OVC FY25 Tribal Victim Services Set-Aside Formula Program Pre-Application Webinar: Completing the TVSSA Proposal Narrative Questionnaire

RACHEL GIBSON: Hello. Thank you, Melissa. And good morning and good afternoon to wherever you are joining us from. I am delighted to be here today with my colleagues, Janet Routzen and Lori Gardner, as we walk you through these next couple of steps for our 2025 application process. Before we begin, we love interaction. So let's do a poll. What part of the narrative process do you have questions on? The description of need, program design and implementation, goals and objectives, and timeline.

We'll pause for about 25 seconds to give folks the ability to answer the poll. If you have any issues with answering the poll, feel free to put your answer in the chat box as well. All right, so it looks like folks have some questions around description of need. 30 percent of you all answered that. It looks like 51 percent really want to focus on or have some questions around program design and implementation. 49 percent goals and objectives and then 44 percent timeline. So I'm just going to make a broad math assumption that we all have questions in all of these sections, which is probably why you joined us today.

Delighted again to have you with us. So we're going to go ahead and dive into our second poll question which is, where are you on the planning process for your fiscal year '25 application? I have not started yet. I have read the NOFO. And we're going to define NOFO a little later in our slides. I have started meeting with staff and key people in developing the proposal. Again, almost an even split. So 30 percent have said you haven't started yet. There's about 30 percent who have said they have read the NOFO. And then 40 percent have started meeting with staff and key people in developing the proposal narrative.

Thank you. And so wherever you are in this process, for those of you who haven't started yet, I know it can be pretty daunting to start a new application. For those of you who have read the NOFO, congratulations to you all for getting that first step. And then for folks who are meeting with staff and key people, we're going to talk a little later about who, you know, how we bring the right people to the conversation so we can develop a strong narrative. And so each one of these steps is one part of the process. And so we're going to take a look now at what you need to do in order to write a strong proposal narrative. So let's take a moment to review OVC's overarching goal for today's webinar.

The primary audience for this webinar are the folks who plan to complete the proposal narrative questionnaire as well as others that would benefit from learning more about the process. We want to be as supportive and helpful to you all as applicants in preparing robust and detailed narratives. If your narrative is clear and easy to understand, if it helps to foster a shared understanding between the Office for Victims of Crime or OVC, and you all about what the grant recipient is authorized to do with the funding, it also helps the individual responsible for developing and implementing the project understand what OVC has authorized you to do with your fiscal year '25 TVSSA funding.

Generally, our goals for today's webinar are as follows. One, we want to help you understand how to respond to the new user friendly, victim-centered proposal narrative questionnaire. We want to provide tips and strategies on how to align the program plan with the fiscal year 2025 allocations. We also want to identify the components needed for strong questionnaire narrative responses. So before we begin, we want to make sure you have a copy of the fiscal year 2025 NOFO open to the proposal narrative questionnaires in another screen or go between your screens for today's webinar starting on page 18.

I'm going to pause just a second to give folks a chance to click through and get up those proposal narrative questions from that NOFO. Having the NOFO, the notice of opportunity for funding, having that NOFO up will make it easier for you to follow the presentation. A quick word about the acronym NOFO. In previous years, the funding opportunity was referred to as a solicitation. In fiscal year '25, in order to be consistent across the federal government, the Office of Justice Programs or OJP now has started to use Notice of Funding Opportunity or NOFO. So today's learning objectives are as follows. How to develop a proposal narrative, again, that clearly describes your project. How to make sure your proposal narrative questionnaire addresses all of the Notice of Funding Opportunity requirements. And again, how OVC reviews your TVSSA application. We'll talk about how to create a logical thread through key sections of proposal narrative so that your narrative is cohesive and easy to understand. We want you to understand why it is important to make sure your program narrative sufficiently addresses the NOFO requirements.

The TVSSA program is not a competitive grant award program. Your proposal narrative will not be scored. However, OVC has a responsibility to ensure that your proposal narrative fully addresses all the NOFO requirements. Some examples of this, the subheadings and related bulleted criteria. This is something that our auditors look for. And the best means of satisfying them is to make sure that your responses, again, are detailed and specific. And finally, we want you to understand what OVC staff consider when they assess your proposal narrative. This should help you prepare a solid narrative. So what are the changes to the proposal narrative in fiscal year '25? Well, first, to decrease the burden on Tribes, OVC eliminated the traditional narrative.

Secondly, we created a proposal narrative questionnaire, which replaces the program checklist. And then finally, the questionnaire still has many of the same questions as the checklist, but it is shorter in length and it is built directly into JustGrants. So how do we develop a proposal narrative? Imagine for a moment that you are planning a road trip. We are in summertime, most of us are taking vacations. Many of us have taken road trips in our life. What is one essential piece of information you'll need in order to plan the right road trip for you and possibly your family? Well, unless you have unlimited supply of gas, the most important piece we need is where are you going. Once you know where you're headed, you can make some projections and do some planning.

For example, you can map out the trip and estimate how long it'll take. You can identify what resources you'll need and how much the trip will cost. So however you plan your road trip, making sure we understand the destination, the map with the directions, and what resources, money, vehicles or drivers, are going to be available to us along this journey is important. So let's pause for a moment and consider what might happen if you don't know where you're headed. So if we're on a road trip and we don't know where we're going or how we plan to get there, what are some things that could come up that could cause some distress, could cause delays, or some factors into that?

It looks like somebody put things in the chat, so I'll pull that up. You could end up in the wrong place. Yes, that's a perfect one. And there's nothing I hate more than being at the wrong place. Wasted time, that's a great one. Going to the wrong destination can waste your time, your energy. Run out of gas. That's another really good one because as we know, these gas prices are high, so we want to make sure we know where we're going. Key people, unknown key players.

Yes, if we don't factor in those, the key personnel. So, for example, I take a road trip every year with my friends, and we need to know who are going to be the main drivers. It can create delays for other stakeholders. Correct. So if I'm going to visit family in another state and I tell them I'm getting there on Thursday but I show up on Wednesday, they may not have prepared for my arrival. Or if I come late, a week late and they've purchased food, the food might expire. Insufficient funds for the trip. That's a good one. We want to make sure we have budgeted the right amount of money for the trip.

And sometimes we have to estimate money, right? Because what a gallon of milk in my state might cost different in another state. And so we have to estimate how much we may need for supplies, for food, for resources along the way. Get lost and give up. That's another big one. And so we have gotten so lost and so frustrated that at this point we say, we throw our hands up and say, you know what? I don't want to do this anymore. I'll just go back home. I don't need to do it, right? So those are some really good responses. Thank you all for that.

As you're thinking about this road trip, what does a road trip have to do with developing or designing a program narrative? Well, I'm glad you asked. As most of you figured out, this is a metaphor for developing your proposal narrative. Just as when you are planning a road trip, if you don't know your ultimate destination, you cannot prepare a project that meets your needs. Your long-term goals tell you your destination. Your objectives are like driving direction.

While your project timeline lets you know step by step what needs to be done and how long it'll take you to destination. So we will return to this metaphor later on in our presentation. How to respond to the TVSSA proposal narrative questionnaire. Keep in mind we are highlighting select sections of the proposal narrative. We will not be reviewing every section of the proposal questionnaire today. Rather, we will be looking at key sections where applicants have struggled in the past to provide us a sufficient level of detail. We strongly encourage you to have a copy of this year's questionnaire page 18 open.

We will be using some shorthand for some of the questions in the questionnaire, but you should be able to follow along. So let's get started. First things first, please be sure to use the fiscal year 2025 TVSSA resources. If you do not have a copy of them, the link to the OVC's TVSSA website will be placed in the chat. And it looks like we already have put that in there. Thank you for that.

Please do not copy and paste information from an old application in its entirety. However, there may be some sections that you can copy and paste if it is relevant to this year's fiscal year 2025 project. Also, make sure you ensure there is no duplication of effort, activities funded under another award. And if you use a language from the narrative from a previous fiscal year, it may not be responsive to this year's NOFO.

Please refer to the NOFO and Applicant Resource Guide attached to the invitation email, and it will also be attached in the follow-up materials post this webinar, and/or the JustGrants Application Submission Job Aid Reference Guide for instructions on how to complete or revise application submitted prior to or after the reposting of the NOFO on July 29th.

