September 7, 2016 - In This Issue:

By now all agencies should have accessed CSBGReporter for both budget entry and Organizational Standards documentation uploads. Moving forward if anyone has any trouble with the site, the solution is to contact the IT Help Desk at [email protected]. The Help Desk will respond and fix the issue. You can copy our office ([email protected]), but any issues on the system itself need to be directed to the Help Desk. 
4th Quarter Reports 
Reminder! The deadline for 4th quarter reports was extended to September 15th. Please send your 4th quarter reports to [email protected]. 

Organizational Standards Review
CSBG Staff members are currently reviewing Organizational Standards documentation that has been uploaded in CSBGReporter. Now is the time to upload any remaining documentation, that you may have forgotten about. If you need any standards unlocked please email your program contact. 

We will be hosting a webinar on Friday, September 23rd at 10:00 am  to discuss what we have seen during the  review  process and begin the Beyond Compliance discussion. 

Please Join Us for this webinar! 


Dial +1 (571) 317-3112
Access Code: 236-127-453


Contracting Process
Over the last few years, the process of transitioning into a new CSBG program year has become more challenging. OVCS considers the process of getting under contract and making funds available to be one of our most important actions. To that end, we have begun, and are looking for additional, changes to the process that will hopefully make improvements long-term. Below is an update and synopsis of this year's contract period, and some thoughts on additional changes we are considering. Thank you to all for your diligence and patience during these transitions! 
  • We have separated the TANF and CSBG contracts. This was an action we had been considering, and it became a timely action when the CSBG funds had not been released into August. We will continue this practice going forward.
  • The final execution of some contracts has been held up because of budgets. The contracts we sign with agencies are required by our procurement office to include budgets. First, many of the budgets submitted in applications had less than the amounts written into contracts. This is largely a function of timing, as the amounts for CSBG and TANF aren't known at the time of application. However, our procurement office has instructed us that we do need current budgets submitted for contracts going forward. Second, because we are looking to have agencies submit all expenditure reports in CSBG Reporter, we did ask everyone to submit their budgets in CSBG Reporter. That step is still outstanding for some agencies.
    • All fully executed contracts for which all steps have been completed should be complete and returned by e-mail within the next week. 
  • We allowed those with carryover to submit invoices for those funds, as they had already been contracted previously. We are asking agencies to include carryover amounts in the budget in CSBG Reporter.
  • As you know with CSBG funds, we receive the funding allocation letters quarterly. For the last few years, we have issued a contract and 3 contract modifications throughout the year. That first modification would be in the Oct-Dec quarter. This year, we are looking at options to issue a full-year contract for CSBG, from Oct 1 to Sept 30. This would allow us to only issue a modification at the end of the year, depending on the actual amount of funding received. We would also consider a very simple TANF application prior to issuing that contract in July, and a CSBG application that would be due closer to the beginning of that contract period. We will hold a webinar in the near future to discuss these options in detail.
September At A Glance

September 15th- 4th Quarter Reports due  
September 23rd- Organizational Standards Webinar - 10am 


FACT Issue Briefs and Research and Data Portal
The Family and Children's Trust Fund (FACT) was created by the General Assembly in 1986 as a public-private partnership to raise funds for the prevention and treatment of family violence, including child abuse and neglect, domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and elder abuse and neglect. 

FACT has a comprehensive research and data portal, which contains up to date information about children, families and older adults impacted by family violence in Virginia.

The 2016  FACT Issue Brief on Trauma was recently released, the issue brief combines national research along with Virginia data to increase the understanding of various aspects of family violence.

 

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