Attachment A - Formative ACF Program Support - Usage Report

Attachment A - Formative Usage Report 0970-0531.docx

Formative Data Collections for ACF Program Support

Attachment A - Formative ACF Program Support - Usage Report

OMB: 0970-0531

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Attachment A: Use of Generic Clearance – Formative Data Collections for ACF Program Support

(OMB #0970-0531)






December 2020








Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation

Administration for Children and Families

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services


Mary Switzer Building

330 C St., SW

Washington, D.C. 20201



In July 2019, OMB approved ACF’s request to for a new overarching generic information collection for formative data collections for support of ACF programs. This report describes the use of the umbrella generic since approval, including the number of hours used.


Since this was a new request in July 2019, burden estimates were a best guess at the time. Since approval, ACF program offices have found the generic to be very useful and there has been a higher than estimated demand to submit generic information collection requests. Some of this high demand is due to the unforeseen and unprecedented situation created by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Formative Data Collections for ACF Program Support generic has proved very useful for program offices to collect formative information about what programs and grantees are doing in response to the pandemic and to identify needs. In an effort to continue work while revising this generic to increase burden estimates, an interim burden increase of 1200 hours was approved by OMB in November 2020.



Date

Project

Responses

Burden Hours

1

9/4/2019

Supporting Working Families: ACF Roundtables on Improving Access to High-Quality Child Care

1000

2500

2

10/10/2019

State Department of Education Contacts Form

54

54

3

11/5/2019

Fathers and Continuous Learning in Child Welfare Project

2449

1225

4

1/8/2020

Feedback on Materials for Father Involvement National Media Campaign

66

65

5

2/3/2020

Building Capacity to Evaluate Child Welfare Community Collaborations to Strengthen and Preserve Families (CWCC) Grantee Local Evaluation Plan and Implementation Plan Templates

36

162

6

2/18/2020

Self-Regulation Training Approaches and Resources to Improve Staff Capacity for Implementing Healthy Marriage Services for Youth (SARHM)

25

25

7

2/19/2020

Tribal Continuous Quality Improvement Collaboratives

380

950

8

3/6/2020

Justification for the Collection of Information for Local Evaluations as part of the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP): Promising Youth Programs (PYP)

84

420

9

7/14/2020

Survey of Higher Education Instructors to Support the Development of Teaching Materials Based on OPRE's Research and Evaluation

350

88

10

8/6/2020

Using Concept Mapping to Develop a Theory to Describe the Work of the National Domestic Violence Hotline with Family and Friends of Victims/Survivors – Formative Data Collection

360

159

11

8/19/2020

2020 August Grantee Survey on COVID-19 Response Efforts

174

6

12

9/3/2020

2020 September Grantee Survey on COVID-19 Response Efforts

174

6

13

9/17/2020

OFA Training and Technical Assistance (TTA)

136

136

14

9/22/2020

Communications Focus Groups for Remaking the Safety Net

6032

2074

15

10/26/2020

Justification for the Collection of Information for Local Evaluations as part of the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP): Promising Youth Programs (PYP)

24

33

17

10/26/2020

Youth Empowerment Information, Data Collection, and Exploration on Avoidance of Sex (IDEAS) – Case Study of Parent Reflections

240

147

18

10/26/2020

Office of Early Childhood Development Radical Family Engagement National Stakeholder Meeting

110

55


11/6/2020

Interim burden increase 1200 hours

19

12/10/2020

Supporting Partnerships to Advance Research and Knowledge (Project SPARK)

2,170

364

20

12/17/2020

Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood Grantee Data Collection Plan Template

339

678


14,203

9,147


Example uses of the Formative Generic for ACF Program Support


Self-Regulation Training Approaches and Resources to Improve Staff Capacity for Implementing Healthy Marriage Programs for Youth project

The Self-Regulation Training Approaches and Resources to Improve Staff Capacity for Implementing Healthy Marriage Programs for Youth (SARHM) project developed, tested, and refined adult-focused strategies to enhance “co-regulation” in youth-serving Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education (HMRE) programs. Co-regulation is the supportive process between an adult and young person that promotes youth self-regulation development by integrating three types of support: warm, responsive relationships; safe and supportive environments; and coaching and modeling self-regulation skills. SARHM also developed and pretested data collection instruments to measure the implementation of co-regulation in youth program settings for use in potential future evaluations.