Please make certain your SF-424 submitted in Grants.gov includes the federal award amount provided in the TVSSA allocation chart. It looks like we have a question about how to find the questionnaire. If someone could put the link for that in the chat, that would be great. Please remember to use the Applicant Resource Guide as needed when completing your proposal narrative questionnaire. It provides helpful examples and tips on the type of information you should include in your questionnaire responses.

This slide displays a section of the Applicant Resource Guide's table of contents, which gives you a view of what is included to assist you with completing the proposal narrative questionnaire and other required documents. Now we're ready to look at key sections of the proposal narrative, and I will turn it over to my colleague, Lori. Thank you.

LORI GARDNER: Thank you, Rachel. Good morning and good afternoon, everyone. Now we're really going to dive into the proposal narrative questionnaire, which as Rachel mentioned, is built directly into JustGrants this year. So, this slide shows you a screenshot of the proposal narrative questionnaire and what it looks like.

And you can preview all of the questions that are in the questionnaire in the NOFO. And someone just asked about where they can find that. And you can find that starting on page 16 of the NOFO. So as you can see here, the questionnaire primarily has check boxes and text boxes for you to capture the information that you're submitting. It's very important that you complete each section of the questionnaire.

The screenshot to the right shows you where we're asking about the project period that you're requesting, as well as the start date. Just a very, very important note, the option to start on September 30th is actually an error. The options for start dates should be October 1st and January 1st. So if you have TVSSA awards that end on September 30th, 2025, you can opt to select the start date of October 1 2025. Just know that if you select the September 30th option in JustGrants, that your start date will actually be October 1st once you get your award documents. Next slide please.

The next question in the questionnaire is which Tribe or Tribes will be served by your project? So, unless you are applying for funding as a Tribal consortium or as a designee, do not identify any other federally recognized Tribes other than your own in this narrative section. Project summary, so in about 200 words or less, you'll need to provide a brief summary about what your project will do. And please make sure that this is in alignment with the goals and objectives that you are submitting. And then another thing to remember is to also make sure it just covers what you'll be doing on this award.

You may be doing a lot of other fabulous things, but you're only going to want to cover what you're doing with this award under the project summary. So here is another screenshot from the questionnaire that's in JustGrants. And this one is regarding the different types of victimization that your project will address. So some projects may just address one type of victimization. For instance, a domestic violence shelter may just be selecting domestic violence. A general victim services program might be selecting multiple types of victimization.

But just again a note is to make sure that you're only selecting the types of victimization that you'll address under this award. So for instance, if your program serves a lot of different types of crime victims, but you'll only be serving victims of elder abuse under this award, you're only going to check elder abuse. Next slide please.

Description of need. This is a section where you're going to justify your plans for how you'd like to use the funding. So here you're going to tell us about the critical issues and the needs and the challenges that you're proposing to address in this project. You may have lots of different challenges and barriers in your community, however, this is just the ones that you're going to be addressing with this project. If this is a continuation of a previous program, please provide data that tells us about the impact on crime victims in your community.

And also, you know, it can be really helpful to share stories about the impact of crime on victims in your community. As always, though, please make sure to not share any personal information. Next slide please. So program design and implementation. This section is where you're going to tell us what you want to do with the funding. So we already discussed this first one. What types of victimization will be addressed by your project? And again, you can select one or multiple types of victimization. And then next, you're going to tell us the types of services that will be provided by your project, such as you're going to be providing shelter or case management.

And similar to the victimization question, you can select, you know, you'll just be providing one service, or you might be providing a lot of different types of services. So you can check multiple different types. And again, I'm already feeling like a broken record here, but just make sure that for whatever you're selecting is going to be covered under this award. And so the next part of the application will be your goals and objectives. And we're going to dive a lot more into that in a few moments.

And then finally, you're going to tell us about who will be implementing your project. And we will again get more into that a little bit later in the webinar. But first I want to just take a brief pause and see if anyone has any questions. Please feel free to write those into the Q and A or you can write them into the chat.

JANET ROUTZEN: Lori, we've had several people ask where to find the questionnaire.

LORI GARDNER: Okay.

JANET ROUTZEN: So a sample of the questions in the questionnaire is in the NOFO.

LORI GARDNER: Right.

