Solicitation_No._14-233-SOL-00240.pdf

14-233-SOL-00240

SOLICITATION, OFFER AND AWARD

4. TYPE OF SOLICITATION2. CONTRACT NUMBER 3. SOLICITATION NUMBER

7. ISSUED BY CODE 8. ADDRESS OFFER TO (If other than Item 7)

ORDER UNDER DPAS (15 CFR 700)

6. REQUISITION/PURCHASE NUMBER

NOTE: In sealed bid solicitations "offer" and "offeror" mean "bid" and "bidder".

NEGOTIATED (RFP)

SEALED BID (IFB)

5. DATE ISSUED

1. THIS CONTRACT IS A RATED RATING PAGE OF PAGES

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C. E-MAIL ADDRESS

EXT.NUMBERAREA CODE

B. TELEPHONE (NO COLLECT CALLS)A. NAME

10. FOR

INFORMATION

CALL:

CAUTION: LATE Submissions, Modifications, and Withdrawals: See Section L, Provision No. 52.214-7 or 52.215-1. All offers are subject to all terms and conditions contained in this solicitation.

(Date)(Hour) local timeuntildepository located in copies for furnishing the supplies or services in the Schedule will be received at the place specified in Item 8, or if hand carried, in the

SOLICITATION

9. Sealed offers in original and

PART IV - REPRESENTATIONS AND INSTRUCTIONS

OTHER STATEMENTS OF OFFERORS

EVALUATION FACTORS FOR AWARD

INSTRS., CONDS., AND NOTICES TO OFFERORS

REPRESENTATIONS, CERTIFICATIONS AND

LIST OF ATTACHMENTS

CONTRACT CLAUSES

PART III - LIST OF DOCUMENTS, EXHIBITS AND OTHER ATTACH.

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M SPECIAL CONTRACT REQUIREMENTS

CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION DATA

DELIVERIES OR PERFORMANCE

INSPECTION AND ACCEPTANCE

PACKAGING AND MARKING

DESCRIPTION/SPECS./WORK STATEMENT

SUPPLIES OR SERVICES AND PRICES/COSTS

SOLICITATION/CONTRACT FORM

PART II - CONTRACT CLAUSESPART I - THE SCHEDULE

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SEC. DESCRIPTION PAGE(S) (X) DESCRIPTION SEC. (X)

11. TABLE OF CONTENTS

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IS DIFFERENT FROM ABOVE - ENTER

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16. NAME AND TITLE OF PERSON AUTHORIZED TO SIGN OFFER15A. NAME

DATEAMENDMENT NO.DATEAMENDMENT NO.

and related documents numbered and dated):

amendments to the SOLICITATION for offerors

(The offeror acknowledges receipt of

14. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF AMENDMENTS

CALENDAR DAYS (%)30 CALENDAR DAYS (%)20 CALENDAR DAYS (%)10 CALENDAR DAYS (%)

(See Section I, Clause No. 52.232.8)

13. DISCOUNT FOR PROMPT PAYMENT

designated point(s), within the time specified in the schedule.

by the offeror) from the date for receipt of offers specified above, to furnish any or all items upon which prices are offered at the price set opposite each item, delivered at the

12. In compliance with the above, the undersigned agrees, if this offer is accepted within ______________ calendar days (60 calendar days unless a different period is inserted

NOTE: Item 12 does not apply if the solicitation includes the provisions at 52.214-16, Minimum Bid Acceptance Period.

OFFER (Must be fully completed by offeror)

IMPORTANT - Award will be made on this Form, or on Standard Form 26, or by other authorized official written notice.

28. AWARD DATE

(Signature of Contracting Officer)

27. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

25. PAYMENT WILL BE MADE BY

26. NAME OF CONTRACTING OFFICER (Type or print)

CODE 24. ADMINISTERED BY (If other than Item 7)

ITEM

(4 copies unless otherwise specified)

23. SUBMIT INVOICES TO ADDRESS SHOWN IN

41 U.S.C. 253 (c) ( 10 U.S.C. 2304 (c) (

22. AUTHORITY FOR USING OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION:

21. ACCOUNTING AND APPROPRIATION20. AMOUNT19. ACCEPTED AS TO ITEMS NUMBERED

AWARD (To be completed by government)

CODE

ACF13043005/09/2014

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DAM

DHHS/PSC/AMS/DAM

Twinbrook Place, Suite 400 12501 Ardennes Avenue Rockville MD 20857

1400 ET 07/07/2014

KORRIISE L LAROCHE 301

KORRIISE.LAROCHE@PSC.HHS.

