Blue Cross Blue Shield | Center for Prevention

The Center envisions cohort one and two participants to be similar — projects that support community-driven changes to policy, systems or environments in physical activity, healthy eating, or reducing commercial tobacco use that lead to healthier, more equitable communities for all.

We would prefer in-person gatherings, but envision some communication being remote based on the geography of participants.

We will not have selected projects until later in the year. We are in the first step of a two step funding application process. Projects are expected to start their contracts on November 1, 2019. We envision cohort members to be a diverse group of funded projects such as community based orgs, tribal nations and local governments.

Both cohort one and cohort two. The workplan and cost proposal submitted should be for the entire span of the project, October 1, 2019–December 31, 2023.

Both. The initiative is statewide.

Correct. Projects receive funding for three years.

Once the cohort starts, cohort members will develop goals and vision for their work and time together. This process will primarily be done with cohort members, Blue Cross and the cohort facilitator. The evaluator could also be part of this process and planning to support the appropriate measurement system.

Yes, this time commitment of 25–30 hours/person/year is for their participation in the cohort meetings/gatherings. The activities/ strategies in these gatherings are not determined yet. The Health POWER funding initiative will bring individuals from the funded projects together to network, share successes and challenges, and identify opportunities to collaborate with peers in their community work. Over the course of this three-year initiative, the desire is to create a cohort where members have built trusting relationships and can see a shared goal that is determined by the group.

Yes, this time commitment of 25–30 hours/person/year is for their participation in the cohort meetings/gatherings. The activities/ project tasks in these gatherings are not determined yet. The Health POWER funding initiative will bring individuals from the funded projects together to network, share successes and challenges, and identify opportunities to collaborate with peers in their community work. Over the course of this three-year initiative, the desire is to create a cohort where members have built trusting relationships and can see a shared goal that is determined by the group.

Approximately four, quarterly.

Estimated 50%.

We anticipate funding 10–13 projects around the state likely 40–50% will be in the metro area.

Four to six hours.

December 2019.

Based on past evaluation work, we expect to fund projects in the range of $130,000 to 180,000 a year.

Yes, please demonstrate strong intercultural competence in past projects and/or engagement with similar work with cohorts, diverse communities and evaluation. We envision the cohort members and projects to be and represent people from many racial, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds including LGBTQ community members, people in the disabilities community and a variety of different lived experiences. The evaluators should be able to work with people from various backgrounds.

Yes. We envision cohort participation/ learnings/outcomes supporting outcomes in individual funded projects and vice versa. The evaluation should look at the initiative as a whole. We prioritize the understanding of PSE changes that occur as a result of the individual projects work. That being said, we don’t see a need for a process evaluation for the individual projects but we will need to capture enough information to understand the PSE changes and to what extent the cohort model supported their work.

Both A) and B). We assume cohort leadership development influences and supports the outcomes in their projects.

We are not expecting population level outcomes to be part of the evaluation, but if you see appropriate population data sources for this initiative, please propose it.

We do not have a preferred IRB. We look to the evaluator to propose.

No.

Click here to access the logic model. This was developed at the very beginning of the project conversations.

We expect participants to provide time and resources to our evaluation. Participants will be required to support the evaluation (for example, participate in evaluation activities, share status of their work, share their learnings, feedback, involvement, etc.). This work and time for evaluation will be included as part of their contracts for funded project staff.

We expect participants to provide time and resources to our evaluation. Participants will be required to support the evaluation (for example, participate in evaluation activities, share status of their work, share their learnings, feedback, involvement, etc). This work and time for evaluation will be included as part of their contracts for funded project staff.

Same as above, question #26. Cohort members are project staff of the funded projects and will be required to participate in the evaluation. Their financial support for evaluation will come from their project budget.

The evaluator is expected to work with Blue Cross and the cohort facilitator on finalizing the evaluation questions for initiative. It is possible for cohort participants to be included in finalizing/adding to the evaluation questions. Both cohort facilitator and cohort evaluator can work together with cohort members of developing their goals, objectives and measurement.

The evaluator is expected to work with Blue Cross and the cohort facilitator on finalizing the evaluation questions for initiative. It is possible for cohort participants to be included in finalizing/ adding to the evaluation questions. Both cohort facilitator and cohort evaluator can work together with cohort members of developing their goals, objectives and measurement.

The Center expects to create a stellar team from both internal Blue Cross staff and external contractors to best support, encourage and leverage cohort participants and funded projects’ work.

We expect the evaluator to build strong relationships with cohort participants and other cohort supports such as cohort facilitator and Blue Cross staff. This will probably entail having as needed meetings with Blue Cross and/or other cohort support.
The frequency of attendance for the valuator to cohort meetings or site visits may depend on the work proposed in the evaluation.
No, we do not anticipate the contractor to provide any evaluation support to cohort members or funded organizations.

We expect the evaluators to build relationships with cohort participants and fully understand their involvement in the cohort and understand the PSE changes in their individual projects. Evaluators may need to be present, not participate, at cohort some gatherings.

Blue Cross will contract with a vendor for the facilitation of the cohorts. Blue Cross envisions the evaluator and the facilitator to work in partnership.

Potentially, however, we would need to determine this in consultation with Blue Cross and the cohort facilitator.

Data from a contractor supporting the cohort such as the cohort facilitator.

High-level summaries of monthly or quarterly project meetings between Blue Cross program staff and the project staff.

This may include individual project deliverables/materials from individual projects such as education materials, copies of policies, any other documentation highlighting the project or media articles.

Yes, we anticipate data collection in the first year of the first cohort. Data collection finalized September 1; annual summary reports submitted on October 15 of every year. We want data collection tools to be collected and reports to be submitted in time to support any decisions/learnings/improvements for the upcoming year.

Please submit a workplan and cost proposal for the entire span of the project, for only two cohorts, from October 1, 2019–December 31, 2023.
Under General Information, questions #2 and #3 — this reflects the dates for the first year/ first contract — October 1, 2019–December 31, 2020.

Please focus your workplan and budget costs for only two cohorts.

We would like to have a summary report for years 1, 2 and 3 of cohort one. At cohort one completion, we would like an evaluation summary report of the full cohort that includes an executive summary and a presentation to Blue Cross and other stakeholders. You may decide to propose year 3 report is included in the final summary report.
We would like to have a summary report for years 1, 2 and 3 of cohort two. At cohort two completion, we would like an evaluation summary report of the full cohort that includes an executive summary and a presentation to Blue Cross and other stakeholders. You may decide to propose year 3 report is included in the final summary report.
We are open and encourage other dissemination tools that provide better utilization of evaluation results.
Reports can but don’t have to look like traditional reports.

Same as above, question #41. Final reports, presentations and summary briefs are due a month before the presentation to key stakeholders. If the presentation is in December, the information will be due in November.

Cohort three is still to be determined and we will work with the evaluator to propose how these reports look like.

Focus your workplan and budget costs for only two cohorts. Cohort three is to be determined and those conversations/decisions can happen with the evaluators at a later time.

For question #4 under General Information, please include the funding request for the first contract year — October 1, 2019 to December 31, 2020.

Health POWER RFP Q&A