ACF Promotes Strategies for Involving People with Lived Experience in Grant Reviews

As I travel around the country learning about and highlighting the impact of ACF's work, I make a point to visit with and listen to the people who have encountered our programs. Last week, I met with a group of fathers in Atlanta who had experience navigating the child support system and who had benefited from our Responsible Fatherhood programs. Last month, I met with families in New Hampshire who were participating in ACF's Diaper Distribution Program. When I ask these folks what the federal government can do better, I almost always hear- "include people who have experienced your programs in your decision making." This is wise counsel and it is advice ACF is acting upon.

Every day, the funding decisions we make have a meaningful impact on the lives of children, youth, families, individuals, and communities. That impact can be enhanced if we listen to the people we are intending to help. We strive to reduce structural barriers and we are working to advance equity through our funding opportunities, engaging people with lived experience, and through our efforts to ensure ACF content and resources are accessible. We are committed to a systematic approach to embed fairness in decision-making and redress inequities in our policies and programs. A key component of this commitment is centered on people with lived experience in ACF's work. To that end, ACF has developed a new resource outlining Key Considerations for Involving People with Lived Experience in the ACF Grant Review Process (PDF).

While primarily developed for ACF, it is also available to other federal and non-federal partners aiming to advance strategies to involve people with lived experience in processes such as grant reviews. We included strategies for federal leaders to consider throughout the grant review cycle to improve recruitment and training of people with lived experience as grant reviewers.

More than 10 ACF program offices, past grant reviewers, and partners with lived experience participated in dialogues and focus groups to develop this document. This resource was co-authored, and their ideas and contributions are directly reflected. ACF hopes it sparks new thinking about the current structures and processes we have in place for grant reviews. People with lived experience have direct personal involvement with ACF programs and/or issue areas that ACF seeks to address and support. They contribute unique perspectives about the impact of federally funded programs on individuals and communities, and their expertise enhances the effectiveness of our funding decisions.

Improving partnership through reviewers with lived experience is one part of ACF's broader endeavor to enhance equity through grantmaking. Earlier this year, ACF launched an effort to advance equity in our grantmaking by simplifying and redesigning our Notice of Funding Opportunities (NOFO). This pilot involved 25 ACF NOFO announcements that were shared with the public between March and July 2024. Early prototypes leading up to the pilot showed a 31% reduction in time on average to complete the simplified grant application. We are excited about the pilot and what it means for ACF and our grantees.

We acknowledge that ACF must examine all aspects of grant review and consider areas for improvement. If we have equity in NOFO development, but we don't have equity in NOFO application reviews [grant reviews] then we still have work to do.

To support ACF's work toward this goal, this resource identifies considerations throughout the grant review process that will lead to greater equity. These strategies are about creating pathways for involvement. We must press on every lever as we examine how to involve people with lived experience in government. If the pathways do not exist, we must adapt our processes to make it possible.

When we focus on accessibility and inclusivity across our program processes, we improve our responsiveness to the diverse needs of communities and improve our overall impact. By engaging people with lived experience in our grant reviews, we can further strengthen our ability to make real progress toward economic stability, safety, better health and wellbeing.

With this in mind, we invite federal staff to consider how you might use this resource while planning future grant reviews. We also extend a thank you to ACF employees for your continued commitment to do what it takes to center inclusion of people with lived experience. And we thank the countless individuals with lived experience who share their personal stories and strategic feedback on how we can better advance ACF's mission to improve the well-being of children, individuals, families and communities.

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