A24 Sources Source Notice.pdf

Sources Sought Notice

Requirement Description

Description: IV&V and Application Services - Sources Sought Notice

The Drug Enforcement Administration is issuing this sources sought notice as a means of conducting market research to identify parties having an interest in and the resources to support this requirement for providing national community outreach and prevention engagement in the effort to fight the war on drugs.

This is done by engaging in nationwide conferences and training sessions in support of the Office of Congressional and Public Affairs. Current contract number is 15DDHQ20A00000008. The incumbent is Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America. The awarding office was The Office of Acquisition and Relocation Management DEA. The result of this market research will contribute to determining the method of procurement.

The applicable North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code and Product Service Code (PSC) assigned to this procurement are:

• NAICS 611430

• PSC -U008

There is no solicitation at this time. This request for capability information does not constitute a request for proposals; submission of any information in response to this market survey is purely voluntary; the government assumes no financial responsibility for any costs incurred. This is not an evaluation of proposals but an assessment of vendors’ capabilities. Therefore, a high-level assessment of the capability statements will be performed. Generic brochures are not being requested. Vendors should provide information to stress their competencies, differentiators, and past performance showing or demonstrating:

• Core Competencies to demonstrate expertise.

• Differentiator’s listing/discussing unique factors and benefits of the services that set them apart from others.

• Past Performance listing/discussing previous similar work showing benefits and how the past projects relate to Agency’s needs.

If your organization has the potential capacity to perform these contract services, please provide the following information: 1) organization name, address, email address, website address, telephone number, and size and type of ownership for the organization; and 2) tailored capability statements addressing the particulars of this effort, with appropriate documentation supporting claims of organizational and staff capability. If significant subcontracting or teaming is anticipated in order to deliver technical capability, organizations should address the administrative and management structure of such arrangements.

The government will evaluate market information to ascertain potential market capacity to 1) provide services consistent in scope and scale with those described in this notice and otherwise anticipated; 2) secure and apply the full range of corporate financial, human capital, and technical resources required to successfully perform similar requirements; 3) implement a successful project management plan that includes: compliance with program schedules; cost containment; meeting and tracking performance;

hiring and retention of personnel and risk mitigation; and 4) provide services under a performance based service acquisition contract.

Based on the responses to this sources sought notice/market research, this requirement may be further-set aside for any of the socio-economic programs, or set-aside for small business competition, or procured through full and open competition, or procured through GSA. Interested potential offerors must clearly specify the following: their Unique Entity Identifier (UEI), business size applicable to NAICS, socioeconomic business category, GSA contract number (if applicable), and any other applicable GWAC number. Telephone inquiries will not be accepted or acknowledged, and no feedback or evaluations will be provided to companies regarding their submissions.

Submission Instructions: Interested parties who consider themselves qualified to perform the services listed in the attached Statement of Work are invited to submit a response to this Sources Sought Notice by 5:00pm EST on or before 13 March 2025. All responses under this Sources Sought Notice must be emailed to Charles Ivy at Charles.d.ivy@dea.gov. Additional information on the required services is listed in the Statement of Work.

If you have any questions concerning this opportunity, please contact the Contract Specialist at Charles.d.ivy@dea.gov.

November 2024

National Community Outreach & Prevention Engagement Request for Information

Introduction:

The Drug Enforcement Administration is continuing to work with the Department of Justice, the Office of National Drug Control Policy, and other federal agencies to address the ongoing drug threats across the country within each of DEA’s 23 field divisions. These threat categories can cover narcotics, stimulants, depressants, hallucinogens, marijuana/cannabis, steroids, inhalants, and synthetic drugs. Each DEA field division will identify the local drug threat through their localized law enforcement data, substance misuse data trends, or national data. Through DEA’s National Community Outreach & Prevention Engagement, each field division will be given resources and tools to help support and contribute to localized substance misuse awareness and prevention outreach efforts using a public health approach. DEA continues to bridge the gap between public safety and public health efforts through building community coalition capacity through youth, schools, and workplace engagement.

NCOE is an effort to expand on DEA’s already successful DEA 360 Strategy and Operation Engage initiatives and provide substance misuse prevention strategies to all or up to 23 DEA field divisions throughout the United States to include Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, and the Caribbean. Each field division will identify one city/geographic area (not necessarily the main field division location) within their area of responsibility, identify the most prevalent drug threat within that area, and lay out a strategic plan to conduct targeted community outreach engagements through a comprehensive approach using demonstrated evidence-based and science-informed prevention strategies.

This blanket purchase agreement speaks to several of the primary elements of a comprehensive approach to the community outreach portion of NCOE: adult/community, youth, workplace, and school engagement.

Community Outreach Goals:

Have a positive impact in communities throughout the year (from time of outreach launch for one calendar year) that will serve as models for other communities that are facing similar drug issues.

