Children's & Young Adults' Mental Health RFP (Planning and Innovation grants / Scalability grants)

Children's & Young Adults' Mental Health RFP (Planning and Innovation grants / Scalability grants) is sponsored by Richard King Mellon Foundation. This Request for Proposals (RFP) from the Richard King Mellon Foundation addresses barriers for children and youth (ages 0-24) from low-income households in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties to access prevention, detection, and early intervention mental health services.

Children’s & Young Adults’ Mental Health - Richard King Mellon Foundation Grants & PRI S : Requests For Proposals Children’s & Young Adults’ Mental Health Mental health problems are common in the United States, with nearly 1 in 5 children and adolescents diagnosed with a mental illness. Yet only 20% of those with a mental illness receive care from a specialized care provider for mental health.

This risk of untreated mental disorders is even greater for children residing in lower-income households. If left unaddressed, mental health concerns can have broad impacts on children’s educational attainment. Untreated mental health concerns can make it difficult to stay on task in the classroom, complete problem-solving tasks, and otherwise interfere with the learning process.

Over time, as the mental health needs of children and adolescents go unrecognized or untreated, mental health concerns may reduce or impair the social, emotional, and cognitive skills necessary to attend school, graduate from high school, succeed in the workforce, and achieve upward economic mobility.

Prevention, detection, and early intervention of mental health concerns are critical to slow or stop their progression and ensure that all children living in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties will be able to access their most promising future.

Yet, there are a number of barriers that make accessing quality mental health care challenging, including a lack of specialized care providers, stigma related to mental illness, and insufficient coordination among the systems supporting children’s and young adults’ mental health, particularly for minority, low-income, or rural families. Examples of ideas that may be considered include, but are not limited to, the items noted in Table 1.

These are solely illustrative and not proscriptive. Applications may include a variety of services, products, or technologies. The Foundation welcomes a range of ideas and encourages thoughtful experimentation.

infant mental health consultation models developmental screening, assessment, and mental health treatment models in early childhood settings K-12 Academic Performance programs, services, or frameworks that prevent and detect mental health concerns and deliver early intervention services in settings that are responsive to students’ contexts initiatives that reduce stigma associated with mental illness and promote mental wellness expansion of the workforce prepared to provide community-based and culturally relevant prevention, detection, and early intervention services diversion programs that divert children and young adults with mental health disorders or co-occurring mental health/substance abuse disorders from the juvenile justice system into treatment and mental health services The Foundation’s general eligibility criteria apply to the RFP.

Please review the Funding Policies on the Apply page of the Foundation’s website and the General FAQs found on the Foundation’s Nonprofit and Public Sector Partners webpage. For the purposes of this RFP, the Foundation offers additional guidance about proposals from public sector and nonprofit organizations. Public sector organizations: may serve as the lead agency submitting a proposal for Planning and Innovation grants.

Public sector organizations may also participate as collaborating partners on both Planning and Innovation and Scalability proposals submitted by nonprofit organizations include entities such as school districts, courts, or departments of health or human services may serve as the lead agency submitting a proposal for Planning and Innovation grants or for Scalability grants.

Nonprofit organizations may also participate as collaborating partners on both Planning and Innovation or Scalability grants The Foundation expects to provide two types of support through this RFP Planning and Innovation grants: focus on experimentation and the development of new ideas. Recipients might describe activities such as piloting services or completing a feasibility study.

Any evaluation activities should focus on understanding successes, challenges, and future possibilities resulting from the grant. will provide up to $250,000 and funded activities should be completed within 12 to 18 months after the grant award sustain and expand promising, evidence-informed initiatives.

Recipients might describe activities, projects, and ideas that have been tested within one population group or in one geographic area with promising success and require an infusion of funds to expand the reach of the program to other population groups or geographic areas will provide up to $400,000 and funded activities should be completed within 18 to 24 months after the grant award Grant funds awarded through this RFP may be used for a variety of expenses such as program and service delivery, consultant fees, evaluation, or “overhead” or administrative expenses.

A limited amount of capital expenditures that are essential to accomplish the outcomes of the proposal may be included.

What the Foundation Will Not Fund: The Foundation will not fund the following items through this RFP: Advocacy, political causes or events Existing deficits or retroactive funding Applications submitted – Friday, September 9, 2022 Funding Status Notification – Wednesday, December 21, 2022 Funds Issued for Awarded Grants – Friday, December 23, 2022 Frequently Asked Questions FAQ: Request For Proposals Can I meet with a program officer before submitting an application?

In general, program officers are not available for a discussion until after a proposal has been submitted. You can also email [email protected] with questions. How soon will I hear about my application once it is submitted?

You will immediately receive an email confirming that your application was successfully submitted. There are not specific timelines associated with the review of a funding application. Our organization’s application was declined.

Can I talk with someone about that? Questions about a declined application may be submitted via email to [email protected] . The Foundation aspires to reply to all inquiries but, given the volume of applications the Foundation receives, we cannot commit to answering every such inquiry.

Can your funding be used for indirect expenses? Yes, you can include indirect expenses in your proposed budget if your organization is not a postsecondary or research institution. We define indirect expenses as those expenses categorized as “Management and General;” “Administrative and Management;” or “Fundraising” according to the IRS and FASB functional expense allocation guidelines.

Do you have a recommended direct/indirect expense ratio? For organizations that are eligible to receive support for indirect expenses, we do not have a recommended ratio. Can we re-grant funds or provide technical assistance to other individuals or organizations?

The Foundation will not fund ideas that include regranting to individuals. The Foundation may fund applications that include regranting from a lead agency to other agencies who are identified in the submission as participants in a collaboration. In this case, the regranted funds are solely to support the collaborative activities described in the submission.

We will consider ideas in which organizations provide technical assistance in areas where they have expertise or are working with pre-identified partners, who will then assist with the implementation of the proposed project. Our organization is based outside of Allegheny and Westmoreland counties, but we’d like to bring our programs to these counties. Would the Foundation still consider our application?

Yes, we consider applications from organizations that are not based in Allegheny or Westmoreland counties. In your application, you should be clear about why and in what ways the project will serve economic development in these counties. I have additional questions about the application.

Can I meet with the Foundation staff prior to submission? Any questions about the application may be submitted via email to [email protected] . We will be responsive to all thoughtful inquiries.

Please contact Lynne Ventress at the Foundation to discuss questions regarding this RFP.