Equal Justice Works opens RFP for opioid crisis response program; applications due July 1

Equal Justice Works on the webinar introduced a new Opioid Crisis Response Program funded by the Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts that will place attorney fellows with nonprofit and higher-education host organizations to provide civil legal services, outreach, training and policy advocacy for people affected by opioid use disorder.

Angie McCarthy, senior program manager at Equal Justice Works, said the organization “mobiliz[es] over 200 passionate public service lawyers per year” and described the cohort model that will group fellows and partner organizations to deliver tailored legal services and multidisciplinary wraparound supports to affected communities. "The RFP and application are due on July 1," McCarthy said, adding that selected applicants will receive conditional approval around July 22 and that fellows are expected to begin in September 2024 for two-year terms ending in August 2026.

The RFP is limited to host organizations that are nonprofit organizations or institutions of higher education (including tribal institutions) that provide civil legal services; McCarthy said public defender offices and organizations focused on public defense are ineligible under this solicitation. Eligible jurisdictions are limited to Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont and Washington, D.C.

Seb Nazari, director of finance operations at Equal Justice Works, walked applicants through the project budget template and compliance requirements. Nazari said the template’s core line items are salaries and benefits and other support costs, and noted a baseline salary example of $59,000 for the first 12 months with a 3% increase in year two; the example shown in the webinar totaled $119,770 for two years of salary and fringe benefits. Project support costs are shown at $5,000 per year to cover local travel, language access, litigation expenses for clients, and training.

Nazari warned applicants about unallowable costs: “Equal Justice Works does not pay indirect for indirect costs under this grant, and we are not going to pay for anything that has to do with the start up costs such as preparing proposal[s] and conducting a needs assessment to prepare this proposal,” he said. He added that grants become payable only on or after the grant-signing date and that Equal Justice Works will directly cover certain leadership development costs.

The application package includes a proposal narrative (statement of need, program design and implementation, supervision and sustainability plans), a work plan with targets for key program indicators, budget templates (with separate tabs if proposing one versus two fellows), and organizational capability documentation. The RFP package also contains a pre-award survey and a 75-question risk assessment tool to assess organizational capacity and risk profile. Equal Justice Works is including its standard terms and conditions in the RFP so applicants can confirm whether they can sign a subaward agreement if selected.

Applicants must complete two certification forms: a subrecipient policy certification (with a section D that applies to organizations receiving certain foundation funding streams) and a one-page data privacy and confidentiality certificate. Questions may be submitted in the webinar chat or by email to opioidresponse@equaljusticeworks.org.

The information session closed with organizers encouraging potential hosts to review the RFP materials and the included templates on the Submittable portal and to contact Equal Justice Works with any follow-up questions. The session recording ended after the Q&A invitation.