Attachment_2-B__Offeror_s_Experience_and_Capacity.pdf

Request for Proposal Solicitation No.

BPM003221

Description:

Child Specific Recruitment

State of Arizona Department of Child Safety

Office of Procurement & Contracts 3003 N. Central Ave., 20th Fl.

Phoenix, AZ 85012

PART 2 of the Solicitation Documents SECTION 2-D: Offer Forms, Attachment 2-B

Page 24 of 53 2 A v a i l a b l e o n l i n e a t : A P P . A Z . g o v

Attachment 2-B Offeror’s Experience and Capacity

The Offeror is cautioned that it is the Offeror's sole responsibility to submit information related to the evaluation categories and that the State of Arizona is under no obligation to solicit such information if it is not included with the Offeror's proposal. Failure of the Offeror to submit such information may cause an adverse impact on the evaluation of the Offeror's proposal. It is strongly discouraged for you to copy the Scope of Work in lieu of providing unique responses below.

OFFER MAY BE DETERMINED AS NON-RESPONSIVE IF ALL QUESTIONS ARE NOT ANSWERED FULLY.

Question 1: Describe the Entity’s experience, including the number of years of experience, history and capability, in providing the Services offered in response to this RFP including but not limited to:

a. Experience in developing Child Specific Recruitment Plans

b. Experience in interviewing children and adults associated with the child

c. Experience in collaborating with professionals to meet the needs of the child

Offeror Response:

EXPERIENCE, HISTORY AND CAPABILITY, IN PROVIDING SERVICES

Christian Family Care (CFC) has been serving the at-risk community for 39 years. Founded in 1982, CFC is a private nonprofit, 501(c)(3) social services agency which provides services focused on meeting the needs of children and families throughout Arizona. CFC’s fundamental belief is that a nurturing family is vital to every child’s success, and that children’s needs are best served in a family-like setting. Our core values are: Compassion, Integrity, and Serving the Community.

CFC focuses on serving the at-risk populations of children and families through long-term relationships; specialized training; and family preservation and stability evidenced by the continuum of services we offer including:

• Child Specific Recruitment (aka Specialized Youth Permanency)

• DCS Adoption

• Family Coaching – trauma-informed parent coaching for foster and adoptive families

• Family Care Learning – online and live classes to support foster and adoptive families

• Foster Care – including Therapeutic Foster Care

• Mentoring – for at-risk youth and young adults

• Pregnancy Counseling – decision-making counseling; parenting support & education; and adoption planning

• Preschool & Family Empowerment Center (fall of 2021) – early childhood education and family support;

professional counseling; resources and referrals

• Private Infant Adoption

• Professional Counseling – Trauma-informed; for Children, Families, Adults and Couples

• Safe Families for Children – short term housing for children experiencing a family crisis; family support and connection between placing family and host family, in collaboration with the host family’s church.

• Starfish – coaching and life skills for aging out or aged-out foster youth to help facilitate a stable transition to adulthood with supportive connections CFC is a long-time partner with DCS and has provided quality services under multiple contracts to families, youth, and children Statewide. CFC is currently a partner with ADCS under the FAS contract implemented in 2018. CFC has https://procure.az.gov/bso/

State of Arizona Department of Child Safety

Office of Procurement & Contracts

Page 25 of 53 2 been meeting the permanency needs of children identified by ADCS as needing specialized recruitment since 2015.

Prior to 2015, CFC was providing child specific recruitment under the HRSS contract in Tucson.

To demonstrate the scope and experience of CFC in providing services, below are the number of clients served in all CFC programs and services.

Annual Numbers 2018-2020

SYP (Child Specific Recruitment) Youth Served 175

Youth Adopted through SYP Program 100

SYP Families Referred to CFC’s Family Coaching (stabilization/support) 147

SYP Youth Connected with a Mentor in a Relationship 39

Professional Counseling - Children Served 158

Foster and Adoptive Children Served (including Therapeutic Foster Care/DDD) 1309

Children Adopted through Foster Care & DCS Adoption Programs 295

Parents (non-duplicate) Taking Family Care Learning Courses 567

Starfish Youth and Young Adults Served 26

CFC strives to deliver the highest quality of services based on a family-centered, strength-based approach. We are unique in that any services a child or teen in ADCS custody requires can be addressed within our Agency. We strive to stand out among other agencies who do the same work; all that we do, we do with excellence.

• CFC is accredited by the Council on Accreditation (COA) and has maintained accreditation since 2002.

• CFC is certified by the Best Christian Workplace Institute, evidenced by annual employee surveys and annual agency-culture consulting by the Institute.

