Capacity Building

Unlike like many Federal contractors, DSG places a special emphasis on working directly with communities at the local level. Most of the national
grants programs we support involve teaching communities to develop strategic action plans to improve the lives of their children, youth, and families.
Some recent examples of our community planning and development work include the following:

  • For the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Community Services (OCS), DSG provided logistical, policy, research, and planning
    assistance. This work supported OCS’s mission to partner with States, communities, and local agencies in supplying human and economic development
    services that address the causes and characteristics of poverty and otherwise assist persons in need.  Strategies were designed to a) increase the
    capacity of individuals and families to become self-sufficient, b) revitalize communities, and c) build the stability and capacity of youth and
    families to create their own opportunities.
  • For the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), DSG managed the Targeted Community Action Planning Intensive technical
    assistance (TA) Initiative. This initiative provided support to communities interested in developing targeted responses to their most pressing
    juvenile justice issues. This project annually provided 10 to 15 communities with intensive technical assistance for 6 to 9 months to develop and
    implement targeted responses using the TCAP process.
  • For OJJDP, DSG managed the Title V Training and Technical Assistance for State and Local Governments contract, which fostered the development and
    implementation of risk-focused comprehensive communitywide delinquency prevention plans. The Title V Program encourages communities to perform
    multidisciplinary assessments of the risk and resources specific to their communities and then develop communitywide, collaborative plans to
    prevent delinquency.
  • Under an initial contract for the Office of Minority Health (OMH), DSG developed the Uniform Data Set (UDS), an innovative structure for data
    collection, reporting, and analysis designed to be appropriate for the wide range of community-based OMH grantees, and to address OMH needs related
    to program management and accountability. OMH sponsored the project to provide better data in reports to Congress on the impact of OMH programs,
    meet requirements of the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993, and contribute to the field. The UDS won the DHHS Excellence in Evaluation Award. It is the only Office of Public Health Services evaluation project to have been
    nominated and selected in the past 10 years.
  • For OJJDP, DSG is the Court Coordination Program (CCP) contractor, helping local juvenile court systems create and sustain comprehensive,
    community-based coordinated service programs for court-involved delinquent or dependent youth. CCP emphasizes mental health, wraparound services,
    and substance abuse screening and treatment—for participating youth in the overall context of synchronized school, family, and community
    interventions—designed to shorten their participation and reduce recidivism in the justice system. For more on CCP, see (hyper link: to CCP writeup
    on home page).