The Situation
In April 2023, the City of Saint Paul, Office of Financial Services (OFS) posted an RFP for a contract consultant to provide support for grant monitoring and compliance on several federal ARP (American Rescue Plan) subrecipient programs and awards. We functioned as a Consultant for the City of Saint Paul for federal American Rescue Plan (ARP) grants administration developing RFPs, conducting eligibility and risk assessments for applicants, facilitated the merit-based review award/denial process, assisting in subrecipient contract development, conducting subrecipient orientation and technical assistance, and federal monitoring and reporting. This was a multi-month project.
The Work
The Word Applied, Inc. provided support managing multiple subawards (pass through grants) for federal awards held by the City from July through November, 2023 for four programs. These programs were through the Office of Neighborhood Safety (Community Gun Violence Prevention program), Office of Financial Empowerment (Local Fund: Worker Ownership and Community Ownership programs), and the Planning and Economic Development (Healthy Homes Saint Paul Pre-Weatherization program).
This was a specialized consulting project where we provided RFP management (drafting RFPs, memos to file, and guidance materials), developed (and facilitated) the merit-based review process, and drafted award and denial letter templates. We planned and facilitated with both internal (with key City Leadership) and external (with grantees) project meetings. We also provided limited Technical Assistance and Training to award recipients by providing orientations (and developing orientation materials) focused on City contracting, reporting, monitoring, and invoicing process. And provided limited technical assistance in the area of City contract workplan and budget expectations. Finally, the work included contract template development by engaging with the City legal department and program leads to develop contract templates.
Results
This work resulted in the development of four RFPs, the selection of four subrecipients. Technical assistance (and orientations) to aid in the contracting process provided to four subrecipients.