Opportunity Information: Apply for HHS 2021 ACF ACYF CW 1921
The grant opportunity titled Improving Child Welfare Through Investing in Family is a discretionary funding program offered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), specifically through the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and the Children s Bureau (ACYF/CB). It was released as Funding Opportunity Number HHS 2021 ACF ACYF CW 1921 under CFDA 93.556, and it is structured as a cooperative agreement, meaning awardees would not only receive funding but would also work closely with the federal agency during planning, implementation, and evaluation.
At its core, the program is designed to fund five demonstration projects that will both implement and evaluate practices and interventions aimed at strengthening kinship care. Kinship care generally refers to situations where children who cannot safely remain with their parents are cared for by relatives or close family friends, and this funding focuses on improving the experience and outcomes of those arrangements. The funded projects are expected to provide a full range of kinship preparation services and ongoing kinship supports. A key expectation is that applicants select or tailor services based on a careful review of both local and national data, using evidence about what challenges kinship families commonly face and what strategies have shown success. In other words, projects should not be built on assumptions alone; they should be grounded in what the data says about needs, barriers, and effective approaches.
A major goal of the initiative is to improve permanency and well-being outcomes for children and families involved in kinship care. Permanency typically refers to children achieving stable, long-term family living arrangements, while well-being includes factors like safety, stability, physical and behavioral health, educational progress, and supportive relationships. The projects are also expected to promote co-parenting or shared parenting principles, emphasizing the importance of building trust between caregivers and parents. This includes ensuring that parents remain actively involved in normal child-rearing activities to the extent that is safe and appropriate. Importantly, the funding recognizes that caregiving arrangements can include both relative or kin caregivers and non-related resource families, and it encourages practices that keep parents meaningfully connected to their children rather than sidelined from day-to-day parenting roles.
Another central feature of the program is the emphasis on partnerships and collaboration. These demonstration grants are meant to secure strong partnerships that support the full lifecycle of the project: choosing appropriate interventions, carrying them out effectively, and evaluating results in a credible way. Because the award type is a cooperative agreement, recipients should expect ongoing coordination with the federal funder, and the project design is expected to reflect a high level of organization and shared responsibility among agencies and community partners.
The opportunity also places heavy importance on lived experience and authentic stakeholder engagement. Successful projects are expected to meaningfully involve parents, relatives, kin caregivers, youth, foster parents, and alumni of foster care throughout the project period. This is not framed as a one-time advisory role; the language indicates continuing engagement during planning and decision-making so that services and supports reflect real-world experiences and needs, and so that the evaluation captures outcomes that matter to the people most affected by the child welfare system.
In terms of funding and timeline, the program anticipated making five total awards, with an award ceiling of $500,000. The project period is five years, which signals an expectation of sustained implementation and enough time to measure outcomes rather than only short-term outputs. The original application closing date was June 29, 2021, with electronically submitted applications due by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on the due date.
Eligibility is broad, spanning many types of applicants who may be positioned to operate child welfare and family support demonstrations. Eligible applicants include state, county, and local governments; special district governments; independent school districts; public and private institutions of higher education; federally recognized Native American tribal governments and certain tribal organizations; public housing authorities and Indian housing authorities; nonprofit organizations with or without 501(c)(3) status; for-profit organizations (other than small businesses); and small businesses. This wide eligibility suggests the program was designed to encourage cross-sector solutions and allow child welfare agencies, community-based organizations, research partners, and service providers to form strong applicant teams capable of delivering services while also conducting rigorous evaluation.
Overall, the opportunity is aimed at advancing practical, evidence-informed kinship support models that improve stability and child and family well-being, while also strengthening collaboration between caregivers and parents through co-parenting principles. The five-year demonstration and evaluation structure shows that HHS is looking not just to fund services, but to learn what works, for whom, and under what conditions, so that successful approaches can be strengthened and potentially replicated elsewhere.Apply for HHS 2021 ACF ACYF CW 1921
- The Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families - ACYF/CB in the income security and social services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Improving Child Welfare Through Investing in Family" and is now available to receive applicants.
- Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.556.
- This funding opportunity was created on Apr 30, 2021.
- Applicants must submit their applications by Jun 29, 2021 Electronically submitted applications must be submitted no later than 1159 p.m., ET, on the listed application due date.. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
- Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $500,000.00 in funding.
- The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 5 candidate(s).
- Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses.
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