Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) Legal Training and Technical Assistance (T/TA)

The Office of Community Services (OCS) within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) issued for fiscal year (FY) 2023, a notice of funding opportunity for one 3-year cooperative agreement for Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) Legal Training and Technical Assistance (T/TA).This cooperative agreement will contribute to the long-term capacity of CSBG-eligible entities, tribes and tribal organizations, state associations, and states to collectively increase organizational performance through legal T/TA. The cooperative agreement will include a focus on organizational, fiscal, governance, and legal challenges in the following areas: community engagement, community assessment, monitoring, tripartite board governance, strategic planning, mergers, designations/de-designations, workforce management, financial management, oversight, and operations, CSBG statutory, regulatory, and reporting requirements, and other identified challenging areas. The recipient of this cooperative agreement will implement strategies designed to build and strengthen the capacity of agencies to implement effective CSBG activities by: promoting practices and policies that respond to organizational and fiscal oversight, governance, equity, and general operational challenges; providing T/TA (ad hoc and planned) that is responsive to the needs of the CSBG Network and innovative for program improvement purposes. T/TA may include written/digital training materials, webinars, presentations, and videos. The recipient will provide training and education relevant to staff at all levels of the CSBG Network, including states, territories, eligible entities, and tribes and tribal organizations; providing T/TA that supports the value and benefits of using the CSBG Organizational Standards on increasing accountability and organizational performance by assisting states (hereinafter referred to as State CSBG Lead Agencies) and local CSBG-eligible entities in setting and meeting high-performance standards; and engaging, collaborating, and partnering with CSBG T/TA partners to support the CSBG T/TA network-wide approach and implementation of a comprehensive CSBG T/TA learning agenda.The recipient will assess the effectiveness of the T/TA provided through this cooperative agreement. The cooperative agreement will require OCS to have substantial involvement and a close working partnership with the recipient to implement T/TA consistent with the purposes of CSBG.