WorkReady Summer Programs RFP Questions and Answers Document Posted: September 2, 2016 1. Would the applicant organization need to have a physical office in Philadelphia? An organization would not need to have a physical office in Philadelphia, however youth served must be residents of Philadelphia. Applicants with an office outside of Philadelphia should demonstrate their ability to serve youth who are Philadelphia residents. 2. What is the eligibility criteria for applicants? Eligible applicants can come from schools, non-profits, and for-profit youth-serving organizations, with significant capacity, demonstrable youth-development experience and outcomes to operate. All respondents will be required to demonstrate that they have the fiscal and administrative capacity to manage a program at whatever scale they propose. 3. Would PYN consider funding a collaboration of providers? Each contract will only be awarded to one lead provider organization. That organization may choose to partner or subcontract with additional organizations. 4. Are applications due via hard copy and soft copy? Each complete proposal submission should include one original hardcopy and one electronic version on a flash drive of required documents outlined in Attachment 2: Proposal Checklist on pages 43-44 in the RFP. Proposals are due at PYN s office at 400 Market Street, Suite 200 at 12:00 noon on September 16, 2016. 5. Is the budget outline expected in the Notice of Intent to Apply? No, the budget outline is not expected with the Notice of Intent to Apply. 6. Will you provide any outline for the Notice of Intent? The Notice of Intent to apply is provided in the RFP on page 42. The deadline to submit notice of intent is August 22, 2016, 5:00pm. It should be emailed to wr-rfp@pyninc.org. 7. Can we apply for the internship model specifically to serve youth ages 18-21? Yes. Please note that there are limited opportunities for youth aged 19-21. 8. How heavily does the 5-year track record of experience weigh on contract award? The 2017 WorkReady procurement process is open to all non-profit organizations that can demonstrate they have the capacity to successfully carry out the model requirements. Organizations who have experience with WorkReady programming must participate in the procurement process as well. Proposals are reviewed by an external team based on the information provided in the proposals. Applicants should not assume the external review team has prior knowledge of the organization s work. 9. Can youth work at home-based businesses? No, home-based businesses are not allowed as WorkReady worksites for any model. 10. Does PYN have a minimum number of slots per provider for WorkReady 2017? There is a minimum of 25 slots per provider.
11. If our staff have all required clearances AND they will be supervising students at the worksites, is it necessary for worksite staff to also have clearances? All individuals identified as worksite supervisors on the Worksite Agreement are required to have clearances. 12. What program adaptations will be made for students with disabilities? For example, can students work less than 120 hours or receive hard copy pay checks? PYN will provide targeted technical assistance to providers serving youth with barriers to employment, such as a physical or mental disability. Any requests for accommodations, such as changes in schedule or method of payment, should be discussed with PYN program staff at the time of award notification. 13. Is there a per-slot funding level set? There is a per-slot funding level set for each model. Please refer to page 38 within the RFP for cost-per-slot levels. 14. Are operating dollars provided to providers for Career Exposure model even though youth cannot be paid? The Career Exposure model provides an operating cost per slot of $1200. Youth participants are each offered up to $300 in program incentives, paid directly to the youth by PYN. 15. Will stipends for the incentive structure be an allowable expense? No stipends are paid in any WorkReady program. For Career Exposure, youth incentives should NOT be reflected in the budget, unless the applicant is planning to pay additional incentives from the operating award in addition to the amount distributed by PYN. For Work Experience, Service Learning, and Internship Model, youth are paid a wage and should not receive a separate monetary incentive. 16. Do you share data with your contractors related to training organizations who want to partner with them to provide training? PYN partners with several organizations and has shared relevant program information and supports with the Providers. 17. Is the current RFP that is due 9/16 for current providers, or only for new providers? The September 16 th deadline date applies to all applicants. All organizations interested in operating a WorkReady Summer Program in Summer 2017 need to apply regardless of their current provider status. 18. Is there any additional information available regarding the E 3 Power Center program? My company is interested in submitting a bid, but would like to have additional RFP information prior to submitting a letter of intent. The E 3 Power Center 2017 Request for Proposals can be found at the following link: https://www.pyninc.org/work#contract. Information about the current E 3 Power Centers can be found here. 19. We can t seem to access the Excel Budget Workbook. Can one be emailed to us? The Excel Budget Worksheet should be accessible from the PYN website at www.pyninc.org. If you continue to have challenges accessing any documents, please email us at wrrfp@pyninc.org.
