SOI 1275 New York Statewide Fatherhood Engagement

The New York State Office of Children and Family Services, through its Bureau of Contract Management, issued Solicitation of Interest 1275 for the New York Statewide Fatherhood Engagement Initiative. The initiative reflects the agency's efforts to strengthen the role of fathers and father figures in the lives of children and families. OCFS seeks to provide targeted, non-personnel financial support to community-based organizations that help fathers and father figures build stronger relationships with their children and increase access to services and resources supporting family stability, child well-being, and long-term success. The initiative recognizes positive father engagement as contributing to educational outcomes, social and emotional development, behavioral outcomes, and family stability. The initiative is designed to strengthen relationships between fathers or father figures and their children while improving outcomes for children, youth, and families. Proposed activities should support responsible fatherhood, healthy parenting, positive youth development, family stability, and awareness of community resources, including child care and other family support services where appropriate. Programs may serve fathers and father figures involved with child welfare, child support, family support services, workforce development, juvenile justice, or other family-serving systems. Projects should demonstrate measurable improvements in areas appropriate to the proposed project, including father engagement, parenting knowledge, family stability, awareness of child care and family resources, and positive youth development. Eligible services may include coaching, counseling, parenting skills training, case management, professional development, fatherhood education using evidence informed or promising practice curricula, educational workshops, child care education and navigation, and navigation or referral to workforce development, employment, education, behavioral health, child support, housing, and other family support services. Father-child educational activities, community education and outreach, and partnership activities with child care providers, schools, family resource centers, OCFS-funded programs, local departments of social services, and other community organizations may also be supported. Awardees will collect and report participant and program outcome information as requested by OCFS to support evaluation of the pilot initiative. Funding is limited to Non-Personal Services and other direct programmatic costs necessary to implement the initiative. Examples include contracted facilitators, parenting educators, curriculum trainers, subject matter experts, consultants, educational and outreach costs, professional development and training fees, vocational fees, diapers, baby formula, children's books, transit tickets and gas cards for individuals being served, and translation, interpretation, or accessibility supports. Ineligible expenses include capital costs, semi-permanent infrastructure, lease or rent payments, staff travel, participation incentives, personnel salaries and fringe benefits, other ongoing personnel costs, and expenses incurred outside the approved contract period. OCFS anticipates a minimum of seven awards, with a maximum award of 10000 dollars. At least one award is intended for each of seven OCFS-designated regions. Applicants may submit only one application and receive only one award. Funding may be awarded at the full requested amount or a partial amount, and reimbursements require an approved AC 3253-S Claim for Payment and acceptable supporting documentation. Eligible applicants must be authorized to do business in New York State, must be not-for-profit organizations, and, if not exempt, must be prequalified in the New York State Financial System at the time of application. Applicants must have at least one year of experience administering a program financially supported by governmental funds. They must also have a fatherhood engagement program serving children and families in New York State that has been in existence for at least one year as of application submission. Not-for-profit applicants subject to prequalification that are not prequalified in SFS within the required timeframe will be removed from further consideration. Applicants must complete Attachment 1, the Application and Budget Request Form, and email the required response to funding@ocfs.ny.gov. The email subject line should include SOI 1275 New York Statewide Fatherhood Engagement Initiative, and the organization's name should be clearly identified in attached document file names. Applications are due September 25, 2026, by 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time, and late responses will be rejected. Written questions are due September 2, 2026, by 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time, with responses expected to be posted on or about September 11, 2026. Questions must also be sent to funding@ocfs.ny.gov. Email delivery or read receipts are recommended, and OCFS will send a confirmation of receipt. OCFS will first conduct an internal eligibility review. Applications will then be sorted by region, eligible applications will be funded in the order received, and awards will rotate through the regions in round-robin order. If a region has no eligible applications, OCFS may reallocate an award to another region, and awards will continue until available funding is exhausted. OCFS may request additional eligibility information, which generally must be provided within three business days of the request. Eligible organizations will be notified of their status and proposed award amount, if any. Awards are anticipated to begin no earlier than October 1, 2026, and end no later than March 31, 2027. The primary and submission contact is the Director of Contracts, Office of Children and Family Services, at funding@ocfs.ny.gov. The solicitation does not state that this funding opportunity recurs on an annual or other regular schedule.

Submit as early as practicable because eligible applications are funded in the order received within regions and awards rotate through regions until available funding is exhausted. Confirm SFS prequalification before application, use the required Attachment 1 form, provide sufficient evidence of eligibility, follow the required email subject and file naming instructions, and contact OCFS before the deadline if submission confirmation is not received.