GOV443-3586

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PAGE(S)

DAWN T. GRESHAM

AUTHORIZED FOR LOCAL REPRODUCTION

Previous edition is unusable

STANDARD FORM 33 (Rev. 9-97)

Prescribed by GSA - FAR (48 CFR) 53.214(c)

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CONTINUATION SHEET

REFERENCE NO. OF DOCUMENT BEING CONTINUED PAGE OF

14-233-SOL-00240

(A) (B) (C) (D) (E) (F)

National Capacity Building Center for Public Child Welfare Agencies

Delivery Location Code: ACF

Admin for Children + Families

Administration for Children and Fam

370 L'Enfant Promenade, S.W.

Washington DC 20447 US

FOB: Destination

1 Base Year of Contract for National Capacity

Building Center for Public Child Welfare Agencies

(for provision of services including product dissemination curriculum development training coaching brief and intensive technical assistance)

2 Option Period 1 of Contract for National Capacity

Building Center for Public Child Welfare Agencies

(Option Line Item)

3 Option Period 2 of Contract for National Capacity

Building Center for Public Child Welfare Agencies

(Option Line Item)

4 Option Period 3 of Contract for National Capacity

Building Center for Public Child Welfare Agencies

(Option Line Item)

5 Option Period 4 of Contract for National Capacity

Building Center for Public Child Welfare Agencies

(Option Line Item)

6 Optional Task 9.4

(Option Line Item)

7 Optional Task 9.5

(Option Line Item)

OPTIONAL FORM 336 (4-86)

Sponsored by GSA

FAR (48 CFR) 53.110

NSN 7540-01-152-8067

Solicitation No. 14-233-SOL-00240

SECTION B - Supplies or Services/Prices

B.1 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SERVICES

National Capacity Building Center for Public Child Welfare Agencies

B.2 TYPE OF CONTRACT

The contract type awarded is a Cost plus Fixed Fee contract.

B.3 SEVERABLE SERVICES

The services acquired under this contract are severable services. Funds are only available for use for the line item to which they are obligated. Unused funds from one period (line item) may not rollover for use in other periods.

B.4 CONSIDERATION AND PAYMENT (CPFF)

This is a cost-plus fixed-fee contract/order. In consideration of the satisfactory performance of the work as described in Section C the contractor will be compensated in accordance with the following schedule below. The period of performance is for 12 months for the base period and 4 12-month option periods.

Base Period: September 30, 2014 through September 29, 2015

Estimated Cost $ Fixed Fee $ Cost Plus Fixed Fee $

Option Period One: September 30, 2015 through September 29, 2016

Estimated Cost $ Fixed Fee $ Cost Plus Fixed Fee $

Option Period Two: September 30, 2016 through September 29, 2017

Estimated Cost $ Fixed Fee $ Cost Plus Fixed Fee $

Option Period Three: September 30, 2017 through September 29, 2018

Estimated Cost $ Fixed Fee $ Cost Plus Fixed Fee $

Option Period Four: September 30, 2018 through September 29, 2019

Estimated Cost $ Fixed Fee $ Cost Plus Fixed Fee $

Optional Task 9.4: 6 month period of performance

Estimated Cost $ Fixed Fee $ Cost Plus Fixed Fee $

Optional Task 9.5: 12 months (Exercised once every option period) Estimated Cost $

Total Base Period and All Options:

Estimated Cost $

SECTION C - Description/Specifications

C.1 STATEMENT OF WORK

The Contractor shall furnish all of the necessary personnel, materials, services, facilities, (except as otherwise specified herein), and otherwise do all the things necessary for or incident to the performance of the work as set forth below:

Introduction The Children’s Bureau (CB) in the Administration for Children and Families is interested in procuring the services of a qualified Contractor to establish the National Capacity Building Center for Public Child Welfare Agencies (the Center). The Center will serve as a focal point for national child welfare expertise and evidence-informed training and technical assistance services for State and Territorial public child welfare agencies, including those participating in title IV-E waiver demonstration projects.

The Center will provide nationally-informed, expert consultation to the federal government and deliver a comprehensive array of “training and technical assistance” services designed to build the capacities of State and Territorial child welfare agencies to meet federal requirements, to participate in federal monitoring and related program improvement planning activities, to implement national child welfare policies and programs, to improve practice and service delivery, and to achieve safety, permanency, and well-being outcomes for children, youth, and families.

States and Territories will rely on the Center for expert-level subject matter expertise in child maltreatment, the full continuum of child welfare practices, and a range of topics related to safety, permanency, and child and family well-being. The Center will also have extensive knowledge of practice and administration in State public child welfare agencies across the country and an in-depth understanding of federal laws, funding, monitoring and requirements related to child welfare, including the Child and Family Services Review (CFSR) process.

