FEDERAL GRANT TIPSEQUIPMENTCONSTRUCTIONHRSA SBHC SITEGUIDANCE DOCUMENTHRSA EHBGRANTS.GOVSBHC DEFINITION

Federal Grant Funds for SBHCs

New Funding Opportunity for SBHCs

HRSA has released guidance on Funding Opportunity HRSA-11-017 for New Access Points. Download a copy of the grant here.

Please note this is a different opportunity than the School-Based Health Center funding opportunity we are expecting to be released in September. 

A few key points in the guidance:

• A New Access Point application may be submitted by an eligible organization not currently receiving Section 330 funding (a New Start), or by an organization currently receiving Section 330 funding that proposes a new service site or sites outside the organization's current scope of project. (p. 2)
• Applicants may propose a school-based health center for sites that will, independently or in conjunction with another site, provide all required services to students as well as the general underserved population of the service area. (p. 2)
• The guidance includes funding priorities for applicants proposing to serve: a high poverty area; special populations ( farmworkers, homeless populations, or residents of public housing), or a sparsely populated rural area. (p. 65)
• HRSA expects to make approximately 350 awards totaling $250M. The maximum grant award is $650,000 per year for a two-year project period, with up to $150,000 allowed for minor capital improvements in Year One. (p. ii)
• A "Need for Assistance" worksheet with 3 sections (Core Barriers, Core Health Indicators, and Other Health Indicators) must be completed that will generate up to 20 points of the 30 point Need section scoring.  (pp. 75-79)
• Applications must be submitted through grants.gov and HRSA's e-Handbook system; the grants.gov deadline is November 17 and the e-Handbook deadline is December 15, 2010.  (p. iv)

More information can be found at www.grants.gov.

Emergency Appropriation

Section 4101(a) of the Affordable Care Act allows for SBHCs to access $200 million in competitive federal funds over the next four years.  The grants are limited to facilities expenditures -- such as the acquisition or improvement of land, construction costs, equipment, and similar expenditures.  

HRSA has cancelled the FY 2010 School Based Health Center Equipment (HRSA-10-276) funding opportunity initially released in June 2010.  According to HRSA, this cancellation is in response to the high volume of questions they received from the SBHC field concerning the application criteria, the cap for multi-site school-based health centers, and the limited application development time. HRSA will release new guidance for the funding opportunity in September.

NASBHC recommends using the time between now and when HRSA issues new grant regulations to do the following:

• See examples of equipment lists and vendor resources click here.
• Review your internal policies and how they can be made more supportive of the grant application process.

• Register for a DUNS number: http://fedgov.dnb.com/webform/displayHomePage.do
• Continue preparing your grant application so that it’s ready to go when the new guidance is released.
• Check our website for the latest information and resources!

Have a question or an idea about the grant? Share them on the Discussion Board here.

Keep checking this page for updates and support this work by joining NASBHC.
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NASBHC Technical Assistance Webinar

NASBHC held a free informational webinar on the funding opportunity on July 12. The purpose of the webinar was to follow-up on HRSA's technical assistance call with further information and assistance on how SBHCs might be able to access and spend the grant funds.
View slides from NASBHC's July 12 technical assistance webinar on the funding here.
View an archived recording of the webinar here.

Telemedicine Equipment & Information Webinar

Steve North from MY Health-e-Schools gave a free informational webinar on the basics of telemedicne and how you can use your SBHC Capital Grant money to integrate this technology into your own SBHC.

View an archived recording and slides of the webinar here.