Frequently Asked Questions: Ukrainian Refugee School Impact (URSI) Request for Applications (RFA) 

General Questions

  • The Public Health Institute’s (PHI) Center for Immigrant and Refugee Health’s (CIRH) focus is to improve the health and well-being of refugees in California and throughout the United States. CIRH will partner with local education agencies (LEAs) and community-based organizations (CBOs) to provide support services to newly arrived youth and families from Ukraine. 

    In Federal Fiscal Years 2022 and 2023, the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) allocated supplemental funds to the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) to provide support services to newly arrived youth and families from Ukraine through the Ukrainian Refugee School Impact (URSI) programs. The CDSS Office of Immigrant Youth partnered with PHI to coordinate the state-wide implementation of the URSI program. Through CIRH, PHI will award the URSI funds to eligible LEAs, CBOs, and other nonprofit organizations.   

  • The URSI project aims to promote the academic performance of eligible Ukrainian youth and the effective integration of these youth and their families. Funds are directed towards providing linguistically and culturally responsive support services. URSI specifically focuses on ORR-eligible Ukrainian refugee populations and ORR-eligible non-Ukrainian refugee populations displaced from Ukraine.

  • Identification of community partners under the Basic Needs Support category is identification of partners who are providing basic needs or navigation services to basic needs. Please indicate how your organization will engage with these partners in your application.

Eligibility 

  • Eligible applicants include nonprofit agencies including local and/or regional community-based organizations (CBOs) or local education agencies (LEAs) with the experience and expertise to serve ORR-eligible Ukrainian refugee communities with a focus on supporting school-aged youth. 

    Community-based organizations with a fiscal sponsor are eligible to apply.  

  • For the URSI supplement, “youth” is defined as ORR-eligible individuals from birth until the age of 18. ORR-eligible youth 18 or older are eligible if the individual is enrolled in high school or a high school equivalent GED program. 

    Family members of URSI-eligible individuals can receive support services as well. Family members can include parents, siblings, guardians, grandparents or other family members in the household. 

    For more information on eligibility, please review the following ORR Policy Letters (PL): 22-07, 22-13, 22-15, 24-01, and Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) 24-01. This information has also been summarized in the URSI eligibility tables.

  • If you are a district that has already been approved for funding, you do not need to apply for the funding you are already receiving. This subaward funding is meant for other local education agencies (LEAs) and community-based organizations (CBOs) who are not yet receiving URSI funds from PHI and are interested in applying.

  • No. It could be a one-time service or ongoing throughout the project period.

  • Yes, we will accept applications from small and medium-sized organizations serving smaller numbers of eligible students.

  • Eligibility is based on student eligibility as determined by entry date. Eligibility tables are available in the RFA document at the end in the Appendix and can also be downloaded from SM Apply. All students must meet these eligibility requirements in order to receive services, and in order for their family members to receive services.

Budget

  • The guidance is up to $2,000 per eligible student for the entire project period. This number is intended as guidance only to assist applicants in designing their budgets. The amount will depend on the service received, how much it will cost, and how frequently the services occur. Some participants may incur a higher cost due to utilizing many services more frequently, while some may incur lower costs. Our guidance is that it should all average to around $2000 per student, though we recognize this could vary depending on what services the LEA or CBO plans to offer. Cost details should be included in the budget and budget narrative.

  • If the services provided by the school district and the CBO are distinct and cater to different aspects of student and family support, they can each apply separately for roughly $200,000 even though they may be serving the same students/families. Examples of these distinct activities are school enrollment support to an eligible student’s parent by a School District and intimate partner violence education to the same parent by a CBO. In such cases, diverse services allow for a complementary approach, enhancing the support services available to the students and their families.

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  • Please complete the budget template as one and break out details on narrative and workplan documents of the locations where you will provide services and what services will occur at each of these locations (if they differ).

