LACCDR RFP 4-02-12

Los Angeles County Community Disaster Resilience (LACCDR)

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LA Prepares Together

The LACCDR project is a collaborative effort sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) that aims to engage community-based organizations in providing leadership and partnership to promote community resilience in the face of public health emergencies such as pandemics and disasters. Resilience is the sustained ability of a community to withstand and recover from a disaster.

Project partners include the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, UCLA Center for Health Services and Society, RAND Corp, and the Emergency Network of Los Angeles (ENLA). We seek to help shift the disaster message to and activities for the residents of Los Angeles County from an individual effort to a collaborative one; a change from the individual “me” to include “we” (a community focus) for preparedness, response and recovery.

We also want to provide a greater focus on community engagement, social connection and inclusion of all community members, especially groups that may be more vulnerable during emergencies in these goals. Our main work is completed within the workgroups (Vulnerable Populations, Partnerships and Social Preparedness, and Communication/Information).

The LACCDR project seeks community-based organizations (CBOs) to submit proposals for community disaster resilience projects in their area.


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I. General Information

A. Scope of Work

All sectors in Los Angeles County work together to ensure that community members have the training and materials they need to prepare for a disaster. These sectors are now shifting to new approaches to engage and support the social infrastructures of communities, such as volunteer groups, faith-based organizations, and neighborhood associations. Departments like the fire department provide CERT training (Community Emergency Response Team); partners like the American Red Cross offer emergency kit checklists and first aid training. Yet it is sometimes a challenge to engage some community members in the preparedness process, due to limited information resources, language barriers, or time constraints. New toolkits are needed to broaden engagement with community infrastructures and develop trust.

One way that people and their families can get better involved in disaster preparedness and get vital information to assist response and recovery actions is through their friends, neighbors and colleagues. Most individuals are members of various communities; some examples might be residential, language or faith communities. This project hopes to tap into those existing networks to increase community resilience. The LACCDR project seeks to increase Angelenos’ ability to prepare, respond and recover together by encouraging them to build these skill sets as a community.

The LACCDR project partners and workgroup members are in the process of developing a toolkit to assist neighborhoods with these efforts. The toolkit will include resources for individuals, community leaders and nonprofit/community-based organizations to interact with more formal response agencies. For more information see the attached Toolkit Description or visit the project website (www.laresilience.org).

I. Project Guidelines

Potential projects may develop approaches to improve disaster resilience in Los Angeles County from any of the following standpoints: 1) Technical assistance for projects underway – your organization needs assistance or training from a Subject Matter Expert (SME) to advance a community disaster resilience project you’re already working on.

2) Toolkit development work – your group would like to work with the relevant workgroup or project partner to develop one of the proposed tools in the toolkit. Your team already possesses the relevant experience and skills needed for this task, such as community outreach and engagement, access to vulnerable populations, leadership development or disaster experience.

3) Piloting toolkit resource materials – your organization would like to obtain community feedback on or try out one of the toolkits in your community. Your organization will need to participate in one of the LACCDR project workgroups in order to complete this type of project.

4) Exploring innovative solutions to identified challenges – you may have your own ideas about how to achieve the LACCDR goals; examples here might include technological solutions to resilience problems; updating business or disaster plans to include resilience measures; new ways to organize or engage community members or organizations. There is a wide range of acceptable projects within this category.


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Awards are expected to range between $2,000 and $5,000. The performance period is April 30, 2012 – July 20, 2012. Funding can support any project-related direct expenses except incentive-type items (also called swag; loyalty-branded items such as stress balls, printed lanyards, gift cards, hats, shirts and bags). For a good explanation of indirect costs, go here: http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocfo/intro.html.

B. Minimum Qualifications

• 501c3 tax-exempt status

• Program location within the LA County boundary

• Organization does not discriminate based on race, gender, religious affiliation, sexual orientation or age in hiring.

• Organization provides services to the general public or a subset thereof, not discriminating based on religious beliefs. Organization does not require participation in religious activities for services/goods provided to clients.

**Your organization does not need previous experience with disaster preparedness, response or recovery programs or activities to participate. There is no requirement to have previously participated in the LACCDR project or workgroups.

