Organization Profile
OCASI was formed in 1978 to act as a collective voice for immigrant serving agencies and to coordinate responses to shared needs and concerns. Its membership is comprised of more than 220 community-based organizations in the province of Ontario. OCASI asserts the right of all persons to participate fully and equitably in the social, cultural, political and economic life of Ontario.
OCASI invites qualified individuals/organizations to submit a proposal for a contract to carry out an evaluation for OCASI’s Mental Health Promotion in Immigrant Refugee Serving Organizations Project.
Project Overview
Funded by Immigration Refugee Citizenship Canada (IRCC) through the Settlement Program Service Delivery Improvements Funding Stream, which seeks to meet the following priorities as outlined in IRCC’s Settlement Program, SDI 2017 Funding Guidelines:
To increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the Settlement Program, informed by user-centred design principles and approaches. This stream of funding is intended to improve our understanding of newcomer needs and our services delivery responses to them.
Specifically, IRCC is seeking information on the effectiveness of our current settlement services, as well as evidence-based methods for improving service delivery. IRCC officials will work closely with funding recipients throughout the lifespan of the project to ensure that there are the necessary supports for obtaining strong evidence on the current state of our service models and for reporting results, particularly when they are not as expected or favourable.
IRCC recognizes the significant value that will come from implementing projects that generate best practices, identify lessons learned, and encourage service improvements that can be applied across the settlement sector by various stakeholders, with a primary focus on Settlement Program clients.
Innovation through Experimentation
A portion of SDI funding will be allocated towards activities that are experimental in nature and that test new approaches to delivering settlement services and/or measuring the impact of specific services/models on Settlement Program clients. Experimental activities could feature:
- Testing and developing more client-centred programming;
- Developing or testing new service models;
- Achieving more targeted outcomes for specific client groups;
- Testing existing service delivery models in a new context or application; and
- Analyzing and reporting on positive, negative and neutral results.
The Mental Health Promotion project's overall goal is to build the capacity of newcomer and refugee services to promote mental health and newcomer wellbeing, and respond to mental health issues. The project aims to strengthen collaborations and partnerships between newcomer and refugee serving organizations, primary health, and mental health sectors through the development of a service model for mental health promotion.
The Mental Health Promotion project outcomes include:
- enhanced engagement of new and existing partners
- improved organizational capacity to promote mental health and to respond to mental health issues
- the development of an innovative service delivery model of mental health promotion
Scope of the Project
Proposal should present an outline of the evaluation and analysis to be conducted, a work plan, and a schedule for reports and deliverables. The scope of work requires an evaluator or a team of evaluators to execute the project. The following issues should be incorporated into or addressed in the design of proposals for this evaluation project.
Develop the evaluation methodology to collect performance data on OCASI’s Mental Health Promotion in Immigrant Refugee Serving Organizations Project and analyze the results. This detailed method should be informed by and include a brief but careful review of the project proposed performance measurement and deliverables under IRCC Settlement Program Service Delivery Improvements Funding Guidelines.
- Develop and implement an evaluation framework and data collection methods to document lessons learned from the pilot phase of the project and obtain accurate project performance data for main project activities. The evaluation project will collect and evaluate data on:
Proposed Project Outcomes:
- Enhanced engagement of new and existing partners
- Improved understanding of service user mental health promotion, well-being needs
- Improved understanding of service provider mental health promotion, well-being, self-care needs
- Improved staff & organizational capacity for mental health promotion, early identification of mental health issues/concerns & timely referrals to primary health/mental health supports as needed
- Improved understanding of existing agency policies, practices, and capacity to promote service user and staff mental health and well-being
- Mental health promotion initiatives developed within settlement agencies
- Early identification of mental health issues, concerns & early intervention
- Development of an innovative service delivery model of mental health promotion
- Promotion & adoption of new service model by other organizations
- Develop and deliver semi-annual lessons learned reports and final evaluation report for the project that will form part of final deliverables to the project funder.
Request for Proposal
Proposals should not exceed 5 pages and must include:
- A summary of the proposed process for project evaluation.
- A detailed work plan outlining the activities to be completed and related timelines.
- A complete and detailed budget summary.
- Relevant qualifications and experience.
- A statement of how the consultant understands issues of confidentiality as applied to this project and disclosure concerning any real or perceived or potential conflicts of interest.
Budget
A total budget will not exceed $22,000.00 (which includes HST and travel costs)
Qualifications Required:
- Knowledge and understanding of Mental Health Promotion in Immigrant Refugee Communities;
- Extensive experience related to applied research and evaluation with community-based initiatives and/or government-funded projects;
- Proven experience conducting evaluation projects that incorporate qualitative and quantitative methodologies; Proven track record of conducting projects of a similar scope
- Understanding of equity and access issues as they pertain to immigrants, refugees, newcomers and racialized communities
- Demonstrated experience in integrating anti-oppression into social campaigns, policies and practices
Please submit your applications on August 15, 2019 by 5:00 p.m. to:
OCASI Hiring Committee – Mental Health Promotion Evaluation
E-mail: gethired@ocasi.org
Please put the following in the subject line: Mental Health Promotion Project Evaluation Application.
Thank you to all applicants however only short-listed individuals/organizations will be contacted.