With this Center, CB will consolidate and centralize services previously provided by twelve national and regional child welfare training and technical assistance centers, and it will add a new service delivery component for title IV-E waiver demonstrations projects. The Center will subscribe to a single, coherent model of service provision based on its knowledge of research-informed frameworks and models for capacity building as well as evidence-based approaches to training, consultation, adult education, and distance learning. The Center must be capable of simultaneously executing national dissemination strategies, designing and delivering multiple comprehensive learning programs, providing individualized consultation to more than 52 jurisdictions, and conducting up to 35 intensive capacity building projects to support program improvement and title IV-E waiver demonstration implementation.

The Center will employ innovative and proven strategies to:

• Deliver training, coaching, and expert consultation necessary to help jurisdictions prepare for and complete Round 3 of the CFSR process.

• Deliver training, coaching, and expert consultation to help jurisdictions implement title IV-E waiver demonstrations.

• Develop assessment-driven, State-specific technical assistance work plans with clear outcomes and rationales for service delivery, and deliver individualized training, coaching, and consultation to every State, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico who requests these services.

• Engage up to 35 public child welfare agencies concurrently, in intensive capacity building projects that each require full-time effort to support building organization readiness, selecting and developing interventions, implementing changes, assessing progress and performance, and sustaining changes.

• Deliver credible, expert-level training and coaching on child welfare topics and practice issues to groups of senior child welfare professionals in management and leadership positions to build their knowledge, skills, and peer networking.

• Synthesize information from a variety of sources, including but not limited to the Child and Family Services Plan and/or Annual Progress and Services Report, Child and Family Services Review-related documents and reports, materials related to other Federal reviews, CB-generated data profiles, title IV-E waiver demonstration plans and related materials, formula grant plans, discretionary grant work plans and reports, CBCAP applications, Court Improvement Program plans and other sources to systematically assess the needs of public child welfare agencies in up to 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

• Collect, organize, synthesize, and manage large volumes of resources and literature;

distill complex information into key ideas and concepts; and make information easily accessible to child welfare professionals for the purpose of program improvement and systems change.

• Design and produce high quality, Section 508 compliant publications, curricula, tools, and innovative resources based on strategic goals and plans for national dissemination.

• Design and deliver state-of-the-art, self-directed and group-based learning experiences, that use web-based e-learning platforms and components such as audio recordings, videos, automated training modules, interactive applications and/or instructional games to engage participants and achieve measurable gains in participant knowledge and skills.

Background

Children’s Bureau

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the United States government's principal agency for protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services, especially for those who are least able to help themselves. Within HHS, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is the agency responsible for Federal programs that promote the economic and social well-being of families, children, individuals, and communities. The Administration on Children, Youth and Families (ACYF) administers national programs for children and youth; works with States, Tribes, and local communities to develop services that support and strengthen family life; seeks joint ventures with the private sector to enhance the lives of children and their families; and provides information and other assistance to parents.

Within ACYF, the Children's Bureau (CB) plans, manages, coordinates, and supports child abuse and neglect prevention and child welfare services programs. The CB is the agency within the Federal Government that is responsible for assisting child welfare systems by promoting continuous improvement in the delivery of child welfare services. CB programs are designed to promote the safety, permanency, and well-being of all children, including those in foster care, available for adoption, recently adopted, abused, neglected, dependent, disabled, or homeless, and to prevent the neglect, abuse, and exploitation of children. (For more information about CB's programs, visit http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb.)

Capacity Building Services

For decades, CB has funded a network of competitively awarded training and technical assistance projects designed to deliver a seamless array of services. These services have been expected to build the capacities of States, Tribes and Territories to meet federal standards and requirements, improve child welfare practice, strengthen organizational and systemic functioning, and achieve better outcomes for children, youth, and families.

CB has traditionally used the words “training and technical assistance” (T/TA) to describe activities primarily intended to transfer knowledge about best practices in child welfare and to build the capacities of individuals, groups, organizations and systems. More specifically, CB has used “T/TA” to describe the processes of gathering important and relevant information about effective and promising practices, organizing and making this information accessible to others through the creation of products (such as tools and informational resources), and spreading this information through targeted dissemination, training, tailored consultation, coaching, and other means to support improvements in individual and organizational performance.

More recently, CB has begun to refer to this service array as capacity building services, a term that describes and emphasizes the purpose of these services rather than naming two of the types of activities (training and technical assistance) being performed.

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb

Building Capacity to Meet Requirements and Implement Federal Programs

CB-supported capacity building services are intended to promote the successful implementation of Federal child welfare policies and programs. CB believes that when training, coaching, tools, tailored consultation, and other support services are effective, they can enhance the knowledge and skills of child welfare professionals and build organizational capacity in a manner that increases the likelihood that child welfare agencies can meet Federal requirements and improve outcomes for children, youth, and families. Capacity building services that will be provided under this contract will assist State and Territorial public child welfare agencies that operate Federally-funded programs, that participate in mandatory service planning and monitoring reviews, and that in some cases, participate in title IV-E waiver demonstration projects –all of which are described further below.

