Formative Data Collections for ACF Program Support

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), requests approval of a nonsubstantive change for a minor burden increase. ACF programs promote the economic and social well-being of families, children, individuals and communities. Many ACF program offices need to learn more about funded program services so that an understanding of program or grantee processes and potential for improvements can inform ACF decision-making and program support. Under this generic clearance, ACF would engage in a variety of formative data collections with respondents such as: current or prospective service providers, training or technical assistance (T/TA) providers, grantees, contractors, current and potential participants in ACF programs or similar comparison groups, experts in fields pertaining to ACF programs, key stakeholder groups involved in ACF projects and programs, individuals engaged in program re-design or demonstration development for evaluation, state or local government officials, or others involved in or prospectively involved in ACF programs. The goals of the generic information collections (GenICs) under this approval are to: obtain information about program and grantee processes or needs, and to inform the following example activities, among other activities: • Delivery of targeted assistance and workflows related to program implementation or the development or refinement of program and grantee processes, and the development and refinement of recordkeeping and communication systems. • Planning for provision of programmatic or evaluation-related training or technical assistance (T/TA). • Obtaining grantee or other stakeholder input on the development of program performance measures. • Use of rapid-cycle testing activities to strengthen programs in preparation for summative evaluation. • Development of learning agendas and research priorities. ACF uses a variety of techniques such as semi-structured discussions, focus groups, surveys, templates, open-ended requests, and telephone or in-person interviews, in order to reach these goals. Due to the success of this generic mechanism, ACF has begun the process to revise the package to request an increase the estimated number of respondents through the current expiration date (7/31/2022). The 60-day comment period related to this revision request began on October 13, 2020 (85 FR 64480) and we intend to submit the request for the revision as soon as possible once the initial comment period is complete and any comments have been addressed, as needed. Until that time, however, we would like the opportunity to continue some generic information collections that were already in development and we intend to submit within the next couple months. This change request would allow ACF to continue work as planned.

The latest form for Formative Data Collections for ACF Program Support expires 2022-07-31 and can be found here.

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Federal Enterprise Architecture: Community and Social Services - Social Services