SOR III, Year 2 Award Letters Have Been Sent to CSB EDs

Hello, Virginia SOR Subgrantees!

We’re gearing up for the coming SOR grant year starting September 30th, 2023. All CSB executive directors should’ve received SOR 2023-2024 treatment and/or recovery annual award amount emails with instructions for submitting proposals. 

 (All non-CSB subgrantee award letters will be finalized within the next two weeks. You should’ve received an email about training for submitting proposals in Web Grants. I may be reaching out for a quick meeting to discuss. Stay tuned. This is for non-CSBs only.) 

SOR proposals are due September 8th. As we’ve said before, it’s acceptable to tweak your award amounts without changing the total.

For example: CSB X’s award:

  • Total - $225k

  • Treatment - $150k

  • Recovery - $75k

 CSB X would rather split the money like this:

  • Treatment - $125k

  • Recovery - $100k

That split is totally fine. Split the amounts however works best for your agency as long as the numbers don’t include cents and the total amount stays the same…. at this point. 

“But, what if our CSB needs more than the total award amount?” 

Not to worry. We will accept additional budget proposals starting November 6th. All additional awards will be considered based on the following: 

  • available funds 

  • subgrantee’s catchment area needs

  • amount of subgrantee’s unspent funds from the past year

Below are the proposal instructions that were included in the award letters.

The most important one…and I can’t stress this enough,

PLEASE save your proposal with the name of your CSB and the grant year 2023. For example: RBHA SOR 2023 Proposal.doc

Grant Proposal Guidelines

  • The subgrantee organization name must be included in the proposal document file name.

    • For example: RBHA SOR 2023 Proposal.doc

  • Include all proposal elements in one document: treatment, recovery and budget.

  • Excel spreadsheets must be imbedded into the proposal word document.

  • Document should be single-spaced with Times New Roman, 12 pt. font size.

  • The following items should be included.

    • Coversheet, organization name, contact information and Annual Award Amounts

    • Introduction (include annual award amounts)

    • List subgrantee contact persons for recovery, treatment, finance and GPRA collection. (This can be included in list form within or after the introduction.)

    • Statement of problem/need

    • Description of your project that will address the problem/need

    • Implementation - Plan for how your organization would implement Treatment and Recovery services (depending on request). Please include estimates of the number of individuals served annually within these programs.

    • Evaluation - how you plan to evaluate the success of your program. (Note: GPRA administration is required when offering direct treatment services. The subgrantee will need to work with OMNI Institute to coordinate submission of GPRA data. More on that later.)

    • Sustainability - Measures for sustainability beyond the grant period and/or documented barriers to sustainability

    • Revenue - Licensed positions and peer recovery positions must include an estimate of revenue generated from billing. If your agency is not currently billing for peer services, please include an explanation of the barriers that are preventing you from doing so.

    • Round up all amounts to the nearest dollar.

    • Housing Funds – All funds requested for housing, must be used for actual recovery oriented housing, not standard apartment housing with no recovery component to it.

Proposal Submission Deadline

Initial proposals will be accepted September 8, 2023. Proposals must be submitted by e-mail with the Subject Line to include: Name of Subgrantee/SOR III, Year II request to:  Angela Weight angela.weight@dbhds.virginia.gov

5. Fund Distribution

There will be no upfront payment of 1/8th of approved grant funds this year. Funds will be reimbursed based on received and approved monthly reimbursement requests.  Funds will be paid out on the mid-month warrant for the month after the request is received.

The SOR team WILL consider requests for funding beyond your Annual Award Amount starting November 6, 2023. Follow the same requirements as initial proposals.

All SOR Prevention awards will be managed separately through the Office of Behavioral Health Wellness. Direct all SOR prevention – related questions to Rebecca Textor (SOR Prevention Coordinator). Rebecca.textor@dbhds.virginia.gov

As always, thank you all so much for the outstanding work you’re doing to bring recovery and treatment services to Virginians who need them.  

