Sources of Strength Project: Rural Health Transformation Funding Application
Funding opportunity summary
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) seeks to address behavioral health in rural Wisconsin by expanding Sources of Strength (SOS), a best practice, strength-based, suicide prevention and mental health program. SOS is designed to prevent negative outcomes while promoting wellbeing, help-seeking, resilience, healthy coping, and belonging among youth. This funding will support an educational organization with statewide reach to coordinate SOS train-the-trainer (T4T) certification for school staff in school districts serving rural and or semi-rural communities and support long-term sustainability of SOS in Wisconsin schools. Applicants may apply to multiple Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) funding opportunities for which their organizations are eligible.
Download the full grant funding opportunity and addenda (PDF)
Key dates
Application release
July 29, 2026
Application submission due
August 5, 2026
Estimated date for award notification
August 2026
Estimated funding: The Rural Health Transformation Program will award up to $500,000 in Year 1. Additional funds will be available over a five-year period, *pending CMS approval, as estimated in the table below.
| Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dates | 10/1/2026–7/31/2027 | 8/1/2027–7/31/2028 | 8/1/2028–7/31/2029 | 8/1/2029–7/31/2030 | 8/1/2030–7/31/2029 |
| SOS Award* | $500,000 | $200,000 | $200,000 | $200,000 | $200,000 |
Number of available awards
One
Award amount
DHS may negotiate the terms of the award, including the award amount, with the selected applicant prior to entering into an agreement. If negotiations cannot be concluded successfully with a recommended applicant, DHS may terminate negotiations with that applicant.
Application submission
All applications must be submitted online through the Sources of Strength Project: Rural Health Transformation Funding Application form.
Background
The Wisconsin Rural Health Transformation Program is focused on improving healthcare access and health outcomes in rural communities across Wisconsin. This funding opportunity is part of the Rural Health Transformation Program, a federal funding opportunity provided to states through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. DHS received a first-year award from CMS for $203,670,005.21 to invest in rural capacity, sustainability, and innovation. The program aims to improve access to care through three initiatives: strengthening the healthcare workforce, enhancing technology innovation, and cultivating coordinated care partnerships. Through collaboration among healthcare providers, public health agencies, and community-based organizations, the program seeks to improve health and well-being in rural communities.
Rural residents in Wisconsin experience worse behavioral health outcomes than urban residents. In rural communities, where geographic isolation and limited access to behavioral health services are common, strong personal and community resources can play an important role in supporting youth mental well-being. Through this funding opportunity, the State of Wisconsin aims to address these challenges by leveraging evidence-informed frameworks focused on connections and fostering resilience within Wisconsin’s rural communities.
Purpose
This grant funding opportunity is intended to address behavioral health needs in rural and semi-rural communities by expanding Sources of Strength (SOS), a best practice, strength-based, suicide prevention and mental health program. SOS is designed to prevent negative outcomes while promoting wellbeing, help-seeking, resilience, healthy coping, and belonging. Through this funding, the State of Wisconsin aims to expand the program in rural and semi-rural schools across Wisconsin.
Program requirements
Organizations receiving this award will be expected, at a minimum, to perform the following activities:
- Provide services that benefit people living in rural and semi-rural areas of Wisconsin, outside of metropolitan hubs. See Addendum Exhibit 1 for a definition of rural counties.
- Coordinate, fund, and host SOS T4T certification for school staff within multiple school districts, serving a variety of rural and semi-rural locations statewide.
- Provide technical assistance to support the implementation of SOS in schools throughout rural and semi-rural areas of Wisconsin.
- Convene a community of practice supporting rural and semi-rural schools that implement SOS.
- Partner with at least three rural/semi-rural schools or school districts in each region of the state to expand implementation of SOS in Wisconsin.
- Attend regular grantee calls with DHS staff.
- Provide quarterly and annual progress reports related to strategy implementation and grant deliverables.
- Provide input on changes or improvements to strategy implementation as appropriate.
Preference will be given to organizations that:
- Demonstrate knowledge of and experience with supporting implementation of SOS programming in schools, especially rural or semi-rural schools.
- Demonstrate previous experience implementing and monitoring suicide prevention programs for youth.
Reporting requirements: Evaluation
A combination of quantitative and qualitative data will be required quarterly and annually for state and federal evaluation purposes such as number adult advisors trained, number of peer leader trainings, number of students reached, and number of campaigns launched. Selected applicants will work closely with DHS staff and the contracted evaluation partner to ensure evaluation of implemented activities.
Eligible applicants
- Applicants must provide services in Wisconsin outside of Milwaukee County and have experience serving rural or semi-rural communities (see Addendum Exhibit 1 for a definition of semi-rural and rural counties).