JANET ROUTZEN: It is also in the resource guide that we have developed to assist applicants. When you get ready to apply, once you go into JustGrants and you're starting to fill out your application, there will be a section that is actually embedded in JustGrants that has all of those questions from the questionnaire in JustGrants. So if you have, we can also provide you with the Word document that has the same questions that's in the questionnaire. And you can cut and paste from that Word document into the questionnaire in JustGrants.

LORI GARDNER: Thanks, Janet. We did also just have a question, “When we input our narrative sections into JustGrants, will there be a character limit?” 

JANET ROUTZEN: No character limit.

LORI GARDNER: Yeah, I knew you would know that one.

JANET ROUTZEN: No character limit.

LORI GARDNER: So, I think that will be helpful. “Somewhere there's a Word document I was able to download that's really helpful.” Yes, the Word document you might be referring to was sent out with the invitation letter. And it's a template for the proposal narrative questionnaire. All right, I don't see any other questions right now, so I think we can move on. But please know you can continue to submit your questions in the Q and A. And we'll have a little bit more time at the end of the presentation for questions as well.

Now we're going to pick up again with the goals and objectives. So many people use the terms goals and objectives interchangeably, and they're really not the same thing. So generally, a goal is a more broad statement that is about a long-term outcome that you are desiring. Objectives are more short-term actions that you're going to be taking in order to reach your goal. So returning to our roadmap metaphor, the goals are considered your destination. The goals are where you want to go. And then the objectives are the roadmap that gives you the directions for where you're going.

Next, I want to talk a little bit about SMART goals and what that means. So when developing goals and objectives, it can be really helpful to use the SMART framework. SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. So specific is asking what exactly do you want to do with your funding. Measurable is how are you going to track your progress and know that you're successful in doing what you want to do. Achievable is how are you going to do it. And it's really important to think about what's realistic in terms of what's achievable. Is it something that you can do given the resources that you have?

Relevant. Relevant is does the goal align with your project? And does it meet the purpose of TVSSA? So you can have a goal that is, you know, a wonderful goal about services that are provided to your community, but if it's not tied to crime victims, then it's not necessarily relevant to TVSSA, which the purpose is to serve crime victims. Time-bound, this is the amount of time that it's going to take to achieve your goal. And again, you want to be realistic here, and you know, make sure that what you're saying in terms of the amount of time it will take is realistic. So next, we want to see exactly what a SMART goal looks like for a new victim services program.

We will increase access to services for victims who live in our remote communities by hiring a full-time victim advocate to conduct quarterly community awareness activities and to assist crime victims during a 36-month award period. It's measurable because they're hiring a full-time victim advocate and they're conducting quarterly activities. Whether it's attainable or not, that really depends on whether the applicant has the resources in order to implement the quarterly activities.

The community awareness activities and assisting crime victims, those are both relevant to the TVSSA program. And the goal is time-based because they are accomplishing this goal in a 36-month award period. So next, we're going to look at some objectives for a SMART goal.

You'll notice this slide has not just objectives, but also includes activities and tasks. So these details illustrate the applicant has considered the different activities that are going to need to take place in order to accomplish your objectives. So taken as a whole, the objectives provide a step-by-step direction in terms of how you're going to accomplish your goal.

In reading the goal here, it's very similar to the last one. We will increase access to services for victims who live in our remote communities by hiring a full-time victim advocate to conduct quarterly awareness activities and assist crime victims in a 24-month award period. And so the first objective is to hire a full-time victim advocate. And we know that there are so many things that have to happen in order to hire an advocate or any staff member. It doesn't happen magically.

First, you're going to have to advertise for that position, interview lots of candidates probably, fill out all of your own internal paperwork, make an offer to the advocate. Lots of different things go into that. So all of those different tasks. So the next objective is to purchase or lease a program vehicle to support the advocate's work. So we have listed here, procure, insure, and maintain the vehicle. Probably also should have added in, before you procure, you also need to complete a lease versus purchase analysis to submit to OVC. So there's a whole lot that goes into purchasing or leasing a vehicle before you get to that point. And the next objective is to rent office space for the advocate to meet with victims and to conduct those outreach events.

