Justification

Request for Approval under the “Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery”

(OMB Control Number: 2030-0051; EPA ICR Number: 2434.234)

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: Evaluation of Environmental Collaboration and Conflict Resolution (ECCR) Services and Training at EPA

PURPOSE:

EPA’s Conflict Prevention and Resolution Center (CPRC) is requesting approval to collect customer feedback to evaluate the effectiveness of services provided to participants involved in the agency’s environmental collaboration and conflict resolution (ECCR) processes and to individuals who receive training provided by the CPRC.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS:

Respondents under this ICR are the individuals who have participated in an ECCR activity, such as facilitation, mediation, and consensus building. The types of ECCR activities about which the CPRC is seeking customer feedback include agreement-seeking cases, facilitated dialogues, long-term facilitated group processes, and facilitated meetings. The CPRC is also collecting feedback from participants in ECCR training.

TYPE OF COLLECTION: (Check one)

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

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

[ ] Focus Group [ ] Other: ______________________

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

3. If Yes, has an up-to-date System of Records Notice (SORN) been published? [ ] 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

Category of Respondent	No. of Respondents	Participation Time (Minutes)	Burden (Hours)
ECCR Agreement Seeking Process	24	32	12.8
ECCR Facilitated Dialogue Process	144	32	76.8
ECCR Long Term Group Facilitation Process	40	32	21.3
ECCR Meeting Facilitation Process	150	15	37.5
ECCR Training Evaluation	120	32	64.0
Totals	478	143	212.4

FEDERAL COST: The estimated annual cost to the Federal government is: $72,122.37.

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? [ ] Yes [X] 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?

The surveys will be provided to all participants in ECCR processes and ECCR-related training. Thus, there will be no statistical sampling.

Administration of the Instrument

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

[X] Web-based or other forms of Social Media

[ ] Telephone

[ ] In-person

[X] Mail

[ ] Other, Explain

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

Please make sure that all instruments, instructions, and scripts are submitted with the request.

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: Terry Simpson, simpson.terry@epa.gov

4