Request for Information - Outreach and Education - WTC

Sources Sought This notice shall not be construed as an RFP or as any commitment or obligation on the part of the Government to issue a solicitation. The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this request, so proposals will not be considered. No reimbursement will be made for any costs associated with providing information in response to this synopsis or any follow-up information requests. As permitted by FAR Part 10, this is a market research tool being utilized for informational and planning purposes. Your responses will assist the Government in the development of its acquisition strategy for a possible Request for Proposal (RFP), to be issued at a later date, and in determining whether any type of small business set-aside is possible for this procurement or whether full and open competitive procedures should be utilized. This is strictly market research and the Government will not entertain any questions. 1.1. Background The September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC), on the Pentagon, and near Shanksville, Pennsylvania caused thousands of deaths and adversely affected the long-term physical and mental health of many thousands more. In New York City, the collapse of the WTC towers and burning of adjacent buildings produced a large, dense dust and smoke cloud that spread toxic compounds throughout the surrounding area. Rescue and cleanup activities at all sites exposed workers and volunteers to dangerous conditions and health hazards. The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010 established the WTC Health Program to provide monitoring and treatment benefits for emergency responders, recovery, and cleanup workers of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City, at the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania; and residents, building occupants, and area workers who were adversely affected by the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City. The WTC Health Program is administered by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Information on the program is available at http://www.cdc.gov/wtc To be eligible for the WTC Health Program, applicants must qualify as either Responders or Survivors. Responders include rescue, recovery, and clean-up workers and volunteers in lower Manhattan, the Pentagon, and the crash site near Shanksville, PA. Survivors include persons who worked, lived, or attended school, childcare, or adult daycare in the New York City Disaster Area. More details on eligibility criteria available at www.cdc.gov/wtc/eligiblegroups.html. Individuals must meet specific eligibility requirements for medical monitoring and/or treatment covered by the Program, including types of activities performed during specific time periods surrounding the disaster, locations in which these activities were performed, minimum lengths of time these activities were performed, and certification of health conditions resulting from their exposures or activities. Clinical Centers of Excellence (CCEs) and the Nationwide Provider Network (NPN) treat and medically monitor over 100,000 Program members across the country, while the WTC Health Program administers Program policy and covers the costs associated with treatment and monitoring. The Program is a limited-benefit healthcare program: treatment is covered for only a limited set of health conditions and only when a member's condition is substantially likely to have been aggravated by, contributed to, or caused by the member's exposures to the 9/11 attacks. Conditions must be diagnosed by a Program provider and certified by the Program for the Program to cover the cost of treatment. While experts estimate that around 400,000 people were impacted by the dust cloud, program enrollment is only around 25% of that total. Given the estimated number of people affected, certain populations are underrepresented in the Program and may be unaware of the benefits for which they are eligible. The offeror must propose an underrepresented population or populations to serve. Underserved Survivors: - Spanish-speaking survivors - Chinese-speaking survivors - Residents of Lower Manhattan - Young adult survivors (those who were <18 years old at the time of 9/11) Underserved Responders: - General Responders with a focus on union outreach - Non-traditional responders (examples include: construction workers, communication workers, volunteers, journalists, etc.) - Spanish-speaking responders - Pentagon/Shanksville responders 1.2 Objective and Scope 1.2.1 Objective The scope of this contract involves engaging services to develop and execute a strategic outreach and education initiative and to serve as community resource for enrollment assistance for the WTC Health Program. The following are the Statements of Objectives (SOOs) that shall be addressed by the Outreach and Education contractor. 1.2.2 Scope This technical approach involves three primary tasks, in which the contractor will provide outreach and education services on behalf of the WTC Health Program. In performing this contract, the contractor shall: Objective 1: Conduct outreach to the selected underserved population(s) on behalf of the WTC Health Program. a. Reach all subsets of the population(s), as applicable. b. Assist in establishing and/or increasing the population(s) trust in the program. c. Conduct all operations and interactions with respect and sensitivity to 9/11. Objective 2: Educate members of the selected underserved population(s) on the WTC Health Program and program eligibility. a. Educate the members of the population(s) on their eligibility. The purpose is to reduce the number of ineligible applications, that is, to mitigate the risk of people misunderstanding their eligibility. b. Educate the population(s) on program benefits. Objective 3: Assist individuals from the selected population with their Applications for Enrollment in the WTC Health Program. a. Offer assistance to the identified population(s) and provide it as requested from the identified population and other potential eligible WTC Health Program members. Submission Instructions: Responses via electronic mail (email) are due on or before July 26, 2021 at 2pm Eastern Time to Lauren Peel, email address: contact@example.gov and must include the information requested below. Only emailed responses will be accepted. Responses greater than 15 pages double-sided pages (including all attachments) will not be considered. Late responses will not be accepted. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code for this Sources Sought Notice is 611710 - Educational Support Services with a size standard of $16.5 Million. Qualified firms shall submit a statement of interest on company letterhead demonstrating the firm's qualifications to perform the defined work. Responses must be complete and sufficiently detailed to address the specific information. The documentation shall address, at a minimum, the following: A. Company Profile to include: Company name and address; Two points of contact (names, titles, phone numbers and email addresses); DUNS number and CAGE Code, as registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) at http://www.betaSam.gov/: Business designation/status (must correlate with SAM registration): _____ Small business _____ HUBZone _____ WOSB _____ 8(a) _____ VOSB _____ SDVOSB _____ Small Disadvantaged Business ______Large business B. Documentation, in detail, of the company's capability: Staff expertise, including availability, experience, and formal and other training; Completed projects in the last 5 years of similar size and scope; Corporate experience and management capability; Examples of prior completed Government contracts, reference, and other related information; C. Staff expertise, including availability, experience, and training; D. Comments or opinions pertaining to the difficulty and/or feasibility of the potential requirement or proposed acquisition, possible solutions and/or approaches that may currently exist in the marketplace, and information regarding innovative ideas or concepts; E. Proposed NAICS code: a. Recommendations for a different NAICS code. If so, please explain? This notice shall not be construed as an RFP or as any commitment or obligation on the part of the Government to issue a solicitation. The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this request, so proposals will not be considered. No reimbursement will be made for any costs associated with providing information in response to this synopsis or any follow-up information requests. 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 and capabilities 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 the response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s). Response is strictly voluntary - it is not mandatory to submit a response to this notice to participate in any formal RFP process that may take place in the future. However, it should be noted that information gathered through this notice may significantly influence our acquisition strategy. All interested parties will be required to respond separately to any solicitations posted as a result of this sources sought notice. Questions Due: Friday, July 16, 2021, at 4PM EST. We appreciate your interest and thank you in advance for responding to the Sources Sought. Amendment: Monday July 19, 2021 - posting responses to questions Amendment: Tuesday July 20, 2021 - posting additional responses to questions and updating RFI to correct typographical errors in 1.2.2