Residential Services for Unaccompanied Alien Children
This cooperative agreement funds licensed residential care providers to deliver 24/7 group home, shelter, or transitional foster care services for unaccompanied alien children, with emphasis on facilities near the southern border.
⚑ Applicants must already be licensed or meet state licensing requirements for the child care setting at application time. · Current recipients may apply only if the project period timing matches continuation rules, or if proposing a new facility and new location. · No multiple funded projects offering the same type of service in the same location. · Individuals, federal entities, and foreign entities are ineligible; faith-based and community organizations are eligible.
This is a direct service-delivery and residential care grant for licensed child placement providers, not a social-science, policy, survey, or evaluation project. It falls well outside IPPRA’s research lines in risk, public opinion, education policy, and hazard communication.
JUDGED AGAINST THE ROSTER'S PUBLICATION DOSSIER · GPT-5.4-MINI · 2026-10-31
Unit fits — one characterization, each unit's own rules
| IPPRA | 40 partial | peripheral portfolio topic: public_health; signature methods: community engaged; social/behavioral work is minor; funds service delivery, not research (capped); university can only partner, not lead; capped at 40 (non-research funding) |
| Tom Love Innovation Hub | 5 none | no commercialization signal |
| Physical Sciences & Engineering (demo) | 0 none | technical depth: none; funds service delivery (capped) |
Description
The Residential Services for Unaccompanied Alien Children funding opportunity is intended to support organizations that can provide high-quality, child-centered care that promotes children's safety and well-being. Funded providers must offer services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and have the capacity to accept children at any time, when it is safe to do so and consistent with state licensing requirements. Although children in ORR care are in the federal government's legal custody due to their immigration status, care providers are responsible for their day-to-day physical care. At the time of application, providers must be licensed, in accordance with state requirements, to provide group home, shelter, or transitional foster care services for children, including any required child placement or related licenses.
ORR is particularly interested in projects that provide residential facility beds and transitional foster care in states and localities near the U.S. southern border with Mexico.
Standard ORR care providers must be licensed by an appropriate State agency, or meet the State's licensing requirements if located in a State that does not allow State licensing of programs providing or proposing to provide care and services to unaccompanied children. See 45 CFR 410.1302(a) .
Eligibility
Current RecipientsCurrent recipients in the final year of their project period must check when their project period ends. If the project period end date aligns with this funding opportunity"s projected award date, and the current recipient wants to apply to continue providing services, they must apply for this funding opportunity.Current recipients who are not in the final year of their project period and want to apply for this funding opportunity must propose services in a new facility and new location from where they are currently funded. ACF does not fund multiple projects that offer the same type of service in the same location. Applications from individuals (including sole proprietorships), federal entities, and foreign entities are not eligible and will be disqualified from the merit review and funding under this funding opportunity. Faith-based and community organizations that meet the eligibility requirements are eligible for awards under this funding opportunity.
Apply
View on Grants.gov → CONTACT: Administration for Children and Families - ORR <UCBgrants@acf.hhs.gov>
Proposal brief SEE AN EXAMPLE →
A one-page internal memo: fit assessment, submission requirements, document scaffold, and next steps dated back from the deadline — tailored to your project idea if you add one.
Proposal shell · HHS services agencies (SAMHSA / HRSA / CDC / ACF) conventions SEE AN HHS EXAMPLE →
Funder-faithful document skeletons — HHS services agencies (SAMHSA / HRSA / CDC / ACF)'s document set with section headings, page limits, reviewer guidance, and writing prompts; add a project idea to get [DRAFT] starter bullets. Download as .md for Word or Overleaf.