Aspire: Child Trafficking Victim Assistance Demonstration Program | HHS 2022 ACF IOAS OTIP ZV 0000

Opportunity Information: Apply for HHS 2022 ACF IOAS OTIP ZV 0000

The Aspire: Child Trafficking Victim Assistance Demonstration Program is a discretionary federal grant opportunity from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), through the Office on Trafficking in Persons (OTIP). It is structured as a cooperative agreement, meaning the federal agency expects to have substantial involvement with the recipient during the life of the award. The program is designed to fill a specific national service gap by ensuring foreign national children who have survived severe forms of human trafficking can access trafficking-specific, comprehensive case management and related supports when they are not already receiving, or eligible to receive, similar services through another federally funded trafficking program. Services are required to be available nationwide, explicitly including U.S. territories, so the funded project must be built to operate across a wide geographic footprint rather than in a single city or state.

The central purpose of Aspire is to deliver comprehensive, culturally responsive, and linguistically appropriate case management to a defined client population. For this funding opportunity, a child is any individual under age 18. A foreign national is someone who is not a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident. The children served must have experienced labor trafficking and/or sex trafficking that meets the federal definition of "severe forms of trafficking in persons" under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000, as amended. The case management approach is meant to be holistic and responsive to the realities foreign national children face, including complex needs related to safety planning, housing stability, medical and mental health care, legal and immigration-related concerns, education access, and coordination with child welfare and other public systems, all delivered in a way that matches the child and family's language and cultural context.

A defining feature of Aspire is its two-tiered service delivery model for case management. In the first tier, the prime recipient (the main awardee) must build and sustain a nationwide network of community-based service providers who can deliver case management on a per-capita basis, meaning services are scaled to the number of clients served and can flex as referrals rise or fall across locations. In the second tier, the prime recipient must assess and identify where demand is high enough to justify full-time case management capacity within particular regions, and then ensure those full-time case managers are in place to meet the need. This combination is intended to provide broad national coverage while also concentrating dedicated staffing in areas where consistent caseload volume requires permanent, locally embedded capacity.

To make a nationwide model workable, Aspire requires the prime recipient to establish a local presence across all 10 ACF geographic regions by staffing regional coordinators. These coordinators function as the operational backbone for coordinating project activities, supporting provider performance, and strengthening service delivery across both per-capita and full-time case management sites. The coordinators are expected to help knit together a consistent service protocol across regions, troubleshoot barriers that arise in local implementation, and ensure the network functions as an integrated national system rather than a collection of disconnected local projects. The funding opportunity references the ACF regional structure and directs applicants to the ACF regional offices list to understand the required geographic scope.

Aspire also emphasizes a whole family approach. While the primary client is the foreign national child survivor, the project is expected to focus equally and intentionally on services and opportunities for the child and for immediate family members living in the same household. In practice, this means the case management model is not limited to the child alone; it should incorporate strategies that stabilize and support the family unit when appropriate and safe, recognizing that a child's recovery and long-term stability are often closely tied to the well-being of caregivers and household members. The whole family framing also aligns with the realities of foreign national households where needs may include language access, navigating unfamiliar systems, addressing trauma, and securing basic necessities that affect everyone in the home.

OTIP signals strong expectations around meaningful engagement of people with lived experience and the importance of staffing that reflects the communities served. Applicants are encouraged to incorporate survivor-informed practices into planning, implementation, and continuous improvement, and to hire qualified professionals whose backgrounds, language skills, and community connections improve trust, access, and service quality. This emphasis suggests the funded program is expected not only to provide services, but also to build them in a way that is credible and responsive to communities most affected by trafficking and to the specific needs of foreign national children.

The project includes a 12-month implementation period for the prime recipient to stand up the program infrastructure, which includes developing partnerships, onboarding staff, and creating or refining a service protocol tailored to serving children who have survived severe labor and sex trafficking, including both domestic and foreign national children. However, the opportunity makes clear that services cannot be paused during startup; clients must still receive direct services and assistance through Aspire during that first year. This requirement effectively means applicants must be prepared to operate while building, likely relying on existing capacity and partnerships while expanding and standardizing the national network.

In terms of funding details provided, the opportunity number is HHS 2022 ACF IOAS OTIP ZV 0000, the CFDA (now Assistance Listing) number is 93.598, and the activity category is Income Security and Social Services. The estimated maximum award amount listed is $1,500,000, with one expected award, indicating OTIP intended to fund a single prime organization to serve as the national lead and network builder. Eligible applicants are broad and include state, county, and local governments; federally recognized tribal governments; other tribal organizations; and nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status (excluding institutions of higher education), along with other entities as specified in the full eligibility clarification. The original posting timeline shows a creation date of June 10, 2022 and an original closing date of July 25, 2022, with applications due by 11:59 pm Eastern Time on the deadline date, underscoring standard federal electronic submission requirements.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families-IOAS-OTIP in the income security and social services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Aspire: Child Trafficking Victim Assistance Demonstration Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.598.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jun 10, 2022.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jul 25, 2022 Electronically submitted applications must be submitted no later than 1159 pm Eastern Standard Time on the listed application due date.. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $1,500,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for HHS 2022 ACF IOAS OTIP ZV 0000

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: