The Alaska Black Caucus is a non-partisan, 501c3 nonprofit organization that works to assert the constitutional rights of African Americans in the areas of health, economics, justice, and education.

The following is a Request for Proposal (RFP) for those parties interested in engaging in a contractual agreement with the Alaska Black Caucus to provide snow removal services in the event of snow falls measuring two (2) inches or more, in Anchorage, as determined by the official report of the National Weather Service, that between the hours of 12AM and 5AM, seven (7) days per week, all snow shall be plowed away from the facility and pushed to the designated snow storage areas. 

Please review the full Request for Proposals for more information and proposal submission process. 

The Alaska Black Caucus is a non-partisan, 501c3 nonprofit organization that works to assert the constitutional rights of African Americans in the areas of health, economics, justice, and education.

COVID-19 has disproportionately affected BIPOC communities across the country and in Alaska, highlighting and exacerbating long-standing inequities and systemic racism in medicine and public health, as well as economic inequities. The ABC directly addresses these issues and the ABC has been a trusted leader in working towards health equity during the ongoing pandemic. In the United States, Black, Alaska Native, American Indian, Latinx, Hispanic, Pacific Islander, and Native Hawaiian people experience higher death rates from COVID-19 compared to white people. In Alaska, Pacific Islander and Native Hawaiian as well as Alaska Native communities have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19. We know that these disparities are not due to race, but systemic racism. Racism is a social determinant of health, meaning that the experience of interpersonal and structural race-based discrimination is consistently associated with poorer health through several causative pathways.

Project Objective: The overall goal of this advanced messaging campaign is to increase awareness and education of the COVID-19 vaccine; thereby increasing vaccinations and testing within the Black and BIPOC communities. Deliverables include, but not limited to: Website rebuilds; advertising campaigns; broadcast television and radio commercial production; market research; podcast development; and more.

Scope of work: This is an inclusive message campaign project. The messaging will address vaccine hesitancy and concerns to help the target audience make informed decisions about their health and the community’s health.

Deliverables:

1. Campaign via Television / Radio • Deliver compelling television/radio advertisements that attracts the attention of the targeted audience to help convince them on the importance of vaccine.
2. Online campaign • Revamp existing web pages to be more effective. • Communicate information
   effectively and reach out more people • Increase the viewers and target the authentic audience. • Use online ads (Google Ads, YouTube) • Promote causes and messaging.
3. Email campaign • Promote causes and messaging via ABC and affiliated subscription lists • Promote messaging and causes via mass • Email campaign with professional style.
4. Social Media campaign • Update ABC’s Facebook and LinkedIn pages to promote messaging and causes • Start running pages on Instagram and twitter because these are also very popular platforms • Reach out to partner pages for collaboration • Actively manage accounts • Initiate targeted advertising.
5. Spread information campaign • Print posters, banners, and/or other promotional materials to promote messaging and cause • Reach the student community and get them involved in this mission to spread awareness.
6. Testing methods • Conduct message testing, recruit participants through form input via ad interactions. • Recruits to be incorporated into the podcasts, if possible.
7. Influencer • Identify community influencers through form input via ad interactions. • Coordinate with community influencers to attend events, promote causes, and communicate the experience.

Submitting the proposal:

The ABC does not discriminate against any applicant because of race, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, or who is a “qualified individual with a disability” (as that phrase is defined in the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990). The ABC takes affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed and that employees are treated fairly during employment without regard to their race, religion, or mental or physical impairment or disability. All qualified applicants will receive consideration.

The due date for application submission is November 19, 2021, 5 PM close of business. Applicants must send responses via email: thealaskablackcaucus@gmail.com. All documents should be in PDF format only.

THE ALASKA BLACK CAUCUS

BLACK ALASKANS HEALTH STATUS REPORT AND HEALTH NEEDS ASSESSMENT

SCOPE OF WORK

(Position Open till Filled)

INTRODUCTION

The Alaska Black Caucus (ABC) was founded in 1975 to serve the Anchorage community as a non-profit, bipartisan organization “genuinely concerned with the quality of education for our children and with enhancing the economy and political status of all Black people.” In its first decades, the ABC advocated for constitutional rights for all through publications, community outreach and events. In the 1990s, some original members retired or moved out of state. The ABC was revitalized in 2019 due to the need to re-energize our work focused on racial equity with focus in the four core areas of education, economics, justice, and health.

