RCO Community Engagement Coordinator
Notice of Solicitation -
REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS AND QUOTATIONS (RFQQ)
RFQQ NO.
Please visit the Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO) web site located at https://rco.wa.gov/about-us/employment-and-contracts/ for full solicitation details.
PROJECT TITLE:
PROPOSAL DUE DATE:
Only e-mailed bids will be accepted.
EXPECTED TIME PERIOD FOR CONTRACT:
CONTRACT VALUE: $100,000 - $120,000
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
The Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO) is a small state agency that plays a very important role in conservation and recreation within Washington state. RCO manages 35 different grant categories that fund working farms, salmon recovery, ball fields, trails, wildlife habitat, and much more. Having one of the larger capital budgets in state government, RCO passes through hundreds of millions of state and federal dollars to partners, who in turn use the grants to complete significant projects throughout Washington. RCO’s role is to not only distribute funding but to ensure the projects are accurately implemented and remain in place into the future as defined in the grant agreement. RCO is responsible for completing many statewide plans, including ones for recreation, trails, and boating, and for reviewing comprehensive plans from grant applicants. In addition, RCO often is tasked by the Governor and Legislature with completing studies and projects.
Economic, social, and cultural barriers provide very real obstacles to outdoor engagement for many people in our state. Even with all the great work and investments made by the agency, a recent RCO study on Recreational Assets of Statewide Significance (2019) found that there remain gaps in outdoor recreation access, especially in small rural communities and racially diverse neighborhoods. In addition to gaps in access, there are inequities in park quality that correlate to racial and socioeconomic characteristics of the community served. A report from the Trust for Public Lands (The Heat is On, 2020) finds parks that serve primarily non-white populations are half the size of parks that serve majority white populations and nearly five times more crowded. Additionally, parks serving majority low-income households are, on average, four times smaller and nearly four times more crowded than parks that serve primarily high-income households.
In the 2021/23 state operating budget, RCO was assigned to complete a comprehensive equity review of state recreation and conservation grant programs administer by the agency. A critical component to that review is engagement with communities across the state that lack outdoor recreation opportunities to understand their needs and the barriers that exist to accessing grant dollars provided by RCO. RCO is seeking qualifications and quotations from experienced Consultants who possess an in-depth knowledge of effective and meaningful community engagement, with the successful Consultant having a proven track record working in these areas. The Consultant will work with the RCO to design and implement a community engagement strategy that will inform a comprehensive equity review of state recreation and conservation grant programs administered by the agency. The equity review, in tandem with the community engagement work this RFQQ supports will help inform RCO to:
- Reduce barriers to historically underserved populations in order to increase participation in RCO grant programs,
- Redress inequities in existing RCO policies and programs
- Improve the equitable delivery of resources and benefits in these programs
In completing the comprehensive review, the Consultant will plan, implement, and evaluate community engagement and outreach strategies for the RCO Equity Review. Specifically, the Consultant will
- Develop strategies to engage with diverse community organizations, groups, individuals, and tribes across the state.
- Identify the organizations, coalitions, groups, and community leaders who may have an interest in RCO’s recreation and conservation grant programs.
- Plan, organize, and facilitate a series or multiple series of community engagement meetings or listening sessions over a 6-7 month period.
- Seek input and feedback from the attendees of those meetings and brings that information back to RCO and the Equity Review Project Lead for their consideration.
- Evaluate strategies to ensure they are effectively reaching and engaging a diverse representation of community organizations, groups, individuals, and tribes.
- Coordinate and collaborate with various ethnic commissions and other related state agencies.
- Prepare a final report that summarizes the community engagement process and synthesizes the comments provided.
Ensuring diverse participation and input in the listening sessions may be enhanced by thoughtful definition of ‘community.’ These definitions may include the basis of a shared geography or on other shared characteristics such as culture, socioeconomic level, or a shared vulnerability. The Consultant will work with RCO to define community in a manner that captures diverse perspectives, concerns, impacts and experiences and the different needs of communities for outdoor recreation opportunities.
To download the full RFQQ and addenda please visit https://rco.wa.gov/about-us/employment-and-contracts/
