Health Advocate Training for Better Serving People with Developmental Disabilities

To fund one grantee up to $150,000 per year for three years ($450,000 total, subject to the availability of funds) to develop and implement a training program that supports health advocates to better work with people with developmental disabilities.

The mission of the New York State Council on Developmental Disabilities (CDD) is to enhance the lives of New Yorkers with developmental disabilities (DD) and their families through programs that promote self-advocacy, participation, and inclusion in all facets of community life.

The CDD would like a prospective grantee to develop and implement a training for existing medical advocates to better serve people with DD. The successful applicant should include a plan to research tools and skills that can be used to improve the patient experience of people with DD.

The training developed must include:

• The tools and skills researched by the prospective grantee
• An understanding of behavior as a form of communication
• The importance of communicating directly with the person who has DD, not just their supporters
• A scenario-based training component
• The correlation of self-determination and improved health outcomes
• A cultural and linguistic competence component, which among other things, includes augmented or alternative communication styles
• Certification as a Continuing Education (CE) credit for Board Certified Patient Advocates (BCPAs)
• A multi-modal primer for people with DD and their family members to become comfortable working with a medical advocate.

There should also be a component to the grant project that helps more people with DD and their supporters learn about and utilize medical advocates. The prospective grantee should consider how people will learn about and access this potential resource. The successful applicant will outline a plan to make the resource more well known.

Expected Key Deliverables

• Develop a training curriculum to help medical advocates better serve people with DD which includes a scenario-based training component.
• Pilot and implement the developed training which is certified as a Continuing Education (CE) credit for Board Certified Patient Advocates (BCPAs).
• Create an accompanying toolkit for training delivery.
• Create and distribute tools to assist patients with DD during and after medical appointments (For example: Anxiety relief techniques, pre-/post- appointments worksheets, a glossary of common medical terms, etc.)
• Create project impact report that demonstrates the project's effectiveness and value
• A plan to help more people with DD and their supporters learn about and utilize medical advocates

**Online submission required.** All final grant applications must be received in Qualtrics by **11:59 PM Eastern Time (ET)** on the Proposal Due Date. Proposals will only be accepted in Qualtrics. Proposals will not be accepted via fax, e-mail, hard copy or hand delivery. Late proposals will not be accepted.

All applicants must be a prequalified vendor in the Statewide Financial System (SFS) to apply. For proposals to be evaluated, all nonprofit organizations applying for this grant opportunity **MUST** prequalify by the Proposal Due Date. Government entities are not required to prequalify in SFS.

The contract awarded in response to this RFP will be for 3 years with an anticipated start date of April 1, 2027 and an end date of March 31, 2029.

All applicants must submit a proposed 1-Year budget. CDD Indirect Costs should not exceed 15% of the budgeted direct expenses. Your 1-Year Expenditure Budget must include a minimum of **34%** of Match funding over the total budget (not by each budget line). Federal funds may not be used as grantee match.

The Program Specific Questions, Work Plan and Budget will be evaluated and scored based on the criteria listed in Section 4.3 Scoring Rubric.

**Required** signed attestations: *EO16 Certification (Business with Russia Disclosure)*, *Sexual Harassment Prevention Certificate*, *Attestation of Compliance for Timeliness in Reporting*, *Gender-Based Violence and the Workplace Certification*. All documents must be signed to pass eligibility review.