And so again, this doesn't happen magically. So some of the things that you do in order to meet this objective is you identify the office space, you execute the lease agreement, and then you're going to furnish the space, which I think is always the most exciting part. So just a note here, in the proposal narrative questionnaire, there isn't a specific format that's required for the goals and objectives, but this just shows you a layout that you can use in the questionnaire. And so next up, we're going to have a chance to practice a SMART goal.

What we have here just says to expand community outreach and awareness activities. So feel free to write your ideas in the chat. You can take a crack at writing the whole SMART goal, making this into a SMART goal, or you know, just some specific ways to make it more specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, or time-based.

What about some ways to make this into a more specific SMART goal? You know, maybe the different types of community outreach and awareness activities. Or maybe the population that you're wanting to target. And I'm going to give you all just a couple, a minute here or so to come up with some ideas to make this into a more specific goal. And feel free to write all those good ideas in the chat. Oh, somebody's got a good one already. Expand community outreach to contact 75 percent of Tribal residents. That one's very specific, and not only is it specific, it's measurable. So that one's great. Provide quarterly education events. That one's great too.

That one is telling us, you know, specifically, how often you're going to be conducting the events. What about maybe making it specific by who you're going to target? For instance, targeting the elders in your community. Would we do that perhaps by, you know, I mentioned providing outreach to elders in the community, but also providing direct services to elders in the community. That would make it very relevant to the Tribal Set-Aside program. What are some other ways that we could make this into something that's measurable? What about hiring an outreach coordinator? So I wrote, I came up with one myself that might address this one, just to give you an example.

Over a 36-month award period, we'll expand community outreach and awareness for elders in our community by hiring a part-time outreach specialist who will conduct monthly awareness events to educate elders about available services and resources. So it's specific because we're expanding the outreach to specifically to elders. It's measurable in two different ways because you're going to be hiring a part-time specialist and then you're also going to be holding events on a monthly basis. And it's attainable because the program can hire a part-time position. And holding monthly events is reasonable for a part-time position that's dedicated to this activity.

It's also relevant because you're serving crime victims. And then it's time-based because not only are you holding monthly events, but you're also doing this during a 36-month award period. So next slide please. So now I'm going to turn it over to Janet and she's going to talk more about the other elements in the proposal narrative questionnaire.

JANET ROUTZEN: Thank you, Lori. So the other thing that is requested within the questionnaire is for you to describe providing information about your staff, your project staff.

We would like you to provide the title and positions that'll be paid for with the FY 25 TVSSA. Be certain to include the full names of staff that are currently employed. State whether or not this is a new or existing position. Please provide the percentage of time and effort spent on the project. And remember, some staff members may be paid 100 percent from this funding or you may have their salaries paid by other types of funding and they're only going to spend part of their time on this particular project.

Also make sure that you are including the summary of job duties qualifications for each employee listed. And the summary of any prior or relevant job experience if that someone is currently in the position you are applying for. Please keep in mind the description of duties must align with your proposed goals and objectives. And also, you should attach resumes of existing staff and position descriptions to the application in JustGrants. Let's talk a little bit about project management.

We also are going to request that you provide the name and position and title of the person who the grant-funded staff will report to. Make sure that you are also describing if this management position's effort and time would be paid for from your FY25 TVSSA funding. Again, attach your resumes of any project management that's already existing and any job descriptions or position descriptions for those who if you have not hired a project manager.

We need to know who the grant-funded staff members are and who they report to regardless of whether the position is new or existing. We do not need to know how much time or effort the supervisor will spend on this project unless that time and effort will be covered by the funding from your FY '25 TVSSA allocation. We're going to talk real quickly about subcontractors, contractors, subrecipients. We are also going to request that you are going to name, identify by name, if you have a consultant, contractor, or subrecipient already.

We are going to ask that you provide information on what you're looking for, what your proposal is looking for when you are trying to hire a consultant, contractor, or if you are allowing subrecipients for this funding. So you want to put that information in that part of the questionnaire. Please be careful. And if you are proposing to compensate a consultant that if it exceeds $650 a day or $81.25 an hour, those are the limits. You have to have some justification and that would have to be approved post award.

If you are proposing to make a sole source award or procurement action that exceeds the $250,000 limit. And any subrecipient, again, you have to remember that some of this has to be, the approval has to be obtained post award.

