Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) Training and Technical Assistance

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 response 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. Project background The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, signed into law in March of 2010, established the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) which funds programs designed to educate adolescents on both abstinence and contraception for the prevention of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS, and at least three adulthood preparation subjects. PREP provides funding to States (which is expected to most often be distributed to sub-awardees) for the replication of evidence-based effective programs or substantial incorporation of elements of effective programs that have been proven on the basis of rigorous scientific research to change behavior, which means delaying sexual activity, increasing condom or contraceptive use for sexually active youth, or reducing pregnancy among youth. PREP is one of multiple efforts at the Federal level to reduce teen pregnancy through the use of evidence-based practices. Project synopsis Under the Legislative Requirements for Program Support, the Administration for Children and Families/Family and Youth Services Bureau (ACF/FYSB) is to provide Training and Technical Assistance (T&TA), including dissemination of research and information regarding evidence-based models and promising practices, consultation and provision of resources on a broad array of teen pregnancy prevention strategies, including abstinence and contraception, and development of resources and materials to support the grant funded activities of State PREP, Tribal PREP, and community-based PREP projects working to reduce teen pregnancy. T&TA is to also focus on the topics of HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), healthy relationships, adolescent development, parent-child communication, educational and career success, financial literacy, and healthy life skills. The T&TA contract is to provide the State PREP, Tribal PREP and PREP Discretionary grantees and their subawardees with the following supportive services: 1) Training and resources intended to enhance the quality of services delivered to youth, to ensure that programs are implemented with fidelity and that adaptations to evidence-based models are appropriate, and to provide grantees with skill sets to effectively impact a reduction in teen pregnancy rates; 2) Knowledge dissemination and TA on the latest developments in teen pregnancy prevention and related fields to increase competency in providing programmatic oversight of the grants; 3) TA provided individually and in small groups to address areas of need and to ensure successful implementation of programs; 4) Monitoring of grantees' programmatic performance to ascertain the status of adherence to the funding opportunity announcement, approved application, and other requirements on an annual basis or as determined by FYSB staff ; 5) Annual meeting planning and consultation services to enhance teen pregnancy prevention (TPP) programs and related policies via topical discussions, skills-based learning experiences, and decision-making activities. The Logistical Support is intended to provide for professional, detailed planning and organization of events. FYSB anticipates that 46 to 52 State PREP grantees, 12 to 15 Tribal PREP grantees, and an undetermined number of PREP Discretionary grantees will utilize services related to annual meetings and T&TA. Additionally, there are 30 State Abstinence Program grantees that will be afforded opportunities to participate in relevant web-based and/or audio conference calls on topics related to abstinence education. Core tasks Training and Technical Assistance will involve significant planning and response-to-request training and other relevant subject matter expertise using a planning/implementation/evaluation framework; site visits and virtual meetings (e.g., phone or video-conference); efforts to reduce barriers to using evidence-based programs; the regular provision of technical or scientific information in user-friendly formats; and other proactive efforts to support State and community-based youth-serving organizations to use evidence-based approaches in their work. T&TA will be provided over time and should include proactive follow-up support. Training will primarily be provided through webinars, annual meetings, and regional training. The core tasks for which the contractor will be responsible include those listed above, as well as those associated with the minimum contractor requirements listed below. Capability statement/ information sought Respondents must provide as part of their response a capability statement demonstrating their ability to provide the services described above as well as addressing the following minimum capabilities: 1) Ability to provide TPP T&TA to grantees through several methods, to include phone, email, written materials, and face-to-face consultation. This can be demonstrated through: - Extensive experience and expertise in providing resources and training on teen pregnancy prevention topics such as goal setting/logic models; needs assessment; program management, organization and oversight; evidence-based model implementation strategies; supervision and coaching; fidelity monitoring and continuous quality improvement; sub-awardee involvement; collaboration and stakeholder participation; performance measurement; adulthood preparation subjects; cultural sensitivity and identification of models that work best in servicing special populations of youth who are American Indian, Alaska Native, African American, Hispanic, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender; provision of services to youth in special circumstances of pregnancy, parenting, aging out of foster and juvenile justice care settings, runaway, homeless, and living with HIV/AIDS; adolescent development; adolescent reproductive health; program evaluation, domestic violence, effective participant recruitment and retention efforts; pregnant and parenting youth programming; and the use of social and digital media. - Extensive experience and expertise in developing and being a direct provider of distance training in the form of tip sheets, resource guides and webinars on a variety of teen pregnancy prevention topics and the capability to manage the electronic dissemination of the training materials to grantees on a monthly basis, as necessary. - Extensive experience and expertise in developing e-learning modules on teen pregnancy prevention topics that will provide an opportunity for grantees to participate in self-paced web courses on a quarterly to semi-annual basis. Expertise is required to address topics such as: adolescent development; adolescent reproductive health; effective recruitment and engagement strategies for working with vulnerable populations to include pregnant and parenting youth; parent-child communication; and model adaptations and fidelity monitoring. - Experience in developing and presenting skills-based training to teen pregnancy prevention providers that focuses on skills content and are intended for front line staff delivering services to clients. - Experience in planning and conducting annual meetings or conferences that highlight evidence-based practices in the teen pregnancy prevention field that provide an opportunity for discussion of current issues and trends, recent scientific developments, and interactive skills-based training on abstinence, contraception, adulthood preparation subjects (healthy relationships, parent-child communication, adolescent development, healthy life skills, educational and career success, and financial literacy) and other topics related to implementation and evaluation activities. - Experience and expertise to provide phone/email and clustered technical assistance to State and local level teen pregnancy prevention programs. - Experience and expertise in providing on-site monitoring and technical assistance activities for teen pregnancy prevention programs with five or more geographically dispersed sites. - Extensive experience in drafting a written assessment of the program's strengths, needs, opportunities and threats to implement evidence based interventions. 2) Ability to manage communication on a large project with multiple stakeholders, including government project officers, program site staff, and state-level coordinators. This can be demonstrated through: - Experience in submitting materials for distribution that meet compliance standards to be accessible to all and made available on the FYSB website as appropriate. All materials must be compliant with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended. - Evidence of access to web-based technology to manage event registration, information management systems, clearinghouse information, and web-based meetings. - Experience in simultaneously managing large projects that require the utilization of a wide range of staff on multiple tasks. - Experience in working with Tribal populations in both rural and urban settings. Teaming Arrangements: Teaming arrangements are encouraged. Respondents' must include their DUNS number, organization name, address, point of contact, and size and type of business (e.g., 8(a), HUBZone, etc) pursuant to the applicable NAICS code. Include technical and administrative points of contact, including names, titles, addresses, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail addresses. Submissions should be sent electronically to Ms. Camille Timmerman, Contract Specialist, at camille.timmerman@psc.hhs.gov. Responses must be double-spaced and single-sided on 8.5" x 11" plain white paper, with 1" margins on all side, using a standard font no smaller than 12 point. The response cannot exceed 20 pages and must be sequentially numbered, beginning on the first page after the table of contents. Cover letters and tables of contents do not count against the page limit. Responses are due by 2:00 PM EST on June 8, 2011. Disclaimer and Important Notes:This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for information provided in 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 organization's 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.