Statutes and Programs

CB administers and monitors several Federal programs that help States, Tribes, Territories, and local communities to deliver a continuum of services—from the prevention of child abuse and neglect, to the support of permanent placements through adoption and subsidized guardianship.

The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) provides funds to support community-based, prevention-focused programs and activities, improve the investigation and prosecution of child abuse and neglect, and improve state child protective service systems. Title IV-B of the Social Security Act provides funds to promote flexibility in the development and expansion of coordinated child and family services programs, family support services, family preservation services, adoption promotion and support services, and time-limited family reunification services. Title IV-E provides funds to provide foster care, transitional independent living programs for children, guardianship assistance, and adoption assistance for children with special needs. (For more information about State and Tribal funding, visit http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/programs/state-tribal-funding.)

Annual Service Planning

In order to receive federal funding under Title I, Section 106 of CAPTA and Title IV-B of the Social Security Act, eligible jurisdictions are required to submit five year plans. Developed in partnership with CB Regional Office staff, the Child and Family Services Plan (CFSP) is the principal strategic planning document that describes the jurisdiction’s key goals and objectives for strengthening its child welfare system. The CFSP outlines the initiatives and activities that jurisdictions will implement within the next five years to administer and integrate their child welfare programs, interventions, and services in efforts to improve the safety, permanency, and well-being outcomes of children and families. The Annual Progress and Services Report (APSR) provides an annual update on the progress made by jurisdictions toward the goals and objectives in their CFSPs and outlines the planned activities for the upcoming fiscal year. (For more information about the CFSP and APSR, see http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/programs/state-tribal-cfsp.)

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/programs/state-tribal-funding http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/programs/state-tribal-cfsp

Monitoring

CB employs several monitoring tools including the Child and Family Services Review (CFSR), Title IV-E Foster Care Eligibility Review, the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) Assessment Review, and the Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System (SACWIS) Assessment Review, to ensure conformity with Federal child welfare requirements and to help States achieve safety, permanency, and well-being for children.

(For more information about child welfare monitoring, see http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/monitoring.)

Monitoring supports accountability for Federal requirements, but it also provides jurisdictions with an important opportunity to build on identified strengths and respond to areas needing improvement. Federal reviews are followed by planning for program and system improvements to improve child welfare service delivery and performance. These improvement efforts emphasize building capacity and implementing changes that will improve child welfare outcomes.

Child and Family Services Review

The Children’s Bureau (CB) is planning to conduct a third round of reviews under the Child and Family Services Reviews (CFSR) regulations, beginning in FFY 2015. The overall goals of the reviews are to:

• Ensure conformity with title IV-B and IV-E child welfare requirements using a framework focused on safety, permanency and well-being through seven outcomes and seven systemic factors;

• Determine what is happening to children and families as they are engaged in child welfare services; and

• Assist states in helping children and families achieve positive outcomes.

The reviews involve a two-level process: (1) a statewide assessment, and (2) an onsite review as required by 45 CFR 1355.33(a). After receiving the results of the review, states that are not in substantial conformity with title IV-B and IV-E requirements must enter into a Program Improvement Plan to address areas that CB determines require improvement (45 CFR 1355.34 and 1355.35). Child and Family Services Technical Bulletin 7, released in March 2014 provided guidance to States. (For more information about this Round 3 guidance, see http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/resource/cfsr-technical-bulletin-7.)

CB anticipates that eight jurisdictions will need training and technical assistance from the Center related to their participation in the CFSR and program improvement process in FY 2015 with and approximately 15 States in FY 2016, 15 in FY 2017, and 14 in FY 2018.

Title IV-E Waiver Demonstration Projects

Section 1130 of the Social Security Act (the Act), as amended by Public Law 112-34, the Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act, authorizes HHS to approve up to ten http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/monitoring http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/resource/cfsr-technical-bulletin-7 child welfare demonstration projects in each of Fiscal Years 2012 – 2014. The demonstration projects involve the waiver of certain requirements of Titles IV-B and IV-E of the Act, thereby providing title IV-E jurisdictions with greater flexibility to use funds for services that can facilitate improved safety, permanency, and well-being for children.

Child welfare waiver demonstration projects were first authorized by Congress in 1994 and then expanded and extended as part of the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (P.L. 105-89).

Subsequent laws extended the authority for additional periods of time, with some lapses, until the authority expired on March 31, 2006. The reauthorization of waiver authority continues to allow States and Tribes with title IV-E agreements to use Federal funds flexibly to test new approaches to service delivery and financing structures in an effort to improve outcomes for children and families involved in the child welfare system.

There are currently 23 approved demonstration projects in 22 States: six demonstration projects remain in operation through extensions under the previous waiver authority; nine were approved in FY 2012; and eight were approved in FY 2013. (See Appendix A for a brief summary of each waiver demonstration project.) With the authority to approve an additional ten projects in FY 2014, CB anticipates up to 33 demonstration projects to be approved at the time of contract award, approximately 23 of which will be in operation.