20. Is there a plan to improve on time process of client files to ensure students get paid on time? We continually work to improve all aspects of our systems to better serve the provider network. Our file management system, along with many others, is being improved to ensure providers have the necessary tools to support youth participants. 21. You mentioned a roundtable. Please include us in that invite email. We are a new organization looking forward to partnering with PYN. After the procurement process is complete, PYN will invite providers to participate in roundtable discussions to better understand how to work collectively. 22. What is the best way to get connected to contract organizations or to share information about my organization that provides training to other organizations? The best way to get connected is to build relationships with PYN and the awarded applicants. Please contact Jason Alemán, Vice President of Program Services, at jaleman@pyninc.org. 23. The RFP states font sizes no smaller than a 12-point font and the PowerPoint states no smaller than 11-point font. Which of these guidelines is to be followed? Applicants should reference the instructions found in the RFP. The proposal should use 1 margins and no smaller than 12-point font. 24. Can our organization charge a 9.5% indirect rate and a 6% fee? No. Please note that your administrative costs cannot exceed 10% of total requested or be designated as a fee. 25. Should our program have audited financial reports? Yes. Please refer to page 44 in the RFP that provides the necessary legal and financial documents required. These include copies of the past two year s organizational audits. 26. What kind of insurance is needed? Proof of Insurance: Organization s Certificate of Insurance (Successful respondents may be required to provide further insurance information at the time of contract negotiations.) 27. What is a good budget range for a program serving 25-50 students? Please refer to Section VIII. Budget Information to complete the Budget Excel Worksheet. There is a Cost Per Slot guide to support your proposal as well. 28. The RFP states that an applicant can only include administration expenses OR indirect costs. Are we allowed to include our organization indirect rate plan of 9.55% on non pass through items and a management fee of 10% on direct expense and indirect expense? For example, if ResCare Workforce Services proposed Indirect at 9.55% and, say, 6% Fee, would that be allowed in our bid? Please refer to Question #24 for a response to this question. 29. We're not interested in being a Provider or Provider Representative; we served as a worksite this year. Is it possible to continue in this same capacity next summer? Organizations that are interested in serving as a worksite rather than as a contracted provider do not need to complete the procurement process. Organizations who would like to host WorkReady participants at their site during the 6 weeks of summer programming may indicate their interest on the Worksite Registration form and may be contacted by PYN representatives about being a worksite for future programs: www.pyninc.org/forms/supportworkready.
