2008 United Way and Jewish Healthcare Foundation Request for Proposal
Motivating Kids to Succeed in School Initiative
Pathways to Health Careers Fellowship
Proposal Summary: Instructions
To complete this proposal, interested applicants must submit all of the following by 5 p.m. on July 15, 2008:
1. Proposal Summary Form – a maximum of three pages (cover sheet not included) with a minimum font
size of 11 pt.
2. Evaluation Participation Agreement – Organizations must agree to comply with evaluation protocols as
part of the pilot process to evaluate the effectiveness of the Fellowship experience.
3. The Organizational Eligibility Tool (OET)
Organizations must answer “Yes” to all items on the Organizational Eligibility Tool to be considered for
funding.
4. 501 (c)(3) Determination Letter
5. Complete SPARC Data Collection Form – The Southwestern Pennsylvania After-School Resource
Collaboration (SPARC) collects pertinent information on out-of-school time programs in Allegheny
County. The Data Collection Form for this effort may be accessed at http://www.swpaafterschool.org/.
Data must be current and fully completed to be considered for this proposal.
All submissions are to be made by attaching the completed documents to an email sent to wendy.smith@uwac.org.
Please include your agency name in the footer of each of the UW forms submitted.
If you have questions, contact Wendy Etheridge Smith, Ph.D. at 412.456.6855
Proposal Summary: Background
At schools where there are large numbers of at-risk youth such as Pittsburgh Westinghouse and Pittsburgh Peabody,
almost 50% of the students drop out before completing their high school diplomas. Only a small percentage of
students in 11th grade perform proficiently on state reading and math assessments. Students are underachieving
academically and are ill-prepared for life after high school.
Many high school graduates do not have the basic skills needed to succeed in the workplace. One survey of local
employers suggests that as few as 10% - 20% of applicants for jobs that only require a high school degree actually
have the basic skills – reading, writing, arithmetic, communications – needed for success in the workplace. This
ever increasing gap between the skills needed to be successful in the workplace and the skill level of high school
graduates presents a problem for regional employers, particularly healthcare employers who provide 1 in 7 jobs in
Allegheny County.
Employers and educators are seeking ways to improve students’ preparation for college and careers. Recent
evidence shows that students achieve better academic skills and are motivated to complete school when they
understand the connections between academics and future careers and can envision a pathway for themselves.1
Community-based organizations, with programming in academic and personal development, are well positioned to
provide programs that build the connections between academics and career experiences. Health Careers Futures, a
non-profit supporting organization of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation, has explored the following best practices
that successful organizations throughout the country are using to promote career development:
 Job Shadow/Site Visits
 Internships
National Research Council Institute of Medicine. (2004) Engaging Schools: Fostering High School Students’ Motivation to
Learn. The National Academies Press: Washington, D.C.
www.unitedwaypittsburgh.org
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2008 United Way and Jewish Healthcare Foundation Request for Proposal
Motivating Kids to Succeed in School Initiative
Pathways to Health Careers Fellowship
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Academic Enhancement
Professional Development
Mentoring
Career/College Counseling
Personal Counseling
Clinical Training/Certification
Workforce Readiness (other than internships – e.g., “soft skills”)
Of the 446 after-school programs in Allegheny County, 12 indicate they specifically provide career and/or
workforce development activities, and 137 indicate they support personal development.2 Health Careers Futures
and United Way conducted a survey to determine the degree to which best practices in career development are
being used in these programs. Preliminary results suggest that although many programs incorporate a few best
practices, few implement the robust combination required for improvement in outcomes. Organizations stated that
barriers to effective career development offered in after-school programs include lack of time, funding, staff
expertise, and adequate evaluation services. As we begin to look to after-school programs to lead in assisting
students to build connections between academic achievement and careers, we must ensure that they have the
adequate resources to implement and maintain effective programming. Thus, the Pathways to Health Careers
Fellowship will identify after-school and community-based programs to support improvements in their healthrelated career development practices and help at-risk youth become “health career” ready. The Fellowship also will
provide program assessment, evaluation, and most importantly, dissemination of best practices.
A total of sixteen (16) to twenty (20) community-based organizations will be selected for participation in the
Pathways to Health Careers Fellowship with one cohort selected for 2008-2009 and another for 2009-2010 (eight
to ten programs per year). Criteria for selection include quality of application, ability of the agency to demonstrate
organizational excellence and efficiency (e.g., meet United Way’s criteria for high-performing agencies), and
readiness to show significant programming progress when utilizing the skills the Fellowship will provide. The
Fellowship is targeted for programs serving 7th through 9th grade students. Program requirements include:
 Participation of two (2) program staff (program director and manager/coordinator)
 Participation in four (4) half-day training seminars
 Participation in ten (10) monthly 4-hour sessions
 Implementation of customized career development module
 Participation of 25 – 30, 7th – 9th grade students from organization
 Participation in assessment and evaluation protocols
The Fellowship will provide each participating organization $15,000, which will be paid in monthly installments
from August 2008 through May 2009 for the first cohort and August 2009 through May 2010 for the second cohort.
Proposals must be submitted by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, July 15, 2008. Programs will be notified of their selection on
Friday, August 1, 2008. Health Careers Futures will host a Fellowship Sampler meeting on June 18, 2008
from 10 AM to noon at United Way for interested organizations to learn what is expected of Fellow
organizations. Attendance is required for consideration of a proposal.
The Pathways to Health Careers Fellowship is funded by the Jewish Healthcare Foundation and United Way and is
a joint project of United Way, Health Careers Futures, and the Pittsburgh Regional Compact. United Way oversees
the selection and evaluation of community-based organizations. Health Careers Futures provides tools, resources,
and training on best practices. Health Careers Futures and the Pittsburgh Regional Compact both provide employer
networks for participating organizations.