Increase capacity by increasing the number of public-private partnerships in each NCOE community to collaborate on efforts to reduce substance misuse costs and consequences.

Increase in community members’ awareness of the scope of substance misuse-related problems in local communities.

Increase in engagement by educators, parents, and other caregivers in using science-based prevention materials to prevent substance use or misuse.

Objectives:

1) Connect DEA field offices with the communities they serve. Provide DEA leadership the ability to bring together disparate sectors of local communities, bridging the gap between law enforcement and public health.

2) Partner with community-based prevention stakeholders to increase community awareness and readiness.

3) Support local drug-free community coalitions and other prevention providers to ensure a comprehensive approach to drug use and misuse prevention and education.

4) Raise awareness on local drug threats and over time change attitudes to reduce drug demand, use, and misuse through increased collaboration and prevention education at the local level.

Tasks/Deliverables:

DEA requires a vendor experienced with effectively working with different types of communities in different areas of the United States to accomplish the following tasks. Regarding size and scope, the vendor must be able to support all 23 field divisions on a national scale simultaneously.

1) Community Stakeholder Engagement

The vendor shall participate and help facilitate onsite stakeholder meetings at a minimum of 2 hours for key community leaders and influencers in each city during the initial stages of NCOE. These orientation trainings and technical assistance engagements allow for community stakeholders to be introduced to and adopt into NCOE in their respective cities. It is during this portion of the process that the vendor, DEA community outreach specialist, and local and national DEA leadership can mitigate issues that may pose a challenge to combating substance misuse in local settings. Working together as a team, DEA, the vendor, and others will use this support to help move forward any additional planned deliverables. Community stakeholder meetings will help to establish a community baseline of resources, support, and localized services.

2) Teen, Community, and Family Summits The vendor shall support the execution of community and family summits in the selected NCOE cities. The summits will raise awareness about substance misuse, and ultimately spur the identification and sharing of specific local strategies and resources, and strengthen communication among key community stakeholders. The summit will assist the field divisions with the momentum established by DEA’s community outreach efforts and will strengthen support and raise awareness for parents, siblings, and caregivers.

• The vendor shall identify key local contacts to assist in finding a venue and developing targeted invitation lists for the one-day (6-8 hours) summits.

• In consultation with the COS, the vendor shall coordinate and manage tasks, which include but are not limited to:

Event logistics (e.g., onsite support, sending invites, attendee registration, managing RSVPs, coordinating with invitees) Provide subject matter expert trainers relevant to drug use prevention and education or substance use disorders Identify potential stakeholders to cohost summit Provide hotel recommendations Program agenda and other material development Provide notetaking for relevant sessions Coordinate localized media efforts with other summit partners (in consultation with the field division’s public information officer) Draft summit evaluations using QR code and other metrics and any required follow-up actions Miscellaneous support for summit (e.g., providing light refreshments for summit attendees, trinkets, transportation, and publications) *From experience the field divisions have seen attendance vary across summits; teen summits range from 50-2,000 youth; family summits range from 10-200 adults. The vendor must be able to accommodate the wide range of participants.

3) Community Coalition Capacity Building

This training shall effectively address the local drug use issues in the respective communities each DEA field division selects. Through NCOE the vendor shall offer a rigorous one-day or multi-day training experience designed to improve the community stakeholders’ capacity and effectiveness to address the crisis in their respective communities. The training will provide tools, skills, and support to assist communities in increasing their community capacity to address substance misuse problems in their targeted area via a coalition approach.

The vendor shall provide trainings for an emerging group of committed leaders, volunteers, and youth who would like to enhance their substance use prevention coalition or agency in their community, but have had only minimal amount of training to meet this goal.

The vendor shall conduct a one-day (i.e., minimum 4 hours) or multi-day capacity building training that will focus on any of the following:

Understanding the processes used to assess problem behavior and related risk factors Gain a solid understanding of the local community and its issues, developing comprehensive responses to identified problems Training in identifying risk and protective factors Training in substance use prevention 101 Training in identifying environmental strategies o Training in sustainability strategies

Should restrictions still be in place as a result of a public health pandemic or as community organizations prefer, the vendor shall provide a virtual alternative to in-person coalition trainings. CLIN 0002 is included to provide flexibility in case in-person training is not feasible due to a public health pandemic.

As part of the community coalition capacity building effort, the vendor shall conduct a one-day (minimum 4 hours) youth leadership training for up to 50 youth at a time. This training shall be designed to help coalitions, students, schools, and youth-serving organizations to build their capacity to foster youth leadership in the design, implementation, and evaluation of strategies addressing substance use and misuse and related community problems. The youth training shall use evidence-based community problem-solving processes to create community change by improving core competencies for the youth and their adult advisors:

1. Implementing teen academies

2. Peer to peer programs in school settings

3. Youth advocacy

4. Youth ambassadors

5. Implementing a photo voice program in their community

Youth shall learn about and develop their own logic models, which include a wide range of strategic approaches for effective community change, and create evaluation and sustainability plans. The training shall equip youth leaders to develop a plan to change systems, learn advocacy and civic engagement skills, which they can carry out into the communities to address the problems and create goals to effect policy change in their communities.