C. Project Contacts

1. Alix Stayton Program Manager ENLA ([email protected]; 213-739-6888) and Cullen Armet Project Assistant ENLA ([email protected]; 213-351-6768)

2. Each organization awarded a grant will be assigned a Project Officer from one of the LACCDR project partner organizations. You will submit your final project plan to your Project Officer, and communicate regularly about your progress and the status of your project. Do not hesitate to call or email your Project Officer during the performance period.

D. Reporting requirements

1. Organizations receiving grant funds will be required to submit a revised project plan (if comments are provided by review committee) within five days of award notification. Submit to your Project Officer and the project contacts via email.

2. Work with your Project Officer to develop a schedule for regular, short email updates during the project life cycle. Use the attached Narrative Format to organize your information.

3. Submit a final report by close of business on Monday, August 6. This is a hard deadline for final reporting due to the close of our own funding cycle. Please do not apply if you cannot commit to completing a final report by this date. The final report will include a narrative describing activities and outcomes relative to the timeline and deliverables in your project plan, and a financial report. Send via email to your Project Officer and the project contacts.


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II. Instructions to Proposers

A. Timetable

• Call for submissions: April 2, 2012

• Applicants’ conference call: April 9, 2012

• Proposals due: April 16, 2012

• Award notifications: April 23, 2012

• Project start: April 30, 2012

• Project completion: July 20, 2012

• Final report due: August 6, 2012

B. Review Criteria

1. Community resilience focus – program or project works within a community development framework to engage community partners, organize community members and build a deeper understanding and set of skills to improve community disaster resilience. Proposal should mention how this project differs from and improves upon traditional preparedness/response/recovery programming and/or training.

2. Project plan – can the project be completed in 90 days? What partnerships or relationships support the successful completion of the project?

3. Budget –the budget included should include all necessary expenses, including proposer’s contribution if applicable. Costs should fall within a reasonable range for the services/goods provided. Express cost calculations in relation to deliverables.

4. Evaluation – a brief plan to document progress in relationship to stated goals and activities should be included. How will an increase in the disaster resilience of the community involved be demonstrated?

5. Need – demonstrate that this funding is required to build these new capabilities and that there is an organizational commitment to continue integrating preparedness into the organization’s work.

C. Questions

Submit questions to the project contacts before the Proposers’ conference if possible. That will ensure that all questions can be asked and answered for the majority of proposers. Questions submitted before the conference and raised during the conference will be answered on the phone for the group, then transcribed and posted to the website (www.laresilience.org) for further review.

D. Proposers’ Conference

A conference call will be held for organizations interested in submitting a proposal. If possible, submit questions prior to the conference via email to the project contacts. The call will be held on Monday, April 9 at 10am Pacific Time. Call-in information: 866-803-2146, Participant code: 2597896.


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E. Proposal Format

1. Complete the attached Profile Summary, including all information about your organization that is available.

2. Submit a narrative description of the proposed project (1 page: 12 pt Times New Roman, single-spaced, 1” margins). Describe the resilience focus of the project, the project plan, your budget, staff/volunteers/partners, other participants (clients, community members), and how the project activities and outcomes will be evaluated.

3. Budget spreadsheet - Relate all listed costs to project deliverables.

4. Submit a project plan (see attached template) which defines: objectives, activities timelines, benchmarks, and evaluation/documentation. A logic model may suffice for the project plan.

5. Include a copy of your 501c3 status with the IRS (this is not a document from the CA Secretary of State).

6. If your organization does not post program materials (information, flyers, brochures) on your website, please submit a SMALL sampling of these materials so that reviewers can understand what your organization does.

Be sure to review the evaluation criteria when developing your narrative. Submissions should not include any additional documents (besides program materials):

a) Completed Profile Summary

b) One narrative page

c) Budget spreadsheet

d) 1-2 project plan or logic model pages

e) 501c3 documentation

Organization program outreach materials should not be extensive. The LACCDR project does not have funds available to government or for-profit entities at this time.

F. Submission process

Submit your proposal via email to: [email protected] by 5pm on Monday, April 16th. You will receive an automated reply; please call 213-739-6888 if you do not receive an automated reply within 15 minutes of submitting your proposal, or email [email protected].


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Appendix A

Profile Summary

List all of the requested data to the best of your ability.