- Regional or state educational organizations in Wisconsin with the ability to work with school districts statewide.
- Prior experience supporting Wisconsin schools implementing SOS programming.
Funding availability
Submission does not guarantee funding within this opportunity. This allows DHS to assess capacity of interested parties to conduct the work outlined in the scope of work. DHS reserves the right not to award funding to any applicant, and to award fewer or more grants than initially indicated. DHS also reserves the right to award grants for less than an applicant’s proposed amount. DHS may award additional funding if more funding becomes available.
Should additional funding become available at any point during the grant period, DHS reserves the right to use the results of this grant funding opportunity to increase funding to the selected agencies or to fund additional agencies that submitted an application but were not selected.
DHS uses a cost-based reimbursement model that limits reimbursement to actual allowable incurred costs. If funding is awarded, expenses can be submitted for reimbursement only after they have been incurred.
Allowable costs
Grant recipients will be required to comply with the DHS Allowable Cost Policy Manual and all applicable state and federal reporting, fiscal, and audit requirements, including those incorporated through Exhibit 2: Federal Compliance Requirements Rural Health Transformation Program. Applicants must clearly describe how grant funds will be used and how the grant will meet community needs. The following allowable and unallowable costs and activities are provided as examples only and are not intended to be exhaustive. The agreements resulting from this request for applications will be between DHS and the awarded applicant. Grantees using subcontractors will be responsible for ensuring subcontractors abide by all terms and conditions of the grant.
- Staff time to coordinate and implement the project
- Meeting expenses directly related to the project (meeting room, audiovisual (AV) equipment, travel, speakers, etc.) and in accordance with federal limitations
- Infrastructure directly related to the program, such as billing and/or fiscal infrastructure, technology for billing and tracking services, and administrative support
- Office supplies, postage, copying, etc. related to the project
- Consultant, contractor, and/or training services needed to implement the project
- Pre-award costs
- Direct or indirect lobbying activities
- Duplicate payments: Funds may not be used to replace payment for clinical services that could be reimbursed by insurance, or used for payments to clinical services if they duplicate billable services and/or attempt to change the payment amounts of existing fee schedules
- Replacing or duplicating existing funding sources. For example, if funds are used for expanding an existing pilot program or initiative, funds may only be applied to the costs associated with the new population, new activities, new program milestones, etc. The original program's programmatic costs, administrative expenses, and activities must continue to be funded by those original sources.
- Clinical care such as health screening, patient care, personal health services, medications, patient rehabilitation, and other costs associated with treatment and direct care are not permitted under this grant funding opportunity
- Costs or activities not directly related to the overall project description and scope of work
- Independent research and development, including associated indirect costs in accordance with 2 CFR 300.477
- Construction or building expansion, purchasing or significant retrofitting of buildings, cosmetic upgrades, or any other direct costs that materially increase the value or useful life of the capital
- Meals, unless in limited circumstances such as subjects and patients under study, if specifically approved as part of the project or program activity, or as part of a per diem in conjunction with allowable travel
- Projects outside of Wisconsin
No more than 8% of the award amount may be used for administrative expenses. This is based on CMS requirements: a 10% cap is applied to the cumulative administrative costs for the entire program, including those incurred by both the state and any subrecipients.
Personnel costs associated with administering RHTP grant activities may be considered administrative costs. In contrast, if staff are directly carrying out program initiatives, the cost may be considered programmatic.
Administrative costs support the day-to-day operations and general grant oversight. These costs generally include indirect costs, audit expenses, and salary and fringe benefits for personnel whose primary responsibilities involve managing, tracking, and overseeing the grant.
More information is available in the Addendum, Exhibit 3: Budget Instructions.
Under federal grant regulations, alteration and renovation must be necessary and reasonable for performance of the award and directly related to program objectives. Any renovation or alteration costs will require prior approval from CMS. RHTP staff will submit required renovations requests to CMS for approval on behalf of grantees prior to purchase or start of work. Renovations may not proceed until written approval is received. Additionally, no more than 20% of the total award can be spent on minor alterations and renovations.
See Exhibit 2: Federal Compliance Requirements for more information.
Application submission
The application can be accessed through the Sources of Strength Project: Rural Health Transformation Funding Application form and must be completed by 11:59 p.m. on August 5, 2026. Only applications submitted through this link will be considered.
Letters of support from project partners are encouraged but not required. Letters of support can be uploaded at the end of the application. It is recommended that applicants use a word processing program to complete the sections of the application to ensure word limits are observed for each question and pasted into the online submission format. Do not include personally identifiable information (PII) or protected health information (PHI) in your responses.