Angela Weight
SOR Grant Programming Coordinator
Virginia Department of Behavioral Health & Developmental Services
(804) 297-5457

https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-2/subtitle-A/chapter-II/part-200#200.112
Per 2 C.F.R. § 200.112-1113 The Federal awarding agency must establish conflict of interest policies for Federal awards. The non-Federal entity must disclose in writing any potential conflict of interest to the Federal awarding agency or pass-through entity in accordance with applicable Federal awarding agency policy. Failure to adhere to these statues will result in immediate termination of funding. Virginia’s State Opioid Response (SOR) grant is awarded at the discretion of DBHDS and SAMHSA. All recipients of SOR funding supports evidence-based prevention, treatment and recovery services to address opioid and stimulant misuse and use disorders, including for cocaine and methamphetamine. The SOR grant is not intended to be utilized as a long-term or permanent funding source. All SOR proposals must include a realistic plan for financial sustainability beyond the grant period.

Note: Information regarding SOR Prevention will be communicated through the Virginia Prevention Works portal.

OMNI Kudos to CSBs/Agencies with SOR III Intake Target Completion!

OMNI Kudos to CSBs/Agencies Meeting Their SOR III FY22-23 Intake GPRA Target Numbers!

We are continuing to share some kudos about CSBs or Agencies that are doing well with intakes, follow-ups, engaging and supporting clients, and/or those that demonstrate a "spirit of inquiry" when engaging with our TA Team on GPRA administration issues.

This month, we’d like to share kudos for numerous CSBs and Agencies for meeting their SOR III Year 1 intake target! We are about 85% of the way through Year 1 and the following 18 CSBs and Agencies have all reached at least 100% or more of their intake targets. Kudos!

CSBs/Agencies

  • Alexandria

  • Alleghany Highlands

  • Arlington

  • Caritas

  • Chesapeake Opioid IOP CCAP

  • Goochland-Powhatan

  • Highlands

  • Loudoun

  • Middle Peninsula Northern Neck

  • New River Valley

  • Norfolk

  • Northwestern

  • Piedmont

  • Planning District 1

  • Portsmouth

  • Prince William

  • Southside CSB

  • Valley

We know that everyone is working hard toward meeting their intake target as set out by DBHDS this year. Please pay close attention to your tracking sheet and schedule your Follow-up GPRA interviews accordingly.

The TA Team is available to help if you have questions about any aspect of GPRA administration or would like any tips on best practices. If so, please reach out to our team at SORsupport@omni.org

SOR III Monthly Progress Reports: Follow-up Sections Added

The monthly progress reports have been uploaded to your agency’s dropbox folder. The report has historically included the number of Intake GPRAs your agency has completed, as well as your agency’s progress towards its Intake target. Starting this month, the report also includes a figure showing Follow-Up Type Among Those With Closed Windows (Figure 4). This figure illustrates the follow-up status of clients whose follow-up windows have closed, sorting them into three categories:

  1. The number of Interview Follow-Ups that were completed (teal)

  2. The number of Administrative Follow-Ups that were completed (dark blue)

  3. The number of clients with No Follow-Up Completed (gray)

If you have any questions regarding the SOR III monthly progress reports, please feel free to reach out to us at SORSupport@omni.org.

Next SOR Grant Year Information (Reminder)

Greetings, Virginia SOR Subgrantees

 

As we’re rolling into the final quarter of SOR III, Year 1, we wanted to touch base on a few things.

  1. There WILL be a SOR III, Year 2. -- September 30th, 2023 to September 29, 2024.

  2. We WILL be issuing individual treatment and recovery award amounts (with further instructions) once we receive notification from SAMHSA finalizing Virginia’s SOR III, Year 2 award amount.

  3. Your treatment and recovery award amount notifications will include proposal due dates and other relevant instructions.

  4. Proposals WILL NOT be submitted through WebGrants this year, as we were previously told.

  5. If you received approval for funding this year for a position (wage or salary) that you have been unable to fill so far, and suspect that it will remain vacant through the end of this grant year, please do not include this position in your proposal for the coming year.

  6. Proposal narratives should be submitted in MS Word or PDF. Budgets must be in Excel spreadsheet format. (We’ll remind you at least two more times of this.)

 

Information regarding SOR Prevention will be communicated through the Virginia Prevention Works portal.

I think that’s all for now. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Mike Zohab or me.

 

Thanks so much!

 

Angela Weight

SOR Grant Programming Coordinator

Virginia Department of Behavioral Health & Developmental Services

(804) 297-5457

Next SOR Grant Year Information

Greetings, Virginia SOR Subgrantees

 

As we’re rolling into the final quarter of SOR III, Year 1, we wanted to touch base on a few things.