  • All proposals are evaluated based on their proposed intervention, budget, location, and effectiveness toward the overarching goals of the project. If an applicant proposes tutoring and after-school programs for a family of four eligible children, they can apply for the full amount. Applicants are requested to propose reasonable costs, unduplicated clients, and an effective approach. The guidance is up to $2,000 per eligible student for the entire project period. This number is intended as guidance only and can be thought of as an average amount per student, including associated family members receiving services. The amount will depend on the service received, how much it will cost, and how frequently the services occur.

  • Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate Agreement (NICRA) is a document published to reflect an estimate of indirect cost rate negotiated between the Federal Government and a Grantee’s organization which reflects the indirect costs (overhead) and fringe benefit expenses incurred by the organization. If you do not have one you can use the de minimis rate which is 10%. If you are a school district you should be guided by your school’s rate.

  • Family members and parents need to be related to the student who is eligible because student eligibility is what determines if parents are eligible for services. 2k is a guided but not fixed amount.

  • Gift cards are ok for participation, include snacks and foods as event supplies in your budget.

  • Partners that are subcontracted with should be entered under the tabs for tiers two and three.

  • RFA Document pg. 3 shares estimated funding amounts per region.

  • Yes, feel free to add rows as needed.

Collaboration Between Organizations 

  • Yes, they can collaborate to submit one proposal, but one organization will need to take the lead as the funded sub-awardee that enters into the contract with PHI, with the others acting as subcontractors. If organizations want to collaborate but each be funded directly by PHI, they must submit separate proposals and budgets, and include an indication of how they, if selected, will work together in their proposals. However, there is no guarantee that all will be selected for funding if applying separately.

  • There won’t be priority, there will be a mixture of those who are collaborating as well as those providing services on their own.  

     

  • Identification of community partners under the Basic Needs Support category is identification of partners who are providing basic needs or navigation services to basic needs. Please indicate how your organization will engage with these partners in your application.

Allowable and Unallowable Activities

  • Eligible Activities for Ukrainian Refugee School Impact (URSI) include:   

    • Provide basic needs support to youth and families, including:   

    • Connect families with resources and services to address critical basic needs   

    • Early childhood development   

    • Identification of community partners   

    • Outreach and navigation to increase access to public benefits   

    • Foster family engagement and empowerment, including:   

    • Parent-child joint literacy programming   

    • Language access   

    • Parenting   

    • Intimate partner violence education   

    • Parental engagement in schooling   

    • Recreational programming   

    • Support youth engagement and development, including:   

    • Anti-bullying programs   

    • Mentorships   

    • Culturally focused recreation   

    • Tutoring and literacy education   

    • Culturally responsive school staffing   

    • Support school enrollment   

    • Support capacity-building through participation in communities of practice to foster the sharing of information, best practices, and lessons learned.   

    • Food for distribution. Budgets can allow for food for outreach and engagement events etc., but not for distribution.  

    • Vehicle or building purchases.  

    • Gift cards are allowable as incentives for participation in events and program activities, excluding gift cards such as DoorDash or Instacart which incorporate delivery charges.  

    • Building construction.  

    • Budget and reimbursement for necessary travel expenses and per diem will be reimbursed at rates established by the California Department of Human Resources for comparable classes: https://www.calhr.ca.gov/. 

     

    Items allowable but needing prior approval: Grantees and subgrantees must not purchase any electronic devices or computer-related software (i.e., computer devices [computers, laptops, tablets, printers, copiers, etc.], handheld electronic devices [iPod, iPad, Tablets, Android devices, e-readers, etc.], Rosetta Stone or other software programs, etc.) without prior approval from PHI. Purchase of these items is limited and must be directly related to program activities.  

Reporting Requirements

    • Subawardees must track and report on a quarterly and semi-annual basis all URSI services to CIRH/PHI throughout the funding period. Indicators may include, but are not limited to:   

    • Progress on activities indicated in the district’s workplan included in their SOO  

    • Number of eligible unduplicated Ukrainian (URSI) participants  

    • Number of times service offered during reporting period  

    • Frequency of service/activity (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc.)  

