Exhibit A - EF TPP RFP Questionnaire .docx

Exhibit A Employment First (EF) Third-Party Partner (TPP) RFP Questionnaire

Provide answers to each question below.

A. Organization Experience and Staff:

1. Describe how your organization’s mission aligns with EF’s goal of helping SNAP clients find well-paying jobs and become financially independent.

2. Describe your staff's qualifications. This can include professional certifications, degrees, or lived experience relevant to serving this community.

3. Describe how your client outcomes demonstrate high performance and organizational effectiveness.

4. Describe your continuous improvement plan.

i. Identify the funding source(s) typically used when undertaking continuous improvement efforts within the organization.

5. As part of your Organizational chart submission (included with Exhibit B, EF PO Plan), please provide an explanation of your current staffing model.

i. How does the staffing model support the attainment of client and program outcomes?

B. Federal Grant Experience:

1. Previous EF Experience: Please provide details of your Organization’s budget allocation and expenditures for the last three program years. Use the table below.

Admin Allocated:

PRM* Allocated:

TOTAL Allocated (this should equal the first two rows)

Admin Spent:

PRM* Spent

TOTAL Spent (#) (this should equal the previous two rows)

TOTAL Spent (%) (Total Spent (#) divided by TOTAL Allocated)

*PRM = Participant Reimbursements (Supportive Payments)

C. Program Details:

1. Program Outreach:

i. Describe which staff will be responsible for outreach and engagement efforts. Include specific examples that demonstrate your experience or ability to identify SNAP clients, and how you coordinate with local Department of Human Services offices to verify a client's SNAP eligibility.

ii. Describe the dependencies, gaps, or challenges you experience in program outreach and identify solutions, support, or changes needed to remove barriers.

2. Case Management: Describe your case management process. Your response must address:

i. Who completes case management activities with the client?

ii. When are case management activities completed and how often are they revisited?

iii. What is the approach when a client(s) is not successfully progressing through your program and attaching to employment?

3. Program Activities: The EF program requires a 12-hour per month “Level of Effort.” Please describe your program activities, including:

i. Who provides the activity and where (in-person, virtual, 1:1, group setting, etc.)?

1. How do you determine the applicability and benefit of the activity to the client?

2. How do you determine the appropriate cost for the activity?

ii. How long does each activity take to complete?

1. Describe the case management support provided to the client during the period they are engaged in the activity.

iii. What is the expected outcome for the client?

iv. What happens when the expected client outcome is not met?

1. How does your organization learn from and address these instances?

4. Serving Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents (ABAWDs): Some clients must meet an 80-hour per month work requirement to keep their benefits. How will your program help these clients meet that requirement?

i. What barriers are there to successfully serving these clients?

ii. What solutions, support, or changes are needed to remove these barriers?

5. Supportive Payments: Describe the types of supportive payments you offer and your process for providing them. Include who approves these payments, when they are issued, and how you decide if a client needs one.

i. Include a description of who authorizes the payments, how expense records are maintained, and what level of justification is needed to authorize a payment.

6. Resources and supports: Describe how your organization will connect clients to resources, supports, and supportive payments that are not provided by your organization.

i. Include information on how your organization builds and sustains partnerships with external service providers.

D. Program Outputs and Outcomes

1. Clients Served Outputs: Please provide details of your Organization’s clients served in EF for the last three program years. Use the table below.

Unique Clients Served Goal

Unique Clients Served Actual

Percent of Goal Met (Actual divided by Goal)

2. Employment/Education/Skills Outcomes: Please provide details of your Organization’s employment, education, and skills gain outcomes in EF for the last three program years. Use the table below.

# and % of Clients who Gained Employment

# and % of Clients who Completed Training

# and % of Clients who gained Industry-Recognized Skills (bookkeeping, culinary, digital literacy, etc.)

3. Job Retention Outcomes: Please provide details of your Organization’s job retention outcomes in EF for the last three program years. Use the table below.

# and % of Clients who Retained Employment after 3 months

# and % of Clients who Retained Employment after 6 months

# and % of Clients who Retained Employment after 9 months

# and % of Clients who Retained Employment after 12 months

E. Financial Capacity:

1. How does your internal accounting system flag and separate federal vs. non-federal funds to ensure you aren't 'double-dipping' or using one federal grant to match another?

2. How do you track your non-federal funds to ensure they aren't being used as a 'match' for more than one federal grant at the same time?

3. How will your organization ensure that EF funds are used to add to your services rather than simply replacing funds you already receive from other federal sources?

4. How will your organization ensure that activities available to the general public at no cost (e.g. resume class facilitated at a library) are not used to request the 50 percent reimbursement?

5. Describe your organization’s current fiscal monitoring process (frequency, level of review, etc.).

6. Describe the financial outlook for your organization for the Federal Fiscal Year 2027. Include information demonstrating your organization’s level of reliance on EF funding to operate non-EF programming and services.

i. Does your organization have sufficient funding available to operate non-EF programming without the assistance of federal EF funds?

ii. What percentage of your overall budget would be provided by EF funds?

iii. Please reference Tab 1 in Exhibit B EF PO Plan and explain all non-federal funding sources that will contribute to the federal EF funds

1. What is the funding source?

2. How often is the funding received?

3. How does your organization maintain non-federal funding source records?

F. Oversight and Monitoring: EF providers are responsible for regular oversight and monitoring of program operations, including client case file reviews, program expenditures, and allowability of activities.

1. Describe which staff at the organization is (or will be) responsible for reporting on client participation and outcomes in the Colorado Benefits Management System (CBMS) in the program.

i. How long have they been with the organization?

ii. What is their level of proficiency with CBMS?

iii. What are the expectations for ensuring timely, accurate, and complete CBMS data entry and case notes?

2. Describe your organization’s current program monitoring process (frequency, level of review, etc.) to ensure program requirements, outputs, and outcomes are met and/or continuously improved on.

i. Does your organization have the capacity to produce quarterly monitoring reports to the State?

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