Cross-Center Evaluation fo Children's Burea Capacity Building Services for Public Child Welfare Agencies, Tribes, and Court Improvement Programs

This is a Small Business Sources Sought notice. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding: (1) the availability and capability of qualified small business sources; (2) whether they are small businesses; HUBZone small businesses; service disabled, veteran-owned small businesses; 8(a) small businesses; veteran owned small businesses; woman-owned small businesses; or small disadvantaged businesses; and (3) their size classification relative to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for the proposed acquisition. Your responses to the information requested will assist the government in determining the appropriate acquisition method, including whether a set aside is possible. An organization that is not considered a small business under the applicable NAICS code should not submit a response to this notice. This is a Small Business Sources Sought notice. Background: The Children's Bureau (CB) in the Administration for Children and Families is interested in procuring the services of a qualified Contractor to develop and implement a Cross-Center Evaluation of Children's Bureau Capacity Building Services for Public Child Welfare Agencies, Tribes, and Court Improvement Programs (Cross-Center Evaluation). CB intends to evaluate the services of three national centers: the National Capacity Building Center for Public Child Welfare Agencies, the National Child Welfare Capacity Building Center for Tribes, and the National Center for Legal and Judicial Excellence in Child Welfare (Centers). These Centers will provide nationally-informed, expert consultation; transfer knowledge about effective and promising practice; and promote positive changes in State, Territorial, and Tribal child welfare agencies and courts. The Cross-Center Evaluation will employ a utilization-focused approach to answer key evaluation questions about the activities, processes, collaboration, and effectiveness of the Centers. The three entities that will be the focus of this Cross-Center Evaluation contract will subscribe to a single, coherent model of service provision based on their knowledge of research-informed frameworks and models for capacity building as well as evidence-based approaches to training, consultation, adult education, and distance learning. They will be responsible for delivering a comprehensive array of "training and technical assistance" services designed to build the capacities of child welfare systems receiving federal title IV-E and IV-B funds to meet federal requirements, participate in federal monitoring and related program improvement planning activities, implement national child welfare policies and programs, improve practice and organizational performance, and achieve safety, permanency, and well-being outcomes for children, youth, and families. The Centers will strategically develop and disseminate products; design, create, and deliver innovative peer networking and state-of-the-art learning experiences for child welfare professionals; and provide assessment- and outcome-driven technical assistance (e.g., training, coaching, and consultation) to child welfare agencies and Court Improvement Programs. The Centers will also support dozens of concurrent, jurisdiction-specific, intensive capacity building projects to support States, Territories, Tribes, and title IV-E waiver demonstration sites with program improvement, change management, implementation, and continuous quality improvement. CB expects the Centers to provide tens of thousands of hours of training and consultation to hundreds of individuals, groups, child welfare agencies, and Court Improvement Programs across the country. In order to successfully design and implement the Cross-Center Evaluation, the Contractor must possess the requisite understanding of capacity building concepts and training and technical assistance strategies in human service systems, evaluation skills and expertise, substantive knowledge of child welfare practice and policy (including title IV-E waiver demonstration authority), experience working with complex service systems (e.g., state and tribal agencies and courts), and institutional capacity needed to manage a multi-method evaluation of considerable scope. The Cross-Center Evaluation will use a combination of sources and analytical methods to answer evaluation questions, employing rigorous approaches when appropriate to explore effectiveness. CB expects the Contractor to collect information through a variety of means that may include but are not limited to: interviews, focus groups, direct observation, surveys, pre- and post-tests, individual and organizational assessments, case studies, data entry into automated systems, fidelity instruments, and/or a variety of other creative means to capture data about the Centers' activities and the outcomes. Analyses of data from secondary sources like child welfare administrative data and Center reports are also anticipated. The Cross-Center Evaluation will necessitate collaboration among the Contractor, CB, the Centers, and other stakeholders. The Contractor will develop an evaluation plan; transfer, enhance, and manage a sophisticated and user-friendly data collection system; provide evaluation-related training and technical support; collect qualitative and quantitative data; assess and clean data; perform complex data analyses; report findings in accessible formats; and effectively communicate and disseminate information. The Cross-Center Evaluation will have formative and summative evaluation components, and the Contractor will prioritize the practical applicability of evaluation findings for program improvement. The Contractor must be flexible, adaptable, and creative to ensure meaningful participation of all evaluation participants while maintaining a high degree of rigor in design. Anticipated Period of Performance: The anticipated Period of Performance (PoP) will be from September (last day) 2014 through September 2019 with one base year and four (4) one year option periods. Capability statements: Interested, qualified small business organizations should submit a tailored capability statement for this requirement, not to exceed 50 pages (including all attachments, resumes, charts, etc.), presented in double-space format and using a 12 point font size minimum, that clearly details the ability to perform the aspects of the notice described above. Statements should include information regarding respondents': (a) Staff expertise, including their availability, experience, and formal and other training; (b) current in-house capability and capacity to perform the work; (c) prior completed projects of similar nature; (d) corporate experience and management capability; and (e) examples of prior completed Government contracts, references and other related information i.e., names, titles, telephone numbers and any other information which would serve to document the organizations capability, e.g., awards, commendations, etc. Statements should also include an indication of current certified small business status; this indication should be clearly marked on the first page of your capability statement, as well the eligible small business concern's name, point of contact, address and DUNs number. Information Submission Instructions: All capability statements sent in response to this SMALL BUSINESS SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE must be submitted electronically (via email) to Frederick.Thomas@psc.hhs.gov in Microsoft Word (MS) OR Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), by Friday, May 2, 2014 at 1:00PM EST. All responses must be received by the specified due date and time to be considered. ANY RESPONSES RECEIVED AFTER THAT DATE AND TIME WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED. Disclaimer and Important Notes: This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise or pay for the information provided in the response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that it's response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organizations qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a pre solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published in Federal Business Opportunities. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation. Confidentiality: No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s).