Bridge Communities is seeking an experienced qualitative program evaluation consultant or organization to conduct oral history interviews with alumni of their transitional housing program. This work builds on a pilot and an ongoing larger survey evaluation of long term outcomes. Only consultants and firms/organizations with extensive experience conducting qualitative program evaluation studies will be considered. Approximate period of service: *October 2018 – September 2019 Apply to: RFP@bridgecommunities.org Deadline for Application:* 5 pm, CST August 31, 2018
Project Background: Bridge Communities is celebrating 30 years this fall 2018. We are committed to hearing how our programs have impacted the lives of our transitional housing program alumni and specific recommendations for improving Bridge Communities. Bridge Communities serves families with dependent children that are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless and live or work in DuPage County, a suburban area of Chicago, Illinois. Over 90% of Bridge’s client families are headed by single mothers, approximately 55% of whom are survivors of domestic violence. The transitional housing program has developed over the last 30 years from a short term 3-month program to a 24-month program with potential for extensions. Supportive services have also grown from a financial literacy and mentoring model to also encompass employment services, adult education, children’s programming, nutrition, car donations, and mental health services. We launched a pilot retrospective study in the Spring of 2018 that includes an oral history project with a purposive sample of alumni and exhaustive efforts to survey as many alumni as possible. An estimated 850 families have participated in our transitional housing program over the last 30 years. As part of the pilot we developed recruitment resources and an interview protocol. Oral history interviews have been taking approximately 60 minutes. Bridge Communities will provide the protocol and guide for the oral history interviews. The ability of the contractor to collaboratively review pilot lessons learned and contribute to process and tools is highly desirable. We are hoping that a consultant group can complete data collection (interviewing approximately 30 additional alumni) and take the lead on analysis and reporting. Our Manager of Data and Evaluation, Susan Ryerson Espino, PhD, will be a collaborative partner to the retained consultant/firm and will oversee all data collection, analysis and reporting. Bridge Communities will cover the incentive for participants and transcription costs. All recordings, transcripts and work products associated with data collection, analysis and dissemination will be owned by Bridge Communities and stored on our secured sharepoint site. This is part of an evaluation study and we are interested in incorporating elements of the oral histories into dissemination efforts (staff development efforts, funding reports and proposals, conference presentations, and peer reviewed journal articles). We are open to exploring the need for and the expense of an external ethics (IRB) review. Should this be recommended, the Contractor will facilitate submission of all relevant materials for local ethical approval. Timelines: Work to begin October 1, 2018 and conclude by September 30, 2019 Sampling strategy finalized by October 15, 2018 Early review of pilot interview and drafting of coding framework by October 15, 2018 Initiate new data collection by October 15, 2018 and conclude by March 2019 Written summary brief of progress, early lessons learned, and next steps by May 1, 2019 Written 20 page final report with orienting literature review to contextualize process and findings, methods, analytic strategy, results and discussion by September 30, 2019. Interested organizations are asked to submit a proposal that includes: A technical narrative no longer than 5 pages describing how they will accomplish the tasks described above. Please include: An institutional/organizational capacity statement, roles and responsibilities of all staff consultants, and summary of similar work conducted in the past 2 yearsProposed collaboration, data collection methods, data sharing, and protection of confidentiality, analysis approach including software solutions, quality control methods, and dissemination strategies. Append a detailed budget including justification. Budget should include all costs associated with data collection field work and if needed costs to cover ethics review. Append a project timeline with key activities and deliverables Append CVs of key personnel who will be engaged in the data collection and analysis Append certificate of insurance: the limits and deductibles on your policy, who is insured (i.e., you or your business’s name as the named insured), the name of the insurance company issuing the policy, and the effective and expiration dates of your policy. Append 2-3 references that can be contacted regarding the quality of the organization’s work Append sample work product sample
Complete proposals should be submitted to our system by 5pm (CST), August 31, 2018. All proposals will be reviewed for completeness, quality, and feasibility.
The top 3 applicants will be invited by 9/17/18 to present their proposals to a selection committee composed of staff and constituents during the week of September 24, 2018. One applicant will be selected and notified by 9/28/18 and contracting and work will begin immediately.
