Transportation for America and Transportation for Massachusetts are pleased to announce a new opportunity for Regional Planning Agencies in Massachusetts to receive technical assistance on performance measures.
This technical assistance will help two RPAs update and adopt performance measures and/or project selection criteria to reflect their regional vision and goals related to transportation. This may range from developing measures for areas such as public health, access to jobs, climate and social equity, or translating planning-level performance targets, into specific criteria for prioritizing projects. Past examples of Transportation for America’s technical assistance can be found here and here.
Working with the selected RPAs, Transportation for America will customize the assistance based on the chosen RPAs' goals, potentially including facilitating workshops for RPA staff and stakeholders, conducting research, providing written recommendations, and/or supporting stakeholder engagement.
This technical assistance is valued at $30,000 per grantee, and is made possible by funding from the Barr Foundation.
The application deadline for this opportunity is April 12, 2019 at 5pm. This opportunity is only available to Regional Planning Agencies in Massachusetts. To apply, please fill out this Google Form application. Late submissions will not be accepted.
Selection Process and Criteria
Selection timeline:
- Call for applicants opens: March 18, 2019
- Applications due: April 12, 2019
- Awards made: April 30, 2019
- Work completed: June 30, 2020
Criteria:
Transportation for America and Transportation for Massachusetts will select two RPAs to receive technical assistance between 2019 and 2020 through a competitive application process. Only completed applications that are submitted prior to April 12, 2019 will be considered. A proposal review committee will review each proposal in accordance with the criteria listed below, and may reach out to applicants and discuss proposals in greater detail.
The primary selection criteria are:
- Interest in performance measurement: Priority will be given to RPAs that demonstrate a desire to better address the goals of the regions they serve, and to improve the accountability and effectiveness of their transportation programs. Applicants can demonstrate this desire by describing steps they have already taken to adopt performance-based decision-making practices. Priority will be given to RPAs interested in integrating measures in project selection as well as planning.
- Readiness to implement: Priority will be given to applicants that are well positioned to act on the concepts covered during the assistance, and demonstrate a readiness to integrate those concepts into their decision-making practices. This will depend partially on the timing of applicants’ long-range planning cycles.
- Interest in public health, access to jobs, climate and social equity: Priority will be given to RPAs that demonstrate a strong interest in integrating public health, access to jobs, climate, and social equity measures and criteria into their investment decisions.
- Capacity to support planning and delivering the assistance: Participants of this assistance may be asked to provide support in identifying venues for workshops assistance, inviting participants, and other logistics. Successful applicants will demonstrate a commitment to being a partner with T4America and T4MA in planning the assistance and providing the staff support necessary for successful technical assistance.
Application Deadline
The deadline for applications is April 12, 2019. To apply, please fill out this Google Form application. Applications received after this deadline will not be reviewed.
For Further Information
Please contact Josh Ostroff, Partnerships Director at Transportation for Massachusetts, at [email protected].