Recent History of Training and Technical Assistance

For decades, the Training and Technical Assistance Network (T/TA Network) has been a group of diverse, CB-supported entities with varying responsibility for capacity building. Comprised of projects funded entirely or partially by CB through grants, contracts, and interagency agreements, members of the T/TA Network have served a variety of child welfare constituency groups, organizations, and systems and performed a broad scope of services, including research, evaluation, training, coaching, information and referral, and intensive consultation. Activities have ranged widely, from managing and storing archived child welfare data sets for secondary analysis to training and coaching cohorts of child welfare middle managers to enhance their leadership skills. More information about these providers and their respective roles in helping child welfare systems meet the array of federal requirements administered by CB can be found at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/tta/index.htm.

Five years ago, two cohorts of technical assistance centers and a coordinating center within the larger T/TA Network were assigned primary responsibility for building the capacities of State, Tribal, and Territorial child welfare agencies and courts. These centers offered a combination of tailored consultation in response to requests and applications for assistance as well as training events, peer networking, product development, and dissemination activities.

• In 2009, CB funded a coordinating center and a group of ten National Child Welfare Resource Centers (NRCs). Each NRC was assigned to serve as a repository of information about best practice in a specific area of focus (e.g., child protection, adoption, organizational improvement) and to provide T/TA with the goal of helping professionals, agencies, and courts achieve better outcomes for children, youth, and families. The Training and Technical Coordination Center (TTACC) was created to http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/tta/index.htm coordinate service delivery when multiple NRCs were engaged with the same jurisdiction. The five-year project period for the NRCs ends on September 29, 2014.

• In 2008, CB funded five Child Welfare Implementation Centers (ICs). Each IC was assigned to serve a geographic region, within which States, Tribes, and Territories could apply for multi-year technical assistance projects. ICs were expected to serve as experts in systemic intervention, change management and implementation, and their projects were designed to build capacity in selected jurisdictions and facilitate the implementation of sustainable changes in child welfare practice and systemic functioning. The five-year project period for this cohort ended on September 29, 2013.

Collectively, NRCs and ICs played an important role in capacity building, implementation, and program improvement efforts. They delivered tens of thousands of hours of face-to-face and telephone consultation with child welfare agency directors, managers, and staff. The centers also made information accessible through more than a dozen websites, facilitated hundreds of training and peer learning opportunities, and created hundreds of publications and products.

Evaluation and Assessment

During the same time period, CB funded a cross-site evaluation to examine the processes and service delivery of the NRCs and ICs. The cross-site evaluation used multiple sources to answer questions about collaboration between providers, volume and types of services delivered, utilization of training and technical assistance, and achievement of outcomes. In 2013, CB also conducted an eight-month, internal review of its tailored training and technical assistance services. Between findings from the cross-site evaluation and CB’s internal assessment, CB received feedback on its current services as well as initial reactions to potential service delivery approaches for the future. CB heard from nearly every child welfare director from the 50 State, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. It also received feedback from Tribal child welfare directors, representatives of national associations of child welfare professionals, directors of every NRC and IC, and federal staff in CB’s central and regional offices.

Based on information obtained from these stakeholders as well as a review of research literature on technical assistance and capacity building, two pilot tests of alternative service delivery approaches, and interviews with federal agencies employing different training and technical assistance models of service delivery systems, CB decided to move in a new direction.

CB has been pleased with the high levels of recipient satisfaction with training and technical assistance to date and with recipients’ perceptions that services have been helpful. CB is eager to build on these promising findings while taking clear steps toward a more integrated and unified approach to planning and service provision that is guided by the best available evidence and that can better leverage resources and strategies to increase the likelihood that product development, dissemination, training, coaching, and consultation services can build capacity and achieve desired changes in the performance of child welfare systems.

CB hopes to capitalize on the successes of the NRCs and ICs, and it also intends to address several of the challenges experienced by CB and its providers that were identified during the course of its evaluation, internal review, and related activities. These challenges included:

persistent barriers to communication and collaboration, inefficiencies in service delivery and duplication of service infrastructure, unclear and poorly defined objectives and service interventions, uncoordinated and reactive service delivery, cumbersome and sometimes repetitive protocols, and the absence of consistent and unifying theory and model of service provision. In many instances, CB believes that these challenges and barriers were a product of the design of the T/TA Network and not just of performance. CB believes that its aspirations and expectations for training and technical assistance (and the aspirations of many of its providers) require changes to the way capacity building services are managed and delivered;

changes that cannot be effectively supported by the existing service structure. Both CB’s orientation and approach to capacity building and the service delivery system it funds will be moving in a new direction.

