Request for Qualifications: ROW Waterway Committee Dynamics Research
Reconnecting to Our Waterways (ROW) is a Collective Impact initiative in Indianapolis that has worked purposefully since 2012 to change the quality of life and ecology along Indianapolis waterways and surrounding neighborhoods. ROW has convened community partners to enhance quality of life through innovation, analysis, cultural advancement and investment along Indy waterways and neighborhoods. Examples of projects completed include greenway trail enhancements, ecological restoration, public art, educational signage, recreational outings and educational workshops.
Through our place-based model of authentic community engagement, we work to build capacity to support our partners’ work and to build hyper-local, democratic processes needed to address a wide range of challenges and opportunities in the neighborhoods we work. We do this by cultivating a network of resident-led, action-oriented change at the neighborhood level.
Since our inception, ROW has been focused on select neighborhoods around six major waterways in Indianapolis: Central Canal, Fall Creek, Little Eagle Creek, Pleasant Run, Pogue’s Run, and White River. Our recently adopted ROWforward Strategic Plan (https://ourwaterways.org/strategicplan) seeks to learn from the success of ROW’s hyper-local, place-based model to expand and serve additional neighborhoods and waterways in Indianapolis. We will do this by first developing a community engagement framework that explains our resident-led, action-oriented engagement model and then arrange an increasing level of ROW and partner support as neighborhood groups progress through this model. By the end we hope to see a robust network of resident-led, action-oriented groups permeating our city.
To this end, ROW seeks to engage a social research professional to help identify key and distinctive ingredients in what has made our neighborhood waterway committees successful. A selected consultant will help ROW leadership co-develop a methodology to best pursue research into our existing waterway committees that answers two fundamental questions:
• Why do residents participate in ROW waterway committees?
• What features or characteristics of waterway committees contribute to success?
It is anticipated that this research will include facilitated waterway focus groups, personal interviews, and survey tools to explore these questions, with results interpreted anonymously in ways that highlight both similarities and differences among the committees. A final report, an appendix of full anonymized responses, and a presentation to the ROW Steering Committee are expected project deliverables.
ROW desires to have this research complete by December 31, 2022 and anticipates a budget of around $3,000-$5,000, depending on a negotiated scope of services with the selected consultant. ROW is prepared to assist in the convening of focus groups (possibly associated with existing monthly committee meetings), offer professional online survey subscription services if desired, and provide feedback and support in the development of research questionnaire materials.
Qualified respondents will possess the following characteristics:
• Demonstrated education and experience related to social science research.
• Demonstrated experience designing and executing non-leading and unbiased research tools, including facilitated focus groups, interviews, and surveys. This includes a solid understanding of implicit bias and cultural competency issues.
• Strong interpersonal skills conducive to relationship and trust building, as well as the ability to adapt processes based on evolving feedback.
• Basic understanding of the ROW initiative and Indianapolis neighborhood dynamics
Interested respondents should to this RFQ by 5PM EDT on Thursday, October 20, 2022 by emailing responses to Brad Beaubien, [email protected]. Responses should include a single PDF document containing a cover letter, a resume, a one-page writing sample extracted from an authored research report, and up to 5 additional pages of material that demonstrates the above desired characteristics. These additional pages may contain narrative or samples of other work.
ROW reserves the right to select a consultant based on responses alone or request an additional interview. Once selected, ROW can move quickly to negotiate a final scope of services and fee with the goal of beginning research work no later than the week of November 7, 2022.