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Data drawn from the Southwestern PA After-School Resource Collaboration at: http://www.swpaafterschool.org/
www.unitedwaypittsburgh.org
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2008 United Way and Jewish Healthcare Foundation Request for Proposal
Motivating Kids to Succeed in School Initiative
Pathways to Health Careers Fellowship
Cover Sheet: Motivating Kids to Succeed in School Initiative – Pathways
to Health Careers Fellowship
Contact Information
Agency Name (lead agency):
Address:
Website:
Executive Director:
Email:
Phone Number:
Primary proposal contact name:
Email:
Phone number:
Agency name:
Address:
Website:
Agency name:
Address:
Website:
Budget Information (refers to budget for general program not the Fellowship budget)
Total cost of after-school current
program
Average cost per participant for current after-school
program
$
$
Current Annual Agency Budget: $
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2008 United Way and Jewish Healthcare Foundation Request for Proposal
Motivating Kids to Succeed in School Initiative
Pathways to Health Careers Fellowship
Fiscal year
Amount of operating surplus
if any
Amount of operating
deficit if any
Total expenses
2005
$
$
$
2006
$
$
$
2007
$
$
$
(Actual or Budgeted)
A: Line 12
Total Revenue
(from most recent 990)
B: Line 14
Management and
General
(from most recent 990)
C: Line 15
Fundraising
(from most recent 990)
$
$
$
Administrative Overhead
(B + C)/A
(from most recent 990)
%
Program Information
1. Indicate the number of participants enrolled in after-school program in the following grades:
K – 6th Grades
7th – 9th Grades
10th – 12th Grades
2. Expected grades and # of students to be enrolled in the Pathways to Health Careers Fellowship activities:
(Minimum capacity of 25 students enrolled is required for consideration.)
Grades to be Served
# Students
How many days of the week are you generally open? __________________
3. Looking at your records for the 2007-2008 program year, what percentage of your youth in the grades you
intend to serve in the Fellowship program attend at the following rates:
% who attend 5
days per week
% who attend 3 – 4
days per week
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% who attend 1 – 2
days per week
% of children/youth
who attend
sporadically
We don’t monitor
attendance
Agency Name:
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2008 United Way and Jewish Healthcare Foundation Request for Proposal
Motivating Kids to Succeed in School Initiative
Pathways to Health Careers Fellowship
4. What is your budget for the Fellowship funding ($15,000)?
Personnel
(Title and FTE) Salary
Benefits
Personnel Total
Cost
Operations
Supplies
Equipment
Transportation
Operations Total
Other
Other Total
GRAND TOTAL
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2008 United Way and Jewish Healthcare Foundation Request for Proposal
Motivating Kids to Succeed in School Initiative
Pathways to Health Careers Fellowship
Program Description Form
Please respond to each of the following. Feel free to use bullet points and other brief formats. When complete, the
form should be no more than three pages, single-spaced, 11 pt font or larger.
1. Describe the mission, goals, and activities of your after-school program and how well you feel the Pathways to
Health Careers Fellowship fits into your mission.
2. Describe the specific population to be served. If you use selection criteria to recruit participants for your afterschool program, include the selection criteria (socio-economic status, educational proficiency standards,
learning disability, behavioral challenges etc.). Use your description to demonstrate why this population needs
the Fellowship opportunities.
3. List the geographic area or neighborhoods to be served. If any of these are high need areas (e.g., high drop-out
or truancy rates), please provide supporting data.
4. How long have staff at various levels (i.e., group leader and program director) worked in your after-school
program? What is your staff retention rate?
5. Describe your history of supporting career and/or workforce development. Have you provided experiences
specific to health careers?
6. Please describe any previous or existing experiences your organization has had in career education
programming and/or collaborations with employers, career development organizations or workforce programs.
Briefly describe the nature of the partnerships (i.e., responsibilities, length of time, activities, successes,
challenges). How would you improve on these programs?
If your organization has not done career education programming, please describe another type of partnership.
7. Do you have specific partnerships with schools? If so, please describe what occurs in the partnership.
8. Describe your agency’s experience in evaluating its services. What have you learned? How has evaluation
information impacted what you do?
9. If the Fellowship is successful, we hope to build a system to enable more after-school programs to implement
evidence-based activities as well as broaden their scope to address additional types of careers. Why are you the
best agency to serve in the first cohort of the Fellowship in after-school programs?
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2008 United Way and Jewish Healthcare Foundation Request for Proposal
Motivating Kids to Succeed in School Initiative
Pathways to Health Careers Fellowship
Evaluation Participation Agreement
The _____________________________________ agrees to comply with all evaluation requirements if selected to
Name of Organization
implement the pilot project. There will be an evaluation of each customized module implementation and an
evaluation of the overall Fellowship process. Components of the evaluation of module implementation may include
required surveys of participants, site visits to complete observational assessments, and interviews with staff,
participants, and parents. Specific elements of this evaluation will be decided by the United Way and Health
Careers Futures staff in consultation with the selected cohort sites. An independent evaluator will assess the success
of the Fellowship program (with input from participating Fellows) and give recommendations for improvement.
Participating organizations will not bear the costs associated with implementing the evaluation components.
I understand that the evaluation information may be shared broadly to inform the replication of the pilot project in
additional sites. I also understand that the dissemination strategy will not include any identifying information for
specific participants.
___________________________________________________
After-School Program Director
_______________________
Date
___________________________________________________
Agency Executive Director
_______________________
Date
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