Federal Transit Administration Grant for Civil Rights Stakeholder Outreach and Technical Assistance

SUMMARY: The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) provides financial assistance to local transit agencies, State departments of transportation and metropolitan planning organizations. The FTA Office of Civil Rights works to ensure accessible and non-discriminatory transportation, in support of FTA’s mission to enhance the social and economic quality of life for all Americans.

The Office of Civil Rights is responsible for monitoring and enforcing compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) policies, and the Federal Transit Administration’s Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) policies. The Office complements its monitoring and enforcement activities with technical assistance and stakeholder outreach. By conducting regular outreach events, the FTA Office of Civil Rights ensures that grantees have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to monitor their own activities. In addition, outreach events help grantees identify and address civil rights deficiencies before they transform into complaints, lawsuits, or findings on an FTA oversight review.

As Federal Civil Rights policies continue to evolve, the FTA Office of Civil Rights seeks to continue its stakeholder outreach to ensure that its grantees understand and can comply with new or modified directives.
The proposed workshop will last three to four days, with one day devoted to updates on Americans with Disabilities Act policies, one day devoted to updates on Title VI guidance, a half-day devoted to updates on Equal Employment Opportunity guidance, and one day devoted to updates on Disadvantaged Business Enterprise policies.
After completing a workshop, participants will have a better understanding of civil rights policies and the procedures that the FTA Office of Civil Rights uses to monitor and evaluate compliance. Participants should also be better equipped to ensure that their agency is complying with Civil Rights provisions and should have a better appreciation of the role of civil rights in transportation. This cooperative agreement will also allow FTA to research and disseminate promising and effective practices that FTA grantees have implemented in order to meet the agencies civil rights requirements.

DATES: An applicant must submit a proposal electronically to www.grants.gov by January 9, 2011 for consideration. All potential applicants are advised to begin the www.grants.gov registration process immediately, if they have not previously submitted Federal assistance applications through www.grants.gov, in order to be able to meet the deadline. FTA expects to award funds through a cooperative agreement in February 2011 which will allow for a 1 ½ year execution of all phases of the project, including the final project report.

Please refer to the complete text published in the RFP.