6279-0 Notice of Sole Source.pdf

SOLE-SOURCE DETERMINATION MEMO

FOR SUPPLIES AND SERVICES

Date: September 1, 2026 Sole source number: S-44300-00017791 (6279)

To: Kirk N. Rhoades, Designated Procurement Officer ODHS Office of Contracts & Procurement

Requestor: Anna Williams Agency/division: OHA-BHD, SOCAC, herein after referred to as “Agency” Program/office: System of Care Advisory Council Contract specialist: Heidi Tracy

Agency Sole source rule: Sole source authority:

OHA OAR 137-047-0275 ORS 413.033

Estimated total contract value: $1,109,000.00 (initial amount of $56,000.00 and approximately $117,000.00 per year for subsequent years). Agency reserves the right to amend the Contract not-to-exceed amount, as necessary, to extend Contractor’s performance of the Work to cover future time extension of the Contract term, and to add additional phases of the Work, subject to additional funding being available.

Description of goods or services:

Leadership development, meeting logistics and facilitation, and mentorship for youth and young adults with lived experience in systems change work, through the System of Care Advisory Council (SOCAC). One service this contractor will provide that is unique to this vendor is providing direct youth development support for young people with lived experience in child serving systems (publicly funded behavioral health services, publicly funded intellectual or developmental disability supports, child welfare, juvenile justice, or IEP/504 in public schools). This vendor has their own lived experience in a number of those systems and brings both practical knowledge and trauma-informed skills to the work for youth with system-caused traumas.

Contractor will provide logistical support (meeting scheduling, calendar supports, draft agendas and meeting materials, etc.), to enable youth with lived experience to develop leadership and advocacy skills and meaningfully participate in SOCAC’s systems change work while preventing/minimizing the amount of trauma youth experience in the course of this challenging work. All of the youth who participate in SOCAC’s work have been deeply harmed by the systems they’re working to change. Due to historical harms, disparate power dynamics, and the possibility for retaliation by systems, partnership between youth with lived experience and system leaders can be difficult. This contractor is skilled at facilitating partnerships between youth with lived experience and systems, as well as working with historically oppressed populations to elevate the voices of those who have been most harmed.

This contractor brings their own lived expertise, historical and policy knowledge from having served on a number of Oregon advisory bodies (Governor’s Foster Care Advisory Council, Child System Advisory Council) as a youth. They also know how to set clear and consistent boundaries, which is critical for systems change work in partnership with youth with lived experience. Youth in this work are at the very bottom of the power structure, all bring trauma into the work with them, and are easily harmed by the process they’re showing up to engage in. This contractor has demonstrated skill in identifying and preventing opportunities for youth to experience harm, and has built a trusting relationship with the youth leaders at SOCAC through showing up for them the way they needed, consistently. Elliott Hinkle, manager/member of Unicorn Solutions, LLC, has held Oregon certification as a Youth Peer Support Specialist, Traditional Health Worker (Oregon Health Authority, 2019–2025). While they are not specifically providing the peer support services in this contracted role, their foundational training in trauma-informed peer support informs their co-regulation, debrief facilitation, and support services specified in this contract. These certifications are held by very few consultants working at the intersection of child systems change and LGBTQIA2S+ youth advocacy, and represent a direct qualification match to the trauma-informed peer support components of this scope of work.

1. Background: This sole source justification applies to the purchase of:

a. SOCAC anticipates awarding one contract with Unicorn Solutions, LLC for youth leadership development and youth affinity space staffing for SOCAC’s Youth Affinity Space.

b. Contractor will provide leadership development, meeting logistics and facilitation, and mentorship for youth and young adults with lived experience in systems change work, through the System of Care Advisory Council (SOCAC).

One service this contractor will provide that is unique to this vendor is providing direct youth development support for young people with lived experience in child serving systems (publicly funded behavioral health services, publicly funded intellectual or developmental disability supports, child welfare, juvenile justice, or IEP/504 in public schools).

c. SOCAC is seeking a Sole Source for this Contract because Unicorn Solutions, LLC is a trusted partner in working with system-involved youth and they have the unique skills. Unicorn Solutions, LLC consults at the national level on ensuring foster care systems are affirming of youth who are LGBTIQ+ and leads from personal experience on that topic. Many of the youth we partner with at SOCAC have unresolved system-based trauma and need an expert leader to support them in developing the skills they need to communicate their experiences and expectations appropriately to drive real systems change based on their lived experiences.

Unicorn Solutions, LLC is trusted among youth who are over-represented in both child welfare and juvenile justice settings, and have demonstrated strong partnerships with agencies who provide those services as well as people with lived or living experience with those services. The cultural competency and systems-change skills required for this contract have been clearly demonstrated by Unicorn Solutions, LLC in their previous work with SOCAC, as well as in their contractual relationships with SOCAC’s mandated partners.

There is no other youth engagement contractor who has the necessary understanding of our necessary partners, nor is there a youth engagement contractor who understands those systems from both inside and out, which is necessary for youth with lived experience to meaningfully engage in systems change.

Elliott Hinkle has served as a national master trainer and advisor for the Center for the Study of Social Policy's (CSSP) Youth Thrive initiative since 2014, a widely recognized, evidence-informed framework for supporting youth with lived experience in systems-change contexts. The Youth Thrive framework aligns with SOCAC's approach to meaningful youth engagement, and Elliott is one of a small cohort of certified Youth Thrive trainers nationally who leads training of all other trainers in the curriculum. No other contractor could provide Youth Thrive-informed facilitation support with this level of familiarity with both the framework and SOCAC's model of youth engagement.

