National Child Welfare Capacity Building Center for Courts (Center for Courts) for ACF-ACYF-CB

This is strictly a Pre-Solicitation Notice. This is not a request for proposals. The purpose of the contract will be to provide three separate, but related sets of services: (1)technical assistance and support to State Court Improvement Programs, (2) technical assistance and support to Tribal Court Improvement Programs, and (3) workforce development support for judges, and attorneys that represent parents, children, and the child welfare agency, nationally through the development or identification of a training curriculum designed to build knowledge and develop child welfare law and practice skills for judges and attorneys. The contract will assist courts and attorneys in efforts towards improved outcomes relating to safety, permanency and well-being of children and families, for ACF/ACYF/Children's Bureau. Description of Services The Children's Bureau (CB) in the Administration for Children and Families is procuring the services of a National Child Welfare Capacity Building Center for Courts (Center for Courts). The Center for Courts is a focal point for national child welfare expertise and provides evidence-informed training and technical assistance services for Court Improvement Programs (CIP), Tribal Court Improvement Programs (TCIP), courts and child welfare attorneys, and the CB's State and Tribal Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) Implementation Partnership Grantees. The Center for Courts provides nationally-informed, expert consultation to the federal government and delivers a comprehensive array of training and technical assistance services and workforce development support. These services and support are designed to build the capacities of state and tribal courts, CIPs, TCIPs and child welfare attorneys to meet federal requirements, to participate in federal monitoring and related state and tribal child welfare program improvement planning activities, to implement national child welfare policies and programs, to improve practice and service delivery, and to achieve prevention, safety, permanency, and well-being outcomes for children, youth, and families. The legal and judicial community relies on the Center for Courts for expert-level subject matter expertise in child welfare law, the role of courts and attorneys across the prevention continuum, child maltreatment, the full continuum of child welfare practices, and a range of topics related to safety, permanency, and child and family well-being. The Center for Courts have extensive knowledge of practice and administration in state public child welfare agencies across the country and an in-depth understanding of federal laws, funding, monitoring and requirements related to child welfare, including the Child and Family Services Plan (CFSP) and Child and Family Services Review (CFSR) processes. CB has funded a technical assistance center for the legal and judicial community for approximately twenty years through grants/cooperative agreements (formerly the National Resource Center for Legal and Judicial Issues, and most recently, the Child Welfare Capacity Building Center for Courts). The Children's Bureau has identified the need to provide enhanced levels of support to CIPs and TCIPs and promote strategic legal and judicial workforce development. Both efforts are critical to realizing CB's goals of strengthening families through prevention and improving safety, permanency and well-being outcomes for children. This contract will be designed to serve three distinct programs and include additional responsibilities for completing legal and judicial workforce development tasks. General Requirements The Child Welfare Capacity Building Center for Courts will serve as a focal point for national child welfare expertise and easily accessible training and technical assistance services for courts, CIPs, and child welfare attorneys. The Center for Courts will deliver an array of services designed to build the capacities of CIPs to integrate service planning and delivery, and achieve measurable, sustainable systemic change that will improve practice and service delivery, and achieve safety, permanency, and well-being outcomes for children, youth, and families. The Contractor must be prepared to immediately and fully assume all of the responsibilities of the existing Center for Courts (providing the full array of services at its current volume of delivery within six months of contract award) so that there will be no gap in the provision of individualized services to state and tribal courts, CIPs, and TCIPs, and ICWA Partnership. To successfully execute this contract, the Contractor will: 1. Support full and meaningful CIP participation in ongoing federal monitoring, title IV-E agency CQI efforts, joint case review processes between agencies and courts, and integrated service and service improvement plans 2. Promote and enhance data collection, analysis, exchange, and interoperability between courts, title IV-E agencies, departments of education, and other key state and tribal government stakeholders 3. Build and enhance court capacity to conduct ongoing assessments of legal and judicial functioning, and implement changes as a result of those assessments 4. Build and enhance CIP capacity to design, implement, and evaluate the impact of activities and interventions while promoting the creation and use of evidence-informed and evidence-based legal and court practices 5. Provide ongoing coaching to CIPs on CQI 6. Develop and disseminate universal capacity building opportunities, materials and resources (including but not limited to toolkits, webinars, virtual training, and other capacity building opportunities and resources) 7. Design and deliver intensive workshops and curricula for judges and attorneys; 8. Facilitate constituency groups - including, but not limited to all judges, attorneys, and court improvement program personnel 9. Assess the needs of courts and their partners 10. Perform strategic planning and develop strong, evidence-informed rationales for service approaches 11. Set meaningful goals and measurable objectives and outcomes for CIPs and individual jurisdictions targeted by the Center for Courts for increased capacity 12. Stay informed of innovative, promising, and effective child welfare practices and current issues in the field 13. Integrate the Center for Court's capacity building efforts with those of other CB-supported centers, including but not limited to those focused on states, tribal child welfare, community-based prevention, workforce development, substance abuse, and mental health 14. Develop Section 508 compliant content and products for CB approval and national dissemination 15. Design and produce Section 508 compliant, state-of-the-art learning experiences and events 16. Provide effective peer networking activities 17. Create a single, tailored, assessment-based, and data-driven capacity building plan for any CIP requesting tailored training and technical assistance 18. Deliver brief and focused training, coaching, and expert consultation based on short-term capacity building needs of CIPs 19. Deliver short- and long-term, training, coaching, and expert consultation to help courts, CIPS and child welfare attorneys build necessary capacity and achieve program improvement initiatives 20. Support quality assurance and continuous quality improvement processes within the Center for Courts to improve services 21. Evaluate Center for Courts services and activities 22. Pilot innovative capacity building strategies Period of Performance The Anticipated period of performance is a 12-month base period with four 12-month option periods from the date of award, which is anticipated to be 09/30/2019.The contract will have several non-severable service components throughout the duration of the contract.