HUD’s requirements for financial assistance awards include: “As a condition of the receipt of the award under a NOFO, the recipient is required to cooperate with all HUD staff, contractors, or designated grantees performing research or evaluation studies funded by HUD. ”
The NOFO requires applicants to propose a plan for monitoring and evaluating effectiveness if they choose an approach with limited evidence, including “evaluations, studies, or other learning/accountability activities, such as behavioral intervention studies, action research, externally conducted midterm and final performance evaluations, or post-hoc evaluations…” The grant announcement states that DOL will work with the grantee after award to refine these and related activities.
Provide technical assistance for planning and conducting evaluations:
This office provides technical assistance (TA) to grantees “to ensure their evaluations are designed and implemented to meet research quality standards. OPA offers evaluation TA through a variety of mechanisms including individual TA, group training, webinars, and written documents.”
Sponsor opportunities for grantees to learn from each other or collaborate more deeply:
The Buffering Toxic Stress Consortium included six research grantees partnering with Early Head Start service grantees. The grantees, in collaboration with federal staff, met regularly to share information and identified common measures for use in all their studies.
Designate one grantee as the lead grantee to conduct evaluation for a group of grantees:
Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
ACF awarded grants to 12 states and one tribe for the Safe Access for Victims’ Economic Security demonstration. Simultaneous with this grantmaking process, the agency published a grant announcement for a training, technical assistance, resource and evaluation center. Applicants for the center grant could also apply for a demonstration grant, or not.
Require community engagement in evaluations and disaggregate findings by population:
Section 241 of the Act requires that evaluations assess the extent to which projects have reduced racial disparities in health outcomes, as well as develop recommendations on project improvements to address these disparities.