SOURCES SOUGHT
B -- Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) Multi-Component Evaluation
- Notice Date
- 3/25/2011
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541611
— Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Health and Human Services, Program Support Center, Division of Acquisition Management, Parklawn Building Room 5-101, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, Maryland, 20857
- ZIP Code
- 20857
- Solicitation Number
- HHS-ACF-OPRE-SBSS-11-001
- Archive Date
- 4/26/2011
- Point of Contact
- Camille M. Timmerman, Phone: 301.443.6851
- E-Mail Address
-
camille.timmerman@psc.hhs.gov
(camille.timmerman@psc.hhs.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- 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. The purpose of this requirement, a multi-component evaluation of the PREP State grant program, is to document how programs funded through the State PREP program are implemented in the field and to assess selected PREP-funded programs' effectiveness. This seven-year effort will include a survey of how States designed and implemented PREP programs, creation of a system to monitor grantee performance and analysis of performance data, and an impact and in-depth high-quality implementation evaluation of 4-5 selected PREP-funded programs. The evaluation will include multiple interconnected components. Using multiple methods of information collection, including surveys that may be conducted with all states operating PREP programs, the study will document the general design and implementation of PREP State grant programs. Relatedly, using an experimental design in approximately 4 to 5 sites, with an average of approximately 1,500 research sample members at each site, this study will test the effectiveness of a range of PREP program models to impact behavior and related outcomes. A key task in this impact evaluation will be marketing the evaluation to PREP-funded programs across the country and successfully recruiting the needed number of programs for evaluation, as well as several sites to be held in reserve. The impact evaluation is expected to involve a baseline survey and two follow-up surveys (e.g. a short-term follow-up survey at 6 months post-program and a long-term follow-up survey at 12-24 months post-program). A critical component of this impact evaluation will be an intense, in-depth and high-quality implementation data collection and analysis effort of each site evaluated. In addition to measures of fidelity (e.g., adherence, exposure/dosage, quality of service delivery, participant response), this in-depth analysis will document how specific programs implemented key components of the PREP programs (e.g., substantially incorporating elements of effective programs, placing substantial emphasis on abstinence and contraception, and addressing adult preparation subjects). Lastly, the study will develop performance measurement instruments and set up a system for tracking performance, including integrating the system with ACF's On-Line Data Collection (OLDC) system and providing training and technical assistance to reporting agencies; the system shall be used to quarterly and annually report on State PREP performance outcomes. Core tasks. The PREP Multi-Component Evaluation will involve numerous core tasks for which capacity and prior experience are necessary. The core tasks for which the contractor will be responsible include those listed above, as well those associated with the minimum contractor requirements listed below. Capability statement/information sought. Respondents must provide as part of their response a capability statement which demonstrates each of the following capabilities: 1) Ability to conduct a rigorous impact evaluation related to teen sexual risk behavior and pregnancy prevention using random assignment in 5 sites across the US, with approximately 7,500 total participants. Ability to conduct an in-depth implementation evaluation of each of these 5 sites. Demonstrated through: - Expertise in establishing appropriate program/site selection criteria for involvement in a random assignment evaluation, and prior experience in assessing potential programs/sites based on said established criteria; - Extensive experience and expertise in providing on-site monitoring and technical guidance with site-level evaluation support activities in five or more geographically dispersed sites; - Experience with managing a random assignment system, randomly assigning approximately 7,500 individuals, ensuring the integrity of random assignment, and providing random assignment status to evaluation sites within one or two days; - Expertise in designing information collection instruments for baseline and follow-up data using state-of-the art measures of sexual risk behaviors and related outcomes relevant to the types of programs to be evaluated; - Extensive experience and expertise in conducting large-scale surveys among high school age youth and achieving 80 percent or greater response rate, including on follow-up surveys up to 24 months after program completion; - Experience with and ability to track 7,500 or more sample participants for up to 24 months after program completion; - Demonstrated experience and expertise in conducting complex analyses to estimate net impacts as well as impacts among subgroups, and utilizing state-of-the-art statistical techniques for various unites of analyses (e.g. individuals, classrooms, schools, etc.); - Evidence of access to adequate computer/statistical resources and the institutional capability to process and analyze a large volume of data, including capacity to input data, clean data and conduct quality control checks; and - Extensive experience with creating implementation, impact and special topic reports and/or briefs as well as conducting project briefings for government audiences. 2) Ability to market a rigorous impact evaluation related to teen sexual risk behavior and pregnancy prevention using random assignment to a large number of potential intervention sites and to obtain agreement from up to 5 sites to participate in an evaluation study. Demonstrated through: - Extensive experience in promoting research and evaluation of programs related to teen sexual risk behavior and pregnancy prevention to multiple audiences, including State and local stakeholders and program operators; - Experience in identifying the leaders - e.g. community leaders, school administrators - and other community members whose support for evaluation is critical for achieving agreement to conduct evaluation, and experience in discussing random-assignment evaluation with these leaders and community members; and - Experience in reaching agreements to conduct evaluation with a control group that may not receive services with numerous stakeholders - i.e. State/local officials, program operators, community leaders, etc. - at evaluation sites. 3) Ability to conduct a detailed descriptive study of a complex federally-funded program related to teen sexual risk behavior and pregnancy prevention. Demonstrated through: - Extensive experience in considering and determining appropriate samples and research questions for nation-wide surveys administered to individuals representing State programs in the majority of States, and individuals representing sub-awardees; and - Experience administering surveys to individuals representing State programs in the majority of States and individuals representing sub-awardees. 4) Ability to manage communication in a large project with multiple stakeholders, including government project officers, a large federal inter-agency research coordinating group, program site staff, state-level coordinators and stakeholders. Demonstrated through: - Experience in successfully organizing, planning, and facilitating meetings with both the federal government as well as stakeholders (e.g., grantee meetings, technical assistance meetings, and Technical Working Group meetings). 5) Ability to develop appropriate performance measures related to sexual risk behaviors, collect and house nation-wide performance data, and analyze this data on a quarterly and annual basis. Demonstrated through: - Experience and expertise in developing and implementing a thorough plan for the creation of performance measurements for multiple levels of performance assessment, and in creating performance measurements for government programs that are useful to stakeholders; - Experience in providing technical assistance to grantees as well as government staff on collecting, inputting, and accessing performance data and ensuring high quality of data collected by grantees and others collecting performance data; - Experience interfacing with ACF's data depository system, the Online Data Collection System, or another government data repository system; and - Experience and current expertise in analyzing detailed performance data on a quarterly and annual basis and reporting it to the government. 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 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 must be sequentially numbered, beginning on the first page after the table of contents. Responses are due by 10:00AM EST on April 11, 2011. Responses will not be accepted after the due date. 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.
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