We are now going to talk about creating your project timeline. Number one, if you have applied for this funding before FY '25, please note that this is a big difference from prior fiscal years in that this project timeline goes in as an attachment. It is not embedded in the questionnaire like it was in the checklist. It is something that is separate, a separate document.

But we want to make sure that your timeline covers the entire project period. It's important to illustrate how your project activities will be carried out. So you need to look at your SMART goals. Your timeline should be realistic and allow you plenty of opportunities to make adjustments to your goals regarding relevance, specificity, and attainability.

And we are going to explain to you a little bit about how this is also tied into your reporting requirements. So let's talk about a few tips. Again, you should be realistic how long it'll take you to accomplish your objectives. For example, if you know it takes you an average of 6 months to advertise a vacancy, interview candidates, and hire someone to fill that vacancy, it would not be realistic to state that you would be able to accomplish this in a single, I mean, this objective in a single quarter.

We recommend by starting by filling out the activities that will take place one time, such as purchasing major equipment like a vehicle. Next, we want you to enter the activities that will take place periodically throughout the award period, like preparing and submitting your FFRs, your performance measure reports within 30 days of the end of the quarter. And then copying and pasting the information for the remaining quarters in your award period.

Please build in sufficient time such as 60 days for OVC to review and approve products. Or when you have a construction project, the NEPA assessment could take between 6 months and a year to accomplish. So you need to keep that in mind also. Now again, I'm going to remind you that this timeline, here's an example, will be a separate document.

You must attach your timeline separately. So this is just an example. And also in our NOFO or the email that was sent out about the award, there is a resource guide. And they do have a template for this timeline for you to use. Although we're not telling you, you have to do it a certain way, that could help you. So again, keep in mind that the timeline is not part of the questionnaire and that there's no specific format. Because I see that there is some questions about whether or not there's a specific format and there's not. So, I just want to make sure we answer that and that that is clear.

Now we're going to talk a little bit about how OVC reviews your program narrative. Remember, this is a non-competitive award. However, as we mentioned earlier, OVC has a responsibility to review and evaluate your application in its entirety. This slide offers a broad summary of the criteria we use to evaluate your program narrative.

If it falls short of these standards, you may receive an award with the condition that prohibits your Tribe or organization from obligating, expending, or drawing down any funding until you make revisions to your program narrative. So, we want to make sure that you are submitting an application that can be as full as possible.

If you have any questions, your grant manager will reach out to you. And we often see applications or Tribes not being able to obligate their funds because they're also not responding to questions or inquiries from grant managers. So, if your grant manager is emailing or calling you about your project narrative or budget, please respond so that we can assist you in being able to access your funding as soon as possible. So what's next?

These are just some of the steps you could take right away. We recognize that on any trip, each destination and how you will get there will vary from one applicant to the next. But keep in mind that we have resources to help you as you plan. Make sure you're thinking about how to access existing resources you already have. Identify gaps, needs, and challenges for serving crime victims in your area. And determine how you will use your FY '25 allocation to develop or enhance services for crime victims.

Do you need help? We have help. We have your grant managers at your disposal, and you can ask questions from your grant manager, or if you're a new program you can email the OVC Tribal Set-Aside email [[email protected]] and somebody will get back to you right away. If you want someone to help you review your program narrative, you can email Support T-VSTTA [[email protected]].

And if you need help preparing your budget, you can email TFMC [[email protected]] which will assist you in that. So we do have TA providers that are free for you to be able to utilize. And of course your grant managers are also here to assist you. Now, we want to make sure that you remember some key dates. So we're just going to give you some reminders. Please do not do this last minute. Start as early as possible. Make sure that you have all the documents that are in the NOFO. Keep copies of everything you submit for your records. Complete the application process in Grants.gov.

Then, and you may have to give it a few days before it actually shows up in JustGrants. But that information will get into JustGrants from Grants.gov. You can use the Microsoft Word version of the narrative, proposal narrative questionnaire, to draft your responses, but you must put your actual answers in JustGrants. Please save often, JustGrants has security requirements, and will automatically log you out if you're inactive for 15 minutes.

We want to make sure that you also know that there is more help for you. Next week, there will be a webinar on August 12th at 2:00 PM Eastern Standard Time to develop your budget. And if you're considering doing a construction project, the webinar for that will be on August 13th at 2:00 PM Eastern Standard Time.