Vision Moving Forward

Recognizing the depth and diversity of capacity building needs across the country and the frequency with which some types of technical assistance have been requested in the past, CB is charting a new course. Rather than attempting to create a service system that is capable of providing services in response to any or every urgent need that arises, CB envisions a system that is driven by national priorities and that will strategically invest resources and deliver services in ways that are most likely to achieve intended outcomes. While still having the flexibility to meet emerging needs, CB intends for its service delivery system to become more proactive and focused.

CB will take an increasingly strategic and evidence-informed approach to achieving its desired outcomes. CB expects the capacity building entities it funds to skillfully collect and use data to assess the needs and problems of their targeted service recipients. CB-supported service providers must routinely present well-reasoned justifications for their project goals and objectives based on these assessments. CB will approve proposed plans and service strategies that rely on sound theories of change and thorough reviews of available evidence from research and evaluation, knowledge from experts, communities, and practice experience. Plans will specify well-defined outcomes for service provision and milestones against which progress can be assessed. CB expects its providers to offer services with the greatest likelihood of success, and CB intends to learn from its providers’ attempts to build and sustain capacity.

The National Capacity Building Center for Public Child Welfare Agencies

The Center will be CB’s principal vehicle for delivering effective, high quality capacity building services to help State and Territorial public child welfare agencies to successfully meet current and future standards and requirements described in statute and Federal regulations (including those specified under CAPTA and Titles IV-B and IV-E of the Social Security Act), to improve organizational and system performance, and to improve outcomes for children, youth, and families. The Center will also be responsible for supporting the Child and Family Services Review process and providing intensive support and capacity building services to jurisdictions that are in the process of implementing their title IV-E waiver demonstration projects.

States and Territories will rely on the Center for expert-level subject matter expertise in child maltreatment, the full continuum of child welfare practices, and a range of topics related to safety, permanency, and child and family well-being. The Center will also possess extensive knowledge of practice and administration in State public child welfare agencies across the country and an in-depth understanding of federal laws, funding, monitoring and requirements related to child welfare. The Center’s expertise will be encompass all of the areas of programmatic responsibility currently covered by the National Resource Centers for Child Protective Services, In-Home Services, Permanency and Family Connections, Adoption, Youth Development, Child Welfare Data and Technology, and Organizational Improvement. The Center will also be capable of engaging States and Territories in intensive capacity building projects to support program improvement and title IV-E waiver demonstration implementation.

CB’s new service delivery structure will centralize decision making to support coordination, leverage resources, and integrate three complementary categories of services: universal, constituency-focused, and tailored (brief and intensive).

Universal Capacity Building Services

The Center’s universal capacity building services will increase awareness, understanding, engagement, access, and/or use of information. These universal services will target child welfare professionals.

The Center will develop a system that strategically disseminates information; one that is driven by specific objectives for well-defined groups of child welfare professionals and that remains nimble enough to respond to urgent needs to produce and release information at a moment’s notice. On an annual basis, CB and the Center will identify dissemination goals and priorities for national child welfare audiences. These priorities and the audiences for whom specific content is intended, will drive decisions about how key messages and information about child welfare practice, policy, and research are crafted about which communication strategies are the most likely to be effective.

CB intends for activities, such as email blasts, news articles, social networking posts , webpage updates, and other universal strategies to be undertaken when desired outcomes have been identified and a clear rationale for the dissemination methods have been established. While the final execution of many universal activities will be performed by another CB-supported entity with responsibility for listservs, social media, and website design and maintenance, the Center will help to identify strategies and develop considerable content for dissemination, including but not limited the creation of announcements, letters, briefs, fliers, tools, publications, and a variety of other products.

Constituency-Focused Capacity Building Services

The Center’s constituency-focused services will be designed to increase knowledge and skills of particular cohorts of child welfare professionals on specific topics or in aspects of child welfare practice. Constituency-focused services will also attempt to foster increased communication among professionals and to build relationships and networks that will support learning and communities of practice.

A major component of these constituency-focused services will be effective and promising training, coaching, and peer networking activities that are aligned with the Center’s strategic plans for dissemination and guided by its capacity building priorities. Based on an assessment of the needs of particular professional constituencies (e.g., child welfare agency directors, state liaison officers, foster care and adoption managers) and/or cohorts of child welfare systems (e.g., county-administered systems, privatized systems, CFSR cohorts, title IV-E waiver demonstration cohorts), CB intends to set priorities for learning and skill development. The Center will help design comprehensive capacity building plans for particular groups that will specify learning objectives and select instructional methods and learning approaches that are customized to each cohort. The Center’s choices about product development, networking, training, and coaching will be informed by the most recent research and evaluation as well as data collected about the preferences and habits of the target audiences and the contextual factors that affect their learning.

The Center will create multiple curricula on an annual basis, and it will deliver engaging and innovative learning experiences.

