Community Support Programs Branch

Community Action Grant Program

Overview

The Community Action Grant (CAG) Program promoted the adoption of exemplary mental health service practices in communities around the country. The CAG program supported consensus building, infrastructure development, and training activities for the organization and delivery of services for children with serious emotional disturbance, adults with serious mental illness, or and those with co-occurring substance abuse, mental, emotional, or behavioral disorders.

Exemplary practices included many different models, from clinical protocols to jail diversion programs that seek to improve outcomes for adults with serious mental illness, children with serious emotional disturbance, or persons with a co-occurring substance abuse disorder.

The CAG program was part of a larger Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) effort to bring effective practices from science to service. Programs like the CAG are designed to promote the use of exemplary mental health services, particularly those that have proven to be effective (evidence-based practices).

To adopt a practice and create systems change, community partnerships must be developed so that consensus is achieved around the practice and how it should be implemented. The CAG program funded the process of consensus building as a way to promote mental health systems change in communities across the country.

Exemplary practices are often used with populations or in settings different than those in which the practice was originally tested. To meet the needs of certain populations, including ethnic minority populations, an exemplary practice may need to be adopted. The CAG program supported adaptations of exemplary practices for populations and settings in which the adapted practices have promise to be successful. Adaptations were required to be documented and maintain the core of the original practice.

Phases

The CAG program was made up of two different phases, I and II. Grants of up to $150,000 were awarded for each phase of the program. Both phases of the program require grantees to have an experienced, objective evaluator do a process evaluation of the project. The evaluation documented the progress in achieving goals, identified barriers and solutions, and provided feedback to the participants, including key stakeholders.

Phase I

Phase I supported community efforts to bring together stakeholders in order to build consensus and reach a decision to adopt an exemplary practice.

To develop community consensus, one must recruit and engage key stakeholders. Key stakeholders include individuals and groups such as consumers, program managers, advocates, policymakers, and funders whose approval and support are needed for an exemplary practice to be implemented in a community. Applicants developed a plan to build consensus among stakeholders.

Examples of consensus building activities funded under Phase I include:

Training and educating key stakeholders about the exemplary practice to adopt;
Covering the costs of convening key stakeholders, such as transportation and child care;
Paying for a facilitator to run the consensus building process;
Paying for consultation about adapting the exemplary practice to the target population;
Identifying and planning financing strategies to fund the exemplary practice; and
Doing a process evaluation of the consensus building process with stakeholders (required).

Phase II

Phase II funded activities to change or expand the provider agency’s infrastructure, increase community support, educate and/or train practitioners, establish protocols between the applicant and other organizations, and evaluate the implementation process. Only Phase I grantees were eligible to apply for Phase II.

Examples of implementation activities funded under Phase II include:

Educating stakeholders and the community about the impact that the selected exemplary practice will have;
Developing billing and accounting procedures to implement the funding plan;
Creating a manual of the adapted practice;
Doing any reorganization of the agency, such as hiring and training staff and developing job descriptions, that is necessary to implement the practice;
Evaluating the implementation process (required); and
Running a Pilot Project: providing and evaluating the exemplary practice and its adaptations to a small number of individuals in preparation for larger scale implementation.