AfterZone Summer Scholars Camp
STEM Community Organization RFP
Application Deadline: January 10, 2016
The mission of the Providence After School Alliance (PASA) is to expand and improve quality after-school, summer,
and other expanded learning opportunities for the youth of Providence by organizing a sustainable public/private
system that contributes to student success and serves as a national model.
PASA is currently seeking community based organizations with a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math
(STEM) focus to facilitate a four-week hands-on learning summer experience for middle school youth.
About the AfterZone Summer Scholars Camp:
The AfterZone Summer Scholars Camp aims to engage youth in relevant and experiential learning in order to
achieve the following outcomes for youth:
 Improved critical thinking and problem solving skills
 Prevent summer learning loss
 Increase engagement in learning during the summer and in preparation for the following academic year
 Work collaboratively with peers to achieve a common goal
 Form positive relationships with adults
Dates for Summer Scholars 2016 will be: July 5-July 29, Mon-Thurs, with an end of summer celebration Friday, July
29th.
PASA’s AfterZone Summer Scholars Camp is characterized by a collaborative educational approach. Youth
participate in STEM programming designed and co-facilitated by educator teams. Each AfterZone Summer Scholars
educator STEM team will consist of a Community-Based Educator, a School Day Educator (certified RI Teacher), and
an AfterZone Educator (experienced youth worker or novice teacher) who collaboratively plan and deliver direct
instruction to youth. These STEM teams will work together to develop a curriculum for a cohort of up to 28 youth,
using the content focus of the community-based partner as a guiding theme for their group. The Community-Based
Educator is only present with their educator team during the camp two days a week, on the offsite location days.
The School Day Educator and AfterZone Educator will be hired by PASA, and teams will be determined via mutual
selection ranking.
All educators have interdependent roles within the educator teams; the Community-Based Educator is the lead
program content expert and responsible for preparing the other members in the STEM educator team with the
knowledge and skills relevant to their curriculum. The Community-Based Educator also helps to guide a connected
STEM learning experience for youth between the alternating offsite field experiences and school site days. All adult
educators are expected to provide a safe and supportive atmosphere that incorporates inquiry, camp culture,
teamwork, youth leadership, and fun.
PASA is a public/private partnership with the City of Providence. Funds for
the summer program come with major support from the Providence Public
School Department, the Noyce Foundation, Every Hour Counts, and RI
Department of Education.
AfterZone Summer Scholars Camp
STEM Community Organization RFP
Application Deadline: January 10, 2016
About the RFP Process:
PASA will contract with approximately 15 STEM-based community organizations to provide programming for a
total of 500 Providence Middle School students citywide. All STEM-based community organizations must hire
their Community-Based Educator/s and secure their offsite space(s) by March 18th, 2016 to be eligible for
funding.
The RFP Review will be held January 21, 2016.
Proposals will be reviewed by a committee consisting of AfterZone Site Coordinators and PASA staff. They will
be looking for the following:
 Ability to affect Scholars student outcomes
 Commitment to outlined timeline for planning and implementation
 Educators experienced with urban middle school youth
 Educators that possess STEM knowledge relevant to their organization
 Educators that possess expertise in experiential learning
 Willingness to collaborate
 Ability to provide an engaging program to youth
Organizations accepted for the 2016 AfterZone Summer Scholars Camp will receive a $4,925 program grant,
pending funding. The grant will be divided between supplies and staffing time. $2,600 will be allocated for
supplies, with the understanding that the funding for program supplies needs to cover the full STEM educator
team for both field and classroom days. Staff will be compensated for their time at an hourly rate of $30,
totaling $2,325 for up to 31.5 training and planning hours. For more information regarding staff hours, please
view Program Responsibilities below.
Program Responsibilities:
Organizations who apply for a program with the AfterZone Summer Scholars Camp are committing their staff
to participate fully in the requirements below. All STEM-based community organizations must hire their
Community-Based Educator/s by March 18th to be eligible for funding.
