If the Early Head Start Expansion and Early Head Start – Child Care Partnership (EHS-CCP) grant cycle holds true, EHS Expansion and EHS-CCP Round 4 could come soon. This time last year, EHS-CCP Round 3 was open for competition. We’re in a similar situation where the Federal funding is allocated and might need to be awarded in coming months.
Currently, there is a not a forecast for EHS-CCP Round 4 on grants.gov. We keep checking and will post here as soon as we see a forecast go live. The forecast will describe the estimated posting data for the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), estimated due date, and available funding.
If EHS-CCP Round 4 competitions open soon then it could be a busy holiday season! Between the holidays and staff being in and out of the office it might be hard to put 100% effort into designing and drafting a competitive proposal.
In our work writing proposals and coaching grant writing for Head Start/Early Head Start programs, we’ve found that one of the keys to a smooth process and high-quality proposal is having a strong community assessment. Without an up-to-date and comprehensive community assessment programs can be left plugging data holes while drafting their proposal. We recommend asking, is our program’s community assessment data current? Does it provide a complete picture of needs in the service area? And address factors such as the availability and quality of infant and toddler services? A strong justification that shows your program has a deep understanding of community needs (rooted in data) could be what makes your program’s proposal stand out from others.
If you’re not confident that your program’s community assessment is ready for EHS-CCP, we can help. Foundations for Families provides Community Assessment Enhancement services. Through this process, we review a program’s current Community Assessment report for compliance with HSPPS community assessment requirements and to make sure it includes the data needed to draft a strong demonstration of need and justify a program design. Then, we draft a Community Assessment Enhancement report that will supplement your existing Community Assessment. You can go into proposal writing confident that you’ll have the data you need to draft a competitive and compelling proposal!
Foundations for Families offers a variety of grant services that range from comprehensive grant writing to grant coaching. Does your program have a grant writing team in place but need tools and resources to guide you through the process? Reach out to learn about our EHS Expansion and EHS-CCP toolkit. We would be glad to talk with you about the approach that would work best for your program.
Thank you.