Preventing and Responding to Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE)-Associated Health Conditions and Toxic Stress in Clinics through Community Engagement (PRACTICE) grant

UCAAN and Population Health Innovation Lab are excited to announce the opening of a new grant RFI. In order to strengthen partnerships to screen for ACEs, the Preventing and Responding to ACE-Associated Health Conditions and Toxic Stress in Clinics through Community Engagement (PRACTICE) grant will award up to 30 grants of up to $1M each to clinical teams mobilizing to prevent, train, screen, and treat ACEs in CA Communities.

The UCLA-UCSF ACEs Aware Family Resilience Network (UCAAN) is partnering with the Population Health Innovation Lab (PHIL), a program of the Public Health Institute (PHI), to build the Preventing and Responding to ACE-Associated Health Conditions and Toxic Stress in Clinics through Community Engagement (PRACTICE) grant. This is a multimillion-dollar California statewide grant to:

• Strengthen partnerships to screen for ACEs and respond to toxic stress.
• Develop sustainable, evidence-informed, real-world clinical services that target ACE-associated health conditions and support the prevention of ACEs and response to toxic stress.
• Build a sustainable workforce to support ACE screening, respond to the impacts of toxic stress and adversity, and promote ACEs prevention.

With support from the California Office of the Surgeon General (CA-OSG) and the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS), PRACTICE is designed to support clinical teams mobilizing a health system’s response to address toxic stress within local California communities. PRACTICE grantee teams must include members from each of the following:

1. A Medi-Cal frontline primary care clinic and/or clinic consortia that have implemented ACE screening,
2. A community-based organization, and
3. A Medi-Cal health plan serving the partnership community.

The Medi-Cal frontline primary care clinic and/or clinic consortia will serve as the lead applicant organization for the PRACTICE grants.

PRACTICE will provide funding support, technical assistance, and peer-to-peer learning to the clinical teams participating in this statewide learning collaborative. Findings from PRACTICE grantees will inform the next phase of the ACEs Aware initiative and ongoing work throughout California to develop partnerships, evidence, and care practices that prevent and interrupt the impact of ACE-associated health conditions and toxic stress on California’s children and families.

Request for Information

The RFI closed on Monday, March 21, 2022, 11:59 p.m. PDT.

Responses to this RFI will help grant organizers to better understand the existing ACEs landscape, assess organizational capacity across the state, and plan for the technical assistance needed to ensure the success of selected grantees.

General Information

Grantee Categories

• Pathfinders: These grantee teams are at the beginning of ACE screening, incorporating trauma-informed practices into care, and/or early ACE screening adopters who are seeking to form or have recently formed community partnerships. Pathfinders will be operating at levels 3 or 4 in the ACEs Aware Network of Care Continuum of Integration depicted in the graphic below.
• Catalysts: These grantee teams have ACE screening, toxic stress response, and trauma-informed care practices integrated into operations through workflows and systems. They have existing strong collaboration and partnerships with community-based organizations (CBOs) that support service integration and linkages. Catalysts will be operating at levels 4 or 5 in the ACEs Aware Network of Care Continuum of Integration depicted in the graphic below.

Grants will be up to $500,000 for Pathfinders and up to $1 million for Catalysts; up to 30 grants total. The contract resulting from the RFP will begin on or around August 2022 and end in June 2023, pending state budget approval.

Eligibility

Successful grant applicant teams will be able to demonstrate the following at the time of application:

• Successful ACE screening within a target population and ability to bill for ACE screening.
• Protocols in place or piloted for assessing and interrupting toxic stress, and for incorporating trauma-informed care practices into patient care.
• Collaborations or existing partnerships with CBOs in providing support for identified ACEs or ACE-associated health conditions, and who can support service integration and/or linkages.
• Existing partnership between a Medi-Cal managed care plan and Medi-Cal frontline primary care clinic and/or clinic consortia

Current or former ACEs Aware grantees and past California ACEs Learning and Quality Improvement Collaborative (CALQIC) grantees are encouraged to apply.

Key Dates

• Request for Proposal: A competitive RFP will be released in early April 2022. More information to follow. 
• Informational Webinar: Prospective applicants and interested parties are strongly encouraged to attend an informational webinar on Tuesday, April 26 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. PDT. Attendance is non-binding and not required. Register on the PHIL Eventbrite. A recording of the webinar and slides will be available following the event on the Events page.
• Letter of Intent: A Letter of Intent (LOI) to respond to the RFP is due on Monday, May 2, 2022. The completion of the LOI is non-binding and is required.
• Request for Proposal Submission: Proposals are due by June 1, 2022, unless otherwise posted.

Frequently Asked Questions

A FAQ document will be available on the PHIL website and updated as questions are received.

Prospective applicants are encouraged to sign up for the PHIL mailing list and UCAAN’s ACEs Aware mailing list to be alerted as soon as the RFP is released.

Download a PDF of the PRACTICE grant announcement.