Salt Lake County has released a Request for Information (RFI) to identify a potential issue area for the county’s next Pay for Success project. Last month, the Salt Lake County Council approved Mayor Ben McAdams’ request to advance $150,000 from next year’s regional-development budget to begin the initial phases of another Pay for Success (PFS) project.
The $150,000 budget allocation will be used to hire a consultant, Third Sector Capital Partners, a leading organization contributing to the acceleration of PFS and social innovation projects nationwide. The advisory firm will be conducting initial assessments to help the county identify a subject area where the PFS model could yield long-term savings.
The county is seeking to implement multiple PFS contracts throughout the region. The RFI is open to all interested parties, but the county is most interested in hearing from social service organizations in the field.
It also signaled in the RFI a desire to focus on issue areas that lend themselves to robust data collection and evaluation. The county is also seeking program areas that have proven effectiveness and can show budgetary savings.
“We think there’s a huge opportunity to put taxpayer dollars towards what actually works, rather than following an out-dated recipe that we once thought or hoped would work,” said Mayor McAdams, in a statement on the county’s website.
The county anticipates that certain policy areas will be particularly fruitful for PFS contracting because of potentially significant savings and large, unmet needs in those areas. These include criminal justice, (including programs to reduce recidivism), behavioral health issue areas, youth services, aging and adult services, homelessness and public health.
The RFI is now posted on Bidsync, a third-party service the county uses for procurement. Although the RFI does not guarantee future funding, respondents will be on the county’s radar for future PFS contracts.
Judith Fenlon is the money and business editor for The Imprint.