The Washington State Department of Commerce hereafter called "COMMERCE,” is initiating this Request for Proposals (RFP) to solicit proposals from organizations interested in participating in a project on behalf of the Washington Balance of State (BoS) Continuum of Care (CoC) for the purpose of determining sub-recipients of the Youth Lead Project.  COMMERCE will allocate resources to successful bidders through a direct grant agreement. The grants will be awarded in rural communities in the Washington BoS CoC.

In July 2018, the Washington BoS CoC, with COMMERCE as the collaborative applicant was among 11 CoC’s nationwide that won U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Youth Homeless Demonstration Program (YHDP) funding to use a wide range of interventions to prevent and end youth homelessness. In 2019 the Youth Lead Project was created by the Youth for Youth (Y4Y) Board, led by young people with lived expertise. These six part-time positions open up opportunities for young people to deliver direct service activities, like outreach and case management, and participate in statewide leadership and decision-making bodies.

COMMERCE intends to award six contracts, one in each region, to provide the services described in this RFP.