Specifications include, but are not limited to: 1. Meet with CWIP staff at project launch to discuss or clarify Clean Water Workforce Capacity Development project purpose and limitations, context of changes to state and federal clean water funding and known resources and contacts for this scope of work. Regular check-ins with CWIP staff to track progress and address challenges also will be scheduled in the agreement. 2. Utilize qualitative and quantitative data collection tools to gather the appropriate information to answer the core questions outlined in the Purpose section above and other pertinent questions should they arise during the discovery process. a. Review materials from and speak with entities engaged in similar capacity building initiatives including but not limited to the Lake Champlain Basin Program, the Green Infrastructure Collaborative, Vermont Natural Resources Conservation Council and Vermont Clean Water Network. Awardee will be expected to perform due diligence to discover other relevant initiatives to review. Use lessons learned and existing data from these sources to identify remaining knowledge gaps and refine a plan for recruiting additional feedback. b. Develop survey/focus group/interview tools and define specific audiences (Clean Water Workforce professionals, organizations, and non-traditional water quality partners) that will be targeted with these tools in order to collect the additional feedback needed to answer the core questions. Engaged audiences should cover the diverse sectors of clean water work (for example, those involved in agriculture, stormwater, or natural resource restoration, and those involved in different stages of a clean water project lifespan from identification through design, implementation, and maintenance) as well as diverse regions of the State. c. Deploy the developed tools with specified audiences in a series of data gathering efforts and document received feedback. 3. Provide CWIP staff with a Final Report1 which includes: a. A narrative summary of project purpose and data gathering efforts. b. An analysis of data gathering findings organized around responses to the core questions listed in the Purpose section above including discussion of capacity needs and interventions identified. c. An evaluation and prioritization of recommended interventions for Phase 2 with consideration given to: i. Which interventions will address the most pervasive capacity needs and/or bottlenecks or barriers across the network of partners; ii. Which interventions are most likely to accelerate voluntary clean water project adoption and implementation; iii. Which interventions support the sustainability of capacity improvements in the absence of future funding; iv. Which interventions best fit the scale of available funds for Phase 2; v. Which interventions address capacity gaps or needs not otherwise addressed by other funding initiatives.