The Center will apply learning theories, effective practices in adult education, and state-of-the-art instructional design and delivery approaches during the development of its constituency-focused capacity building services. The Center will use promising and evidence-supported models of curriculum design and instruction when they are available and appropriate, and its training and networking events will be culturally competent. When planning its constituency-focused activities, the Center will also take into account the learning context, the objectives of the training, and the methods of delivery with a particular focus on the assessment of participants’ skill level, cultural background, attitudes and motivation for learning.

Tailored Capacity Building Services

The Center’s tailored capacity building services will increase the knowledge and skills of individuals, as well as to foster improvements in organizational and system capacity. Tailored services will be individualized to the unique needs and conditions within a specific child welfare jurisdiction, and usually involve some combination of training, consultation, coaching, and other support. Tailored activities will vary in degree of intensity based on the needs of the jurisdiction, but these services will often seek to assist agencies with program improvement initiatives that they expect to achieve better outcomes for children, youth, and families.

Tailored services will help child welfare agencies successfully participate in Child and Family Services Reviews, complete initiatives, and achieve their program improvement goals.

However, CB does not intend for its training and technical assistance services and the consultants and staff that provide them to assume a role that should otherwise be the responsibility of a public child welfare agency’s internal staff and/or teams. Tailored services are expected to enhance the skills and knowledge of agency staff so that they are prepared to serve as internal experts when similar challenges and initiatives are undertaken by the agency in the future.

Capacity Needs Assessment and Capacity Building Service Plan

Each State, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico will be able to request capacity building services. The Contractor will assign a highly skilled change management expert to be a primary point of contact for tailored services. Rather than needing to submit multiple requests or complete several assessments for services, the Center will complete one “capacity needs assessment” in consultation with the jurisdiction and CB staff, including its Regional Office Specialist. The assessment will be at the request of the jurisdiction and will be based on the its strategic plans and goals for program improvement. Assessments will rely on thoughtful reflection by the agency about both its ability to implement and sustain its proposed improvement initiatives.

Each completed assessment will serve as a guide for investigating possible internal and external resources that can meet the jurisdiction’s capacity-related needs. After an assessment has been requested by the jurisdiction and completed by its change management expert, the Center will develop a “capacity building work plan” identifying how the needs will be addressed and by whom. In some cases, CB-supported services may not be part of this plan. The plan is intended to help child welfare agencies to anticipate factors that may impede program improvement efforts and to ensure that their workforce, infrastructure, and other capacity-related needs are being addressed.

Child welfare agencies with completed assessments and service plans will be eligible for brief tailored capacity building services from the Center. CB intends to strategically provide services that are aligned with needs identified in the assessment and that will achieve specific, measurable objectives in the service plan.

Intensive Capacity Building Projects

The Center will also develop a process for soliciting, reviewing, and selecting proposals from State and Territorial child welfare agencies for long-term, intensive and tailored capacity building services. Policies and processes will be established to assist public child welfare agencies with determining whether their needs for tailored capacity building services (based on the assessment process described above) rise to the level of needing an intensive project.

Capacity building projects will be aligned with the agency’s program improvement goals and will typically require no fewer than 12 consecutive months of tailored training, coaching, consultation, and other support to achieve well-defined objectives related to organizational readiness, intervention design, implementation, and/or sustainability. Many projects are expected to require multiple years of service provision.

Jurisdictions that apply and are selected for projects will be paired with a consultant team from the Center with expertise in the applicable areas of child welfare practice and in evidence-informed processes for implementing change. Team members will work with agency leadership to design work plans. Both consultants and agency staff will be accountable for completing monthly tasks. In some cases additional support may be provided to agencies to assist with them internally with coordination of project activities and participation.

Tailored capacity building projects will vary in duration and intensity, but all projects will require the Center to work with the jurisdiction to identify:

• long-term outcomes that are targeted by the program improvement strategy/intervention

• short-term outcomes that are expected to be directly affected by capacity building services

• a data-informed problem statement

• a well-defined intervention

• a well-articulated theory of change

• a signed agreement between the child welfare agency and the CB-supported service provider

• quarterly project benchmarks or milestones that will be monitored to assess progress

• semi-annual reviews by CB

Intensive Capacity Building Projects for Title IV-E Waiver Demonstrations Child welfare agencies participating in title IV-E waiver demonstrations will be targeted by CB to receive both constituency-focused and tailored capacity building services to help them successfully complete their title IV-E waiver demonstration implementation plans and achieve their desired results. Intensive projects will be provided by expert consultants to title IV-E waiver demonstration jurisdictions that commit to participating in capacity building activities.