Applications must include:
- Responses to the statements in the Application Questions section. Any information beyond the word count limits will not be read, reviewed, or scored.
- Proposed budget and justification
The budget, justification, and letters of support do not count toward the narrative response word limit.
Applicants should reach out directly to DHS at DHSRuralHealth@dhs.wisconsin.gov for questions regarding technical difficulties with the application submission process.
Application questions
Section 1: Applicant contact information (not scored)
- Has your agency ever supported the implementation of the Sources of Strength program in rural or semi-rural schools in Wisconsin? (Yes/No)
- Name and address of lead organization applying
- Contact information for the primary point of contact regarding this application.
- First Name
- Last Name
- Phone Number
- Provide a brief executive summary of your project (maximum 100 words).
Section 2: Organizational capacity (maximum 1000 words)
- Please describe your agency’s experience supporting implementation of Sources of Strength in rural or semi-rural schools. Please include in your response the name and county location of the school(s) including information about your reach and impact.
- What staffing resources does your agency have available to support the implementation of SOS in rural/semi-rural areas of the state? What else is needed to improve your staffing capacity to expand the reach of SOS in Wisconsin?
Section 3: Program narrative (maximum 1000 words)
- Describe your agency’s plan to meet the deliverables of this grant award. Include how you plan to:
- Coordinate and host certification of SOS adult advisors across the state.
- Conduct outreach to onboard new rural or semi-rural school districts (how many, where etc.).
- Provide technical assistance to support the implementation of SOS in rural or semi-rural schools throughout Wisconsin.
- Convene a community of practice supporting the selected school's implementation of SOS, and how you plan to engage with other rural or semi-rural school districts already implementing SOS.
- Provide a timeline for your planned implementation. Provide a detailed plan for the first contract period (10/1/26 – 7/31/2027) and a summary for future contract periods.
Section 4: Provisional budget and budget justification
Complete the RHTP Sources of Strength Project Budget Template (Excel) with proposed expenditures for year one. For each item include a brief justification for the amount. Make sure this amount includes funding needed for the work itself, subcontracts with partner agencies, as well as associated administrative costs, including accounting services, and agency operating costs. Include a brief justification for the amounts you entered for each line item. This should include how you arrived at the total dollar amount requested for the expense. Example: Personnel: $10,000; Personnel Justification: Personnel is calculated based on a 0.20 FTE Program Coordinator at $24.04/hour = $10,000.
- Salary: Describe your personnel expenses for this project. If none, mark N/A.
- Fringe: Describe your fringe expenses. If none, mark N/A.
- Travel: Describe travel expenses (transportation, lodging, per diem, etc.) for this project. If none, mark N/A.
- Contractual Services: Describe any contractual partners you will fund (training provider, school district, etc.) for this project. If none, mark N/A.
- Equipment: Describe any equipment purchases that will be made for this project. Equipment is defined as having a per-unit cost that equals or exceeds $10,000 and requires approval from CMS. If none, mark N/A.
- Supplies: Describe your supply costs for this project. If none, mark N/A.
- Other: Describe any other costs associated with this project. If none, mark N/A.
- Indirect: Describe costs incurred for a common or joint purpose benefiting more than one cost objective and not readily assignable to the cost objectives specifically benefitted. Limited to 8% of the total award amount. If none, mark N/A.
The budget template and Addendum Exhibits 2 and 3 (Federal Compliance Requirements and Budget Instructions) can be used as a guide when developing your budget and justification.
Section 5: Letters of support
Letters of support from project partners are encouraged but not required. We encourage all applicants to combine letters of support into one PDF for upload. You may upload up to five files.
Application scoring rubric and review process
Applications will be reviewed and scored by an evaluation team using the 100-point scale below. Note: All programs must benefit people living in rural and semi-rural areas of Wisconsin, outside of metropolitan hubs. See Addendum Exhibit 1 for a definition of rural counties.
Organizational capacity
45 points
Program narrative
45 points
Budget
10 points
Total
100 points
All on-time proposals that include all required documentation will be eligible for review. A committee of subject matter experts and knowledgeable stakeholders will review proposals and make recommendations for funding applications. In addition to rubric scoring, contextual factors such as past performance and spending history, geographic coverage and program reach, and project feasibility will be considered when making final award decisions, if applicable.
Submission deadline
Responses must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. on August 5, 2026.
Federal funding statement
This program is supported by CMS of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $203,670,005.21 with 100 percent funded by CMS/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by CMS/HHS, or the U.S. Government.