Sources Sought Description: Capacity Building Study The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), Office of Procurement Services (OPS) is issuing this sources sought notification as part of its market research analysis to obtain a better understanding of how many sources there are that can provide the service of conducting a Capacity Building Study as described below. The anticipated timeline of events including our Market Research is as follows: 1.Sources sought December 22, 2006;January 19, 2007; 2.Post DRAFT Statement of Work for Industry Review February 16th; 3.DRAFT Industry comments due March 8th; 4.Issue RFP April 18th; 5.Make an award by July 1st. Please respond to the individual identified in this announcement no later than January 19, 2007, with the following information:A.Company CCR Cage code and DUNS number;B.GSA Schedule information (if applicable);C.If you are currently working for the Government please send us a listing of current contract information that includes:Contract Number;Contracting Officer name, email and phone;Brief description of services being performed;D.If you have and would like to share sample Statements of Work/Services we will gladly review them while forming our DRAFT SOW/RFP. Who we are:AmeriCorps*VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) AmeriCorps VISTA was created in 1964 for the purpose of strengthening and supplementing efforts to eliminate poverty in the U.S. VISTA provides full-time volunteers (members), as a resource, to nonprofit community organizations and public agencies to create and expand programs that ultimately bring low-income individuals and communities out of poverty. The VISTA member is a resource whose role is to generate the commitment of private sector resources, encourage volunteer service at the local level and to build the capacity of local agencies and organizations to build sustainable anti-poverty programs. VISTA members spend one year in full-time service on a project that addresses the needs of low-income communities. VISTA is administered by The Corporation for National and Community Service (the Corporation), a Federal Government agency. Annually, approximately 6,000 individuals serve as VISTA members, and over 160,000 have served since 1964. The VISTA program, headquartered in Washington DC, is managed locally through Corporation State Offices. The State Offices accept applications from local organizations and agencies who are interested in using the VISTA resource to develop or expand their anti-poverty program. Corporation program staff members sign Memoranda of Agreement with organizations that demonstrate a solid plan for using the VISTA resource to build organizational capacity and develop a program that is sustainable. The typical length of a VISTA project is 3 to 5 years. Project Sponsoring Organizations (Sponsors) Sponsors are the community based organizations and public agencies that apply to the Corporation for VISTA members to serve at their project. Sponsors direct the project, supervise the VISTA member, and provide the necessary administrative support to complete the goals and objectives of the project. Potential Services Sought:The Domestic Volunteer Service Act (DVSA) outlines the objectives of VISTA as:1.to generate the commitment of private sector resources;2.to encourage volunteer service at the local level, and 3.to strengthen local agencies and organizations. All of the above objectives are in support of strengthening and supplementing efforts to eliminate and alleviate poverty and poverty-related problems in the US. Currently, VISTA is able to evaluate and measure the first two objectives. Our Sources sought notice relates to the third objective, and how we can envoke capacity building. We are looking for a company who can establish a method of measuring and evaluating this objective. VISTA is interested in exploring evaluating and measuring capacity building. VISTA is committed to initiating an external evaluation to assess the programs performance in building the capacity of local organizations to carry out sustainable anti-poverty programs. Furthermore, the 2006 Performance Rating Assessment Tool (PART) called for VISTA to look at how it currently measures and evaluates the programs objectives.Proposed Processes Needed for Capacity Building Study: 1.Coordinate with the Corporation and AmeriCorps*VISTA; 2.Develop Evaluation Plan; 3.Design and Pretest Data Collection Instruments for Study Participants; 4.Obtain OMB Clearances; 5.Locate and Track Study Participants; 6.Conduct data collection for Study Participants;7.Analyze Data and Report Results; 8.Create Data Files for Further research;9.Create An Evaluation and Measurement Tool for further usage. Study Goals:The primary goal of this project is to design a measurement tool to assess VISTAs performance in supporting and strengthening local organizations and agencies in their fight against poverty. We want this project to answer the question:Is VISTA supporting and strengthening local organizations and agencies in alleviating poverty? If yes, how?. We are also seeking to determine capacity indicators that we can link to overall performance as a continuous measurement. Send information in electronic format via email or on CD to:Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS)1201 new York Ave., NW, Suite 8400 Washington DC, 20525 Attn: Bret Zieman Phone: 202.606.6987 Email: bzieman@cns.gov Please respond to the sources sought announcement no later than January 19, 2007.