    • Number of eligible students who participated in URSI services and are successfully promoted to the next grade level  

    • Number of staff hired  

    • Challenges faced during reporting period  

    • Accomplishments and success stories during reporting period   

    • Changes in programming regarding service availability and participation as compared to previous reporting period   

    • Submission and approval of quarterly progress reports are required before invoice payments can be processed.   

    • “Ad hoc” report requests may occur, with short notice, when requested by CDSS.  

    • Additional metrics may be required for collection per the request of ORR or CDSS. 

Application Documents

  • 1 inch margin, 11 or 12 pt font, any standard font.

  • Letters of support are not required but can be included as other attachments and uploaded to Survey Monkey Apply platform if you wish.

Technical Assistance Regarding Survey Monkey Apply Platform

  • If you have an office that is considered your primary administrative location, please select the county where that office is located. If you do not, select the county where you serve the most people. Later in the online form on SurveyMonkey Apply there is a question that states “Tell us about the refugee communities you intend to serve.” In this section, you should highlight where you serve individuals in your multi-region coverage by indicating the specific zip codes the communities you serve live in, or which schools or school districts they attend.

  • The best practice is to have everything finalized before “Mark as Complete” is checked. If you need to reset your application, email refugeeschoolimpact@phi.org.

     

General Support

  • Subawardees will be invited, and encouraged, to join PHI/CIRH’s Community of Practice Advisory Group (CPAG) virtually, and other developments by CDSS. Advisory Group members will consist of schools and school districts (PHI awardees and non-awardees), community-based organizations (CBOs), and individuals who are either currently, have experience with, and/or are committed to serving Afghan and Ukrainian refugee students and their families. Advisory Groups will meet throughout the year to exchange ideas, share successes and challenges, and learn from each other how to best serve and support Afghan and Ukrainian students and families with ARSI—S2S/URSI funds.

    PHI will also offer annual in-person conferences for partners, the first taking place in the fall of 2024 in Sacramento, CA. These conferences will provide a space for all stakeholders to gather in person to share successes and challenges in implementing activities for Afghan and Ukrainian students and families, ideas for program implementation, and a space to learn more about Afghan and Ukrainian refugee populations.

    Both participation in the CPAG and the conferences can be included as activities in applicants’ Work Plans under “Capacity Building”. We encourage applicants to include budget for travel associated with attending PHI in-person conferences in their application at the rates approved by the state of California.

    Training, webinars, and presentations related to refugee educational topics will be provided to School Districts and partner CBOs throughout the project.

An Informational Webinar (introduction to funding, eligibility, allowable activities, general questions) and Technical Assistance Webinar for Applicants (for application-specific questions including required application documents and questions about the Survey Monkey Apply platform) for a previous RFA round of URSI funding were recorded and links to the recording were posted at https://www.youtube.com/@phi-cirh.  

**Please note: These recordings contain helpful information about URSI program requirements and how to apply to the funding, however please keep in mind that the due dates presented in the recording are no longer applicable, and another line of funding (ARSI-S2S) is also discussed. Therefore, please disregard the due dates and the information related to ARSI-S2S funding discussed in the recordings and follow what is presented in this document for the Round 2 RFA which is for URSI funding only. In addition, there has been a slight update to URSI eligibility criteria, this has been updated in the Appendix below; therefore, please disregard the eligibility criteria in the recorded webinar and use the updated URSI Eligibility Based on Timeline and Status. 

 

To view the Round 1 RFA informational webinar, visit https://youtu.be/Cr0tKQGoKO0.  

To view the Round 1 technical assistance webinar, visit https://youtu.be/VKH0O_bgxl4.  
 

For questions regarding this opportunity, including any technical concerns related to the Survey Monkey Apply application portal, please contact refugeeschoolimpact@phi.org.