- Q: Can you confirm that applicant agencies for the 815 Cultural Faith Based Empowerment NOFO must be state-certified or licensed as a Community Mental Health Center?
A: That is correct.
- Q: Are subcontractors allowed for this grant program? I see on the NOFO that there is a "Subcontractor budget" section, but I wanted to make sure.
A: It could be possible depending on the applicant's scope of service and budget. Churches or faith-based congregations cannot be subcontractors because they are not subject matter experts in mental health. Only Community Mental Health Centers (CMHC) can apply for this NOFO, so only CMHC's could be subcontractors.
- Q: Are there any program preferences for the number of faith communities that a mental/behavioral health provider is working with? The NOFO says "at least one," but I wonder if the grant makers have any preferences regarding the size of networks created through this program funding.
A: There is no preference on the number of faith communities because it will all depend on the size of the faith organization that the grantee is working with. In Chicago, we have church congregations who have over 10,000 members - so if a grantee is only working with one "mega-churches", one will be enough. If it is a small church with on 40 members, then the grantee may be working with multiple churches.
- Q: The NOFO says 2 staff with "lived expertise", is that different form lived experience? Could those staff be experienced mental health providers?
A: "Lived expertise" and "lived experience" are considered the same. It is staff with lived experience. The staff can be an experienced mental health provider if they have lived experience.
- Q: What is the timeframe for the grant?
A: It is expected to begin October 1, 2024 and end June 30, 2025.
- Q: Can Grantees use grant funds to provide monetary incentives to faith-based organizations? E.g., Can a Grantee give $1K to a congregation for joining?
A: No, we are not giving monetary incentives; it takes funding away from funding the direct service of helping people to gain access to MH services.
- Q: Can a congregation be a sub grantee?
A: No, we want the provider to do engagement to congregations on MH wellbeing as they are the subject matter experts on MH and they will be providing MH services. A congregation would not be a subject matter expert on MH, so being a sub-grantee is not possible. However, I will say it all depends on how the applicant writes their scope of service and what they are asking the congregation to do to be a sub-grantee.
- Q: Are you considering multiple recipients or just one?
A: We are looking to fund 1-4 grants.
- Q: What data are you asking for to report back and how often?
A: The main reporting are the invoices and quarterly reports. The invoices are monthly, so those would be all of your monthly invoices for you to get paid. Quarterly reports are every three months.
- Q: Do the recipients need to be a faith-based organization or just have a partnership with faith-based organizations?
A: The recipients of the awards (grantees) must be community mental health centers who will engage with faith-based organizations who will be conducting the services.
- Q: I've been watching how the Department of Health has been doing more work in response to mental health crisis because of the legalization of cannabis and how that's also impacting the mental health of our community. And I'm just curious, could you share a little bit more about the background on this and what led you to this particular focus? There could be some obvious things around faith based institutions and their role in our communities, but I'd love to hear from you what your impetus is. Opioids are also causing mental health crisis.
A: In Black and Brown communities, the church is [most of the time] the center of the community. Also, the church is the most trusted institution in Black and Brown communities. And in these exact same Black and Brown communities access to MH services is either very limited or access to those services are always very limited. So, the thought process is if a faith-based organization that the community trusts, advocates for people who need MH services to seek a trusted MH provider [that the church has a relationship with], people who need those services may be more willing to seek MH services. So, House Representatives in Springfield gathered $1,000,000 to try to create better access to MH services for Black and Brown and partnering with faith-based organizations is the idea.
- Q: Has this been done before or is this like a pilot program?
A: This is a new program.
- Q: Is this going to be recorded?
A: Yes, it is being recorded and a copy can be requested by sending an email to DHS.DMHGrantApp@Illinois.gov.
- Q: We are a state organization and we have affiliates under us for mental health and we would be issuing mini grants to our affiliates so that they can connect to the faith organizations. Is that something we can do with our affiliates? These are mental health affiliates for NAMI.
A: This would be a subcontract but it would have to be to a mental health center and DMH would have to review and approve it.
- Q: So the goal for the grant is not to train faith based leadership to deliver services, but it is to create a relationship with them to utilize the the services at the mental health clinics and have a relationship with expedited referrals and things like that?
