Notice of Funds Available (RFP) Print Apply for this Grant

Specifications

General Information

A Call for Investment (CFI) is the way the Council asks for proposals for projects that will help the Council achieve the goals outlined in its 5–Year State Plan. State councils on developmental disabilities receive federal funds through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on a formula basis, mostly related to a state’s population. See the Administration on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities webpage. Each year, the Council awards nearly 70% of funds received to projects around the state.

The Council’s Partners in Policymaking Project Manager is:

Mariel Hamer-Sinclair
Associate Director of Program and Policy
160 N. LaSalle Street, Suite C1000
Chicago, Illinois 60601
Email: Mariel.Hamer-Sinclair@illinois.gov
Work Cell: (312) 438-7625

Council Mission and Performance Objective

The Council’s mission is to help lead change in Illinois so all people with developmental disabilities exercise their right to equal opportunity and freedom.

The Council’s vision is that “every person in Illinois has the same rights, opportunities, and the ability to exercise choices so they can achieve self-worth and personal fulfillment in all aspects of life.”
The Council believes that to achieve its vision Illinois will benefit from the opportunity to implement creative, new approaches and practices. The Council believes that people with developmental disabilities are eager to live life more fully and will readily share their preferences and desires.

Proposers are strongly encouraged to review the Developmental Disabilities Assistance Bill of Rights Act of 2000 to learn more.

The Council welcomes proposals that tie into the following Objective from our current 2022-2026 5 - Year State Plan. The Council expects the project to begin 12/1/2022 and end by 12/1/2025.

State Plan Objective for this CFI is:

By September 30, 2026, individuals with developmental disabilities, their families, and other stakeholders will increase their knowledge and access to coordinated, streamlined information about services and supports, and will increase opportunities to advocate for their priorities among accessible and effective service systems.

The purpose of this CFI is:

The purpose is to re-introduce Partners in Policymaking™ to Illinois.  Partners in Policymaking™ is a national model of leadership training for people with developmental disabilities, young parents, or other family members/support persons. Partners in Policymaking™ is designed to provide state-of-the-art knowledge about issues related to disability and to develop competencies of the participants to become effective advocates in influencing public policy at all levels of government.

Proposers are strongly encouraged to review the below documents to learn more about Partners in Policymaking™:

Partners in Policymaking Coordinators Handbook 

Partners in Policymaking Coordinator’s Handbook Supplement: Integrating Online Learning

CFI Informational Webinar Details:

The Council will host an informational webinar on August 16, 2022, from 1:00 P.M. - 2:00 P.M. CDT. The webinar will be recorded. Registration is required. Proposers are encouraged to participate.

 Cisco Webex Meetings - Register Meeting

General Requirements for Proposals

The Council requests that you follow our policies. Go here. You may request a hard copy by contacting Mariel Hamer-Sinclair.

The Council follows the federal definition of Developmental Disabilities. If you are not familiar with it, please go here. Participants included in your performance target must meet this definition themselves or be related to an individual with developmental disabilities.

The Council encourages outreach to unserved and underserved populations. These include individuals from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds, disadvantaged individuals, individuals with limited English proficiency, and individuals from underserved geographic (rural and urban) and poverty areas.

ALL COUNCIL PROJECTS MUST PROMOTE INTEGRATION AND INCLUSION OF PEOPLE WITH DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES.

Givens

Givens define what you can and cannot do. These are principles that the review team feels are non-negotiable. A successful proposal must incorporate ALL Givens.

IF ALL GIVENS ARE NOT CLEARLY REFLECTED IN YOUR PROPOSAL, IT WILL BE DISQUALIFIED.

Describe how and why your project will demonstrate a commitment to each Given rather than include them verbatim.

1. Project maintains the goals and objectives of the original Partners in Policymaking ™ project developed by the Governor’s Planning Council on Developmental Disabilities in Minnesota, and is facilitated via a hybrid approach with sessions offered in-person and online, and in a way that fosters relationship building and exposure to a multi-faceted approach in maintaining the Partners in Policymaking community.

2. The Partners in Policymaking format utilizes best practices for adult learning including Universal Design for Learning (UDL). It meets the learning needs and preferences of participants to allow the broadest, most diverse possible enrollment.