Selected organizations must commit to:
1. Sending their educator for training and planning*:
 2 hours of orientation
 9.5 hours of training for new staff, 6.5 for returning staff from 2015
 20 hours of team pre-planning:
o Eight hours of pre-planning will take place during 4 school based meetings (2 hours each) from
April-June.
PASA is a public/private partnership with the City of Providence. Funds for
the summer program come with major support from the Providence Public
School Department, the Noyce Foundation, Every Hour Counts, and RI
Department of Education.
AfterZone Summer Scholars Camp
STEM Community Organization RFP
Application Deadline: January 10, 2016
o Community-Based Educators are responsible for arranging a minimum of 2 pre-planning
meetings (2 hours each) at their community site with their STEM team. If your community
organization is contracted for winter/spring AfterZone sessions, your organization is responsible
for coordinating a visit to your AfterZone program for the remaining members of your STEM
educator team.
2. Being present during their scheduled days of AfterZone Summer Scholars Camp:
 A two-day program each week during the entire duration of the four week camp (July 5-July 29th,
Mon-Thurs with an end-of-summer celebration on Friday, July 29th) :
o Either a Monday / Wednesday or a Tuesday / Thursday program with instructor availability
from 8:30am-1:30pm. STEM programming runs from 9:30am-1pm daily; all educators are
required to arrive at 8:30am at the school site to check-in with their teams and remain until
1:30pm for a STEM team debrief and/or to plan for the next day.
o Community-Based Educators are required to ride the bus with their cohort between the school
and the offsite location.
 Two citywide planning/debrief sessions, scheduled for Friday, July 8th from 9:30-11:30 and Friday, July
29th, from 1:30-3:30.
3. Participating in a collaborative planning and teaching process within educator teams
 Community educators are often the educators with the strongest background in subject matter, but
they need to commit to planning collaboratively with their educator team. PASA is looking for
Community Educators who can both ‘step up’ to helping their team of educators work together to
design a curriculum around their program’s subject matter and ‘step back’ to allow all educators to be
an equal part of an educator team.
 Community educators should feel comfortable with all aspects of the content proposed in the RFP.
Community organizations should not depend on other members of the educator team to compensate
for gaps in the Community Educator’s knowledge of topics that were proposed.
 Community organizations are responsible for working with the School Day Educator and the AfterZone
Educator to purchase all of the supplies needed for both onsite and offsite days using grant funds.
 Community educators are expected to contribute to planning both the onsite and offsite portions of
the program, ensuring that the classroom curriculum is engaging and connected to the offsite days.
4. Participating in and supporting PASA’s quality and evaluation efforts.
 All programs should be aware that they may have to support PASA in administering surveys to
youth about their experiences, and that educators will also need to complete surveys in order to
assess youth progress over the course of the program (this will not entail an additional time
commitment.)
 All programs should expect to be observed by both PASA staff and outside validated observers.
PASA is a public/private partnership with the City of Providence. Funds for
the summer program come with major support from the Providence Public
School Department, the Noyce Foundation, Every Hour Counts, and RI
Department of Education.
AfterZone Summer Scholars Camp
STEM Community Organization RFP
Application Deadline: January 10, 2016
5. Providing an engaging learning experience for youth
 All programs will be onsite at the school for two days a week and off site for two days. PASA is looking
for programs that will provide a variety of offsite locations to give youth the opportunity to get out into
their community and to participate in hands-on learning experiences that enrich the content of the
program. While teams may have an offsite location that they return to multiple times throughout the
summer—such as a garden, worksite, or community partner’s educational facility—community
partners should think of the off-site days as an opportunity to expand the youths’ horizons and enrich
the learning happening throughout the summer.
 PASA believes that a critical component of the Summer Scholars program is that young people have
the opportunity to develop the essential skills that we refer to as the Graduate Profile: problem solving
and critical thinking, perseverance, communication, teamwork, and engagement in learning. Programs
should be prepared to integrate development of these social and emotional skills with the
development of STEM skills. PASA seeks partners that can contribute to developing hands-on
curriculum that allows campers to dive into learning in a way that is experiential and youth driven.
