Federal Evidence-Based Spending Guide

Centering Community: Examples

  • U.S Department of Transportation, Reconnecting Communities Program. This grant program encourages grantees to develop community advisory boards to promote community engagement and foster inclusive employment and contracting: 

    • (7) COMMUNITY ADVISORY BOARD.—

    • (A) IN GENERAL.—To help achieve inclusive economic development benefits with respect to the project for which a grant is awarded, a grant recipient may form a community advisory board, which shall—

    • (i) facilitate community engagement with respect to the project; and

    • (ii) track progress with respect to commitments of the grant recipient to inclusive employment, contracting, and economic development under the project.

  • U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, HINT grant. This program prioritizes applications from underserved communities:

    • “full points will be awarded if the application presents clear evidence of shared demographics or characteristics between organizational leadership, team members, and community members [...] in the defined service area.”

  • U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Population Affairs, Advancing Equity in Adolescent Health through Evidence-Based Teen Pregnancy Prevention Programs and Services. This grant program prioritizes applications based on the extent to which they will support individuals and communities that have been historically underserved:

    • “To advance health equity and direct resources to those communities and populations with the greatest need and facing significant disparities, we expect recipients to focus their project on a community(ies) and population(s) that are disproportionately affected by unintended teen pregnancy and STIs…Projects should focus on serving youth who are disproportionately affected by unintended teen pregnancies (including rapid repeat pregnancy) and STIs due to factors such as: Race; Ethnicity; Geography; and/or Otherwise historically underserved or marginalized.”

  • The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, Advancing Equity in Adolescent Health through Replication of Evidence-Based Teen Pregnancy Prevention Programs and Services. This program prioritizes applications to implement interventions found to be effective with groups they plan to serve.

    • The Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) review criteria allocate 20 points for the extent to which applications focus on areas of greatest need and disparities. Additional points are awarded for ensuring materials and information are culturally and linguistically appropriate, demonstrating an equitable community engagement strategy, and demonstrating plans for an equitable, safe, supportive and inclusive environment.

  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Rape Prevention and Education. This program requires demographic data collection. The NOFO requires grantees to:

    • “gather and synthesize data that will be used to identify specific SDOH [social determinants of health] and risk/protective factors where inequities are leading to disproportionately high rates of SV [sexual violence] within populations and communities.”