January 16, 2024
City Manager's Office
DATE: January 16, 2024
TO: Mayor Martinez and Members of the City Council
FROM:
LaShonda White, Deputy City Manager
Patrick Seals, Project Manager I
Nicholas Delgado, Associate Management Analyst
Subject:
Contract with WestEd to Support Evaluation Needs for the Richmond Fund for Children and Youth
FINANCIAL IMPACT: The proposed not to exceed contract amount is $600,000, based on Article 15, Section 4(d) of the
Charter (i.e., 5 percent of the City’s annual allocation to the Richmond Fund for Children and Youth (RFCY) is
allocated to support evaluations for Fiscal Year 2021- 22, Year 2022-23, and Fiscal Year 2023-24). The total
maximum amount of $600,000 is available in the budget
for RFCY for Fiscal Year 2023-24 (13371018-400215)
and in the RFCY fund balance.
PREVIOUS COUNCIL
ACTION:
July 10, 2018, July 27, 2021, June 28, 2022, June 20,
2023, and July 11, 2023
STATEMENT OF THE
ISSUE:
The Richmond Fund for Children and Youth is required to conduct evaluations per Article 15 of the City of
Richmond Charter. The City is seeking contract approval with WestEd, a third-party independent evaluator, to
conduct evaluations of all grant-funded programs (Fiscal Years 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24), draft and present an
evaluation report to City Council, and ensure spending
from the fund is consistent with the provisions of the
Charter.
AGENDA
REPORT
January 16, 2024
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
APPROVE a contract with WestEd for third-party
independent evaluation services required by Article 15(d) of the Richmond Charter for the Richmond Fund for
Children and Youth in an amount not to exceed
$600,000, with a term commencing on July 11, 2023, and
terminating on June 30, 2025 – Department of Children
and Youth (LaShonda White 510-620-6828/Patrick Seals
510-307-8016).
DISCUSSION:
The Richmond Department of Children and Youth (Department) seeks to hire a consultant to facilitate an annual evaluation of the Richmond Fund for Children and Youth (RFCY) for Fiscal Years (FYs) 2021-2022, 2022-23, and 2023-24. Per Article 15, Sections 7(d)(4) and (5) of the City of Richmond Charter, the evaluation should identify relevant evaluation measures and ensure programs funded through the Fund are impactful and meet established outcomes, while also reviewing financial reports and audits to ensure funds are appropriately managed. The evaluation reports shall be uploaded to the Department website, shared with grantees, and provided to the Mayor, City Council, and RFCY Oversight Board.
On July 11, 2023, the City Council initially approved the contract with WestEd for the RFCY evaluation. Following the initial City Council approval, WestEd began work, and requested certain modifications that required City Attorney review and subsequent approval of the City Council. Therefore, the initial contract was never executed, and City staff is bringing forth a new contract for City Council approval with a start date of July 11, 2023 (Attachment 1). Furthermore, City staff do not believe the requested changes would have altered the outcome of the Request for Proposals (RFP) process.
The Department released an RFP on February 23, 2023, via the City’s BidsOnline system (Attachment 2). A total of 1,000 vendors were notified and 24 vendors downloaded the RFP (Attachment 3).
Request for Proposal
The responsibilities of the consultant shall be to complete an evaluation of the RFCY and grantees for FYs 2021-22, 2022-23, and 2023-24, and will include the following:
Project Management – Coordinate with staff on all aspects of the design and implementation of the evaluation. Manage all evaluation activities and coordinate with grantees to conduct all aspects of the evaluation.
Evaluation Design and Implementation – Develop a comprehensive outcome-based evaluation that includes the identification of desired outcomes and performance measures for each program, within strategic priorities, and across strategic priorities.
January 16, 2024
Identify common outcomes, indicators, methods, and measures to assess strategy- level performance.
Data Collection/ Organizing – Develop and refine tools, including surveys and other methods of data collection from various stakeholders. Document and report on program quality by collecting data through point-of-service observations, client surveys, focus groups, or other means.
Reporting – Provide a summary mid-year and a comprehensive final report in a format that is useful and accessible to the public. Communicate the report and findings to the RFCY Oversight Board and Richmond City Council. The lead evaluator will additionally provide a brief year-end evaluative report to summarize the totality of RFCY’s funding and programming, including information on programs, strategies, matched funding and client demographics.
o The year-end evaluation report shall include information on children, youth, and adult participation and demographics; hours of service and types of services delivered; cost of services; matching funds raised by programs; and percentage of contracted goals achieved.
o The mid-year evaluation report shall summarize program performance through six months and qualitative data gathered to inform grant renewal determinations.
o The report will also include program profiles for each RFCY-funded program, summarizing program-level evaluation findings. Copies of the program profiles are to be provided to each program and to the Department.
Engagement of Partners – As requested, participate in meetings and work with other systems partners in potential areas of integration. Work closely with the RFCY Oversight Board, department staff, grantees, and other stakeholders in the planning, development and implementation of the evaluation. Coordinate quarterly meetings with RFCY grantees to develop and coordinate the evaluation, and provide opportunities for peer learning, knowledge sharing, and capacity building.
Technical Assistance to Grantees and Staff – Provide technical assistance to grantees to ensure evaluation compliance and provide grantees with opportunities for evaluation.
Selection of Firm
The RFP was due on March 17, 2023, and proposals were received from the following two (2) firms:
EvalCorp
WestEd
A seven (7) member sub-committee was composed of staff from the City of Richmond staff, City of San Pablo Community Services Department, and San Francisco
January 16, 2024
Department of Children, Youth and Their Families. The firms’ RFP submittals were evaluated on the following:
Quality & Completeness (10 points)
Project Approach (25 points)
Timeline (10 points)
Project Staffing & Qualifications (25 points)
Project Budget/Narrative (20 points)
Three (3) members of the sub-committee reviewed and scored both proposals and the four (4) remaining members interviewed the finalist firms and made a final recommendation for a consultant. WestEd received the highest scores for both the proposal review and interview (Attachment 4). The sub-committee and Department are recommending entering into a contract with WestEd for a total contract amount of $600,000.
Qualifications of Firm
WestEd has more than 50 years of experience operating in the Bay Area and are located nearby in San Francisco. Their services include technical assistance (TA), resource creation, surveys and measures, and research and evaluation, which positions them well to work with grantees to support program-level continuous improvement and capacity building. More specifically, WestEd conducts independent, third-party evaluations of implementation and outcomes, using methods — summative, formative, or mixed — that are appropriate to the local context.
Most recently they have leveraged their evaluations skills to support the following studies:
Riverside County Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act (JJCPA) Evaluation California Department of Education Scaling-Up Multi-tiered Systems of Support (SUMS)
California Well-Being Initiatives Impact Inquiry
Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative
In addition, they have Spanish-English bilingual project staff that can support community engagement and evaluation.
DOCUMENTS ATTACHED:
Attachment 1 – Standard Contract with WestEd for Evaluator Services Attachment 2 – Request for Proposal (RFP) for Evaluators Attachment 3 – Bid Summary (RFP for Evaluators)
Attachment 4 – Scoring Matrix (RFP for Evaluators)