3. Appropriate individualized supports and accommodations are provided to ALL participants as needed (e.g., interpreters, on-sight note takers, assistive technology devices, and other technology such as: computers, voice recorders, etc.). Material created and shared will be provided in language of choice and/or accessible (plain-language) formats.

4. Participants must include people with developmental disabilities, guardians, supporters (i.e., supporters in Supported Decision-Making Agreements), and family members of people with developmental disabilities. Participant criteria is expanded to allow for a variety of new participants in the Partners in Policymaking program (e.g., siblings, parents of children with developmental disabilities that are older OR younger than age 18, etc.).

5. Participants will include linguistically diverse people. This could be by added supports in a regular cohort or a separate cohort (e.g., Partners in Policymaking cycle presented in Spanish).

6. State and national presenters/speakers will have diverse representation (e.g., by race, age, gender, experience in DD service delivery from states beyond Illinois, etc.).

7. There will be built in opportunities for people with developmental disabilities with expertise in a particular curriculum area to be paid presenters as often as possible. There will be at least one paid core faculty role set aside for a person with a disability to offer peer-to-peer support to class participants among other faculty responsibilities.

8. Proposer must have the capacity to coordinate planning and to oversee and implement ALL financial (accounting), programmatic, and event-planning logistics related to successful implementation of the Partners in Policymaking program. Describe your experience in similar work and depth of resources to take on this project. Tell us about ALL intermediaries or partners you will utilize.

9. Proposer demonstrates a current working knowledge of the landscape of advocacy for individuals with developmental disabilities in Illinois. Inclusion of partners and other entities that share advocacy missions or have specialized knowledge of skill, resources, and national trends to support participants in learning new skills or strategies is required.

10. A database or a formal system for tracking class member and speaker information will be made available to ICDD staff and maintained throughout the entire project.

11. Successful projects will include a course sequence that is engaging for all participants inclusive of:

• providing a syllabus with clear session details. Goals and learning objectives will be rooted in the original Partners in Policymaking™ outline;
• state and (primarily) national field content experts for delivery of sessions;
• engaging participants between sessions;
• diverse range of participants;
• alumni engagement;
• tips on using technology and social media to enhance advocacy efforts;
• ongoing community organizing training and activities take place throughout the entire Partners in Policymaking programming.

12. Partners in Policymaking alumni are a second set of customers. Details are provided as to how they will be kept in contact, encouraged and supported in advocacy, and engaged in current Partners in Policymaking cohorts to empower, mentor, educate, etc.

13. A third-party evaluation will be provided by a non-biased entity to assess the implementation of proposed program activities, course corrections, and to evaluate the achievement of project goals and participant projects. An annual report will be created to highlight lessons learned, outcome data, impact, etc. The evaluation should include (but is not limited to):

• pre and post session assessments;
• logic models and preliminary evaluation design;
• formative and summative evaluation processes;
• capacity building assessments for long-term self-evaluation and growth.

** IMPORTANT ** Council staff will be an active partner in making Partners in Policymaking as successful as possible. Plan to work with the Council and use our resources, such as distributing recruitment information on ICDD Info email blasts, etc. Project planners will keep the ICDD manager updated on plans, get products approved before public use, and routinely coordinate on project activity so ICDD can assist as able.

Assumptions

The following assumptions may serve as a guide for proposers and are offered to aid in the development of a quality proposal. Unlike the Givens, the Assumptions are somewhat negotiable. ALL Assumptions must be addressed in your proposal or an explanation given as to why you hold different assumptions about how to reach the desired outcome.

1. In-person Partners in Policymaking sessions will take place at an accessible location(s) geographically centered in the State of Illinois and near accessible transportation options (e.g., near a train station).
2. Facebook and other social media platforms will be used to engage Partners in Policymaking class members and alumni.

• Extensive monitoring of the Partners in Policymaking Facebook page and other social media platforms will be managed and monitored by the awardee of the project.

Portfolio

The Council has a total of $650,000 available for a single investment. The project period will be 3 years. Additional value added factors that will be considered in the review process are:

• Projects that demonstrate capacity to engage and support involvement of unserved or underserved people with developmental disabilities, including:

o areas of the state with limited access to services and supports where people struggle to participate in their community;
o culturally or linguistically diverse groups; and
o low socioeconomic areas.