CB’s Capacity Building Approach

Evidence-informed frameworks that describe systematic processes for implementing change in organizations, systems, and communities guide CB’s approach to capacity building. These frameworks typically lay out a series of similar steps that, if well-understood and sufficiently completed, increase accountability for results and improve the chances that change efforts will be successful. These common steps typically include:

Identifying a problem or outcomes that need to be addressed Forming teams to guide the change process, facilitate communication and perform tasks Gathering data, exploring the problem in depth, and identifying who is most affected Developing a theory about the causes of the problem and how to address them Identifying, researching, and selecting from among possible solutions Adapting existing interventions or designing new ones Assessing readiness and planning for implementation of the intervention(s) Building capacity to support implementation Piloting and/or staging implementation of the intervention(s) Collecting and using data to adjust the intervention and/or implementation strategies Evaluating to measure implementation quality and short- and long-term outcomes Making decisions to further spread, adjust, or discontinue the intervention

CB intends for the Center’s services to improve child welfare agencies’ abilities to navigate and perform the tasks associated with these steps and to successfully complete them. When tailored services, in particular, are devoted to facilitating improvement in a particular jurisdiction, CB also expects milestones to be tracked and changes in outcomes to be measured and reported by the Center.

CB also believes that capacity building approaches with individuals and organizations are more effective when they employ multiple, complementary strategies for communicating important information in accessible language, making it relevant, facilitating its application, and reinforcing its ongoing use in routine practice. Therefore, when attempting to assist individuals or groups with developing new competencies and skills CB expects the Center to use multiple methods of instruction, creating activities and exercises that require active participation and problem solving, and a combination of observation and skillful coaching. CB also expects the Center’s efforts to enhance capacity and achieve organizational and system outcomes to thoughtfully integrate well-designed tools, evidence-based training, data-driven consultation, and meaningful continuous quality improvement processes.

Similarly, the Center’s major service components (universal, constituency-focused, and tailored) will rely heavily on one another. They will be interdependent and complementary. CB intends for each component’s objectives to be informed by and aligned with those of the others so that activities are integrated in a manner that will result in efficient service delivery and leveraging of resources to achieve shared outcomes. Communication and teaming by Center staff across components is mandatory. For example, decisions about which competencies and skills to prioritize and which professional cohorts to target for targeted training and coaching services will have immediate implications for tailored services to States from whom these targeted professionals come. Annual strategic goals for the Center as a whole are expected to influence the activities of all of the service components.

Role of the Center in CB’s Larger Capacity Building Service Structure

The Center will also play a principal role in the larger design of CB’s capacity building service delivery structure. The Center will partner with CB’s information clearinghouse which will serve as the primary point of dissemination for all publications, tools, trainings, and other materials developed under the contract. The Center and clearinghouse will develop joint dissemination plans and strategies for universal and constituency-focused service delivery, including specifying target audiences, setting shared objectives and identifying outcomes.

The Center will also work closely with other CB-supported capacity building entities that are responsible for serving Tribal child welfare systems, Court Improvement Programs, community-based child abuse prevention providers, diligent recruitment programs, and other partners of public child welfare agencies. The Center will facilitate collaborative goal setting and coordinated work planning with the Tribal, court improvement, and community-based child abuse prevention centers, in particular. The Center will also be expected to partner with the contracted entity providing evaluation technical assistance to title IV-E waiver demonstrations.

CB expects these projects to avoid unnecessary duplication of effort and to capitalize on opportunities to design and deliver joint products, training, and other services when beneficial to the Federal government and to common service recipients. Whenever feasible and appropriate, CB-supported entities will share common/similar service delivery procedures, evaluation expectations, and indicators of target outcomes.

Public agency performance and improved outcomes for children, youth, and families can hinge on community, interagency, and intergovernmental partnerships. The Center’s approach to working with the Tribal, court improvement, community-based child abuse prevention centers and other capacity building providers will reflect this.

General Requirements

As described above, the National Capacity Building Center for Public Child Welfare Agencies will serve as a focal point for national child welfare expertise and easily accessible training and technical assistance services for State and Territorial public child welfare agencies, including those participating in title IV-E waiver demonstration projects. The Center will deliver an array of services designed to build the capacities of child welfare agencies to implement national child welfare policies and programs, improve practice and service delivery, and achieve safety, permanency, and well-being outcomes for children, youth, and families.

To achieve the purposes of this contract, the Contractor will:

• Assess the needs of public child welfare agencies and their partners

• Perform strategic planning and develop strong, evidence-informed rationales for service approaches

• Set meaningful goals and measurable objectives and outcomes for the groups and individual jurisdictions targeted by the Center for increased capacity

• Stay informed of innovative, promising, and effective child welfare practices and current issues in the field

• Integrate the Center’s capacity building efforts with those of other centers focused on court improvement, Tribal child welfare, community-based prevention, and workforce development

• Develop content and products for national dissemination

• Design and produce state-of-the-art learning experiences

• Provide effective peer networking activities

• Create a single, tailored, assessment-based, and data-driven capacity building plan for any State, the District of Columbia,…