This Request for Proposals (RFP) is to promote sustainable economic strengthening through workforce and career development experiences, opportunities, education, guidance, relationships, and other efforts related to economic strengthening including apprenticeship-type programs and positive identity development. For those who are interested, this includes promoting, providing support and services for the T3AMS programming.
Please review the full RFP document in the Library tab for a complete description of this funding opportunity and the proposal requirements.
Background
One of SSPP’s three primary strategies is Employment and Economic Development. This provides intentional guidance and connection to resources related primarily to employment and education opportunities such as paid skills/job training and shadowing, paid internships, civic and business leadership development, career and land stewardship mentoring, and culturally reflective mental health and well-being supports.
This strategy is about cultivating and equipping the brilliance of the next generation of adults, especially Black and Indigenous young people, to help them see themselves as invaluable leaders and their contribution to shaping their/our future. Our young people and their families most negatively targeted by systemic racism and the school to prison pipeline face ongoing economic hardship and devastation further highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic. These systemic hardships have a strong correlation to unstable housing, low sense of well-being, unemployment, school absences, increased criminal legal involvement and violence, to name a few.[1] In the best interest of the communities we seek to serve, we champion County investments and a coordinated systemic response to economically uplift negatively impacted communities sufficiently in order to create sustainable gains and negate one-off limited approaches.
All 3 strategies are described below in more detail.
Data
- Unemployment. Black residents (7.7%) have higher unemployment rates than the average King County resident (4.2%).
- Unemployment during COVID-19. 42% of workers in King County who identified as Black/African American filed unemployment claims between March 2020 and March 2021.
- Median Household Income. The median income of Black households ($49,846) is nearly half the median income of the average King County resident ($94,974).
Positive Identify Development
We engage in liberation and sovereignty when we pursue the restoration of our historical narrative and heritage, and foster reconnection to ancestors and cultural community. This is especially the case for Black and Indigenous folks who were ripped from their ancestral lands and culture, forced into widescale human trafficking and enslavement, and suffered genocide over the course of hundreds of years. It is important to rebuild and reinforce young people’s sense of heritage and its intersections with community. This is fundamental for young people to better understand who they are, and establish a strong sense of self-worth, voice, acceptance, and belonging. These are building blocks for aspirations, caring for others, confidence to follow and lead, and benefit from our economic ecosystem.
Economic Strengthening and Solvency
This RFP is also intended to create economic opportunities that contribute to the underlying determinants of success and well-being including access to quality education, housing, and health. When our young people see their value AND are able access viable opportunities, it cultivates aspirations and drives their ambitions, which can in turn feed their overall sense of confidence and outlook on their lives. Equitable access to suitable resources includes removing institutional and systemic barriers. Thus, this RFP is partly about forging attainable and sustainable pathways of success for young people and their families that go beyond temporary employment solutions.
Theft 3 and Mall Safety (T3AMS)
The T3AMS program, initially launched as a pilot project in April 2017, provides an alternative to filing charges against youth (12 – 18 years old) who shoplift, damage property, and/or fight at the Westfield Southcenter Mall in Tukwila through on-site, community-based services. A collaboration of the Westfield Southcenter Mall management and security, the Tukwila Police Department, and community-based service providers, supported by BSK, encourages positive behavior, and connects young people where there is law enforcement involvement or risk of violence, with mentoring and guidance, academic support, and employment assistance. Providing these services breaks the harmful cycle of arrest and prosecution and reduces costs for businesses related to theft and disruption.
Any Questions?
Written Questions
All RFP documents will be uploaded through ZoomGrants, as described in Section VII, Proposal Process, which can be found in the RFP document in the Library tab.
The Contract Monitor is the point of contact for this procurement. All communication regarding the subject matter of this opportunity between the applicants and DCHS upon release of this RFP must be through ZoomGrants or the Contract Monitor, as follows:
Contract Monitor
Mahogany Purpose
mpurpose@kingcounty.gov
Any other communication will be considered unofficial and non-binding on King County. Applicants are to rely on written statements issued by the Contract Monitor. Communication directed to parties other than the Contract Monitor on this opportunity may result in disqualification of the applicant.
Information Sessions for Live Questions & Answers
A pre-proposal information session is scheduled to be held at the date and time indicated in the schedule. The location of the information session will be via Zoom:
- Tuesday, April 5, 2022 at 1:00-2:30pm:
- https://kingcounty.zoom.us/j/87656363042
- Meeting ID: 876 5636 3042
- Passcode: 593072
- https://kingcounty.zoom.us/j/87656363042
- Thursday, April 7, 2022 at 5:30-7:00pm:
- https://kingcounty.zoom.us/j/86233827618
- Meeting ID: 862 3382 7618
- Passcode: 999122
- https://kingcounty.zoom.us/j/86233827618
All prospective applicants should attend; however, attendance is not mandatory.
DCHS will only adhere to the DCHS-written answers to questions. Questions arising at the pre-proposal information session or in subsequent communication with the Contract Monitor will be documented and answered in written form. A copy of the questions and answers will be posted as an RFP amendment on ZoomGrants. Applicants are responsible to check ZoomGrants for any posted amendments to this RFP.