Proposals are welcome from all types of entities and organizations. The awardee must have a tax ID number in order to receive Council funds.

Budget

Complete the Budget in DD Suite. The Council wants to see budgets which are cost effective and reasonable to meet the proposed project activities and reach the project’s stated performance target. The Council has a total of $650,000 for the selected proposal.  A match amount must be included in the budget. Match may include in-kind contributions, but cannot include other federal funds. Required match is 15%.

Match funds are defined as any allowable expenses that do not come from other federal dollars. Match funds may include in-kind supports, volunteer time or other non-federal sources of funds. Any in-kind or volunteer time used as match must have a value attributed to it that is directly related to the Council project. Match funds used for Council projects cannot be used as federal match for any other project you may be involved in.

Ensure that you calculate your match as a percentage of the total project budget, not the total amount requested from the Council. Please double-check your budget before submitting it, as we often see mistakes during the review process. Council funds may not be used for entertainment expenses.

ICDD policy limits indirect costs to 10% of salary, benefits, and consultant (if that budget line includes project staff).

Unallowable use of Council funds include:

1. entertainment expenses;

2. capital expenditures or acquisition (construction, remodeling, or purchase of buildings, vehicles);

3. the Council cannot supplant existing funds or funding sources. Other funds may be, and are encouraged to be, part of a sustainability plan and intentionally sought or used as a match or funds leveraged with a project. Council funds cannot be used to pay for a program or a portion of a program that is currently being funded through other non-federal dollars. You cannot use Council funds to cover something already funded to allow redirecting the original money to another use.

Submission

Proposals must be submitted through DD Suite on or before 5:00 p.m. CDT on September 16, 2022. You must create an account on DD Suite if you do not already have one. Check listed organizations to see if your organization already has an account you can join as a user. If not, first create an organizational account and then your personal user account. For instructions, visit DD Suite and click the Help icon at upper right. Under the Contents list, choose “Accounts and Organizations”. Please contact Mariel Hamer-Sinclair at Mariel.Hamer-Sinclair@illinois.gov for technical assistance.

PROPOSERS MUST SIGN, SCAN, AND ATTACH THE SIGNATURE PAGE WITH THE PROPOSAL. HERE IS THE SIGNITURE PAGE.

PROPOSALS THAT ARE FAXED, MAILED, HANDWRITTEN, AND/OR LATE WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.

Review and Selection

The Council will conduct a due diligence selection process for proposals. Decisions are made by the Review Team at each step of the process. No applicant is guaranteed a telephone and/or personal interview. If you have questions about this process, you may contact the assigned staff member.

The selection process is as follows:

1. Proposal Review: A review for clarity, outcome, and cost (see #3 below) is conducted by the review team.

2. Telephone Interview: If the review team wishes to obtain more detail about your proposed project and hear more about why you think the project you designed is a good way to reach our target, they will conduct a telephone interview. If the review team does not fully understand a proposal, they will conduct a telephone interview. If the review team understands what you propose to do sufficiently to reach consensus about your proposal, you may not be asked for a telephone interview.

3. After the review and, if necessary, a telephone interview, the review team will make their funding recommendation decision. Decisions are made using the outcome-based framework in looking at elements of the proposal. That is, will the investment of Council funds in a proposer’s project assist us in achieving the performance target and intent of this funding opportunity to benefit people with developmental disabilities and their families. The review team will also look for:

• a clear and measurable performance target(s);
• a work plan which gives an implementation strategy and timeframes to reach your performance target(s);
• applicant and staff capability and expertise to achieve the performance target(s); and
• a budget which supports achieving the performance target(s) in a reasonable and cost-effective manner.

4. Verification/References: After the completion of interviews, the review team may contact previous customers or other persons familiar with the applicant’s work.

THE COUNCIL MAY CHOOSE NOT TO FUND OR MAY NEGOTIATE AND ADJUST THE FUNDING AMOUNT OF THIS CFI AT THE TIME OF AN AWARD.

Important Dates

Informational webinar:  August 16, 2022 from 1 P.M. – 2 P.M. CDT
Proposal due date:   September 16, 2022 at 5 P.M. CDT
Telephone interview (as required):   October 5, 2022 at a time TBD
Funding decision:   November 17, 2022