A: It is something like train the trainer. Like training the pastors and talking to their parrisioners but it's also being the liaison and helping those community members or those members of the congregation to access mental health services to maybe bypass any wait lines or any wait periods if those exist. So it's like a little bit of everything.
- Q: I'm just reading through the description and our community has a great amount of community based institutions. So do we have that freedom or autonomy to create programming that we want? Or is there a structure already in place that we would need to follow?
A: Yes, you do have flexibility. As long as you are meeting the program requirements that are listed in the NOFO you can run your program however you want. You do have that flexibility.
- Q: Are there certain things that the grant covers? Is this also going to cover staff or is it just for activities?
A: No, as long as the requirements are met, you work your program like you want to and include this when you submit your budget. So if you are goinng to need staff to work on the grant, yes, your staff are covered. If you want to use your money for any materials or transportation that you may need that is covered.
- Q: Is this grant going to have the option for renewals like many DHS grants do?
A: Yes, successful applicants under this NOFO may be eligible to receive two subsequent one-year grant renewals for this program. Renewals are at the discretion of the Department and are based on performance and sufficient appropriation.
- Q: When will we know if we have been awarded this grant?
A: We anticipate having award decisions made the week of September 23, 2024.
- Q: Are subcontractors allowed for this grant program? I see on the NOFO that there is a "Subcontractor budget" section, but I wanted to make sure.
A: It could be possible depending on the applicant's scope of service and budget. Churches or faith-based congregations cannot be subcontractors because they are not subject matter experts in mental health. Only CMHC can apply for this NOFO, so only CMHC's could be subcontractors.
- Q: Are there any program preferences for the number of faith communities that a mental/behavioral health provider is working with? The NOFO says "at least one," but I wonder if the grant makers have any preferences regarding the size of networks created through this program funding.
A: There is no preference on the number of faith communities because it will all depend on the size of the faith organization that the grantee is working with. In Chicago, we have church congregations who have over 10,000 members, so if a grantee is only working with one of the "mega-churches", one will be enough. If it is a small church with only 40 members, then the grantee may be working with multiple churches.
- Q: Our church is trying to focus on and prioritize addressing mental health issues, particularly in kids and youth. I know this grant is for mental health providers, but could we be on a list to be contacted by the grant winner?
A: There is no list to be put on. Grantees will choose the churches at their discretion. Those applicants who are awarded the grant (grantee) will have the flexibility to run their program as they see fit as long as they are meeting the program's performance requirements. Each Grantee will probably have a different way of doing this.
- Q: I'm not sure what IDHS is looking for in the Resource Availability narrative. The Capacity & Quality sections inherently cover what resources, knowledge etc. we will be using. Should we use this section to describe how the budget will be used to acquire needed resources...... or to discuss an absence of system-wide resources? Any insight would be appreciated.
A: Because this is a competitive grant opportunity, we are unable to give specific information about what to write for the criteria. The information contained within each criterion should be sufficient for what is being asked.
- Q: Was the Technical Assistance Session for the 815 Cultural Faith Based Empowerment grant opportunity a mandatory requirement in order to apply to the funding?
A: The Technical Assistance Session was not mandatory to apply for this grant opportunity.
- Q: The summary information on page one states that the Technical Assistance session held on 8/5/24 was mandatory. As we've just learned about this opportunity, we missed this session. Is there a recording available that we could view to still be eligible to apply? If not, does this mean we cannot be considered for the grant?
A: The summary indicates that Technical Assistance Session was not mandatory. However, there is a recording available at 815 Cultural Faith Based Empowerment (25-444-22-3437-01) NOFO-20240805 1932-1 - Webex , if you wish to review it.
- Q: Is $250,000 a hard minimum for the grant? We believe we could effectively implement a program with less than $250,000 if that's a possibility.
A: The minimum is not a hard minimum. You may apply for less than $250,000.
- Q: We are interested in serving in an area outside of the zip codes in another area than listed in the grant opportunity. However, we noticed that there are only three zip codes within our surrounding service area. I wanted to ask if we are limited to providing resources solely to these zip codes, or if we can apply for the zip codes outside of the zip codes listed in and also extend our services to the surrounding areas.
A: You must provide services in the zip codes listed in the grant opportunity. You may apply to provide services for the zip codes listed. However, funding will not be available for areas outside of these zip codes.
