re presenting in your work plan should clearly relate to the goals and objectives and the program work plan evaluation plan and budget should all of those taken together should provide a complete picture of how the applicant will address the service area needs as well as address the purpose and expectations in terms of announcement.

The staffing that is being proposed for your project should be appropriate and reasonable for the goals and objectives and activities that you’re proposing for the project, and be complete in describing what staff will do and what the expertise is that’s required and the percentage of time that they’ll be assigned to the project.

Position descriptions and biographical sketches for key staff can be presented in then appendices. The budget should include adequate funds to carry out the proposed work plan, evaluation plan and I’m going to say responsibilities of the project.

And the budget should be reasonable and relate clearly and directly to the goals and objectives, it should all taken together make sense. Do not request more funds than are available as listed in the program announcement in Table 1.

And as I mentioned before this amount is inclusive of indirect costs and to claim indirect costs you do need to have a negotiated indirect cost rate.

The operating budget should be complete and includes federal and non-federal funds, program income from projected fees and third party payers and other funds that you are going to be contributing as grantees.

Electronic submission of your application is encouraged and remember to send in the original hard copy signature forms by the due date that’s listed in the program announcements when you’re submitting electronically.

And as Karen mentioned please don’t wait until the last minute if you’re going to begin an electronic submission because sometimes problems can arise. If you’re confused please ask questions, the program announcement has contact information for both the Office of Grants Management and the regional program offices.

And for information that’s related to programmatic requirements contact the appropriate regional office for information that’s related to budget or the administrative requirements contact the Office of Grants Management.

But if you contact the wrong place we’ll make sure that we get you in touch with - if it’s a grant question call programs they’ll refer you into grants office so don’t be afraid.

Just please ask questions. They’re not going to put together your application for you but they will help you if you do have specific questions in terms of forms or how to complete your application.

So I believe that that concludes our formal presentation, I’m going to turn it back over to (Angel).

Coordinator: Thank you. If you would like to ask a question please press star 1, one moment please for the first question.

Again if you would like to ask a question please press star 1. I do show we have a question from (Stephanie Long), your line is open. Please check your mute button (Stephanie).

(Pam Graham): This is (Pam Graham) in Nevada. Is there then when you were talking earlier on about I think a 10% contribution of in kind, is that like a maintenance of effort, is it 10% of the entire award?

Sue Moskosky: If you go back to that slide as was mentioned, the requirement under Title 10 is that the Title 10 grant can’t be 100% of the cost. And so there has to be some participation by the grantee in terms of generating some funds either through patient fees or through third party reimbursements.

It’s not a strict 10% but it’s been interpreted as a minimum of a 10%. But it’s not really in kind it’s actually - it could be, but it’s generally a financial contribution of 10% or greater.

(Pam Graham): Okay, thank you.

Sue Moskosky: I hope that helps.

Coordinator: Again if you would like to ask a question please press star 1. And I’m not showing any other questions at this time.

Sue Moskosky: Okay, thank you.

Coordinator: Okay, I do show a question did just come in. (Alice) (unintelligible) your line is open.

(Alice) Yes, I have a question. In terms of the grant funding, are we to provide programmatic services that can only be reflected in terms of increases to client service numbers?

Or how - that would be reflected in (S-PAR) or how can we utilize these funds?

Sue Moskosky: If you look at the actual funding announcement, it basically talks about what is required. You do have to project the number of clients that would be served within your family planning services project that you’re proposing.

But these are for - this is assuming grants - these are assuming applications for people that may be current grantees but they also maybe people that have never applied for Title 10 funds before so it doesn’t necessarily imply an increase in clients that are being seen because these are new Title 10 services grants for these particular areas.

So I’m not exactly sure about your question.

(Alice): Well if you are currently a Title 10 provider and you have an established (S-PAR) and you wanted to go for these dollars, would you then have to reflect an increase in your client numbers?

Sue Moskosky: No, not necessarily. I mean you project within the grant application what you’re proposing to do and you need to propose how many clients would be served in the services that would provided.

But part of the assessment of the application would include whether that looks like a reasonable number of people that you’re planning to serve within the funds that are being requested and the services that are being provided.

So these aren’t expansion funds, these are actually you know basic Title 10 service grant funds.

(Alice): Okay, I appreciate it, thank you.

Sue Moskosky: You’re welcome.

Coordinator: Again if you would like to ask a question please press star 1. And I do show another question from (Karen Jackson), your line is open.

(Karen Jackson): Thank you, when do you anticipate putting out the RSAs for special initiatives and (mail) projects?

Sue Moskosky: Generally guidance for special initiatives or projects unless they are ones that are going to be managed out of central office, generally a lot of those are actually produced out of your regional offices.

If you’re funded as a grantee within a region already, you may want to be in contact with your regional office. Currently just so that folks know we are the federal budget - the budget year starts on October 1. We’re currently under a continuing resolution so we’re operating based on the funding levels that the program received in FY08.

So probably special initiative funds or any supplemental funds are not going to be made available until after we have an approved federal budget, but I would just urge you if you’re a funded grantee already to be in contact with your regional office.

And generally they’re pretty good about communicating that information I think within the region.

Coordinator: Okay, and our next question then comes from (Norman Quindaniel), thank you, your line is open.

(Norman Quindaniel): Yes, you may have provided an answer already but when I was pushing star 1 I was out of the loop on the previous question. In the grant notice it says a particular amount to be applied for and it’s recommended not to apply for above that amount.

& We have requested about the expanded funds and you may have already just answered this question, I’m sorry Sue if you did. The expanded funds are included in that base amount that is in the notice?

Sue Moskosky: Yes they are.

(Norman Quindaniel): Thank you.

Sue Moskosky: You’re welcome.

Coordinator: An additional question again from the line marked (Stephanie Long), your line is open.

Woman: Thank you, my question was answered with the previous caller.

Coordinator: Again if you would like to ask a question please press star 1. And there is no questions coming through.

Sue Moskosky: Okay. Thank you very much (Angel) and thank you everybody for participating on the call today and be sure that you let us know or let your project, or program or grants person listed in the announcement know if you have further questions.

Thank you very much.

END