1. Organization Name

2. Name of organization Executive Director or equivalent

3. Title of above person

4. Organization address

5. Organization phone

6. Organization website

7. Annual budget

8. Mission/Values/Vision statements

9. In general, what do you consider to be the most critical organizational barriers to reaching and serving populations underserved by emergency/disaster services?

Select up to three barriers _____ Not enough funding to accomplish day-to-day tasks and reach these clients _____ No mandate or program requirement to reach these clients _____ Lack of experience in reaching out to this population _____ No guidance or training for reaching out to this population _____No materials or tangible resources for reaching out to this population _____Prior experience with reaching out to this population has not been effective or successful _____Mistrust _____Other, please specify:____________________

10. Please estimate the proportion of your program’s efforts that are focused on emergency/disaster preparedness or response.

_______ All (100%) _______ Nearly all (75-99%) _______ Most (50-74%)

_______ Some (25-49%) _______ A little (1-24%) _______ None (0%)

11. Service Planning Area (look this up here: http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/chs/SPAMain/ServicePlanningAreas.htm)

12. Disaster Management Area (look this up here: http://www.lacoa.org/doclibrary.htm, click on DMAC Map)

13. Is your organization located in an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County? (you can look this up here: http://ceo.lacounty.gov/forms/lacmap.pdf)

14. Project contact name

15. Project contact title

16. Project contact address (if different than above)

17. Project contact phone

18. Project contact email


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Appendix B

Project Plan

You may submit your own logic model if you prefer. If you need more than one page, duplicate and complete.

Goal 1

Objectives Activities Timeline

(Activity Completed By)

Documentation/

Evaluation

Goal 2



Documentation/

Evaluation

Goal 3



Documentation/

Evaluation

Goal 4



Documentation/

Evaluation


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Appendix C

Budget Worksheet

Project Name:

Organization:

Project Performance Period:

FEE FOR SERVICE/DELIVERABLE Amount Service/Deliverable Requested

TOTAL AMOUNT REQUESTED $-


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Appendix D

Narrative Format

This is the basic information you’ll want to include in your regular project updates to your Project Officer.

1. Project Title

2. Organization(s)

3. Name of person submitting report

4. Working days in reporting period

5. Primary goals for the project

6. Activities related to goals this reporting period

7. Challenges related to goals for this reporting period

8. Planned activities for next reporting period


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Sample email using Narrative Format

Dear Mr. Smith,

Please find our weekly (you may report more or less often based on the plan you create with your Project Officer) project update below:

Title: Increasing the disaster resilience of the chickens in Echo Park

Organization: The Chicken Welfare Foundation

Project Manager: Jane Doe

Working days included in report: 5 days

Goals:

I. Map the locations of chicken communities in the Echo Park area; identify organizing structures within those communities such as Neighborhood Councils or other community groups; locate support agencies on the map (schools, community centers, etc.).

II. Identify three chicken communities with greatest number of organizing structures and support communities, who are willing to test the Great Chicken Cluck-Out program in the LACCDR toolkit

III. Work with the communities to create a plan for the Great Cluck-Out exercise; attend the exercise, collect and compile after-action data from community members.

Activities:

Our Project Assistant, John Cooper, has completed mapping the chicken communities in the Echo Park area using Google Maps. You can find our map here: www.google.com/234h453jh45kj. We attended a Senior Hen Session meeting and a Coop Association meeting, which gave us further information on groups presently organizing members of the communities in the area. Finally, we merged the HealthyCities map with our own to include local schools, hospitals, clinics and churches in the area.

Challenges:

We’re having a hard time knowing how to find all the nonprofit organizations in the area. I’d like to talk more with you about ways to go about that so our community map will be diverse and resource-rich.

Next week:

We’ll continue going to community-organization meetings to talk about our project and collect more information about community resources. John will continue to update the map and begin reaching out to the faith-based organizations to present the project for more local support. We will complete the mapping process by Friday.

