Community Engagement and Equity Consultant Addendum 2

Agency:	City of Providence
State:	Rhode Island
Type of Government:	State & Local
NAICS Category:	541611 - Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services
Posted Date:	Dec 23, 2025
Due Date:	Jan 12, 2026
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Procurement #: 51644>

CITY OF PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND

Department: Office of Sustainability

RFP Title: Community Engagement and Equity Consultant

Opening Date: 12/08/2025

Addendum #: 2

Issue Date: 12/23/2025

The purpose of this addendum is to:

• Respond to bidder questions from the December 8, 2025, pre-bid conference

• Respond to emails received by potential bidders by the Bidder Question deadline of

December 17, 2025.

Providence City Hall

25 Dorrance Street

Providence, RI 02903

MAYOR BRETT P. SMILEY

CITY OF PROVIDENCE

RFP FOR COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AND EQUITY CONSULTANT

Addendum 2: Response to Bidder Questions

• The purpose of this addendum is to respond to bidder questions from (1) the

December 8, 2025 pre-bid conference and (2) emails received by potential bidders

by the Bidder Question deadline.

Do nonproﬁts need to complete MBE/WBE forms?

All bidders must complete and submit at least the top part of the MBE/WBE Participation

Plan form (page 10 of the RFP). Nonproﬁts do not need to complete the remainder of the

form or obtain a MBE/WBE waiver.

Does LGBTQ+ owned qualify as MBE?

Only ﬁrms listed on the State of Rhode Island’s MBE/WBE Directory count as MBE/WBE for

the purposes of this RFP.

How will pricing be evaluated?

The Department will score ﬁrms based on their responsiveness to the scope of work, their

experience on similar projects, and cost. Regarding the cost category, in addition to scoring

a proposal based on its cost relative to other proposals, we will also consider the value of

the proposed services compared to the proposed cost.

Have you already identiﬁed the community partners with whom you will be working?

We plan to work closely with the Racial & Environmental Justice Committee – the co-author

to the original plan. The Department also intends to work with other community

organizations, to be determined later, to reach different demographic and geographic parts

of Providence.

Department of Sustainability

25 Dorrance Street, Providence, Rhode Island 02903

Phone: 401.680.5476 | www.providenceri.gov

Can you explain what you mean in task 2 when you say the awarded vendor shall

“conduct a local social and racial equity analysis with updated tools?”

Vendors should be current in their awareness and understanding of equity-in-decision-

making approaches and tools. During the creation of the original Climate Justice Plan, the

City and its community partners developed the Just Providence Framework and used the

Spectrum of Community Engagement to Ownership model, among others. Vendors should

vet these approaches and offer recommendations to reﬁne or update them if necessary.

One example of a recently developed tool that could be utilized during this update is Race

Forward and Partners for Dignity & Rights’ new report, Co-Governing Toward Multiracial

Democracy, which features powerful models of collaborative governance led by

communities of color across the country.

Is there a standing community advisory body for the Climate Justice Plan?

Two important advisory bodies are the REJC and the Sustainability Commission. The REJC

has both staff and committee members, the Department intends to engage with both

during the update process. The Sustainability Commission is a City commission made of

Providence residents that helps guide the City on environmental and environmental justice

issues. The Sustainability Department (the issuer of this RFP) staffs the Commission.

Can the same ﬁrm bid on the equity consultant RFP and on the RFP for an energy

consultant and a resilience consultant.

Bidding on one RFP does not disqualify your ﬁrm from bidding on the other. Different

proposals should be prepared and submitted for each RFP.

Do you know what type of insurance is required?

The City must be named as an additional insured on the awarded vendor’s general liability

insurance.

If a bidder is not local to Providence, what is the expected frequency for in-person

meetings throughout the project (e.g., a few times for key deliverables, bi-monthly,

monthly, bi-weekly)?

Bidders should assume they will meet with the project team in-person twice during the

development of the equitable community engagement plan, and participate in-person

during at least two community engagement sessions.

Who will coordinate the consultants and community organizations that make up the

project team?

Department of Sustainability

25 Dorrance Street, Providence, Rhode Island 02903

Phone: 401.680.5476 | www.providenceri.gov

The Sustainability Department will be the lead on the project for the purpose of

coordinating consultants and community partners.

May bidders submit proposals that present alternative approaches to the project than

what is described in the RFP’s scope of work?

To enable the Department to fairly score proposals, bidders should respond to the RFP as

written. Bidders may elect to include recommendations for how the scope might be

improved, but scoring will be determined based on responsiveness to the RFP as written.

How much effort is expected regarding meetings between the equity consultant and

the energy consultant and resilience consultant?

For each consultant, assume at least 3 meetings at the outset of the project to reﬁne the

consultants project approach, and then monthly meetings thereafter.

How much time should bidders plan/budget for with project leadership?

Assume at least weekly meetings over four weeks to develop the engagement plan with

twice-monthly meetings to follow.

Should bidders include a line item in their budget for interpretation and translation?

No. Interpretation and translation will be included in the public engagement approach, but

it will not be the equity consultant’s responsibility to provide this.

What deﬁnition of co-governance should be referenced in relation to this project?

Refer to the current Climate Justice Plan which includes reference to the Just Providence

Framework, the Spectrum of Community Engagement to Ownership, and includes a

chapter on collaborative governance.

Has the City of Providence ever hired an equity consultant before?

Yes.

If so, could your team please describe favorable outcomes from past projects that the

City would like to replicate as well as unfavorable outcomes that the City would like to

avoid in this project?

During the development of the 2019 Climate Justice Plan the City and its project partners

engaged an equity consultant to be a neutral mediator to help the City and its community

partners align on an equitable approach and process to the project. Then, throughout the

remainder of the project, the equity consultant’s overall guidance was valuable because

both the City and the community partners trusted them to push the City for better

Department of Sustainability

25 Dorrance Street, Providence, Rhode Island 02903

Phone: 401.680.5476 | www.providenceri.gov

outcomes on behalf of frontline community members, while recognizing and explaining the

constraints of local governance to community partners. They helped keep the project on

track from a process perspective.

Department of Sustainability

25 Dorrance Street, Providence, Rhode Island 02903

Phone: 401.680.5476 | www.providenceri.gov

This page summarizes the opportunity, including an overview and a preview of the attached documents.

Community Engagement and Equity Consultant Addendum 2

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