Rather than alternating ‘fun’ activities and ‘learning’ activities, RFPs should demonstrate that the
community partner is already beginning to think about how to create an engaging program that
addresses both socio-emotional and STEM learning.
To view the Summer Daily Schedule please visit http://mypasa.org/resources-pasa-program-providers/runprogram/. A schedule of PD and training will be available at this address by December 18.
Deadline for final Proposals:
January 10th, 2016
All accepted applicants will be notified of their application status by: February 5th, 2016
For questions about the application process please contact:
Sarah Summers
AfterZone Scholars Coordinator
Phone: 401-490-9599 ext. 113
Email: ssummers@mypasa.org
Interested organizations can also attend an informational session with PASA staff where they
can ask questions about the program and receive support in completing the RFP. Sessions will
be offered at PASA (81 Carpenter St, Providence) on Friday, December 18 from 3:30 pm-4:30
pm and Tuesday, January 5 from 11 am-12 pm. Please contact Sarah Summers to RSVP.
PASA is a public/private partnership with the City of Providence. Funds for
the summer program come with major support from the Providence Public
School Department, the Noyce Foundation, Every Hour Counts, and RI
Department of Education.
AfterZone Summer Scholars Camp
STEM Community Organization RFP
Application Deadline: January 10, 2016
Organization Name:
Primary Contact (name and title):
Organization Address:
Primary Contact E- Mail:
Organizational 501c3 or EIN:
Organization Phone :
Primary Contact Cell Phone:
Program Name:
Please give a detailed description of your proposed program (including your program specific content
and specific learning goals):
Please provide a brief, 2-3 sentence program description to be used for student recruitment in the
AfterZone Summer Scholars brochure to describe the program to youth and external audiences (keep in
mind that this language should be youth-centered and should attract youth to your program):
If approved to participate in AfterZone Summer Scholars Camp, how many educators from your
organization will be available to lead a summer STEM cohort? __________
How many cohorts are you interested in participating in? _____ 1 cohort _____ 2 cohorts
PASA is a public/private partnership with the City of Providence. Funds for
the summer program come with major support from the Providence Public
School Department, the Noyce Foundation, Every Hour Counts, and RI
Department of Education.
AfterZone Summer Scholars Camp
STEM Community Organization RFP
Application Deadline: January 10, 2016
Organizations running two programs must commit to double the planning time with each of their
educator teams, as well as provide enough supplies for a quality experience at both sites.
Will your organization be able to run programming if only awarded one cohort? (Note: this does not
guarantee funding.)
YES
NO
List each individual educator and specify their availability to lead a single AfterZone Summer Scholars
STEM cohort: (Please remember that a single staff member can only lead one cohort of 28 youth per
day.)
Staff Name _______________________
(check all that apply): Mon/Wed _______ Tue/Thu _______
Staff Name _______________________
(check all that apply): Mon/Wed _______ Tue/Thu _______
Please list contact information below for all staff potentially leading program (Name/Title, Cell phone,
Email, Work Phone). Please attach resumes for any staff who will be directly leading programming. If
your organization will need to hire a staff member to lead this program, please detail your hiring plans
below:
Does the staff listed above have previous experience working in the AfterZone or working with urban
middle school youth? Please describe briefly below if not specified in resumes:
Please detail the Community Educator’s comfort with the proposed curriculum.
PASA is a public/private partnership with the City of Providence. Funds for
the summer program come with major support from the Providence Public
School Department, the Noyce Foundation, Every Hour Counts, and RI
Department of Education.
AfterZone Summer Scholars Camp
STEM Community Organization RFP
Application Deadline: January 10, 2016
PASA has collected both program quality data and direct feedback from youth supporting the
importance of a diversity of offsite locations. This variety is a key factor in youth engagement and
program satisfaction. PASA is looking for programs that incorporate a variety of sites that are
educationally appropriate as well as engaging and interesting to youth.
Please describe which locations you plan to use as part of the summer program and how they would
enhance the program and the experience for youth. If you are a returning program, please specify any
identified locations that would be new to the experience this year.