Sincerely,

Jane

Los Angeles County Community Disaster Resilience Project (LACCDR)

Communities taking action to improve disaster preparedness and recovery in Los Angeles County What is the LACCDR? The LACCDR project is a collaborative effort sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and National institute of Mental Health (NIMH) that aims to engage community-‐based organizations in providing leadership and partnership to promote community resilience in the face of public health emergencies such as pandemics and natural disasters. What does the project entail? The LACCDR is a multi-‐year effort designed to strengthen disaster resilience in Los Angeles County communities. Since Fall 2010, the project has engaged a broad array of community stakeholders representing government agencies and community-‐based organizations to identify and develop strategies that would bolster resilience. During 2010-‐2012, the project engaged these stakeholders through community forums, working groups, and community surveys. Starting in the Summer of 2012, a sample of Los Angeles neighborhoods will serve as demonstration communities, using information from the development phase of the project to actually implement and test these community resilience building strategies. Who will be included in the demonstration phase of LACCDR? We will work with Service Planning Area (SPA) leadership and other community leaders to identify a sample of neighborhoods, which could be included in the pilot demonstration phase of LACCDR. Communities that would be included in the pilot demonstration would need to meet these key criteria:

• Modest in size (no more than 30-‐40K population) • Shared identity as a “community” with at least two of the following: Local business community;

School/school district; Police and fire department; Community clinic/hospital/ health responsible entity; Engaged community based organizations

• Sufficient infrastructure to implement LACCDR (i.e., via neighborhood planning group) • Diversity in risk exposure, culture/ethnicity

What will you do with community partners in the selected neighborhoods? In the next few months, we will work with SPA and other community leadership to select neighborhoods, refine the community resilience toolkit, and develop plans for implementing and evaluating the toolkit in demonstration communities in Years 3-‐5 of the project. The figure below describes this process.

What is the Community Resilience Toolkit? The Community Resilience Toolkit will include a set of strategies and materials that planning groups can use to build resilience in their communities. Based on findings from the LACCDR Development Phase, we created the toolkit to include components that were deemed high priority areas for LA County stakeholders, including leadership development, asset mapping, and social preparedness. The following table lists each component of the toolkit:

Toolkit Component Brief Description How to develop community

leaders This section will help define the types of leadership needed for CDR, and provide supports for communities to have effective leadership for CDR. A central feature will be a 2-‐way capacity development between formal responding agencies and community leaders not necessarily currently involved in preparedness, response, or recovery training to achieve fuller CDR capacities, especially for under-‐resourced communities.

Map Your Neighborhood Mapping Neighborhoods will describe how communities can identify resources and connections among residents and their local organizations, which are critical for disaster response and recovery. This tool will also describe how web-‐based maps can be used to assess vulnerability and resilience in LA County.

Toolkit Component Brief Description Training CDR community (field)

workers This component will include guidelines and resources for a broad social scope of CDR field workers including voluntary responders, nurses, and school staff, as well as more informal community case workers and volunteers, to support CDR at the ground level in communities. Like the leadership tool, the focus will be on supports for community engagement of formal response staff already trained in emergency preparedness as well as community engagement exercises to support the relationship building and two-‐way learning necessary for CDR. The tool will include a curricula on disaster preparedness and civic engagement.

Social and Psychological Preparedness

This component will include information about Psychological First Aid (PFA) and tools to foster social or agency collaboration models in preparedness.

Working with Vulnerable Populations

Vulnerable populations are at increased risk of harm from a disaster as they are least able to take advantage of standard public health resources in preparedness planning, response, and recovery. This section will address two basic and related questions: What are the specific vulnerable groups in Los Angeles? What are the reasons that make these populations more vulnerable? What are the assets and resources for these vulnerable groups and can we help communities identify the gap between needs and these resources?

What will selected neighborhoods do with the toolkit? The toolkit components can be used together or separately depending on community needs. The toolkit includes a quick assessment process for planning groups to determine who to bring to the table and how to assess interests, needs and priorities related to community resilience. In addition, each section will include an overview, tips, action steps, promising strategies or examples, and information for use by particular stakeholder groups. The LACCDR Steering Committee will work with each neighborhood to use and evaluate the benefits of the toolkit.

Contact Information:

Alix Stayton

Emergency Network Los Angeles (213) 793-‐6888 [email protected]

Stella Fogleman L.A. County Department of Public Health,

Emergency Preparedness and Response Program (213) 637-‐3623

[email protected]

LACCDR RFP 4-02-12

Documents

Transcript of LACCDR RFP 4-02-12