Request for Approval

Request for Approval under the “Generic Clearance for the Collection of Routine Customer Feedback” (OMB Control Number: 0920-1050)

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION:

Assessing Satisfaction with Technical Assistance (TA) Provided to Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) Awardees

PURPOSE:

Awardees under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) cooperative agreement are implementing population-based interventions that address poor nutrition, low physical activity, tobacco use and exposure, and lack of access to chronic disease prevention or risk reduction opportunities. There are 49 awardees. Service providers contracted by CDC deliver TA to REACH awardees in 3 domains: (1) communications, (2) evaluation, and (3) program implementation.

As CDC prepares to continue REACH under a new Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), information is needed to assess awardees’ satisfaction with TA services and their perceptions about the utility of the services. We are only evaluating TA delivered by service providers contracted by CDC—that includes resources and services provided through the Training and Technical Assistance Center for Transformation in Communities (TACTIC) Portal, support provided by ICF evaluation TA liaisons (TALs), and support provided by FHI 360 communication TA liaisons (TALs).

The twenty (20) REACH awardees that are the highest users of TA services will be identified through a review of CDC TA logs. Once the 20 REACH awardees that are high users of TA services are identified, we will invite 3 staff—the program manager, evaluation lead, and communication lead—from each selected awardee organization to participate in a phone-based small discussion group. There will be one discussion with each awardee organization. Therefore, we will have a total of 60 respondents across 20 REACH awardees in 20 discussions. The discussion guide will be used for this phone-based information collection. Discussion groups will be conducted by CDC’s evaluation contractor, RTI International. Findings will be used solely for program improvement.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS:

There are 49 REACH awardees, and we will conduct phone-based discussion groups with 20 REACH awardees that are the highest users of TA. We will review CDC TA logs in order to identify the 20 REACH awardees that are the highest users of TA. For each of the 20 selected awardees, we will invite the REACH program manager, evaluation lead, and communication lead to participate in a group discussion. Therefore, we will have a total of 60 respondents across 20 REACH awardees.

TYPE OF COLLECTION: (Check one)

[ ] Customer Comment Card/Complaint Form [ ] Customer Satisfaction Survey

[ ] Usability Testing (e.g., Website or Software [ X] Small Discussion Group

[ ] Focus Group [ ] Other: ______________________

CERTIFICATION:

I certify the following to be true:

1. The collection is voluntary.

2. The collection is low-burden for respondents and low-cost for the Federal Government.

3. The collection is non-controversial and does not raise issues of concern to other federal agencies.

4. The results are not intended to be disseminated to the public.

5. Information gathered will not be used for the purpose of substantially informing influential policy decisions.

6. The collection is targeted to the solicitation of opinions from respondents who have experience with the program or may have experience with the program in the future.

Name: Tim LaPier______________________________________________

To assist review, please provide answers to the following question:

Personally Identifiable Information:

1. Is personally identifiable information (PII) collected? [ ] Yes [ X] No

2. If Yes, is the information that will be collected included in records that are subject to the Privacy Act of 1974? [ ] Yes [ X ] No

3. If Applicable, has a System or Records Notice been published? N/A [ ] Yes [ ] No

Gifts or Payments:

Is an incentive (e.g., money or reimbursement of expenses, token of appreciation) provided to participants? [ ] Yes [X ] No

BURDEN HOURS

Group discussions will be scheduled for one hour, including 10 minutes for welcome and introductions. The discussion guide has 5 questions, and the facilitator will allow up to 10 minutes to discuss each question. Twenty REACH awardees that are high users of TA services will be selected for group discussions, and we will invite 3 staff—the program manager, evaluation lead, and communication lead—from each selected awardee organization to participate. Therefore, we will have a total of 60 respondents across 20 REACH awardees. Given 60 respondents with a response time of 1 hour each, the total response burden will be 60 hours. There will be no direct costs to the respondents other than their time to participate in the group discussion.

Category of Respondent	No. of Respondents	Participation Time (in hours)	Burden Hours
REACH program managers, evaluation leads, and communication leads	60	1	60

FEDERAL COST: The estimated annual cost to the Federal government is $134,840. This includes costs of CDC oversight of a contractor; and the contractor’s costs for instrument development, pilot testing, data collection and note taking, quality control, data analysis, report writing, and presentation development.

If you are conducting a focus group, survey, or plan to employ statistical methods, please provide answers to the following questions:

The selection of your targeted respondents

1. Do you have a customer list or something similar that defines the universe of potential respondents and do you have a sampling plan for selecting from this universe? [X] Yes [ ] No

If the answer is yes, please provide a description of both below (or attach the sampling plan). If the answer is no, please provide a description of how you plan to identify your potential group of respondents and how you will select them.

TA is provided, upon request, to REACH awardees. Contact information for REACH awardees is available from CDC records on the cooperative agreements and service requests.

Services are provided in 3 domains: (1) communications, (2) evaluation, and (3) program implementation. CDC’s goal is to conduct 20 group interviews with awardees that are the highest users of TA services. Individuals who receive services will be invited by email to participate in a telephone group discussion.

The twenty (20) REACH awardees that are the highest users of TA services will be identified through a review of CDC TA logs.

Respondents comprise a convenience sample based on actual utilization of services. The sample is determined by the number of services received, not by characteristics of the respondents.

Participation is voluntary.

Administration of the Instrument

1. How will you collect the information? (Check all that apply)

[ ] Web-based or other forms of Social Media

[X] Telephone

[ ] In-person

[ ] Mail

[ ] Other, Explain

2. Will interviewers or facilitators be used? [X ] Yes [ ] No

Discussion groups will be conducted by CDC’s evaluation contractor, RTI International. In addition to the discussion leader, RTI will have one or more note takers on the line to record high level notes. RTI will also record the session and transcribe the recording. The recording and transcribed notes will be stored on RTI’s secure project drive, and these will not be shared with CDC. RTI will de-identify discussion summaries before submitting them to CDC.

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