Potential Location(s):
In order to ensure that we meet the AfterZone Summer Scholars Camp youth outcomes (please see
page one for full list) we seek out partners who provide youth with hands-on inquiry learning programs
that are grounded in real world experiences, guided by youth, and supported by high quality practice.
The following questions focus on how your program will help the AfterZone Summer Scholars Camp
achieve these goals:
____________________________________________________________________________________
STEM YPQA program observations and youth surveys from the previous AfterZone Summer Scholars
Camps indicate that all programs needed improvement in the areas of youth leadership and rigorous
STEM practices.
PASA and PPSD define youth leadership as successfully engaging in the following opportunities:
 Mentor peers over an extended time
 Lead a group
 Practice group process skills (contribute ideas, take responsibility of a piece of a task, and
complete a task with others)
Please describe examples of activities your organization will utilize to promote youth leadership.
PASA is a public/private partnership with the City of Providence. Funds for
the summer program come with major support from the Providence Public
School Department, the Noyce Foundation, Every Hour Counts, and RI
Department of Education.
AfterZone Summer Scholars Camp
STEM Community Organization RFP
Application Deadline: January 10, 2016
PASA & PPSD focus on a few key STEM practices as outlined through the Common Core State Standards
and Next Generation Science Standards. Given the practices below, please describe examples of how
this would be implemented in your program:
STEM Practices and Graduate Profile Skills
What does this look like in your program?
Youth ask scientific question or define problems
on their own
(Graduate Profile Skills: Critical thinking/problem
solving, communication, engaged in one’s learning)
Youth make sense of problem and persevere in
solving them
( Graduate Profile Skills : critical thinking/problem
solving, perseverance)
Youth obtain, evaluate, and communicate
data/information
( Graduate Profile Skills : problem solving/critical
thinking, communication, perseverance)
Youth construct viable arguments utilizing
evidence and are to express their arguments via
writing and speaking
( Graduate Profile Skills : problem solving/critical
thinking, communication, engaged in one’s learning)
Youth are able to critique the reasoning of others
utilizing evidence
(Graduate Profile Skills: problem solving/critical
thinking, communication)
Even though the community educator is not present for half of the program days, PASA still looks to the
community organization to help create a strong connection between their on and off site days.
PASA is a public/private partnership with the City of Providence. Funds for
the summer program come with major support from the Providence Public
School Department, the Noyce Foundation, Every Hour Counts, and RI
Department of Education.
AfterZone Summer Scholars Camp
STEM Community Organization RFP
Application Deadline: January 10, 2016
What resources and knowledge will your organization be able to provide to ensure that the onsite
portion of the program is engaging and connected to the offsite portion? Possible resources include:
Objects from the community organization that can be left with the group for the duration of the
program—for example: aquariums, tools, physical examples of content such as biofacts, or equipment
essential to the program such as instruments or sports equipment; Routines that will be used
consistently onsite and offsite; Activities or projects that link onsite and offsite days.
PASA has provided returning programs with data about strengths and areas of improvement of your
program according to observations, youth surveys and other evaluation measures. Please consider the
information provided and respond with thoughts on how your program could build on these strengths
and find new approaches to some of the places highlighted for improvements.
PASA is a public/private partnership with the City of Providence. Funds for
the summer program come with major support from the Providence Public
School Department, the Noyce Foundation, Every Hour Counts, and RI
Department of Education.
AfterZone Summer Scholars Camp
STEM Community Organization RFP
Application Deadline: January 10, 2016
Please email your completed proposal to:
Sarah Summers
AfterZone Scholars Coordinator
Email: ssummers@mypasa.org
Phone: 401-490-9599 ext. 113
Deadline for final Proposals: January 10th, 2015
All accepted applicants will be notified of their application status by: February 5, 2016.
For Appendix A (Summer Daily Schedule) please visit http://mypasa.org/resources-pasa-programproviders/run-program/. A PD and Training schedule will be available at this address by December 18th.
PASA is a public/private partnership with the City of Providence. Funds for
the summer program come with major support from the Providence Public
School Department, the Noyce Foundation, Every Hour Counts, and RI
Department of Education.