National Child Welfare Capacity Building Center for Courts (Center for Courts) Support

This is a 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 business sources; (2) Whether they are large businesses, small businesses; HUB Zone 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. (4) Socioeconomic status, Strategic sourcing vehicles/acquisition programs Title: National Child Welfare Capacity Building Center for Courts (Center for Courts) Support for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)/Administration for Children and Families (ACF)/Children's Bureau (CB) Description: The Children's Bureau (CB) in the Administration for Children and Families seeking interested capable sources to perform the services of the National Child Welfare Capacity Building Center for Courts (Center for Courts). The Center for Courts serves as a focal point for national child welfare expertise and 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 will rely 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 will also 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. Background CB has funded a technical assistance center for the legal and judicial community for approximately twenty years through 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; therefore, the present cooperative agreement that ends this fiscal year will be provided as a contract moving forward, in order to , 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. Scope of Work 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 individualized services to state and tribal courts, CIPs, and TCIPs, in particular, can continue without delay. The Center for Courts employs innovative and proven strategies to: 1. Provide universal, targeted, and intensive capacity building training and technical assistance (T/TA) to State Court Improvement Programs and Tribal Court Improvement Programs (jointly hereafter CIPs) to build and enhance CIP capacity in continuous quality improvement (CQI) work 2. Engage and support CIPs in CQI efforts to improve court efficacy in child welfare proceedings and enhance collaboration between courts and child welfare agencies 3. Integrate service planning and delivery and achievable measurable, sustainable systemic change that results in greater safety, permanency, and well-being for children, youth and families 4. Promote and facilitate collaboration between CIPs and title-IV E and tribal social service agencies in work toward shared outcomes and in addressing federal requirements and other CB identified goals and priorities 5. Create focused, individual capacity building plans for each CIP and provide T/TA to support each CIP capacity building plan which may include credible, expert-level training and coaching on child welfare topics and practice issues to groups of child welfare legal professionals to build their knowledge, skills, and peer networking 6. Develop and propose annual work plans for information gathering and synthesis, product development, dissemination, national training and coaching, and peer networking activities that are driven by CIP needs and CB priorities 7. Design, produce and disseminate high quality, Section 508 compliant state-of-the-art, universal capacity building resources and opportunities for CIPs. In consultation with CB, the Center for Courts will draw from its work with CIPs to identify a discrete number of topics on which the Center will develop universal products to build and enhance CIP capacity. These products may include tools and toolkits, online training curricula, practice aides, project design and implementation guides, and virtual learning opportunities for practitioners. 8. The Center for Courts will create a timeline for the creation and dissemination of such products and use the latest technologies to maximize access, engagement, and effectiveness. 9. Develop publications, curricula, tools, and innovative resources based on strategic goals and plans for national dissemination 10. Engage CIP and TCIP creating focused, individual capacity building plans for each CIP and providing T/TA to support each CIP capacity building 11. Closely and effectively partner with federal staff in CB's Central and Regional Offices as well as other federally-funded technical assistance entities 12. Maintain competent and highly skilled staff to perform Center for Courts activities, including but not limited to national "expert level" subject matter expertise in the areas of: child welfare law, child protection, foster care and permanency, adoption and guardianship, implementation, and continuous quality improvement 13. Respond promptly to inquiries from the Government with accurate, well-organized, and detailed information about program activities and Center for Courts services 14. Deliver credible, expert-level training and coaching and host in person and virtual events on child welfare topics and practice issues to groups of child welfare legal professionals to build their knowledge, skills, and peer networking 15. Perform ongoing quality assurance and continuous quality improvement activities within the Center for Courts 16. Demonstrate accountability through accurate invoicing, routine program and fiscal reporting, including detailed analysis of cost by activity and topic Additional Information No more than 12 FTEs are anticipated to be necessary to assume the current level of services delivered by the Center for Courts and to achieve program objectives in the first year of the contract. The Center for Courts must be capable of serving as a focal point for national child