Northwest Assistance Ministries is a nonprofit, community-based, multi-program social service agency that has been serving the community since 1983. It was founded by ten area congregations in response to the oil bust of the 1980s. Last year, NAM touched the lives of over 130,000 people through transformative programs that address the root causes of poverty, unemployment, health inequity, homelessness, hunger and family violence.  NAM’s current programs includes a Client Service Center (Emergency Basic Needs/Housing Services), Nutrition Center,  Senior Services (Meals on Wheels, Senior Center, and 60+ Café Congregate Meals), Behavioral Health Services, Family Violence Center, and an Adult Learning & Vocational Center. NAM’s staff size is approximately 77.

The goal of this project is to support NAM’s staff and volunteers with integrating an understanding and practice of Trauma Informed Care (TIC) into our programs and case management/service approaches. A key priority for our work under NAM’s current strategic plan is ensure we view all projects and program services through the lens of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

As part of this work, we want to shift towards a more formal TIC model with our clients that acknowledge that trauma from personal experiences and institutional racism impacts the ability of individuals and families we serve to successfully exit poverty, become gainfully employed or sustain employment. We want to face that head on, approaching clients in a way that acknowledges their personal experience and empowers them to find their own path to success.

NAM will strive to become a trauma informed care agency where all parties involved recognize and respond to the impact of trauma on one’s mental health and physical well-being.  With this project we expect the culture of our organization to be guided by these six guiding principles: 

• Trauma understanding
• Safety and stability
• Cultural humility and responsiveness
• Compassion and dependability
• Collaboration and empowerment
• Resilience and recovery

Project Timeline: Work will begin once the consultant is selected. All work must be completed by December 31, 2022

Project Budget: $22000.00 Proposals priced at more than the

maximum budget will be considered non-responsive.

PRIOR EXPERIENCE

In order for offers to be considered responsive, offerors must meet the following minimum prior experience requirements. Please ensure start and end dates (month and year) are indicated, and that experience is detailed sufficiently to ensure verification of all aspects of the minimums below.

1. Contractor must have a minimum of three (3) or more years in the past five (5) years of experience in providing trauma informed care training; and

An offeror's failure to meet these minimum prior experience requirements will cause their proposal to be considered non-responsive and rejected.

Application and Selection: Interested consultants should submit a proposal to Allison Booker Brooks, Director of Programs Northwest Assistance Ministries

[email protected] .

The email submission must contain the RFP Name and number in the subject line.

Submit a proposal outlining how they would approach Trauma Informed Care for Northwest Assistance Ministries and detailing a work plan, timeline, and project budget.

Proposals must be submitted by 5pm, December10, 2021

Proposals will be evaluated based on alignment with the organization’s vision and ability to fulfill the requested scope within the project budget.

Questions may also be submitted to the email address listed above.

Mandatory Disclosures: By submitting a proposal, each Bidder understands, represents, and acknowledges

that:

1. Their proposal has been developed by the Bidder independently and has been submitted without collusion with and without agreement, understanding, or planned common course of action with any other vendor or suppliers of materials, supplies, equipment, or services described in the Request for Proposals, designed to limit independent bidding or competition, and that the contents of the proposal have not been communicated by the Bidder or its employees or agents to any person not an

employee or agent of the Bidder.

1. There is no conflict of interest. A conflict of interest exists if a Bidder has any interest that would actually conflict, or has the appearance of conflicting, in any manner or degree with the performance of work on the project. If there are potential conflicts, identify entities with whom your company is currently, or have been, employed and

which may be affected.

NAM reserves the right, in its sole and complete discretion, to reject any and all proposals or cancel the request for proposals, at any time prior to the time a contract is fully executed, when it is in its best interests.

NAM is not liable for any costs the Bidder incurs in preparation and submission of its proposal, in participating in the RFP process or in anticipation of award of the contract.

All materials submitted in response to this RFP will become property of NAM.

Scope of Work

Northwest Assistance Ministries (NAM) is soliciting proposals from qualified contractors to provide Trauma-Informed Care (TIC) training to assist our team in developing a trauma-informed care approach to our services provided at NAM. NAM will work with a consultant or consulting team over the next year to create the approach, train staff, and identify metrics that can help track impact of this approach over time.

Deliverables

NAM seeks a consultant to design a trauma-informed approach to our work. This

includes:

• Delivering training to all NAM staff, to provide an introduction to Trauma

Informed Care (TIC)

• Working with a core staff team to design a Trauma Informed Care approach to our work with all of our programs

This should include both key aspects of Trauma Informed Care:

• Trauma-informed case management with clients Orientation to vicarious trauma, and the importance of self-care
• Developing Trauma Informed Care tools that staff can implement in their work on a day-to-day basis
• Identifying metrics to measure impact/benefit of the Trauma Informed Care approach over time
• Assist NAM in revising intake forms and printed materials to better incorporate the Trauma Informed Care approach
• Deliver basic level training to our volunteers to help them understand and grasp the term Trauma Informed Care.
• Designing training modules/materials and facilitating one or more train-the-trainer sessions to ensure that NAM is able to incorporate Trauma Informed Care into onboarding for new staff.

The primary goal of this project is to permanently integrate the trauma-informed care approach into each of our programs, including revising forms, creating case management tools for staff, and designing training manuals that can be utilized with new staff in the future.

The end result will be better outcomes for clients, ultimately leading to more families to exit poverty, especially families of color and for clients to become self-sufficient.

 A secondary benefit will be less burnout for staff, as well as attraction of more diverse staff in the future.

Our intent is that, once this project is complete, it will be presented as a non-profit best practice.