The ABC recognizes that racism is a public health crisis in Alaska. However, gaps in public health data reporting by race make it difficult to accurately report and address racism-based disparities in the Black community in Alaska.

When looking at health data for the state of Alaska and Municipality of Anchorage, it became clear that there are large gaps in how health-related data is reported by race. For example, as of July 18, 2021, approximately 34% of all Alaska state COVID-19 cases were labeled as “unknown race” “under investigation” “multiple races” or “other race.” The available reporting makes it difficult to accurately identify and successfully address racism-based health disparities. Gaps in data are apparent not only in COVID-19 related data, but also in other common measures of community health for the Black community in Alaska including cancer incidence rates, maternal and infant mortality, and others as listed below.

Acronyms:

ABC: The Alaska Black Caucus

MOA: Municipality of Anchorage

ANTHC: Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium

CDC: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

CMS: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

ANAI: Alaska Native & American Indian

GOAL

The goal of this project is to evaluate current and historical data related to common indicators of public health among the Black population in Alaska, publish these findings in a first ever “Black Alaskans Health Status Report”, conduct and publish a formal “Black Alaskans Health Needs Assessment” utilizing interviews, surveys, community conversations, and available quantitative data, and finally make recommendations on evidence-based best practices for the reporting of public health data by race to be presented to the MOA and State of Alaska.

TASKS & DELIVERABLES

Task 1: Utilize CDC, CMS, State of Alaska, MOA databases and data from Anchorage healthcare organizations (Alaska Regional Hospital, Providence Alaska Medical Center, ANTHC), and others as needed to compile data on common measures of community health for Black people from 1995 to 2020 (25 years) with comparisons made to the general population, ANAI population, and white population in Alaska.

Indicators of community health to include:

• Life expectancy
• Leading causes of death for adults and children (top 5)
• All-cause mortality
• Cancer incidence rates and mortality (for breast, prostate, colorectal, lung, cervical, uterine, and ovarian cancers)
• Maternal mortality
• Infant mortality
• Preterm birth
• Low birth weight
• Prevalence of chronic diseases (including heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, chronic kidney disease)
• Prevalence of dialysis and amputation from diabetes
• Incidence and mortality from stroke
• Incidence of childhood asthma
• COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, mortality, vaccination
• Prevalence of and mortality from substance use disorders (alcohol, opioid)
• Tobacco use
• Suicide mortality
• Incidence of exposure to police violence and death from police violence
• Mortality while incarcerated 
• Intimate partner violence
• Breastfeeding
• STI incidence
• Other important indicators identified by the Black community

Deliverable 1: Black Alaskans Health Status Report – modeled after excellent examples published by Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium Epidemiology Center http://anthctoday.org/epicenter/publications.html

Task 2: Using standard public health research methods, organize and facilitate community conversations and individual interviews and develop and deliver survey to collect qualitative data for Black Alaskans Health Needs Assessment.

Deliverable 2: Publish Black Alaskans Health Needs Assessment.

Task 3: Organize and facilitate at least three community listening sessions to identify community health indicators of importance.

Deliverable 3: Finalized list of Black Alaskans Community Health Indicators

Task 4: From #1 and #2 and through literature review and expert knowledge, make evidence-based recommendations for collection of public health data by race.

Deliverable 4: Recommendations to be published and delivered to MOA and State of Alaska.

ADMINISTRATION

• Attend monthly ABC General Membership Meeting to present brief update and progress report to ABC
• Attend all health-related community conversations hosted by ABC
• Provide formal quarterly reports to ABC President/CEO
• Respond to emails from ABC in a timely fashion
• Work with UAA graduate students as assigned who will be available to assist in data collection and analysis for deliverables above

TIMELINE

Complete all deliverables by end May 2022.  An Implementation Workplan will be developed with quarterly deliverables and milestones. 

PAYMENT

$130,000 contract to be paid in quarterly installments. Payment will align with the Implementation Workplan deliverables having been achieved.

TO SUBMIT A PROPOSAL

Submit to: thealaskablackcaucus@gmail.com

By: Sept 30, 2021

Include: Letter of Interest, CV, Professional References, Implementation Plan

The ABC does not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, or who is a “qualified individual with a disability” (as that phrase is defined in the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990). The ABC takes affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed and that employees are treated fairly during employment without regard to their race, religion, or mental or physical impairment or disability. All qualified applicants will receive consideration.