30. Why would an organization submit multiple proposals in the same model category? We are intending to operate our program utilizing multiple centers as work locations. Would that necessitate more than one proposal? An organization that intends to operate distinct programs with different programmatic goals may wish to submit separate proposals for each program. If an organization plans to operate a similar program with shared goals, objectives, and curriculum for participants at multiple sites, this could be accomplished with one proposal for one contract under the same model. 31. Are we able to apply if we did not submit the letter of intent? No. Only applicants who have submitted the letter of intent by the deadline are able to apply. 32. Is it possible to change your program model that you previously selected on your Intent to Apply Letter? Yes. Send notification to wr-rfp@pyninc.org. 33. For the narrative, section 2 (program components), item E.i. (target industry) requests that we lay out our program s target industry areas and refers us to the Summer 2017 RFP page 35 of 51. Page 35 does not make mention of target industries. Can you clarify? We want to be sure to answer the question as fully as possible, so if there is further clarification elsewhere, we would be grateful to know. The work experience narrative question at the bottom of page 34 about target industry areas is asking applicants to list any industries they intend to target during worksite recruitment and/or as part of their contextual learning plan. 34. If we are submitting more than one proposal, can both proposals be saved on the same flash drive/usb? No. Each application requires a full proposal that is separate from any other proposals submitted by your organization. Each proposal should include a full hard copy and a full electronic copy on its own flash drive, including all required documents and attachments in both formats. We received a number of questions (see below) about randomized placement. While we do not address each inquiry directly, we have provided a list of frequently asked questions that represent the best information that we have at this point about implementing a lottery within WorkReady Summer Programs. We look forward to working with providers throughout the contracting process to receive feedback about the best way to implement this process. Are random assignments a requirement for providers, or only if providers are given additional slots? What is the process/impact? Will students be randomly assigned from general pool rather than indicating a contract number on the application? Is the randomized placement an option or a requirement? In other words, can a provider give priority for their WorkReady slots to youth who are in their year-round programs or does the provider have to serve youth assigned to them. Are programs required to receive participants via lottery or are they able to recruit their own participants? Are additional slots contingent on random assignment regardless if they were originally requested? For instance, if we requested 50 slots and were granted 30 in the original contract, would the other 20 be considered "additional" and subject to random assignment? Is PYN assisting with placement of assignment youth? My organization always requests youth from the general pool, but I have found it a challenge to actually bring them in. For instance, this summer I had requested 30 youth from the general pool for Internship and 30 for Work
Experience. Out of the youth I contacted, only about 5 actually responded to my emails, even though they had already completed enrollment with PYN. Does PYN have an expectation as far as percentage of slots being reserved for random assignment, and does it include original slot level and additional slots? For instance, if I say in the RFP I will reserve 10% of slots for random assignment, is that only 10% of the original slot level? If additional slots are given, is the expectation that another 10% be given for those? Why use a lottery to assign summer jobs? Every year, thousands more youth apply to WorkReady than we have available slots. A lottery increases equity in the hiring process by ensuring access to all applicants, including youth who may not otherwise be served. A randomized lottery is the fairest way to distribute opportunities when there are more qualified applicants than there are available jobs. A randomized lottery is also the most valid approach to researching the impact of WorkReady efforts. We are actively seeking providers who demonstrate the desire for the capacity to participate a randomized lottery for placing youth. Does a provider have to lottery all job positions to participate? It is possible to lottery a certain percentage of positions available. For instance, half of a provider s positions may be assigned via lottery while half are assigned to individuals who the provider chooses in advance. You may indicate the number or percentage of positions you d be willing to assign via lottery in your proposal. Under a lottery system, can providers retain some control over whom they serve? Providers may impose certain eligibility criteria so that only youth who meet those criteria will be included in the lottery. For instance, jobs requiring that applicants reside in a certain geographic area could include only youth who live in that area in the lottery. You may indicate in your application any relevant eligibility criteria. Can providers choose who enters the lottery? In cases where jobs require pre-screening, providers may recruit the pool of youth who will enter the lottery so that they have approved every eligible applicant. Note that this will require providers to recruit many more youth than they are able to serve. Additionally, a central purpose of the lottery is to provide opportunities to youth who may not have had access previously. Why is research connected to random lottery? Youth who get a summer job might differ from youth who do not; for instance, they may be more motivated to find employment or have stronger family support. If we were to compare these two groups, we could confuse the effect of the program with these pre-existing differences. Under a randomized lottery, by design the applicants who do not get a job are the same as those who do. Any differences between the two groups convincingly demonstrate the effect of the program. Why do this research? Documenting impact through rigorous research can prove the efficacy of summer jobs programs, help improve the program, increase opportunities for disadvantaged youth, and draw additional funding. What will the research entail? We are partnering with researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, who will be responsible for collecting and analyzing data. They are aiming to look at outcomes including employment, crime, education, and health. There is the possibility that providers who demonstrate capacity for and desire to participate could receive funding for additional slots.