Essentials for Childhood (EfC): Preventing Adverse Childhood Experiences through Data to Action | CDC RFA CE 23 0005

Opportunity Information: Apply for CDC RFA CE 23 0005

Essentials for Childhood (EfC): Preventing Adverse Childhood Experiences through Data to Action is a CDC cooperative agreement (CDC RFA CE 23 0005) designed to help states strengthen how they prevent adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and expand positive childhood experiences (PCEs). The opportunity focuses on building the practical, statewide capacity to gather and use high-quality data on childhood adversity and resilience, then turning those findings into real prevention strategies that reach families and communities. ACEs are described as preventable, potentially traumatic events that happen between ages 0 and 17, including experiences such as violence, witnessing violence in the home, and neglect. The program also treats certain household and environmental conditions as ACE-related risks when they undermine a child s sense of safety, stability, and bonding, such as living with substance use problems, mental health challenges in the household, instability related to parental separation, or incarceration of a parent, sibling, or other household member.

The grant frames ACE prevention as a major public health priority because ACEs are strongly associated with long-term harm across multiple domains. The notice highlights links between ACEs and chronic health outcomes (including asthma, cancer, and heart disease), health risk behaviors (such as current smoking and heavy drinking), mental health impacts (including depression and anxiety), and socioeconomic challenges (such as unemployment and lacking health insurance). In other words, the program treats childhood adversity not only as an immediate safety and well-being issue, but also as a driver of lifelong health and economic outcomes. By also emphasizing PCEs, the opportunity recognizes that strengthening supportive relationships and environments can buffer stress, promote healthy development, and reduce the downstream burden associated with early adversity.

The NOFO lays out three main goals. First, recipients are expected to enhance state-level surveillance infrastructure so the state can consistently collect, analyze, and use ACE and PCE data to guide prevention decisions. This goal is about creating or improving the systems, processes, and analytic capacity needed to track childhood adversity and positive experiences over time, identify patterns, and translate findings into actionable insights for policy and programming. Second, the program supports implementation of data-driven, comprehensive, evidence-based primary prevention strategies, with a clear emphasis on health equity. The intent is not simply to measure ACEs, but to use the data to select approaches that can prevent ACEs before they happen and promote safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments. Third, recipients must conduct ongoing data-to-action work, meaning they should continually use new data and evaluation findings to refine what they are doing, adjust strategies, and decide whether to scale, adapt, or add additional approaches based on evidence and results.

Health equity is a central thread throughout the award. The NOFO defines health equity as attaining the highest level of health for all people and stresses that reaching that goal requires sustained efforts to address avoidable inequalities, historical and contemporary injustices, and the elimination of health and healthcare disparities. It also distinguishes health inequities as differences that are systematic, unfair, and avoidable. The opportunity connects this equity focus to social determinants of health (SDOH), described as the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, learn, work, and age. Recipients are expected to use ACE and PCE data to identify inequities and then design prevention strategies that address the underlying conditions contributing to unequal risk and unequal access to protective resources, such as stable housing, quality education, income, and safe neighborhoods.

A major expectation of the cooperative agreement is strong multi-sector partnership. States are encouraged to leverage and coordinate across public health, education, social services, housing, justice, health care, community organizations, and other sectors so that surveillance improvements and prevention strategies are aligned rather than fragmented. This is especially important because many drivers of ACEs and many opportunities to build PCEs sit outside the traditional health system. The NOFO anticipates that recipients will not only strengthen data collection and reporting, but also improve coordination and implementation of prevention strategies statewide and, for some recipients, within selected communities. The practical outcome CDC is aiming for is increased state capacity to develop and sustain surveillance that collects, uses, and shares ACE and PCE data, including equity-focused data, alongside increased reach and impact of prevention approaches that support safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments where children live, learn, and play.

Administratively, this is a discretionary funding opportunity from the Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC), offered as a cooperative agreement, which typically means CDC will have substantial involvement through technical assistance, collaboration, and ongoing engagement rather than simply issuing funds with minimal interaction. The CFDA number listed is 93.136. The opportunity is broadly open to many applicant types, including state, county, and local governments; tribal governments and tribal organizations; public and private institutions of higher education; public housing authorities; nonprofits (with or without 501(c)(3) status); for-profit organizations (other than small businesses); and small businesses, with the note that eligibility is effectively unrestricted among the listed categories subject to any clarifications in the full notice. The posting indicates an award ceiling of $485,000 and an anticipated 12 awards. The original application closing date was June 12, 2023 (11:59 pm ET), and the notice creation date is April 12, 2023.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control - NCIPC in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Essentials for Childhood (EfC): Preventing Adverse Childhood Experiences through Data to Action" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.136.
• This funding opportunity was created on Apr 12, 2023.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jun 12, 2023 Electronically submitted applications must be submitted no later than 1159 pm ET on the listed application due date.. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $485,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 12 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification), Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

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