dfta cep rfp june2014

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United Neighborhood Houses of New York

Older Adults Strengthening Communities Through Food

I. Overview

REQUEST FO R PROPOSALS

Older Adults Strengthening Communities Through Food [OASCTF] is an initiative of the Aging in New York

Fund, the charitable arm of the New York City Department for the Aging, in close collaboration with

United Neighborhood Houses of New York [UN H]. It is part of a growing effort to build the capacity of

organizations across the U.S. to meaningful engage and empower older adults for the benefit of their

communities. These efforts have created a body of knowledge on how best to engage society's older adult

population as leaders in community improvement and social change. In New York City, older adults have

focused on the need to increase access to and use of fresh healthy food in high need communities .

The purpose of this initiative is to extend this strength-based and purpose-driven practice into senior centers.

The initiative will partner with selected centers that recognize the vital resources older adults offer to their

community and are interested in developing models and best practices that can be shared with other centers.

II. Project Goals U NH seeks proposals from community-based organizations operating DFTA funded senior centers in selected

community districts (see page 2) that have a demonstrated interest in:

• Learning and utilizing innovative strategies to engage a community's older individuals as a key resource

to address important needs and improve community life.

• Increasing access to, knowledge about and use of fresh healthy food in low-income communities

• Utilizing older adults as a resource to help other senior centers interested in adopting this strength-based

field of practice.

• Positioning senior centers and older adults to be seen as a resource for addressing food access and other

issues important to the broader community.

III. Funding This initiative will provide $15,000 grants to five organizations to support personnel costs associated with

participating in the project. S elected partner organizations will also have the opportunity to obtain an additional

$4,000 in support for OTPS costs that arise from project activities associated with chosen food access strategies.

This is a three-year initiative, with potential opportunities for continued funding in 2015 and 2016.

IV. Process Interested applicants should submit a proposal following the guidelines outlined below. The project's

Advisory Committee will review all submissions. As part of the process, applicants may be asked to host a site

visit to discuss their proposal with the Committee and project staff. It is anticipated that applicants will be

notified of the Advisory Committee's decisions in September 2014, with project start dates in late September.

V. Deadlines and Submissions RFP Information Meeting* � June 17 [Tuesday] Proposals are due by � July 16 [Wednesday @ 5pm]

Time: 9:30 – 11 am Place: Hartley House Theater 413 West 46

th Street

Between 9th

and 10th Avenues

Manhattan * Recommended but not required

Email your proposal or deliver a hard copy to: Older Adults Strengthening Communities United Neighborhood Houses of NY 70 West 36

th Street – 5

th floor

New York, NY 10018 [email protected]

An initiative to engage senior centers and older adults as a key resource in

increasing access to and use of fresh healthy food in low income communities

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REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL

Directions and Information

Who Can Apply ……………………………. Page 2

Project Criteria ……………………………... Page 2 Requirements of Grant Recipients ………… Page 3

Timeline for Project Activities …………….. Page 3 Application Directions ……………………... Page 4

Selection Process and Criteria ……………... Page 5 RFP Timeline ………………………………. Page 6

Background Information …………………... Page 7

Who Can Apply The lead organization must be:

� An existing Innovative or Neighborhood Senior Center currently funded by the New York City Department for the Aging [DFTA],

� Located within one of the following community districts [CD] where access to healthy food is especially

difficult and rates of diabetes and obesity are high: Bronx CD 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9 and 10; Brooklyn CD 1, 3, 4, 8, 9, 16 and 17; Manhattan CD 9, 10 and 11; Queens CD 1, 4 and 12; Staten Island CD 1 and 2.

Or

� A member agency of United Neighborhood Houses of New York operating a DFTA funded Innovative or Neighborhood Senior Center located in any CD where healthy food access is difficult and rates of diabetes and obesity are high, except in Bronx CD 5, Brooklyn CD 2 and 5, Manhattan CD 12 and Queens CD 9, where older adult food access engagement projects have already been developed.

Project Criteria

Projects must engage older adults using a strength and asset-based approach Older Adults (defined as those age 60 and older) must be engaged at all levels of project activities, from project planners and leaders to those who implement and organize activities. Older adults should be engaged in a wide variety of roles that build upon their strengths, knowledge and interests.

