PITTSBURGH, PA (July 9, 2020) The City of Pittsburgh is seeking proposals for a vendor to create a cultural competency training curriculum for the Department of Public Safety bureaus under the management of the Multicultural Liaison Unit (MLU) and Mayor William Peduto’s Welcoming Pittsburgh initiative.
The curriculum will be taught by public safety personnel and incorporated into regular and new recruit trainings for each of the bureaus so that first responders are appropriately equipped to address and support the public safety needs of Pittsburgh residents with various cultural backgrounds and English language proficiency. The goal is for all officials in Police, Fire and EMS to have the skillset and resources required to appropriately understand, respect, interact, protect and respond to our immigrant and refugee communities.
The full scope of work is outlined in the request for proposal and includes:
- Produce a curriculum specific to the Greater Pittsburgh region to be utilized to train Public Safety Instructors that reflects a "Train the Trainer" model designed in collaboration with Public Safety personnel and local immigrant and refugee community stakeholders.
- Design adequate methods of capturing and reporting community input to inform processes for accountability and updating so that trainings remain relevant over time.
- Develop Multicultural Overviews of information on the immigrant and refugee populations in each of the six police zones to increase officers’ understanding and appropriate cultural response when responding in these communities.
The initiative will be managed by the MLU, which was created in 2017 as a result of the 2014 Welcoming Pittsburgh Plan: A Roadmap to Change Recommendation #27 to “Commit to a community policing approach” to oversee immigrant community relations in all public safety bureaus. The work of the MLU affirms Mayor Peduto’s commitment to build trust between newcomer communities and public safety to create a safer and more welcoming city for all.
Proposals must be submitted via the City of Pittsburgh’s Beacon procurement platform by July 28, 2020 at 3 PM.