The other helpful gathering that we will have is an office hours session on September 4th from 2:00 to 4:00, and there will be plenty of people there to be able to assist you. And we will have people there talk about your narrative, talk about your budget, talk about construction, and also how to navigate JustGrants if you have questions about that. We'd like to answer some of your questions. Lori and Rachel, have you seen anything in the chat we need to respond to?

LORI GARDNER: We don't have anything currently in the chat. We have had several questions about the timeline format. So I did want to just reiterate that there isn't a required timeline format, however, we strongly encourage you all to use the format that we showed in the PowerPoint and that is with the invitation to apply. It's a great format that really helps show us exactly what you'll be doing with the project. It also will help you track what you're doing in the project. So, if at all possible, please do use that format.

RACHEL GIBSON: I think lastly, just a reminder again, our budget webinar, construction webinar will be held next week. And then following that we will have our office hours. The links to register for those are in the chat as well. You will also get links for registration in the post webinar follow up that will come after this webinar today.

And the recording will be available within the next 10 days. We have to get all of that reformatted, so be on the lookout for that. But you will get the PDF, and any subsequent materials shared today within the next day or so. And then we will wait a little bit for that recording. When it becomes available, we will make sure everyone has it.

LORI GARDNER: And the recording will be on the OVC website, just FYI. Someone did just ask.

JANET ROUTZEN: Right, can… LORI GARDNER: Oh, I'm sorry, go ahead.

JANET ROUTZEN: I just wanted to remind everybody again too, there is a resource document that was developed and sent out with the email also, so you want to look at that. It does give you some step-by-step instructions. It give you some examples on about how to fill out the questionnaire, how to fill out the timeline. And so we sure hope you that you utilize that resource. Go ahead Lori. I'm sorry.

LORI GARDNER: It's okay. Someone asked in the questions, are grantees bound to using 12-month increments for their proposed budget periods? And that's yes. You can choose anywhere between 12 to 60 months for your project, but it must be in 12-month increments. And we do strongly encourage you all to look at more than 12. 12 months is very often not enough time.

By the time, you know, we've got the budget approved, and you know, there might sometimes be a withholding that needs to be cleared. So a 12-month project period can sometimes be a challenge. So we definitely encourage you all to look at a longer project period than 12 months. But yes, it needs to be 12 month increments.

JANET ROUTZEN: Anytime you finish early, there was a question about maybe finishing early, if you have fulfilled your proposed goals and objectives for a project, you are allowed to close those awards early. You just work with your grant manager. There are certain steps you have to take if you're closing award early, but you're absolutely able to do that.

RACHEL GIBSON: And Janet, it looks like another question came. Can there be a construction renovation project included with a programming project?

JANET ROUTZEN: Absolutely. We see that all the time. So I think some people will have existing programming, but they also want to do renovations or construction project. And if you have enough funds then you should be able to do both. It really depends on how much of the funds that you are utilizing. Because you want to make sure, and we want to make sure, that if you are proposing a renovation or a construction project that you have the ability to be able to complete that project. We want you to be successful in that.

RACHEL GIBSON: And it looks like another follow-up question has come in. If you have enough funding to sustain a staff person and activities for 18 months, could you submit a 24-month project budget that only includes 18 months of project activity?

JANET ROUTZEN: I would say yes. What would you say?

LORI GARDNER: We have seen, I've seen some grantees where they do something similar to this. Because maybe the first year they don't need funds for their project, and so the first year will be zero costs. And then they will move all of the costs into like the later part of the budget. So there are some different ways that you can do that. There is a bit of flexibility on the budgets. I would say, you know, if you have more specific questions about the project to reach out to your grant manager to kind of, you know, flesh it out. And if you are not a current grantee, then certainly feel free to reach out to the Tribal Set-Aside email address [[email protected]].

RACHEL GIBSON: Great, I think that's all the questions I've seen in the chat and the Q and A.

JANET ROUTZEN: All right, I just want to thank everybody for being with us here today. And we look forward to working with you. And so excited about everybody's work that they're doing in their communities. So, (native language), thank you. Also, could you please fill out our evaluation survey before you leave? Thank you.