Projects must address a community's food needs Projects must address community identified needs for improving access to and use of healthy food in defined neighborhoods as determined by older adults and others in the community. Project ideas and strategies should be substantially generated by members of the communities (including older adults). Innovative approaches are welcomed.

Projects must reflect a community-wide approach and build local partnerships Applicants are encouraged to take a broad community wide approach that works in partnership and builds coalitions with other organizations to achieve project goals and broaden impact. Such an approach will engage a diverse cross section of the community, deepening local support.

We look for organizations that demonstrate the following: • A history of successfully engaging volunteers of all ages, especially individuals age 60 and older • Community convening and organizing experience that brings together different constituencies, to

successfully address community issues. • Experience (directly or through partnerships) working on issues of food access, food justice and/or access to

and use of healthy food in high need areas • Experience participating in program evaluation processes, gathering and reporting data and tracking outcomes. • Experience building upon and sustaining new practices, and a willingness to help other organizations adopt

these practices.

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Requirements of Grant Recipients

As a condition of grant receipt, applicants will be asked to agree to the following: • Attend and participate in monthly training and capacity building sessions, develop project planning

documents and work plans, work to adopt new program practices, reach out to the broader community and

work in partnership with other organizations.

• As part of the training and capacity building sessions, participate in periodic meetings wi th staff from other senior centers selected to participate in Older Adult Strengthening Communities Through Food to discuss program progress, highlight challenges, and share experiences and knowledge.

• Participate in evaluation and assessment activities, including – with the assistance of project staff –

the preparation, identification, collection and reporting of required data.

• Provide interim and annual program and fiscal reports, approved by the organization’s executive

director or equivalent, within time frames and formats specified by project staff. Program reports

will be used to determine subsequent year funding.

• Provide additional information to assist project staff in overall assessment of the project and for reporting to

project funders.

Timeline for Project Activities

This is a three year initiative. The first year will focus on planning, capacity building, outreach and the identification of specific strategies to address healthy food access and use. The second year focuses on the implementation of healthy food access and use strategies identified and driven by older adults, while the third year focuses on project sustainability and replication.

YEAR 1- Funded under this RFP

Capacity Building and Identification

of Healthy Food Access Strategies

Site Selection -

Notification of selected proposals September 2014

Capacity Building - Orientation, planning, outreach, and leadership development at project sites

Late September 2014 – March 2015

Food Access Work -

- Participant and staff training and skill building

- Food Access Project Identified and preliminary work plan developed

December 2014 - May 2015 Early April, 2015

YEAR 2 - [Based on successful application for continued

Implementation of Healthy

Funding]

Food Access Strategies

Implementation -

Implementation of food access programs at the five senior center sites

June 2015 - May 2016

Replication Activities -

Staff and participants generate key lessons learned and strategy for sharing with other

DFTA funded organizations

January 2015 - May 2016

Project Timeline continued on next page �

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YEAR 3 - [Based on successful application for continued

Sustaining and Replicating

Funding]

Project Activities

Sustaining Healthy Food Access Activities -

Continue implementation of food access

programs at the five sites aimed at

sustaining projects overtime

June 2016 - May 2017

Replication and dissemination activities -

Project participants at each site identify and

work with up to four organizations

interested in adopting this practice --

building upon work in year two.

June 2016 - May 2017

Application Directions

The Proposal: What we would like to know

Proposals must not exceed five (5) pages (excluding cover letter and attachments) and include the following:

A. Cover letter - signed by the organization's executive director or equivalent.

B. An organizational description (one page maximum), including mission, goals, strategies used to reach your goals, and how you measure success

C. Answers to the following questions (three pages maximum)

1. Participant Involvement

a. Please describe how opportunities for older adults to get involved are fostered and developed at your agency and the role of staff in this process.

b. Please describe the extent to which older adult participants plan and implement any programs and services at your organization.

c. For those who get involved, how do you support and enhance their participation over time?

