SUPPORTING STATEMENT A TTA Application 2011 8.29.11

SUPPORTING STATEMENT FOR PAPER WORK REDUCTION ACT SUBMISSIONS

1. Justification

A1. Need for Information Collection

Under the authority of the National and Community Service Act of 1990, the Corporation for National and Community Service ("the Corporation") is authorized to "conduct directly or by grant or contract, appropriate training programs regarding national service in order to improve" the quality of national service programs and to "make technical assistance available" in order to develop national service programs or to assist other organizations in applying for assistance. In order to provide training and technical assistance (T/TA) to existing and prospective national service programs, including AmeriCorps, VISTA, NCCC, Learn and Serve and Senior Corps, Social Innovation Fund, the Corporation awards cooperative agreements through a competitive process to a number of organizations with expertise in specific content areas.

A2. Indicate how, by whom, and for what purpose the information is to be used

Applicants respond to questions included in these instructions in order to apply for a TTA Cooperative Agreement. The information collected in the applications will be used by the Corporation to award cooperative agreements to selected training and technical (T/TA) providers. In compliance with the provisions of these cooperative agreements, the selected providers will supply T/TA services designed to develop grantee competencies and capacities specified by the Corporation.

The selected T/TA providers must comply with reporting requirements, including submitting semi-annual financial and progress reports. The information collected in these reports will be used by the Corporation to monitor and oversee the performance of the selected T/TA providers and assess their T/TA impact.

A3. Minimize burden: Use of improved technology to reduce burden

The Corporation will elicit and accept applications via the secure electronic system, eGrants, to comply with the requirements of Public Law 106-107. Applicants will apply on-line to the Corporation. The selected T/TA providers will then submit semi-annual reports via the eGrants system. If applicants are unable to apply or report on-line, they can use the attached forms to submit their application.

A4. Non-duplication

There are no other sources of information to use or modify for the purposes stated in A2 above.

A5. Minimizing economic burden for small businesses

The collection of information does not impact small businesses or other small entities because the Corporation has developed an electronic reporting process with dedicated support and detailed operating instructions.

A6. Consequences if the collection is not conducted

Without the collection, the Corporation will be unable to accept applications and, the Corporation would be unable to select T/TA providers..

A7. Special circumstances that cause information to be collected in the specified ways

There are no special circumstances that would increase as specified the frequency or amount of information to be collected by respondents.

A8. Provide copy and identify the date and page number of publication in the Federal Register of the Agency's notice

A 60-Day Notice soliciting comments was published in the Federal Register/VoI. 76, No. 79/Monday April 25, 2011/Notices pp. 22877. A 30-Day Notice was published on Friday, August 26, 2011.

A9. Payment to respondents

There is no payment or gift to respondents.

A10. Confidentiality

PRIVACY ACT NOTICE: The Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C § 552a) requires that the following notice be provided to you: The information requested on the Application Instructions: Training and Technical Assistance Cooperative Agreements is collected pursuant to 42 U.S.C 12592 and 12615 of the National and Community Service Act of 1990 as amended, and 42 U.S.C. 4953 of the Domestic Volunteer Service Act of 1973 as amended. Purposes and Uses - The information requested is collected for the purposes of reviewing cooperative agreement applications and granting cooperative agreements. Routine Uses - Routine uses may include disclosure of the information to federal, state, or local agencies pursuant to lawfully authorized requests. In some programs, the information may also be provided to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to determine the existence of any prior criminal convictions. The information may also be provided to appropriate federal agencies and Department contractors that have a need to know the information for the purpose of assisting the Department’s efforts to respond to a suspected or confirmed breach of the security or confidentiality or information maintained in this system of records, and the information disclosed is relevant and unnecessary for the assistance. The information will not otherwise be disclosed to entities outside of AmeriCorps and the Corporation for National and Community Service without prior written permission. Effects of Nondisclosure - The information requested is mandatory in order to receive benefits.

A11. Sensitive questions

The information collected does not contain questions of a sensitive nature.

A12. Hour burden of the collection of information

We expect approximately 56 respondents to apply for TTA cooperative agreement awards. The frequency of response will not be greater than once every three years) and the time burden should be approximately 11.75 hours of effort per respondent. The averaged total burden hours are 658 hours.

With regard to the planning and reporting information, we expect to select approximately 6 T/TA providers for cooperative agreements. These 6 providers will prepare budget and activity projections at the beginning of the budget period (usually one year) and report semi-annually on actual activities and funds expended. It is anticipated that they will spend approximately 12 hours on the budget/activity projection and .30 hours each per semi-annual report, or 1.30 hours each per year per respondent. Total number of burden hours is 20 hours.

The level of burden for both the application and the periodic budget planning and reporting is attributable to the extensive, national scope of the services that will need to be described in the application and the subsequent planning and reporting documents. The organizations selected for cooperative agreements are expected to provide materials and services that will serve Corporation grantees and subgrantees regardless of size (large non-profit institution, small community organization), type of program (Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, state or national parent organization, urban, rural, tribal), geographic location (east coast, west coast, US territory, multi-site, multi-state), or experience (veteran program or new start-up). Estimates for the above time burdens were determined by consulting a sample of current and potential respondents.

In this collection the Corporation receives submissions from new applicants and re-competing applicants. The burden for new applicants for an initial submission of a proposal is higher due to the effort of the research time expended reviewing materials on the Corporation’s Resource Center (the CNCS on-line collection of tools, tips, best practices eCourses and other aides to assist Corporation grantees and subgrantees in meeting the statutory and regulatory requirements of the Federal grants awarded by CNCS) to have a better sense of the deliverables developed under this collection. In addition time and effort is expended in researching the main CNCS web site to learn about the Corporation programs that training and technical assistance resources and strategies are being proposed. Recompeting applicants responding to this collection will already have the background and experience in designing learning strategies and resources for CNCS grantees and subgrantees and they will have already become familiar with the CNCS Resource Center through their past work therefore allowing them to skip the research step and move directly to writing the proposal. Because of this previous experience and knowledge their burden is lessened

A13. Cost burden to respondents

None.

A14. Costs to the federal government

The Corporation is a grant-making agency and a certain portion of its administrative budget is tied to collecting information for funding TTA providers. The Corporation's administrative budget includes cost estimates related to reviewing applications and awarding grants and cooperative agreements. For this collection approximately $6 million is awarded to support the training and technical assistance of Corporation grantees and subgrantees.

A15. Changes made subsequent to the 3045-0105 OMB Notice of Action re: Application Instructions: Training and Technical Assistance Cooperative Agreements

The main change in the instructions is the streamlining of the BPMR form. The new form is stripped of information no longer required by the Corporation. The form also reflects the new on-line approach to TTA.

A16. Reasons for program changes

There are no program changes.

A17. Publication of results

Information collected will be part of the Agency's PAR report.

A18. Explain the reason for seeking approval to not display the expiration date for OMB approval of the information collection

Not applicable.

A19. Exception to the certification statement

There are no exceptions to the certification statement in OMB Form 83-1.