New Opportunity: Apply for the Performance Partnership Pilot Today!

November 25, 2014 / SAMHSA / Behavioral Health

By: Larke N. Huang, Ph.D., Director, Office of Behavioral Health Equity, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

Over five million 14-to-24-year-olds in the U.S. are out of school and not working. In many cases, they face the additional challenges of being low-income, homeless, in foster care, or involved in the justice system. Today, in response, five federal agencies are coming together to offer communities support in overcoming the obstacles they face in achieving better outcomes for “disconnected youth,” and those at risk of becoming disconnected.

For the next 100 days (application deadline: March 4. 2015), states, tribes, and municipalities can apply to become a Performance Partnership Pilot (P3). These pilot communities will test innovative, cost-effective, and outcome-focused strategies for improving results for disconnected youth.

This initiative enables up to 10 pilots to blend together funds that they already receive from different discretionary programs administered by the Departments of Education, Labor, and Health and Human Services, the Corporation for National and Community Service, and the Institute for Museum and Library Services.

P3 allows the flexibility to overcome barriers and align program and reporting requirements, to enable applicants to propose the most effective ways to use these dollars. For example, a state, local, or tribal government could propose to blend eligible funds to provide a comprehensive array of behavioral health, educational, employment and independent living services and supports for youth and young adults ages 16-25 who either have or are at risk of developing a serious mental and/or substance use disorder. In addition, pilots will receive start-up grants of up to $700,000.

Government and community partners already invest considerable attention and resources to meet the needs of America’s disconnected youth. However, practitioners, youth advocates, and program administrators on the front lines of service delivery told us that achieving powerful outcomes is still sometimes inhibited by obstacles such as difficulty coordinating the multiple systems that serve youth. P3 responds directly to these challenges by offering more flexibility in exchange for better outcomes.

P3 will give priority to applicants whose proposals draw on existing evidence of what works and show that they will collect and use reliable data for decision-making and accountability. Additionally, applicants that propose to rigorously evaluate at least a component of their pilot will receive competitive preference. In order to look across all pilot sites, the federal agencies will initiate a national P3 evaluation to examine implementation and build the base of knowledge of how to best serve disconnected youth.

In order to test this new authority in diverse environments across America, P3 includes priorities for applicants that propose to serve disconnected youth in rural communities, and applicants that propose to serve disconnected youth in tribal communities.

Applicants will have 100 days to submit their applications. We expect to announce the pilot sites in late spring 2015.

View the application package and invitation notice.

View the Federal Register Notice.

Questions? Contact disconnectedyouth@ed.gov.

Additional Performance Partnership Pilots Resources: