Opportunity Information: Apply for HRSA 14 095
Apply for HRSA 14 095
- The Health Resources and Services Administration in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Safe Infant Sleep Systems Integration Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
- Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.110 Maternal and Child Health Federal Consolidated Programs.
- This funding opportunity was created on Feb 21, 2014 and posted on Feb 21, 2014.
- Applicants must submit their applications by Apr 30, 2014. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
- The funding agency has allocated a total of $500,000.00 to eligible and selected applicants.
- Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $500,000.00 in funding.
- The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
- Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).
- Eligible applicants include any public or private entity, including an Indian tribe or tribal organization (as those terms are defined at 25 U.S.C. 450b). Community based organizations, including faith based organizations, are eligible to apply. An eligible applicant must have both direct fiduciary and administrative responsibility over the project.
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Opportunity Summary:
The Safe Infant Sleep Systems Integration (SISSI) Program is a national initiative from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) designed to reduce sleep-related infant deaths by increasing the everyday use of evidence-based safe sleep behaviors. The program is built around a simple idea: families do not make infant sleep decisions in isolation, so lasting change requires embedding consistent safe sleep promotion into the major systems that routinely interact with infant caregivers. In this program, an infant caregiver is defined broadly as whoever puts the baby down to sleep, which can include parents, grandparents, other relatives, child care providers, or guardians. Because sleep-related deaths are the leading cause of death for infants from one month to one year of age, and because African American and American Indian/Alaskan Native communities experience disproportionately higher risk, SISSI places special emphasis on reaching and partnering with communities most affected by sudden unexpected infant death (SUID), including deaths attributed to SIDS, accidental suffocation, or unknown causes.
At the center of SISSI is the goal of increasing adoption of a full set of safe infant sleep behaviors, not just a single message like sleep position. The opportunity reflects modern American Academy of Pediatrics guidance describing a safe sleep environment as placing infants on their backs to sleep, using the infant's own crib or separate sleep surface, keeping soft items and loose bedding out of the sleep area, avoiding bed-sharing, and supporting breastfeeding. The announcement recognizes that caregivers often face real barriers to following these recommendations, including cultural or family norms about sleep, competing needs related to exhaustion and sleep deprivation, and practical constraints in the home. It also notes that providers and frontline staff across health care, public health, and social services are well positioned to educate and support families, but they need organizational policies, training, and consistent resources to move beyond awareness and help caregivers translate guidance into action.
The grant is structured as a three-year cooperative agreement in which a single awardee is expected to provide national leadership by establishing, facilitating, and coordinating a national safe infant sleep coalition. The purpose of this coalition is to unify and strengthen safe sleep promotion across the many service delivery systems that touch families, such as home visiting programs, WIC and other food and nutrition programs, Healthy Start and similar community-based organizations, housing assistance authorities, child care settings, hospitals and children's hospitals, community health clinics, and provider networks including pediatric, family medicine, and obstetric practices. The funding opportunity makes clear that, while materials like the NICHD Safe to Sleep campaign exist and local programs have developed interventions, there is no fully coordinated national strategy with measurable, system-wide impact. SISSI is intended to fill that gap by aligning stakeholders and driving system changes that make safe sleep counseling and support routine, consistent, and measurable.
Required project work falls into two main categories: strategic planning and advancement of systems changes. On the strategic planning side, the awardee must convene a multidisciplinary coalition with representation from four key domains: safe sleep promotion experts (researchers and public health professionals with experience implementing interventions), breastfeeding advocates, leadership from major family-serving systems (such as those listed above), and advocacy groups representing communities at increased risk for SUID, including African American and American Indian/Alaskan Native families. This mix is intentional, because the program expects the coalition to surface real-world conflicts and constraints, such as how avoiding bed-sharing may be perceived as challenging for breastfeeding goals, or what policy levers are realistically available in hospitals, clinics, home visiting models, or child care. The coalition is then expected to produce a strategic plan that unifies messaging and strengthens implementation of evidence-based recommendations across systems, while also mapping what resources already exist and what gaps prevent successful adoption of priorities.
On the systems-change side, the awardee must use partnerships to help organizations adopt and implement the policies and practices recommended in the strategic plan, and track these changes at national, state, and local levels. The program anticipates development and coordination of practical tools that help systems operationalize safe sleep promotion, such as training modules, model policy templates, and health promotion materials. The strategic plan is also expected to serve as a foundation for broader infant mortality reduction work and to inform policy and practice across major Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB)-funded initiatives that intersect with safe sleep promotion. These include the Collaborative Innovation and Improvement Networks (CoIINs) to Reduce Infant Mortality (where SUID/SIDS is a common priority), the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant Program (including tracking through Outcome Measure #5 on post-neonatal mortality), Healthy Start programs (with a benchmark aiming for 80 percent of participants practicing safe sleep behaviors), and the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program (where multiple approved models include safe sleep as standard practice). The awardee is expected to coordinate with technical assistance organizations connected to these efforts, such as the Children's Safety Network National Resource Center and the National Center for the Review and Prevention of Child Death.
Performance and success are framed in both behavioral outcomes and measurable system adoption. The announcement points to population-level behavior tracking through PRAMS (Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System) as one way to estimate changes in safe sleep behavior over time. Just as importantly, it emphasizes process and systems measures that document whether organizations are actually changing how they operate, train staff, and reinforce safe sleep norms. Examples include the share of service delivery systems that build safe sleep promotion into performance measures, states that integrate safe sleep promotion through WIC or other programs via MCH block grant efforts, hospitals adopting safe sleep policies, community health centers providing staff training, alignment of child death review prevention recommendations with current SUID science, and growth in the number of stakeholder organizations that publicly endorse safe sleep practices.
From an administrative standpoint, the opportunity is HRSA-14-095 (CFDA 93.110) and was offered as a discretionary cooperative agreement with an expected single award. The estimated total funding was $500,000, with an award ceiling of $500,000 and no cost-sharing requirement. Eligible applicants included any public or private entity, including Indian tribes and tribal organizations, and community-based and faith-based organizations, as long as the applicant holds direct fiduciary and administrative responsibility for the project. The program is explicitly tied to national public health priorities, including Healthy People 2020 objectives to reduce SUID deaths and increase back-sleeping, and it responds to federal recommendations calling for modernization and redeployment of evidence-based infant mortality prevention strategies, with safe sleep identified as a priority.
Safe Infant Sleep Systems Integration (SISSI) Program FAQs
1) What is the SISSI Program?
The Safe Infant Sleep Systems Integration (SISSI) Program is a national initiative from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) designed to reduce sleep-related infant deaths by increasing the everyday use of evidence-based safe sleep behaviors. It focuses on embedding consistent safe sleep promotion into the major systems that routinely interact with infant caregivers.
2) What problem is the program trying to solve?
SISSI addresses sleep-related infant deaths, described in the opportunity as the leading cause of death for infants from one month to one year of age. The program emphasizes the need for coordinated, system-wide action because caregivers make infant sleep decisions within family, cultural, and practical contexts, not in isolation.
3) Which communities does SISSI emphasize reaching?
SISSI places special emphasis on reaching and partnering with communities most affected by sudden unexpected infant death (SUID), including African American and American Indian/Alaskan Native communities, which the opportunity notes experience disproportionately higher risk.
4) Who is considered an "infant caregiver" in this program?
The program defines an infant caregiver broadly as whoever puts the baby down to sleep. This can include parents, grandparents, other relatives, child care providers, or guardians.
5) What types of deaths are included under SUID in this opportunity?
The opportunity references sudden unexpected infant death (SUID), including deaths attributed to SIDS, accidental suffocation, or unknown causes.
6) What safe sleep behaviors does the program promote?
SISSI is centered on increasing adoption of a full set of safe infant sleep behaviors aligned with modern American Academy of Pediatrics guidance described in the announcement, including:
- Placing infants on their backs to sleep
- Using the infant's own crib or separate sleep surface
- Keeping soft items and loose bedding out of the sleep area
- Avoiding bed-sharing
- Supporting breastfeeding
7) Why does SISSI focus on "systems" instead of only educating individual families?
The program is built around the idea that lasting behavior change requires consistent safe sleep promotion across the major systems that regularly interact with infant caregivers. The announcement notes that providers and frontline staff in health care, public health, and social services are well positioned to support families, but they need organizational policies, training, and consistent resources so safe sleep support becomes routine, consistent, and measurable.
8) What barriers to safe sleep does the funding opportunity acknowledge?
The announcement recognizes that caregivers may face barriers such as cultural or family norms about sleep, competing needs related to exhaustion and sleep deprivation, and practical constraints in the home that make it difficult to follow safe sleep recommendations.
9) What type of grant mechanism is SISSI?
SISSI is structured as a three-year discretionary cooperative agreement. The opportunity anticipates a single awardee providing national leadership.
10) Is this expected to be one award or multiple awards?
The announcement describes an expected single award, with one awardee responsible for national leadership and coordination.
11) What is the main role of the awardee?
The single awardee is expected to provide national leadership by establishing, facilitating, and coordinating a national safe infant sleep coalition, and by driving strategic planning and systems changes that embed safe sleep promotion into major family-serving systems.
12) What is the national safe infant sleep coalition supposed to do?
The coalition is intended to unify and strengthen safe sleep promotion across many service delivery systems that touch families, align stakeholders, unify messaging, strengthen implementation of evidence-based recommendations, map existing resources, identify gaps, and drive system changes with measurable impact.
13) Which systems and settings are mentioned as targets for coalition engagement?
The opportunity identifies a range of systems that routinely serve families, including:
- Home visiting programs
- WIC and other food and nutrition programs
- Healthy Start and similar community-based organizations
- Housing assistance authorities
- Child care settings
- Hospitals and children's hospitals
- Community health clinics
- Provider networks (pediatric, family medicine, and obstetric practices)
14) What are the two required categories of project work?
Required project work is described in two categories:
- Strategic planning (convening the coalition and producing a strategic plan)
- Advancement of systems changes (helping organizations adopt and implement policies/practices and tracking adoption at national, state, and local levels)
15) What coalition representation is required in the strategic planning work?
The awardee must convene a multidisciplinary coalition with representation from four key domains:
- Safe sleep promotion experts (researchers and public health professionals with intervention implementation experience)
- Breastfeeding advocates
- Leadership from major family-serving systems
- Advocacy groups representing communities at increased risk for SUID, including African American and American Indian/Alaskan Native families
16) Why are breastfeeding advocates specifically included in the coalition?
The opportunity explains that this mix is intentional because the coalition is expected to surface real-world conflicts and constraints. One example provided is that avoiding bed-sharing may be perceived as challenging for breastfeeding goals, so coalition representation should help address such tensions while strengthening evidence-based practice.
17) What must the strategic plan include?
Based on the announcement, the coalition-produced strategic plan is expected to:
- Unify messaging across systems
- Strengthen implementation of evidence-based safe sleep recommendations across systems
- Map what resources already exist
- Identify gaps that prevent successful adoption of priorities
18) What does "systems change" mean in this grant?
Systems change refers to partner organizations adopting and implementing policies and practices recommended in the strategic plan, and documenting those changes. The opportunity highlights organizational changes such as policy adoption, staff training, routine reinforcement of safe sleep norms, and integrating safe sleep promotion into ongoing operations and performance expectations.
19) What kinds of tools or resources might the awardee develop or coordinate?
The program anticipates development and coordination of practical tools that help systems operationalize safe sleep promotion, including training modules, model policy templates, and health promotion materials.
20) Does SISSI replace existing safe sleep materials like NICHD Safe to Sleep?
No. The announcement notes that materials like the NICHD Safe to Sleep campaign exist and local programs have developed interventions. SISSI is intended to address the lack of a fully coordinated national strategy with measurable, system-wide impact by aligning stakeholders and driving routine, consistent, and measurable implementation across systems.
21) How will performance and success be measured?
Success is framed in both behavioral outcomes and measurable system adoption. The opportunity notes population-level behavior tracking through PRAMS (Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System) as one way to estimate changes in safe sleep behaviors over time. It also emphasizes process and systems measures showing whether organizations are changing policies, training, and operational practices.
22) What are examples of systems/process measures mentioned in the announcement?
Examples provided include:
- The share of service delivery systems that build safe sleep promotion into performance measures
- States integrating safe sleep promotion through WIC or other programs via MCH block grant efforts
- Hospitals adopting safe sleep policies
- Community health centers providing staff training
- Alignment of child death review prevention recommendations with current SUID science
- Growth in the number of stakeholder organizations that publicly endorse safe sleep practices
23) How does SISSI connect to other HRSA or MCHB-funded initiatives?
The strategic plan is expected to inform policy and practice across major Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB)-funded initiatives that intersect with safe sleep promotion. The announcement specifically references:
- Collaborative Innovation and Improvement Networks (CoIINs) to Reduce Infant Mortality (often including SUID/SIDS priorities)
- Maternal and Child Health Block Grant Program (including tracking through Outcome Measure #5 on post-neonatal mortality)
- Healthy Start programs (including a benchmark aiming for 80 percent of participants practicing safe sleep behaviors)
- Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program (with multiple approved models that include safe sleep as standard practice)
24) Are there specific technical assistance organizations the awardee is expected to coordinate with?
Yes. The opportunity notes coordination with technical assistance organizations connected to these efforts, including the Children's Safety Network National Resource Center and the National Center for the Review and Prevention of Child Death.
25) What is the funding opportunity number and CFDA listing provided?
The opportunity is identified as HRSA-14-095 with CFDA 93.110.
26) How much funding is available under this opportunity?
The estimated total funding is $500,000, with an award ceiling of $500,000.
27) Is cost sharing or matching required?
No cost-sharing requirement is stated in the opportunity.
28) Who is eligible to apply?
Eligible applicants include any public or private entity, including Indian tribes and tribal organizations, and community-based and faith-based organizations, as long as the applicant holds direct fiduciary and administrative responsibility for the project.
29) What does "cooperative agreement" imply for how the work is carried out?
The opportunity describes the award as a cooperative agreement, which signals that the project is intended to be carried out with a high level of coordination to achieve national leadership, coalition convening, and aligned systems implementation. (The announcement emphasizes coordinated national action and alignment across stakeholders and systems.)
30) What national priorities or federal objectives does SISSI align with?
The program is explicitly tied to national public health priorities, including Healthy People 2020 objectives to reduce SUID deaths and increase back-sleeping. The announcement also describes SISSI as responding to federal recommendations calling for modernization and redeployment of evidence-based infant mortality prevention strategies, with safe sleep identified as a priority.
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