Funding Opportunity Announcement Reentry Projects Supplemental Justification

Funding Opportunity Announcement

Reentry Projects

Supplemental Justification

Supplemental Supporting Statement A: Justification

This request seeks OMB approval under the Paperwork Reduction Act for the unique information collection requirements in the “Reentry Projects,” Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). The Department will announce the availability of approximately $82.5 million in grant funds authorized by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018, for ex-offender activities under Section 169 of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) of 2014.

An estimated 41 successful applicants will receive awards up to $4,500,000, depending on the applicant type and the population the applicant proposes to serve. Through this announcement, ETA seeks to enhance both adult and young adult reentry strategies through collaboration with the field to identify and respond to emerging or chronic reentry challenges and issues by improving employment outcomes for these populations. This initiative intends to assist communities in planning and implementing comprehensive reentry programs to help adults and young adults who have been involved in the juvenile or adult justice system make successful transitions back to the community. This FOA provides an opportunity for organizations to build customized projects using evidence-based and informed interventions or from promising practices.

The focus of this initiative is to assist communities in planning and implementing comprehensive "reentry" programs to address the full range of challenges involved in helping formerly incarcerated adults and young adults who have been involved in the juvenile or adult justice system make successful transitions back to the community.

These projects will serve either young adults between the ages of 18 to 24 who have been involved in the juvenile or adult justice system or adults ages 25 or older who have been incarcerated in the adult criminal justice system and released from prison or jail within two years of the date of enrollment or are currently under supervision. All participants served must reside in high-poverty, high-crime communities.

For the purpose of this grant, eligible applicants are either intermediary organizations (for the purpose of this Announcement, intermediary organizations are defined as organizations that have an affiliate network or offices in at least three communities and across at least two states) or as non-intermediary organizations (for the purpose of this Announcement, non-intermediary organizations are those with single sites or multiple sites within one state). Applicants may submit up to two applications, one to serve young adults and one to serve adults; but may not propose to serve both populations (adults and young adults) through one combined application.

DOL intends to award grants to a combination of rural- and urban-serving organizations. These grants have a 39-month period of performance, which includes up to three months of planning, a required 24-month period of operation, and a required 12-month period for follow-up services.

Applications will include the following information collections: 1) Form SF-424 “Application for Federal Assistance,” separately cleared under OMB control number 4040-0004, 2) Project Budget, 3) Project Narrative, and 4) Attachments to the Project Narrative.

Electronic availability:

This grant solicitation is available on the grants.gov Web site. Based on past DOL experience, the Department anticipates that at least 80 percent of responses will be submitted electronically.

Small Entities:

This information collection will not have a significant impact on a substantial number of small entities.

Assurances of confidentiality:

These grant solicitations do not offer applicants assurances of confidentiality.

Special circumstances:

This FOA implicates no special circumstances.

Burden:

Based on past experience, the DOL expects to receive approximately 200 applications from an equal number of respondents. The ETA estimates public reporting burden for the information collection to average 20 hours per response for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining needed data, and completing and reviewing the collection of information.

200 applications x 20 hours = 4000 hours.

The DOL has increased the average hourly earnings in the professional and business services industry to $33.17 per hour to monetize this burden.  See The Employment Situation—February 2019, DOL, Bureau of Labor Statistics, https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf at page 33.

4000 hours x $33.17 = $132,680

The DOL associates no other burden costs with this information collection. In addition to the application, each grantee will be required to submit quarterly financial, performance, and narrative reports to the ETA. Those information collection requirements will be cleared under a separate control number.

Total burden: 200 respondents, 200 responses, 4000 hours, $0 other cost burden.

Supplemental Supporting Statement B: Statistical Methods

This information collection does not employ statistical methods.

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