SSA - Program Support GenIC: ORR UC Program Youth Engagement Focus Groups

Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) Unaccompanied Children (UC) Program Youth Engagement Focus Groups

Formative Data Collections for Program Support

0970 – 0531

Supporting Statement

Part A - Justification

September 2023

Submitted By:

Office of Refugee Resettlement

Administration for Children and Families

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

5^th Floor, Mary E. Switzer Building

330 C Street, SW

Washington, D.C. 20201

A1. Necessity for the Data Collection

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) seeks approval to gather information on youth engagement by conducting a series of focus group sessions with Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) Unaccompanied Children (UC) Program care providers.

Background

The ORR UC Program is interested in how grant-funded care providers promote youth engagement as well as what they do with feedback collected. The UC Program is also interested in peer-to-peer learning, sharing best practices, and fostering community across the ~300 care providers across its network. To make critical connections between grant-funded providers in service to children, ORR first needs to understand what programs are doing and how they are improving operations based on this client feedback. To address these needs, the UC Program proposes to request information on how grant-funded care providers solicit youth voice and feedback. The UC Program will use this feedback to better understand the ways youth voice is empowered and acted upon and to inform the standardization of how this information is received and reviewed by ORR.

Legal or Administrative Requirements that Necessitate the Collection

There are no legal or administrative requirements that necessitate the collection. ACF is undertaking the collection at the discretion of the agency.

A2. Purpose of Survey and Data Collection Procedures

Overview of Purpose and Use

The purpose of this information collection is to gather feedback from ORR care provider programs to provide ORR with a better understanding of how programs are engaging youth and to inform ORR processes in the area as well as support for care provider programs. Specifically, this proposed information collection meets the following goals of ACF’s generic clearance for formative data collections for program support (0970-0531) and is expected to be used in the following ways:

• Obtaining feedback about processes and practices to inform ORR program development and support. ORR will analyze the information obtained to inform decisions about how best to standardize and apply youth engagement practices nationally across all ORR care provider programs.

• Planning for provision of programmatic -related T/TA. ORR will use the information obtained to inform decisions about how it can provide related training and technical assistance to the ORR care provider network, as well as foster peer-to-peer learning and sharing of best practices.

• Development of learning agendas and research priorities. ORR will use the information obtained to inform decisions about further research priorities related to youth engagement.

Processes for Information Collection

ORR will facilitate focus groups with the following 10 care provider programs. These programs were selected to ensure focus groups include a representative sampling of the various demographics, capacity sizes, locations, and program types within the care provider network:

• VisionQuest LTFC, Tucson, AZ

• Hillsides, Pasadena, CA

• Southwest Key Pleasant Hill, Pleasant Hill, CA

• Catholic Charities Boystown, Miami, FL

• Bethany Christian Services LTFC, Grand Rapids, MI

• Cayuga Center TFC, New York City, NY

• Southwest Key Casa Padre, Brownsville, TX

• Children First Residential Center Gasmer, Houston, TX

• Compass Connections San Antonio Staff Secure, San Antonio, TX

• USCRI PRS, Arlington, VA

ORR will ask each of the programs to make key personnel available for the focus group, including the care provider’s:

• Program Director

• Lead Clinician

• Lead Case Manager

• Education Staff Member(s)

• Youth Care Worker Supervisor(s)

The ORR UC Program Youth Engagement Focus Group Planning Document instrument will be shared in advance of the focus groups to allow participants time to prepare thoughtful responses. However, written responses will not be requested. Instead, the instrument will be a guiding document for the focus group. Participants can use the instrument in their preparation for the focus group.

Each focus group will last one hour, and there will be a total of 10 focus groups facilitated. Focus groups will be facilitated remotely, thus allowing them to be recorded and reviewed after the fact for reconciling feedback. However, one of the focus groups may occur in-person during a site visit.

ORR will request permission to record when scheduling the focus group sessions. If participants object to recording the session, then ORR will arrange to have a notetaker present during the session.

Additionally, participants will be asked to share examples of tools or products they employ to solicit youth input (e.g., exit surveys, meeting minutes from youth town halls, etc.).

