Day 1 - Monday, March 1, 2021 - All Grantees
Welcome: CARES ACT Obligation & Expenditure - Federal Perspective
The purpose of this session was to welcome participants to the 2021 National Training, introduce new OCS leadership appointed by President Biden at the beginning of his term, and to discuss the allocation of CARES Act funds and the flexibilities that grant recipients had in spending those funds.
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Rising to the Challenge From a Grantee Perspective
The purpose of this session was to hear a presentation from various grant recipients on how they had administered LIHEAP during the COVID-19 pandemic. The grant recipients that presented were as follows:
- Virginia (Denise Surber)
- New York (Andrew Bryk)
- Navajo Nation (Madelena Kee)
- Indiana (Thomas Harnett-Russel)
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The Digital Divide: Solutions for Connectivity and Accessing Services
The purpose of this presentation was to explore the way grant recipients adjusted their processes to meet the increased need during the pandemic while also addressing the fact that low-income households are more likely to lack access to the technology necessary to complete virtual applications, otherwise known as the digital divide.
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Day 2 - Tuesday March 2, 2021 - Tribal Grantees (optional for territory grantees)
Process of Updating Your Benefit Matrix Annually
This session covered key concepts and ideas related to creating and updating LIHEAP benefit matrices. The end of the webinar/slide deck provided contact information and resources for tribes who:
- Would like help designing a new benefit matrix.
- Need assistance evaluating and/or updating their current matrix.
- Need assistance collecting or using data to improve their benefit matrix.
- Want to learn more about specific concepts discussed during this training.
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What is Fraud: Enhancing Program Integrity
The purpose of this session was to create awareness of potential fraud at the vendor, client, and grantee level and encouraging appropriate policies and procedures to help mitigate and prevent fraud.
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Policy Manuals Framework
This session was designed to help tribal grant recipients understand the value of developing and maintaining a LIHEAP policy manual, learn the key LIHEAP areas to consider for their policy manual, and gain a better understanding of how program policy manuals are used in the monitoring LIHEAP programs.
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Day 3 - Wednesday March 3, 2021 - State & Territory Grantees
Performance Management Data/Evaluation
The LIHEAP Performance Management initiative is extremely important to OCS and to state LIHEAP program managers. OCS uses the performance data that grantees submit to furnish HHS and Congress with detailed information about what the program accomplishes for low-income households. State grantees can use the performance data report to management on program purpose and accomplishments, monitor the performance of local subgrantees, and work with stakeholders on programmatic issues. This session demonstrated how to answer the following questions for state grantees:
- What are the key statistics available to assess your program?
- How to look at your program performance over time?
- How do you make sure your data will stand up to scrutiny?”
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Effective Oversight of Subrecipients
This session provided an opportunity to hear from states about how they provide oversight of their subrecipients. How they have dealt with the challenges experienced overseeing subrecipients as well as assisted them during the COVID-19 pandemic, and their successful policy and procedural changes to ensure a smooth transition of at-risk agencies.
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LIHEAP Weatherization and Partner Weatherization Agencies
This session discussed how state grantees modified their LIHEAP weatherization program around the COVID-19 pandemic in order to best meet the needs of the public. How grantees monitor their weatherization program and how the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) coordinates its Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) with LIHEAP weatherization subrecipients.
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