2. Working in Community

a. What is your organization’s experience convening and/or engaging the local community to address an important issue or concern?

b. For programs and activities that seek to involve individuals beyond those who come to your center, how do you reach these individuals and how successful are these strategies?

c. Please describe one of your organization’s important partnerships. How and why did this partnership develop and how long has it been active?

3. Healthy Food Access

a. What are the healthy food access challenges in your community? How does your organization address these issues? If you do not do so currently, what local organizations and resources would you consider partnering with to address these challenges?

4. Organizational Interest

a. Please describe the reason for your organization’s interest in this opportunity and how this approach and the concept of strength-based, purpose-driven aging fits into your organization’s future plans.

D. Additional experience and knowledge your organization brings to this project as outlined under Project Criteria above, that is important but which has not been previously provided (one page maximum).

E. Staffing – please identify the staff person who will lead this effort, the reason they were chosen and their relevant experience and background. If this would be a new hire, please provide a job description outlining qualifications being sought.

F. Attachments (optional) – Please attach any program brochures, news articles or similar materials that will provide additional information about your organization and the role of older adults in its programs, services and activities.

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Selection Process and Criteria All applications will be reviewed by the project's Advisory Committee consisting of individuals with expertise in access to and use of healthy food, building community in low-income neighborhoods, and meaningfully engaging older adults in community issues. In selecting projects for funding, the following will be considered:

• Clarity of response to the questions asked in the RFP

• Demonstrated understanding of and experience with the project criteria as described above.

• Demonstrated effectiveness and/or interest in building and maintaining collaborations and in engaging and empowering older adults (and other participants) to achieve community goals.

• Organizational capacity and readiness to fully participate in this initiative, and its plans for replication.

• Qualifications of staff overseeing the project and demonstrated commitment to the project by grantee's leadership

Because of their ability to reach multiple generations in one community, preference will be given to Innovative and Neighborhood senior centers that are based in multi-service organizations that have programs which reach a broad cross-section of the community.

RFP TIMELINE

ACTION TIME DATE

• RFP Release date June 9 (Monday)

• RFP Information Meeting 9:30 – 11am June 17 (Tuesday)

• RFP Proposal Due Date 5pm July 16 (Wednesday)

• Notification of Funding Decision Mid-September, 2014

• Anticipated Project State Date Late September, 2014

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION

I. The Importance of Healthy Local Food For Building Community

The lack of access to healthy food disproportionately harms low-income urban neighborhoods, where public health has

suffered the most, all the more so during this economic downturn. The distance to healthy fresh food is a predictor of

health – the closer the fresh food, the healthier the community. Low-income communities without ready access to

affordable healthy food, and with a resulting reliance on less nutritious calorie-dense food, suffer significantly higher

rates for childhood and adult obesity, type II diabetes, hypertension and heart disease, health outcomes that decrease

the quality of life and add tens-of-billions of dollars to society’s annual health care costs. In addition, without good

access to affordable healthy food, low-income neighborhoods have been losing their knowledge about how to prepare

healthy food for eating.

Key community leaders have begun to address these problems through vehicles like food cooperatives, community

gardens, farmers markets, urban farms, and community supported agriculture (CSA). These approaches introduce into

low-income neighborhoods locally grown food that is fresher and more varied than is currently available. Such

community-based programs also create the potential for addressing the broader issues in a neighborhood’s food

system, including more education in the home and the school about nutrition and cooking, more food of better quality

in bodegas and markets, and more help to end hunger suffered by neighbors.

Further, working to create a just and healthy food system helps to build community in other dimensions, partly because

food is an issue that can link all neighbors and because working on the issue already has a demonstrated likelihood of

success. Specifically, the economic and social opportunities presented by community gardens, food cooperatives,

farmers markets, urban farms, community supported agriculture, nutrition education and advocacy with retail food

outlets all can help build community on multiple levels by:

• fostering neighborhood leaders (as individuals see the big difference they’ve made for their communities);

• strengthening neighborhood bonds (as neighbors work together successfully to replicate what has been done in

other communities);

• promoting self-reliance and investment in the community (as neighbors gradually obtain more local control over

their food and health and aspire to apply the skills they’ve developed to other community problems);

• opening up more potential for job development (as food system vehicles like farms, coops, and markets build

solid businesses);

• increasing capital that supports neighborhood businesses and economic development (through food spending

that keeps money local, and by increasing participation in SNAP and other income support programs);

• job and leadership training for neighborhood youth (consistent with the strong intern programs in existing

urban gardens, farms, and markets); and

• reducing crime (as more neighbors are out and active in their communities due to locally-based economic

development activities and constructive after-school programs for youth).