Elliott co-authored the Safe Havens II report in partnership with Lambda Legal and Children's Rights, a nationally recognized publication establishing best practices for LGBTQ+ youth in foster care. This report directly informs the type of LGBTQ+-affirming, system-critical lens required for supporting SOCAC's youth leaders, many of whom are LGBTQIA2S+ and have experienced both child welfare and juvenile justice involvement.

Elliott previously served as Vice Chair and Commissioner of the Oregon Governor's Child Foster Care Advisory Commission and as a Lived Experience Expert Partner with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Equity Technical Assistance Center (ETAC), the precise types of Oregon and federal advisory relationships that give them unique standing to bridge youth voice with Oregon's system-change apparatus.

As a recipient of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Equity Award (via Youth Move National), Elliott has received national recognition specifically for their contributions to elevating lived expertise in youth-serving systems, the exact function this contract requires.

2. Prospective contractor/vendor:

Legal entity name: Unicorn Solutions, LLC Address: 622 Beech Street, Casper WY 82601 Contact person: Elliott Orrin Hinkle, Member/Manager Phone: 307.251.3097 Email: elliottunicornsolutions@gmail.com

Protests are due by 3:00 PM within seven calendar days after the first date the notice is posted on OregonBuys. Protests must be sent via mail, fax, email, or hand carried to the following address: Protests via telephone will not be accepted.

Office of Contracts and Procurement ATTN: Heidi Tracy Address: 500 Summer Street NE, E-03, Salem, OR 97301 Phone: 971-372-0652 Fax: 503-378-4324 Email: heidi.s.tracy@odhsoha.orego.gov

Agency reserves the right to expand the scope of Work, and additional phases of work or services beyond the initial term of the Contract. The procurement will result in an initial two-year contract with options for additional compensation and extensions of the contract term up to 10 years, subject to additional funding being available.

3. Written findings of fact (market research):

The findings below must include factual information supporting the determination that meet the sole source requirement in statute.

Pursuant to ORS 279B.075, Agency must conduct market research that supports the assertion that there is only one source that can provide the goods or services. Market research includes utilization of the internet, trade journals, agency vendor lists, professional organizations, studies, catalogs/industrial periodicals, vendor sources, yellow pages, etc.

For information technology contracts, any ownership or proprietary issues should be fully addressed with written documentation to support facts.

Agency must select at least one of the findings and prepare the determination as it specifically relates to the good or service being procured. More than one finding can be addressed. The findings are as follows:

Pursuant to ORS 279B.075 (2)(a): Provide findings supporting the determination that the efficient utilization of existing goods requires the acquisition of compatible goods or services from only one source.

or Pursuant to ORS 279B.075 (2)(b): Provide findings supporting the determination that the goods or services required for the exchange of software or data with other public or private agencies are available from only one source.

or Pursuant to ORS 279B.075 (2)(c): Provide findings supporting the determination that the goods or services are for use in a pilot or an experimental project.

or

Pursuant to ORS 279B.075 (2)(d): Any other findings that support the conclusion that the goods or services are available from only one source.

1. Pre-existing trust relationship with SOCAC youth leaders. As documented by SOCAC staff, Elliott Hinkle has already established a stable, therapeutic-quality trust relationship with the specific youth leaders currently participating in SOCAC's work — a relationship built through prior subcontract performance. Research on youth with complex trauma and system involvement consistently establishes that disrupting existing, stable adult relationships causes measurable harm and disengagement. No other contractor could replicate this existing relational foundation.

2. Unique convergence of lived expertise and professional credentials. Elliott holds personal lived experience in Wyoming's foster care system, Oregon certifications as a Youth Peer Support Specialist and Traditional Health Worker, a B.S. in Women, Gender, Sexuality, and Queer Studies, and 14+ years of professional experience in child welfare, youth mental health, and LGBTQIA2S+ advocacy. This convergence lived expertise plus formal credentialing plus sustained professional practice — is demonstrably rare and directly required by this scope of work. Elliott has developed and supported numerous projects and programs relating to engaging people with lived experience and supporting systems that do this work.

3. Oregon-specific systems knowledge. Elliott has served on the Oregon Governor's Child Foster Care Advisory Commission, as a Lived Experience Expert Partner at HHS/ETAC, and has worked directly with SOCAC's mandated system partners over multiple contract cycles. They understand not only the general landscape of systems change but the specific institutional histories, power dynamics, and personnel within Oregon's child welfare and behavioral health systems — knowledge that cannot be rapidly acquired by a new contractor without significant disruption to SOCAC's work.

4. LGBTQIA2S+ expertise with child welfare system-specific application. Elliott co-authored the Safe Havens II report with Lambda Legal and Children's Rights, participated in developing national guidance on placement of transgender youth in congregate care (Human Rights Campaign, 2023), and has consulted nationally on LGBTQ+ affirmation in foster care systems. Given the over-representation of LGBTQIA2S+ youth among SOCAC's youth leaders, this specialized expertise is operationally necessary.

5. National Youth Thrive trainer since 2014. The Youth Thrive framework undergirds SOCAC's approach to youth engagement. Elliott is a certified trainer of Youth Thrive for Youth and has been embedded in the CSSP Youth Thrive network for over a decade. This depth of framework knowledge, applied specifically to the Oregon context, cannot be replicated by a vendor new to either Youth Thrive or

SOCAC.

APPROVED:

By:

Signed by DPO electronically via OregonBuys Kirk N. Rhoades or acting DPO