To Develop a Community Action Guide to Support the Wellness of Young Children and to Address Family and Community Mental Health, Substance Abuse, and Trauma, Issues

09SAM10257 Intent to Award on a Sole Source Basis. All Interested, Qualified, Capable Firms May Respond. The Department of Health and Human Services, Substances and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), requires the professional services to develop a Community Action Guide to Support the Wellness of Young Children and to address Family and Community Mental Health, Substance Abuse, and Trauma, issues. The objective of this contract is the creation of a guide for communities which will (1) raise awareness and increase understanding among community advocates, policymakers, funders and stakeholders about the ways that family and community mental health, substance abuse, and trauma affect the development of young children; and (2) generate community action strategies to promote healthy development in young children including, but not limited to their social and emotional development, by addressing issues surrounding mental health, substance abuse and trauma in families and communities. SAMHSA plans to negotiate on a Sole Source, Small Purchase, basis for these services with Zero to Three, 2000 M Street, NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC., 20036 for Fiscal Year 2009. The period of performance is one year from date of award. Specifically, the contractor shall (1) Work with Contracting Officer's technical representative (COTR) to establish an acceptable workplan for completion of the project; (2) Develop an outline for the Guide which, when completed, should be approximately 50 Pages in length, have a 2 to 3 page executive summary, a section providing basic background information about the impact of mental health, substance abuse and trauma in the family and community on early childhood development, a section laying out a community framework for action to support healthy early childhood by addressing issues of mental health, substance abuse and trauma, and any necessary appendices including supporting materials for implementation of the framework and any other necessary material. The community guide should provide enough detail to support a broad understanding of impact of mental health, substance abuse and trauma in the family and community on early childhood development, and enough detail to provide clear direction to community leaders to address these issues. Care should be taken that this material is accessible to a wide range of audiences who may not have expertise related to early childhood development. (3) The contractor shall convene a group of 6-8 experts (including federal staff) to provide comments on the initial outline. The contractor should convene these experts in-person in the Washington, DC area and plan on traveling 2 of the experts for a one day meeting to be held at SAMHSA or other facilities in the DC area provided by the contractor (the other experts will be local to the DC area and not require support for travel). Combined, this group of experts will have demonstrated expertise (through publication and/or professional experience) related to early childhood development (including, but not limited to social and emotional development), substance abuse and mental illness prevention and health promotion, substance abuse in community and family settings, mental health in community and family settings, trauma, and the processes by which mental health and substance abuse issues at the community and family level and trauma impact early childhood development. (4) This guide shall take a similar approach to the publication jointly sponsored by SAMHSA and Mental Health America entitled - Maternal Depression, Making a Difference Through Community Action: A Planning Guide which is available on-line at http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/go/maternal-depression. The guide will be accessible to people of varied backgrounds and acceptable to diverse populations. Because of the complex nature of the subject matter covered in this publication, the contractor should ensure that the staff performing the work on this publication have the training and experience necessary to address this issue. The Contractors author's of this Guide are to be trained at the doctoral level, or have specialized experience equivalent to the doctoral level and have prior experience creating publications with similar content (addressing child development from a multidisciplinary perspective). Writers on the guide should also have sufficient stature in the field of early child hood development through personal reputation or institutional affiliation, that the materials will be readily accepted by the early childhood community. (5) The contractor shall hold a workshop based on this action guide at a large national conference and engage an expert or experts on early childhood development, trauma, or the impact of family and community mental health and substance abuse on young children to be part of the presentation team and interact with the conference participants. It is anticipated that this will take place in the Washington, DC Area 8 or 9 months after contract award and require the attendance of 2 staff for an entire day, as well as the amount of work required to prepare for a 2 hour presentation with visual aids (such as a PowerPoint presentation) based on the action guide created through this contract. (9) The guide must be 508 compliant. This requirement will be awarded using FAR Subpart 13 Simplified Acquisition Procedures and shall not exceed the Simplified Acquisition threshold. Zero to Three has been justified as a sole source in accordance with FAR 13.106-1(b)(2) because of it's unique multidisciplinary approach and is uniquely qualified to address the necessary expertise they contain across the key, necessary, and commingled issues of Mental Health, Substance Abuse, and Child Trauma, as they relate to early childhood development. Furthermore, the participation of Zero to Three on this project will give the framework presented in the Guide greater credibility with the early childhood community than is available from any other source. As the operator of the Early Head Start National Resource Center and the National Infant & Toddler Child Care Initiative, Zero to Three is the only source with the formal ties to child care and early head start programs. These ties are necessary to the success of this project. Given that child care and early head start systems play a key role in the early childhood infrastructure that this Guide is designed to improve, any source without established links to these systems will not be able to gather the necessary information for the Guide in the time allotted. The guide must be 508 compliant and completed to be connected to Children's Mental Health Day 2010, which will take place in May 2010.Because of this, Zero to Three is the only possible source known to the Government for this project. There is no solicitation. All responses must be e-mailed to Kevin.McGowan@psc.hhs.gov no later than 10:00 AM local prevailing time at the Contracting Office, September 24, 2009. All submissions shall be reviewed by the Government and be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed contract based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government.