Thus, increasing access to and use of fresh healthy food at the local level is one of the strongest organizing vehicles for

building communities more generally.

II. The Importance of Engaging Older Adults In Building Community For the first time in history, older adults in the U.S. are projected to outnumber the country’s children and youth. In

New York City for the next two decades, the growth rate will effectively add 50,000 adults over age 60 to the city’s

population every year. The result is a looming challenge for those committed to building communities.

Fortunately the terrain is familiar, because community organizers have already seen how young people were once

perceived as too needy, difficult and a societal burden, and thus left out of community building efforts. Similar to the

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challenges already posed but now being addressed with youth, the challenges of a burgeoning population of older

adults include the question of how to develop and tap into the potential of this large group to help build

neighborhoods, rather than leave such a significant group out of the process. Just as neighborhoods innovatively

developed healthy and productive roles for young people in building community, they need to develop healthy and

productive roles for the population of older adults that will soon outnumber young people. This will ensure the

community is being built by all members of the community.

Developing the capacity of society to engage – for the civic good – the millions of citizens who are older adults and

those who will be entering the ranks of older adults can have a transformative impact on communities across the

nation. At no time has there been a greater need to develop this capacity given the many challenges our nation and

communities face today. In New York City, we have the opportunity to contribute to this important national goal, and

at the same time, have an immediate positive impact on some of the City’s neediest communities and the individuals

who live there.

III. Older Adults’ Demonstrated Record of

Creating Healthy Communities Through Healthy Food

It is widely acknowledged that older adults in New York City have been a vital resource in creating healthy communities

through healthy food, a tradition that remains vibrant today. Over a decade ago, it was older women in neighborhoods

like the South Bronx and East New York who pioneered urban farming on vacant lots. That effort has evolved into

today’s community programs to grow food for needy families and teach local young people good work habits and other

job skills. Further, older adults have been key players in the creation of farmers markets, and community supported

agriculture (contracts between neighborhoods and area farmers) — strategies that are especially important in the many

neighborhoods lacking supermarkets. It is older adults who often are leaders in the effort to make access to healthy

food more meaningful by teaching people how to use that food, training children in schools or adults at farmers

markets, food pantries, in their churches and at other venues. In addition, older adults often play a key role in the

preparation and distribution of food in shelters and pantries that serve the hungry and the needy.

The roles that older adults already play in creating healthy communities through healthy food demonstrate the

potential for this work going forward, creating a foundation on which to expand existing or build new projects that

increase access to and use of healthy food in under resourced communities.

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Increasing Access to and Use of Healthy Food

United Neighborhood HousesUnited Neighborhood HousesUnited Neighborhood HousesUnited Neighborhood Houses Strategies and Impacts

Improving

Community

Health

Strengthening

Communities and

Public Health through

Food

Urban

Farming

Community

Gardens

Farmers

Markets

Community

Supported

Agriculture

[CSAs]

Improving Retail Food • Green Carts initiative

• Wholesale Buying Clubs

• Healthy bodegas

• NYCHA Fresh food stores

Healthy

Food

Education

• Strengthens neighborhood bonds

• Builds community

• Fights hunger

• Increases economic activity

• Job development potential

• Promotes community development


• Fights hunger

• Provides mentoring opportunities

• Supports youth programs

• Job development potential

• Reduces crime

• Strengthens

neighborhood bonds

• Increases economic

activity

• Fights hunger

• Increases access to

entitlements


• Supports youth programs

• Provides mentoring opportunities

• Builds community

• Reduces crime

• Fights hunger

• Empowers healthy food

choices

• Increases access to

entitlements

• Creates intergenerational

opportunities

Nutrition

Assistance

Programs

• Provides new resources to

individuals and the community

• Increases economic activity

dfta cep rfp june2014

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