Community Input Needed: NYC Opportunity and Partners Release New Request for Information (RFI) for Co-Designed Workforce Programs for New Yorkers with Disabilities

The Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity (NYC Opportunity), the New York City Department of Small Business Services (SBS), the Center for Workplace Accessibility and Inclusion (the Center), and the Workforce Development Corporation (WDC) are launching an exciting new initiative to co-design and pilot new workforce development programs for New Yorkers with disabilities, and we want to hear from you on how to strengthen this initiative.

This project grows out of NYC Opportunity’s efforts to deepen the City’s use of participatory strategies to design human services in partnership with the people who use them, as well as a history of innovation and evidence-building work in workforce development. The co-design approach draws on deep partnerships and capacity building activities with impacted communities, with the aim of producing better services for residents, informed by their lived experience.

We’ve released an RFI seeking feedback and comments on the design process, administration, and implementation of programs for a new pilot workforce development program for New Yorkers with disabilities co-designed with community members.

About the Initiative:

We plan to bring together cohorts of New Yorkers with disabilities who have experience with, or who are interested in, navigating the job market and/or employment, to co-design new or improved workforce development programs for people with disabilities. We use the term “co-design” to refer to a “participatory approach to designing solutions, in which community members are treated as equal collaborators in the design process.”

These cohorts will be guided by a service design firm that will offer training, facilitation, and assistance in the development of detailed program models. The resulting models would then be funded and evaluated for effectiveness. Read the full RFI here and attend our information session to learn more about this exciting initiative.

Link to RFI: Co-Designed Workforce Programs for People with Disabilities

RFI Information Session:

We will host an RFI information session in person at 1 Liberty Plaza, 11th Floor, NY, NY 10006 and online via Zoom on March 25th, 2024 from 3–5 p.m.

To RSVP for an in-person session, register here.

To RSVP for the live stream, register here.

RFI Response Submission

Responses to this RFI should be submitted no later than April 2, 2024. Please send submissions in response to this RFI as an attachment to:

Chenelle Dennis

cdennis@sbs.nyc.gov AND WDCFiscal@sbs.nyc.org

Responses must contain the name, organization (if any), and contact information of the respondent.