R -- Sources Sought - Head Start National Resource Center

THIS SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE IS HEREBY MODIFIED TO CHANGE THE NAICS CODE FROM 923110 TO 541611. THE NAICS CODE IS 541611 - ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGEMENT AND GENERAL MANAGEMENT CONSULTING SERVICES. THIS MODIFICATION ALSO EXTENDS THE DUE DATE FOR RECEIPT OF CAPABLITY STATEMENTS TO 5:00PM, NOVEMBER 20, 2006. This is a SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE to determine the availability of potential small businesses (e.g., 8(a), veteran-owned small businesses, service-disabled veteran owned small businesses, HUB Zone small businesses, small disadvantaged businesses, and women-owned small businesses) with the capability to operate the Head Start National Resource Center (NRC) for the Office of Head Start (OHS). Head Start is a National program that provides comprehensive child development services, primarily to low-income children (ages 3 to 5) and their families. The overall goal of Head Start is to ensure that the children of low-income families acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to allow them to enter school ready for success. In order to accomplish this goal, Head Start provides comprehensive services to these children and their families. Head Start programs enhance children?s cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development. It supports parents in their efforts to fulfill their parental roles as their child?s primary educator by helping to support them while they work towards employment and self-sufficiency and by providing for their involvement in administering local Head Start programs. Early Head Start, authorized in 1994, provides services to infants and children from birth to age 3, as well as to pregnant women. Program regulations require that at least 10 percent of program enrollment opportunities be made available to children with disabilities. The program is administered by the Office of Head Start (OHS), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The OHS is seeking a firm that can perform the following requirements. Capability statements must address and demonstrate the following requirements and shall not exceed 20 pages. In addition, the capability statements must provide recent demonstrated ability and national experience, at the federal and state level within the early childhood development to: 1. Accomplish multiple, complex, labor-intensive tasks in a dynamic environment. Specifically, the ability to provide to a federal program office sustained expertise, effective operating structures, proven program development methods, efficient processes and management capacity to advance service improvement projects and program initiatives working independently or working effectively while working among designated others including agencies, businesses, organizations and individuals. The ability to simultaneously pursue numerous complex high priority undertakings across a wide range of program activity within a variety of widely diverse working relationships and under a spectrum of differing operating conditions. 2. Rapidly form and deliver needed responses to unforeseen program requirements through targeted resource and materials development, local, regional or national meetings or conferences, subcontracted work efforts or unique one time custom solutions based on deep contextual understanding of the operating environment, programmatic expertise and established high level working relationships throughout the early childhood development community. 3. Carry out a wide range of projects related to development of new federal program efforts and initiatives within the early childhood education arena. 4. Demonstrated ability to organize and conduct large scale conferences comprised of many workshops or seminars and attended by several thousand participants. 5. Define, launch and sustain studies to establish accountability and to determine program effectiveness related to major national innovation and improvement projects within the ECD field. Demonstrated ability to inform and advance program implementation efforts and help establish new program direction by defining and installing nationally accepted logic models and project tracking and assessment efforts. 6. Ensure corporate capacity, project leadership and depth of staff talent to quickly and correctly shift project structure, resources and/or work efforts to respond effectively to meet requirements. Demonstrated ability to provide without gap or interruption all personnel, facilities, equipment and materials necessary to sustain high quality services. Demonstrated experience managing on site staff including demonstrated ability to define effective oversight and processes to ensure accountability and demonstrated ability to sustain high performing teams. 7. Organize and carry out all phases of activity needed to develop information and material and manage communication and events needed to support Presidential initiatives and priorities of the administration across a wide range of areas as well as ongoing complex requirements of the program office including speeches and talking points for high level officials, visual aids, questions and answers, briefing books, synopsis reports, products related to major national conferences, overviews of national grantee networks and programs, in-depth analysis and synthesis reports related to Head Start. 8. Provide writing services including high priority quick turnaround targeted materials and presentations that are programmatically accurate and contextually sensitive and other resources for use by senior officials of the program office and administration. Demonstrated ability to produce original articles, where necessary, when current and appropriate material is unavailable. 9. Proactively communicate with diverse experts and key professionals in the ECD field, government officials and professionals in academia and the private sector and members of the Head Start community to acquire recent resources and information for development or dissemination, to independently research relevant subject matter, attend conferences and other meetings as helpful and productive to provide meaningful recommendations to the federal program office to effectively advance program goals. 10. Operate an ECD national fellowship program. 11. Operate a national topical resource center. 12. Independently secure available expert staff to maintain a continually productive and responsive operation in the midst of rapid change and accelerated demand and ensure high levels of functioning across all major ECD content areas as well as in needed functional/operational areas. 13. Document longstanding successful project leadership experience in managing ECD related contracts or programs of the scope and magnitude required of this project. 14. Correctly assess issues facing the Head Start program and the implications of those issues relative to the needs of the Office of Head Start. 15. Serve as a service hub to promote the exchange and utilization of information within and across the Head Start Community leading to appropriate application of the information provided. The North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code is 541611. This is not an invitation for bid, request for proposal or other solicitation and in no way obligates the Government to award a contract. Interested parties having the capabilities necessary to perform the stated requirements may submit capability statements via e-mail to mforeman@psc.gov. All capability statements must provide supporting documentation along with the following: 1) company name; 2) address; 3) point of contact; 4) phone/fax/e-mail; 5) NAICS Codes; 6) business size and status; (e.g., small business, 8(a), veteran-owned small business, service-disabled veteran owned small business, HUB Zone small business, small disadvantaged business, and women owned small business) and 7) provide a listing of services your company provides related to training and technical assistance that is similar to the requirements above. Responses are requested not later than 5:00p.m., November 20, 2006. Capability statements will not be accepted after the due date.