The vendor shall tailor the Youth Leadership Training to meet the needs and address the issues specific to each community.

Should restrictions still be in place as a result of a public health pandemic or as community organizations prefer, the vendor shall provide a virtual alternative to in-person coalition trainings. CLIN 0002 is included to provide flexibility in case in-person training is not feasible due to COVID-19 restrictions.

4) Workplace Community Engagement

The vendor shall assist companies and other organizations, large and small, to address problematic substance use and misuse in the workplace. The vendor will provide trainings which shall focus on, but not be limited to:

An introduction on how problematic substance use affects employees Important signs and symptoms of use and misuse Importance of employer’s role in addressing drug use-related issues Strategies to support employees or family members who are struggling with substance misuse Strategies to strengthen employer support and services for employees

Should restrictions still be in place as a result of a public health pandemic or as community organizations prefer, the vendor shall provide a virtual alternative to in-person coalition trainings.

5) Custom Virtual or Onsite Training

The vendor shall provide a list of customizable drug use prevention training opportunities that fall within the scope of NCOE. These strategies shall range from 1 hour to 1 day and shall focus on youth, adult/community, educational, and workplace engagement, as well as coalition capacity building. The trainings must be evidence-based or science informed and must be adaptable at the local level.

** All trainings must be culturally relevant and implemented with fidelity.

Co-Sponsorship:

All organizations that partner with the vendor to assist in the execution of this Statement of Work shall be vetted by DEA before they are allowed to be associated with any of the deliverables of this SOW.

Reporting requirements:

For monthly status reports:

The contractor shall provide a formal Monthly Status Report to the COR by the 10th of the following month during active program implementation periods. The MSR shall incorporate metrics sufficient in detail to permit an objective assessment of the Contractor’s performance relative to all performance objectives including work accomplished, schedules, and expenditures for each call order. The MSR shall include, at a minimum, the following information:

• Summary of implementation efforts for that month

• Status of various delivery benchmarks

• Summary of any barriers to the implementation of the deliverables

End of Program Report (for each call order) dependent on the Task/Deliverable:

After the completion of all vendor programming (for each BPA call order) the contractor shall provide the COR with a formal end-of-program summary reporting the final analytics of the field divisions’ programming. This report is due within 45 days of the end of all deliverables within the BPA call order. This report shall include, at minimum, a summary of the metrics from the monthly report throughout the entire program timeframe for the applicable BPA call order plus the following metrics dependent on the task/deliverable:

Community Summits

• Number of participants, participants’ demographics, event details as they are specific to each community (strategies, speakers, effort details), evaluation/survey of summit programming/outcomes of participants.

Coalition Capacity Building Training/Community Alliance Coalition Academy Trainings

• Number of individuals trained, demographics of individuals trained, pre-and post-survey knowledge of the trainees on subject matter covered.

Youth Leadership Training

• Number of youth trained, demographics of individuals trained, and needs/issues addressed specific to the community, and pre-and post-survey knowledge of the trainees on subject matter covered.

Workplace Community Engagement

• Details of organizations/workplaces involved in the training, number of individuals trained, demographics of individuals trained, needs/issues addressed specific to the training, evaluation of knowledge of the trainees on subject matter covered.

Custom Virtual-Based Training

• While much will be dependent on the topics and focus, the vendor will report at minimum on number of participants, demographics of participants, needs/issues addressed in the training specific to the community, program specifics (length/range of training), evaluation of training by participants.

End-of-Year Reporting:

At the end of each calendar year, after all divisions’ activities are completed for the respective program year (approximately January 1 - December 31), the contractor shall provide the COR with a formal end-of-year report within 45 days of all programs’ completion. This report will combine metrics from all call orders for the entire program year. This report shall include, at minimum, a summary of the metrics from the end-of-program reports for each of the applicable call orders along with lessons learned which can be applied to recommendations for future DEA programming.

Security Requirements:

Pending until DEA’s security determination is made.

DEA Point of Contact:

Primary:

Jamila K Robinson, Sr. Prevention Program Manager DEA Community Outreach and Prevention Support Section jamila.k.robinson@dea.gov 202.227.0649

Alternate POC:

Sean Fearns Chief, Community Outreach and Prevention Support Section Sean.T.Fearns@dea.gov 571.776.2881 mailto:jamila.k.robinson@dea.gov mailto:Sean.T.Fearns@dea.gov