title
PROPOSED CONTRACT AMENDMENT
Department(s): Department of Resource Management
Vendor: Chicago Department of Transportation, Chicago, Illinois
Request: Authorization for the Forest Preserves of Cook County (the “Forest Preserves”) to extend and increase contract
Good(s) or Service(s): Greencorps Chicago Conservation Corps Program
Original Contract Period: 1/1/2018 - 12/31/2022
Proposed Contract Period Extension: 1/1/2023 - 12/31/2023
Total Current Contract Amount Authority: $2,500,000.00
Original Approval: 11/14/2017, $2,500,000.00
Previous Increase(s): N/A
This Increase Requested: Not to exceed $500,000.00
Estimated Fiscal Impact: FY 2023, $500,000.00
Accounts: Professional Services 51031.520840; Grant and Mitigation 51010.521444 and 51010.520840; and all future Professional Services accounts
Contract Number(s): #74000003167 issued under RFP #17-31-117
Concurrences:
The Chief Financial Officer has approved this item. Final amendment is subject to legal review and approval.
District(s): Districtwide
Summary: The Forest Preserves is requesting to add $500,000.00 in authority and extend the Greencorps Chicago Conservation Corps program through the end of 2023. The proposed extension will allow for continuity of existing professional development programs funded directly by the Forest Preserves and avoid conflict with the simultaneous bidding and deployment of new Conservation Corps programs funded through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). A Request for Proposals (RFP) for ARPA-funded programs is presently being let through the Forest Preserves’ public solicitation process and proposed ARPA-funded programs are expected to be presented to the Forest Preserves Board of Commissioners in the near future. The Forest Preserves then intends to issue a separate RFP seeking proposals for new, longer term Conservation Corps program opportunities which would be funded in-part through the Forest Preserves’ annual budget starting in 2024.
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. The Greencorps Chicago program is a green industry job training program that provides re-entry opportunities and skills to underemployed adults in landscaping, horticulture, forestry, ecological restoration, and prescribed burning. The Greencorps Chicago Conservation Corps Program is administered by the Chicago Department of Transportation through an agreement that was originally approved by the Forest Preserves of Cook County Board of Commissioners on 11/14/2017 (Board Item No. 17-0392). 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.
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