Early in the project, the SARHM team identified the need to explore how youth and young adults perceived self-regulation and co-regulation. While existing research and literature describes youth self-regulation as a developmental process, it does not include how youth themselves perceive self-regulation or how youth talk about self-regulation. This perspective would be helpful to inform technical assistance provided by ACF to HMRE programs. We wanted to learn about the ways youth view and understand self-regulation as a construct, the words they use to describe the processes involved in self-regulation, and how they view the role of adults in supporting their self-regulation enactment.


We received approval under the Formative Generic for ACF Program Support to conduct interviews with youth connected with two HMRE programs about their perceptions of self-regulation. The SARHM team benefitted from the formative generic clearance in a number of ways. First, the rapid nature of the process enabled us to recruit programs and schedule interviews quickly, before the HMRE programs’ grants expired in September 2020. It also allowed us to gain these insights within the timeframe of our study, before we complete our dissemination products for SARHM. We have also been able to gain valuable insight into youth perceptions of self-regulation and how youth perceive the ways that adults can support that process.


Office of Family Assistance Temporary Assistance to Needy Families Training and Technical Assistance Meetings

The Office of Family Assistance seeks to improve Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program outcomes by delivering training and technical assistance (TTA) to state, tribal, and local TANF programs and partners, Tribal TANF Child Welfare (TTCW) Coordination grants, and/or the Native Employment Works (NEW) program through a variety of methods.  Some of these TTA methods include national summits, regional and topic-focused roundtables, and national policy academies/learning communities that are bookended by opening and capstone meetings; during these events, TANF administrators and stakeholders engage with each other and experts from the field to discuss promising practices, emerging challenges, new research findings, and program administration strategies.


OFA used the Formative Generic for ACF Program Support to solicit feedback from meeting attendees on meeting organization; content relevance, appropriateness, and applicability; presenter expertise; clarity of information shared; increase in knowledge and practical skills; and overall quality. Attendees also offered input on the most helpful aspects of each meeting, specific knowledge/skills gained and strategies for utilization, challenges that might affect utilizing the referenced knowledge/skills, and general feedback. The evaluations were instrumental in tailoring not only the content and effectiveness of subsequent meetings, but also in customizing other methods of TTA delivery such as onsite trainings, site exchanges, and webinars to directly address stated goals and challenges from the targeted TANF audience. The evaluations are crucial for the success of OFA’s TANF TTA interventions, as they provide the most frequent and direct means of communication from TANF administrators and provide insight into the impactful design of TTA delivery.  


Remaking the Safety Net Communications Virtual Focus Groups

The Office of Family Assistance launched an effort to define and communicate elements of an initiative to remake the American safety net to better serve those experiencing economic and social vulnerabilities. The Remaking the Safety Net (RSN) initiative is built upon 7 operational principles that were the foundation and basis for RSN communications messaging.


OFA received approval under the Formative Generic for ACF Program Support to conduct four virtual focus groups designed to gather feedback on RSN messaging from distinct groups of stakeholders including beneficiaries of safety net programming and service providers from social enterprise organizations, faith-based organizations, and public human service agencies. The goals of the focus groups were to: strengthen overall initiative messaging; align key messaging with messages that specifically resonated with each of the focus group audiences; identify trusted sources of information about initiatives like RSN; and better understand how key audiences would respond to the foundational principles of the initiative.


The focus groups provided a wide range of valuable insights from beneficiaries and service providers about their experiences with safety net programming. The participants also provided detailed responses and reactions to the communications messaging. Their feedback will directly influence the formulation of communications messaging for RSN; it also provided valuable information and perspective on communications and messaging that could be applicable to programs and services for individuals and families experiencing social and economic vulnerabilities more broadly.


The project benefited greatly from using the formative generic clearance process by allowing us to collect and analyze information directly from program beneficiaries and service providers in a timely manner; make use of that information in creating messaging that will better resonate and engage stakeholders in the initiative’s design; and identify trusted sources through which OFA can effectively engage stakeholder audiences in the initiative and its work in real time.


Office of Early Childhood Development Roundtables and Discussions

The Office of Early Childhood Development (ECD) received approval under the Formative Generic for ACF Program Support to conduct two separate information collections:

  1. ECD facilitated partnerships across HHS, ACF (Central and Regional Offices) and the White House to plan and implement 10 Supporting Working Families Roundtables on Increasing Access to High-Quality Child Care. The Office of Child Care is using the information from these roundtables to help inform their programming.


  1. ECD hosted a series of conversations with key cross-sector partners and targeted engagements to bring new insights for how radical family engagement could change the landscape of education and early childhood systems, starting in the early years.


The ability to use this formative generic mechanism allowed the office to collect this information in a timely manner and provide ECD and program offices with relevant information to inform their work.

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