welfare expertise and easily accessible training and technical assistance services for courts, CIPs and child welfare attorneys; responding to federal requests for information within tight timeframes; designing and delivering e-learning experiences, as well as virtual and/or in person training; providing individualized consultation to CIPs and TCIPs, conducting intensive capacity building projects to support program improvement, and delivering an array of services designed to build the capacities of CIPs and TCIPs 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. A prospective source must possess, or be able to obtain (in-house or through subcontracting/ consulting arrangements), the staff and other resources needed to expeditiously carry out the different types of activities listed in the scope of the work, above. We are requesting any other specific and pertinent information related to this particular area of procurement that would enhance our consideration and evaluation of the information submitted. Interested organizations must demonstrate and document, in any capability statements submitted, extensive experience with and the ability to perform the above tasks. Anticipated Period of Performance: The anticipated period of performance (POP) will be a 12-month base period with four (4) 12-month option periods, from September 2019 through September 2024 . Capability Statement Requirements: Interested, qualified organizations should submit a tailored capability statement for this requirement, not to exceed 15 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 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, grants, cooperative agreements, 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 business status; this indication should be clearly marked on the first page of your capability statement, as well the eligible business concern's name, point of contact, address, phone number, email address, and DUNs number. Respondents should include the following Business Information: 1. Cover Letter: Vendor Information (does not count against page limit) a. Company Name b. Company Address c. Company Point of Contact, Phone, and Email address d. Current Strategic Sourcing Contract Number appropriate to the work described in this Notice e. Business Type (i.e., large business, small business, 8(a), woman owned, veteran owned, etc.) 2. Capability Statement shall demonstrate the vendor's ability to perform all of the requirements listed in this Sources Sought Notice. a. Demonstrate the source has a strong understanding of the array of personnel and their qualifications necessary to perform the requirements described in this notice and that the source possesses or has the ability to immediately obtain (in-house or through subcontracting/ consulting arrangements) the necessary quantity (14 FTEs) and mix of staff skills, expertise, and experience to perform all of the bulleted activities listed above. b. Demonstrate the source has past experience serving as the principal contractor on at least two (2) successful Government projects of similar scope, size, and complexity to the requirements described above, that were performed within the last ten years. c. Demonstrate the source currently possesses the requisite technical expertise to serve as the principal contractor for this project, including extensive expertise in the areas of federal child welfare laws and policy, state and tribal family or juvenile court practices,, federal requirements and monitoring processes, state and territorial child systems and public child welfare agencies, child welfare outcome data and measures, and the full continuum of child welfare legal and judicial practice. d. Demonstrate the source possesses the in-house, corporate capability to effectively and efficiently manage a project of this size, scope, and complexity, including but not limited to providing the infrastructure, organization, management, oversight, and accountability (both program and fiscal) necessary to ensure that high quality services are delivered, work and deliverables are completed on time, and activities are completed within budget. 3. Furnish supporting documentation (resumes and/or curricula vitae) that demonstrates the expertise and experience of current in-house staff to understand the requirements listed above and to lead this project and ensure that it can successfully perform the requirements. 4. Furnish supporting documentation that demonstrates corporate experience, including the specific contract information below for at least two (2) Government projects of similar scope, size, and complexity that were successfully performed and completed by the source as the principal contractor within the last 10 years. i. Contract number ii. Contract title iii. Client/customer iv. Period of performance v. Point of Contact (name, phone number and email address) vi. Brief Description of work performed vii. Overall Value of contract 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 its 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). Submission: All responses must be submitted electronically (via email) to ginger.lease@psc.hhs.gov in Microsoft Word (MS) OR Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), by 10:00am EDT 05/17/2019. 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. Primary Point of Contact.: Ginger R. Lease Contract Specialist Email: Ginger.lease@psc.hhs.gov Phone: (301) 492-4645 Contracting Office Address: 7700 Wisconsin Ave., Mail Stop 10230B Bethesda, Maryland 20857 United States Place of Contract Performance: Contractor Site