  1. There WILL be a SOR III, Year 2. -- September 30th, 2023 to September 29, 2024.

  2. We WILL be issuing individual treatment and recovery award amounts (with further instructions) once we receive notification from SAMHSA finalizing Virginia’s SOR III, Year 2 award amount.

  3. Your treatment and recovery award amount notifications will include proposal due dates and other relevant instructions.

  4. Proposals WILL NOT be submitted through WebGrants this year, as we were previously told.

  5. If you received approval for funding this year for a position (wage or salary) that you have been unable to fill so far, and suspect that it will remain vacant through the end of this grant year, please do not include this position in your proposal for the coming year.

  6. Proposal narratives should be submitted in MS Word or PDF. Budgets must be in Excel spreadsheet format. (We’ll remind you at least two more times of this.)

 

Information regarding SOR Prevention will be communicated through the Virginia Prevention Works portal.

I think that’s all for now. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Mike Zohab or me.

 

Thanks so much!

 

Angela Weight

SOR Grant Programming Coordinator

Virginia Department of Behavioral Health & Developmental Services

(804) 297-5457

OMNI Kudos to Alexandria CSB for SOR III Intake and Follow-up Interview GPRA Rates

We are continuing to share some kudos about CSBs or Agencies that are doing well with intakes, follow-ups, engaging and supporting clients, and/or those that demonstrate a "spirit of inquiry" when engaging with our TA Team on GPRA administration issues.

This month, we are highlighting Alexandria CSB. In our recent one-on-one meeting between OMNI and their team, we reviewed their GPRA rates: Alexandria has met 98% of their Intake GPRA goal for the fiscal year (63 of 64) and have a 100% interview GPRA follow-up rate so far! The Alexandria team has been working hard on monitoring their GPRA workflows and due dates and are showing strong effort in completing these important GPRA interviews at intake and follow-up. Kudos!

We know that everyone is working hard toward meeting their intake goal as set out by DBHDS this year. We also want to make special note of the fact that the first Follow-up Windows to open for SOR III were in March and have recently begun to close in June. Please pay close attention to your tracking sheet to keep tabs on those and schedule your Follow-up GPRA interviews accordingly.

With the increased workloads due to Follow-up windows opening in general, we want to make sure all CSBs/agencies know that the TA Team is available to help if you have questions about any aspect of GPRA administration or would like any tips on best practices. If so, please reach out to our team at SORsupport@omni.org

OMNI Apologies for Multiple Duplicated Alerts!

The weekly follow-up reminders have been sent today to remind CSBs of upcoming GPRA Follow-Up Windows Closing. Due to upgrading to the new outlook and technical issues, this email was accidentally sent 3 times. We apologize for the inconvenience and technical glitch. We are working to correct this for the future so that this does not reoccur. We thank you for your patience and understanding with us!

If you have any questions regarding the email about upcoming follow-ups, please feel free to reach out to us at SORSupport@omni.org.

Share your SOR Treatment & Recovery Success Stories with OMNI and DBHDS!

Now that we are well into the first year of SOR III, we thought it would be a good time to remind you that DBHDS and OMNI are always interested in receiving and learning of any SOR success stories! We are compile these throughout the year to use in our year-end reporting. We’d love to hear from you about how your SOR funding is supporting the services you provide in your community.

We have prepared a very simple survey that will easily allow you to share some of your SOR Success Stories, reflecting on the past year. There is also an opportunity to attach documents or photos.

To submit a success story, please click here.

https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-2/subtitle-A/chapter-II/part-200#200.112 Per 2 C.F.R. § 200.112-1113 The Federal awarding agency must establish conflict of interest policies for Federal awards. The non-Federal entity must disclose in writing any potential conflict of interest to the Federal awarding agency or pass-through entity in accordance with applicable Federal awarding agency policy. Failure to adhere to these statues will result in immediate termination of funding.

Virginia’s State Opioid Response (SOR) grant is awarded at the discretion of DBHDS and SAMHSA. All recipients of SOR funding supports evidence-based prevention, treatment and recovery services to address opioid and stimulant misuse and use disorders, including for cocaine and methamphetamine. The SOR grant is not intended to be utilized as a long-term or permanent funding source. All SOR proposals must include a realistic plan for financial sustainability beyond the grant period.