A3. Improved Information Technology to Reduce Burden

The focus group sessions will be conducted virtually using a videocall platform (e.g., Zoom Microsoft Teams) and email will be used for communication before and after the sessions.

A4. Efforts to Identify Duplication

The information being collected is not obtainable from other sources.

A5. Involvement of Small Organizations

No small businesses will be involved with this information collection.

A6. Consequences of Less Frequent Data Collection

This is a one-time data collection.

A7. Special Circumstances

There are no special circumstances for the proposed data collection efforts.

A8. Federal Register Notice and Consultation

Federal Register Notice and Comments

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13) and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regulations at 5 CFR Part 1320 (60 FR 44978, August 29, 1995), ACF published a notice in the Federal Register announcing the agency’s intention to request an OMB review of this information collection request to extend approval of the umbrella generic with minor changes. The notice was published on January 28, 2022, (87 FR 4603), and provided a sixty-day period for public comment. ACF did not receive any comments on the first notice. A second notice was published, allowing a thirty-day period for public comment, in conjunction with submission of the request to OMB. ACF did not receive any comments on the second notice.

Consultation with Outside Experts

No consultations have taken place with experts outside of the project team.

A9. Tokens of Appreciation for Respondents

No tokens of appreciation for respondents are proposed for this information collection.

A10. Privacy of Respondents

Information collected will be kept private. Respondents will be informed of all planned uses of data, that their participation is voluntary, and that their information will be kept private. Personally identifiable information (PII) will not be collected.

A11. Sensitive Questions

There are no sensitive questions in this data collection.

A12. Estimation of Information Collection Burden

Burden Estimates

Burden was established by estimating the number of hours needed to read the instructions and prepare for the focus group session, attend the focus group session, and provide the examples requested.

Cost Estimates

The cost to respondents was calculated using the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) job code for Child, Family, and School Social Workers [21-1021] and wage data from May 2022, which is $27.25 per hour. To account for fringe benefits and overhead the rate was multiplied by two which is $54.50.

https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_stru.htm

Instrument	Total Number of Respondents	Total Number of Responses Per Respondent	Average Burden Hours Per Response	Total Burden Hours	Average Hourly Wage	Total Cost
ORR UC Program Youth Engagement Focus Groups	50	1	2	100	$54.50	$5,450.00
Total Burden and Cost Estimates:				100	$54.50	$5,450.00

A13. Cost Burden to Respondents or Record Keepers

There are no additional costs to respondents.

A14. Estimate of Cost to the Federal Government

The total cost for the data collection activities under this current request will be $43,334.40.

The total cost estimate considers the time of a step 1 GS-12 in the Washington, DC locality to 1) arrange and conduct the focus group sessions, and 2) review information obtained during the focus group sessions and example tools/products emailed to ORR. No additional costs will be incurred by the Federal government. The hourly rate was multiplied by two to account for fringe benefits and overhead.

Total Number of Federal Staff	Total Number of Focus Group Sessions/Reviews Per Federal Staff	Average Burden Hours Per Session/Review	Total Burden Hours	Average Hourly Wage	Total Cost
4 (leading focus group sessions)	10	2	80	$90.28	$7,222.40
4 (reviewing information collected)	50	2	400	$90.28	$36,112.00
Total Burden and Cost Estimates:			480	$90.28	$43,334.40

A15. Change in Burden

This is for an individual information collection under the umbrella formative generic clearance for program support (0970-0531).

A16. Plan and Time Schedule for Information Collection, Tabulation and Publication

Focus groups will be held, and example tools collected in November 2023, pending OMB approval. ORR’s analysis of the information collected via the focus groups and examples will be completed by February 2024. ORR plans on compiling an internal white paper based off the analysis to share with ORR leadership as well as establish a baseline for ORR’s current efforts engaging young people and having their feedback inform program operations and policies.

A17. Reasons Not to Display OMB Expiration Date

All instruments will display the expiration date for OMB approval.

A18. Exceptions to Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions

No exceptions are necessary for this information collection.

Attachments

ORR UC Program Youth Engagement Focus Group Planning Document

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