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PROPOSED CONTRACT AMENDMENT
Department(s): Department of Resource Management
Vendor: Friends of the Forest Preserves, Inc., Chicago, Illinois
Request: Authorization for the Forest Preserves of Cook County (the “Forest Preserves”) to extend and increase contract
Good(s) or Service(s): Career Immersion Program
Original Contract Period: 1/1/2018 - 12/31/2022; Board Approved Extension 1/1/2023 - 12/31/2023; Administrative Extension 1/1/2024 - 12/31/2024
Proposed Contract Period Extension: 1/1/2025 - 12/31/2025
Total Current Contract Amount Authority: $1,300,000.00
Original Approval: 11/14/2017, $1,000,000.00
Previous Increase(s): 4/5/2022, $50,000.00; 11/15/2022, $250,000.00
This Increase Requested: Not to exceed $150,000.00
Estimated Fiscal Impact: FY 2025 $150,000.00
Accounts: Professional Services 51034.520840; Grant and Mitigation 51010.521444 and 51010.520840; and all future Professional Services accounts
Contract Number(s): #74000002916
Concurrences: The Chief Financial Officer has approved this item. Final amendment is subject to legal review and approval.
District(s): Districtwide
Summary: Conservation Corps programs are part of the Next Century Conservation Plan and the Expansion Strategy for the Conservation Corps, which defines conservation corps as paid employment that mobilizes people who reflect the diversity of Cook County to maintain and restore the land to ecological health. Conservation Corps programs provide youth and adult participants with paid environmental education and job skills training within the conservation field, with a focus on ecological restoration in the Forest Preserves. The Career Immersion Program, a part of these Corps programs, gives approximately twelve (12) adult participants the opportunity to work alongside Forest Preserves fisheries biologists, wildlife biologists, and resource management crews. Participants receive important resource management skills and leadership development training, while exploring various career opportunities in conservation.
The Career Immersion program is administered by the Friends of the Forest Preserves through a contract issued under RFP #17-31-117, which was originally approved by the Forest Preserves of Cook County Board of Commissioners on 11/14/2017 (Board Item No. 17-0387), and subsequently amended on 4/5/2022 (Board Item No. 22-0208) and 11/15/2022 (Board Item No. 22-0425).
The Forest Preserves is now requesting authorization from the Board of Commissioners to provide $150,000.00 in additional funding to extend the Career Immersion Program through the end of calendar year 2025. The proposed extension will allow for continuity of existing professional development programs that did not receive a response from the Forest Preserves’ Request for Proposals (RFP) for Conservation Corps programs that was solicited in late 2023 (see Board Item No. 23-0603). Specifically, the Forest Preserves would like to continue to offer programs which directly engage participants with Forest Preserves staff from a wide range of professional scientific fields. Accordingly, the Forest Preserves intends to issue another Conservation Corps RFP in 2025 to address this programmatic gap.
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