Sunflower Foundation, on behalf of the Kansas Fights Addiction (KFA) Grant Review Board, has released a Request for Applications (RFA) inviting interested and eligible vendors to apply for the opportunity to develop a large-scale, innovative and comprehensive statewide needs assessment of substance use disorder (SUD) systems and related work in Kansas. Results of the needs assessment will be used to guide the long-term investments of the KFA board.
KFA grant program funds, which support SUD and addiction services in Kansas, come from money recovered by the Kansas Attorney General’s Office through opioid legal settlements. The State of Kansas already has secured more than $340 million for the state over the next 18 years. Sunflower Foundation serves as the administrator of the KFA grant program.
The primary goal of the needs assessment is to provide a comprehensive view of the state’s SUD system across the lifespan, including all sectors from early childhood and prevention through treatment and long-term recovery. Ultimately, the hope is that all SUD funders in Kansas would be able to use the results of the needs assessment to fuel implementation of strategies for real systems change that would lead to the reduction of substance use initiation and SUDs, save lives, and improve the SUD systems of care.
Eligible vendors will be able to show proven experience and expertise in conducting large-scale needs assessments, as well as an understanding of the purpose and importance of preventing, reducing, treating, or otherwise abating or remediating substance abuse and addiction. In the spirit of maximizing resources and knowledge, the selected vendor will partner with Sunflower Foundation, subcontractors and third-party consultants, and be asked to develop a needs assessment that accomplishes the following goals:
- identify key gaps within the Kansas SUD system(s), with a focus across the continuum of care, lifespan, and disciplines;
- assess the impact of the state’s current SUD-related investments; and
- outline the available transformative and innovative approaches to SUD systems-related work and those strategies being implemented in other states and countries.
While the KFA board has access to a solid foundation of quality data and information that sheds light on many of the basic needs that exist across the Kansas SUD system – and has used it to jumpstart the KFA grant program – a more comprehensive, cross-systems needs assessment is necessary to augment what is already known and to shed light on what we don’t know.
See the full 2023 KFA 2023 Comprehensive Needs Assessment. Eligible organizations serving Kansans are invited to apply. Applications must be submitted online through the KFA portal. The deadline to apply is 5 p.m. CDT Oct. 2, 2023.
Questions should be directed to Alyssa Nava, Kansas Fights Addiction Program Manager, at anava@sunflowerfoundation.org.