Tribal Home Visiting Program Information Collection for Revision to Community Needs Readiness Assessment (CNRA)
Focus Group Discussion Guide
[Facilitator] Thank you for joining us today! As part of ACF’s commitment to reduce administrative burden, ACF is gathering feedback from grant recipients about their experiences with and recommendations for reducing the burden associated with the Tribal MIECHV Program. ACF held a listening session with all grantees in March 2024, during which the CNRA and Implementation Plan Guidance (IPG) were identified as areas of opportunity to reduce the administrative burden for grant recipients and areas where appropriate expectations and accommodations for tribal communities could be improved. For example, some grantees shared that data indicators within the CNRA reflected a deficit-based approach and urged more flexibility for the CNRA to allow grant recipients to use additional strength-based measures. Overall, ACF heard that the CNRA needed to be a more manageable activity for tribes, tribal organizations, and urban Indian organizations to complete, and some grant recipients shared how some of the process and reporting requirements related to the CNRA could be more cohesive.
[Facilitator] The purpose of our focus group and how we will spend our time together today is to collect feedback on the CNRA guidance, particularly on needs assessment requirements, data collection, and reporting. The information gathered today is intended to identify and prioritize feasible revisions to the CNRA for the upcoming cohort of grantees starting on July 1, 2024. Ideas considered include simplifying each section of the CNRA and removing other sections where the benefit doesn't outweigh the time and staffing needed to complete them adequately. Given that the DIG2s took part in this long process last year and are now at or near the point of implementation, we are interested in hearing from you about what was helpful and what wasn't to ensure it is a valuable process for developing your home visiting program.
[Facilitator] We value your expertise, and it may be helpful for you to pull up your completed CNRA to refresh your memory as we work together to improve the process. Today's focus group is voluntary and will last no longer than 1.5 hours. We will record this session for note-taking purposes, and the information you provide will be kept private. We will share bigger themes of what we learn with ACF to inform next steps and decisions
A Federal agency may not conduct or sponsor, and no individual or entity is required to respond to, nor shall an individual or entity be subject to a penalty for failure to comply with a collection of information subject to the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, unless that collection of information displays a currently valid OMB Control Number. The OMB # is 0970-0531 and the expiration date is 9/30/2025. If you have questions or comments, please contact Farha Marfani with ACF (provide contact information in Zoom Chat).
[Facilitator] Do you have any questions before we begin?
[Facilitator] Let's take a few minutes to introduce ourselves. Please share what team you are part of and what your role is in your CNRA for the Tribal Home Visiting Grant. Remember, our goal today is to gather your valuable feedback to improve the CNRA for the next cohort of grantees.
[Facilitator] This section outlines the plan for your CNRA efforts, such as who from your team will be involved, the types of data collection methods you will use, and how you will engage community partners and stakeholders. It was also intended to help you scope the CNRA and think about guiding questions, which could help you consider appropriate methods.
What was helpful in this section?
What’s something you might change?
Discussion prompts (as needed): Some things might have been useful but may have taken more time or resources than you expected. Do you have ideas for streamlining some of the information that is being requested?
Input on possible changes (as needed): Share some examples of changes that are being considered. It's important to hear everyone's thoughts on these potential changes. Do folks agree with that change? Do you have other ideas? Use Zoom polls as needed.
[Facilitator] This section aims to assess the organization’s capacity to implement a high-quality, culturally grounded, evidence-based home visiting program. The guidance asks programs to describe and evaluate their readiness and capacity and identify any programmatic concerns that should be addressed before program implementation. This proactive approach is intended to help programs consider how their organization operates and how this will relate to the functioning of your home visiting program.
What was useful for this section, for designing your home visiting program?
What’s something you might change?
Discussion prompts (as needed): Some things might have been useful but may have taken more time or resources than you expected. Do you have ideas for streamlining some of the information that is being requested?
Input on possible changes (as needed): Share some examples of changes that are being considered. It's important to hear everyone's thoughts on these potential changes. Do folks agree with that change? Do you have other ideas? Use Zoom polls as needed.
[Facilitator] This section identifies community factors likely to influence program design and implementation (e.g., community demographics, historical, traditional, tribal laws, ordinances, etc.). It also includes primary and secondary data collection, with secondary data collection including MIECHV statute requirements, such as community health, well-being, and economic and developmental indicators, as well as comparisons to the general population in your area. Finally, after collecting the data, this section includes a community context reflection to identify strengths, challenges, and opportunities within the data and activities to make data-informed decisions about program design and implementation planning.
What was useful for this section, for designing your home visiting program?
What’s something you might change?
Considering some of the data collection needed within this section and the feedback that data indicators within the CNRA reflect a deficit-based approach, what would a more strength-based needs assessment guidance look like from your perspective?
Discussion prompts (as needed): Some things might have been useful but may have taken more time or resources than you expected. Do you have ideas for streamlining some of the information that is being requested?
Input on possible changes (as needed): Share some examples of changes that are being considered. It's important to hear everyone's thoughts on these potential changes. Do folks agree with that change? Do you have other ideas? Use Zoom polls as needed.
[Facilitator] This section intends to help programs identify the breadth of early childhood, behavioral health, domestic violence, and other community services, resources, and programs currently available to support prenatal families and families with children up to kindergarten entry. As part of this section, there is a community asset mapping exercise to help programs understand what formal and informal resources exist to support families that will enroll in their home visiting program. The community asset map is a tool intended to offer programs an opportunity to identify how resources are connected to your home visiting program (and families being served) and where gaps may exist. The community asset map also illustrates the relationships between organizations that can be used in your project’s design and development.
What was useful for this section, for designing your home visiting program?
What’s something you might change?
Discussion prompts (as needed): Some things might have been useful but may have taken more time or resources than you expected. Do you have ideas for streamlining some of the information that is being requested?
Input on possible changes (as needed): Share some examples of changes that are being considered. It's important to hear everyone's thoughts on these potential changes. Do folks agree with that change? Do you have other ideas? Use Zoom polls as needed.
[Facilitator] The purpose of this section is for programs to reflect on what they can apply to future needs assessments.
What was useful for this section, for designing your home visiting program?
What’s something you might change?
Discussion prompts (as needed): Some things might have been useful but may have taken more time or resources than you expected. Do you have ideas for streamlining some of the information that is being requested?
Input on possible changes (as needed): Share some examples of changes that are being considered. It's important to hear everyone's thoughts on these potential changes. Do folks agree with that change? Do you have other ideas? Use Zoom polls as needed.
What worked well?
What supports were helpful?
Do you have thoughts about how our iterative process could or should differ for grantees submitting the CNRA sections and getting feedback on them?
Any final thoughts or comments?
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | Marfani, Farha (ACF) |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2024-10-07 |