• As a Christian organization, CFC is well-connected with churches in most regions throughout the State.

Churches routinely provide tangible support to our families (donation drives for parents, backpacks, Christmas gifts, and Easter baskets for foster children), as well as service projects and other material goods (laptops and food), money for things like rent and utilities, and gift cards for families to use on food or fun activities.

• CFC works closely with the Hispanic community to deliver education and training to families within the Hispanic church. CFC-developed family trainings are provided in Spanish when possible.

• Family Coaching is a service unique to CFC. Family Coaching is available to all families who foster or adopt through CFC, or who adopt a child in our SYP (Child Specific Recruitment) program, at no cost to the family.

Families are provided up to 6 sessions of individualized trauma-informed parent coaching and support to encourage, stabilize, and preserve foster/adoptive placements. This is offered to adoptive families even after their case is closed, if they request help with an adopted child, months or even years down the road.

• CFC’s Adoption-specific program under the FAS contract goes above and beyond in several ways. First, the program is focused on families open to the adoption of older children (7+). This has been identified as the greatest need by ADCS. To better prepare families, CFC created a 6 class (24 hours) education series addressing the certification process; grief, loss, and openness in adoption; trauma; attachment; stress management and parenting strategies; and adolescent development and adoption identity. This education series was prepared by licensed clinicians experienced in foster care and adoption to specifically expose and address the unique needs of older children in the system. Another way the program exceeds expectations is in efforts made to ensure children placed in CFC homes experience the benefits of stable and committed marriages. Married couples who desire to adopt an older child or teen complete a marriage

State of Arizona Department of Child Safety

Office of Procurement & Contracts

Page 26 of 53 2 assessment called the Prepare-Enrich. This additional home study session is dedicated to exploring the couple’s marriage, their strengths, and areas of growth so children who are placed in CFC homes experience the benefits of a stable and committed marriage. A final way our program excels is that staff are trained in the delivery of the Adult Attachment Interview which is offered to families who desire to gain a deeper understanding of how their own attachment style may influence – for better or worse – how they parent an adopted older child.

• The Starfish program at CFC is the agency’s response to the growing crisis of aging-out foster youth who may not find permanency through adoption. Starfish works closely with our SYP program to identify youth who need a stable, supportive relationship with a Starfish coach who can help them transition into adulthood with a plan and needed skills. Often, these youth have disengaged from professional counseling services and believe the answer to their pain is to leave the system as quickly as possible at the age of 18. Starfish Coaches provide relationship-based coaching in milieu, transitional life skills not otherwise provided, vocational assessment and support, and housing planning.

• Family Support Services are offered to clients who are pregnant and considering their options. Education, counseling, and support are offered to each client on a long-term basis regardless of the decision to parent, place, or terminate. Parenting planning is offered to clients who can safely parent, thus helping the parent avoid the need for system involvement and, ideally, prevent abuse and neglect.

• Safe Families for Children (SFFC) is unique to CFC in Arizona. SFFC provides short-term housing for children when their family is experiencing a crisis. The goal is to prevent child abuse and neglect, keep them from becoming entangled with DCS, and connect the families to a community of support who come alongside them even after the housing ends. The goal of SFFC is to provide parents the time and space they need to take care of an immediate crisis while their children are voluntarily placed in a safe and nurturing home.

• Family Care Learning - One of the important trauma-informed perspectives CFC uses in training is the Trust Based Relational Intervention® model from Texas Christian University Institute. Classes and group coaching sessions are offered to CFC families, as well as community families. CFC also offers live webinars for families who live in the outlying areas of the state. These webinars cover the same material as the in-person training and allow families to receive the training in their own home.

• CFC has a counseling department (Arizona Family Counseling) in the Phoenix region and plans to open counseling in Tucson before this contract would take effect. Counseling is provided by licensed counselors and social workers and qualified interns. It is trauma-informed, and therapists are experienced in topics and issues related to the needs of foster/adoptive children and families. TBRI® principles are woven into child and family counseling. CFC also provides counseling on a private-pay basis for individuals, couples, children, and families and is open to anyone seeking this service. In addition, Arizona Family Counseling, as a specialty provider, has contracts with (6) AHCCCS Health plans to provide trauma and attachment counseling to children within the behavioral health system.

• CFC has a rigorous risk-management protocol which is managed by our Quality Management department.

When an incident requires the attention or support beyond that of their supervisor, staff completes an Incident Report (IR). IRs are reviewed by the supervisor, program manager, director and the Quality Assurance Manager to identify training needs and/or any program modifications that could improve service delivery and/or stabilization of placements. A second level review, called a Critical Incident Review (CIR), occurs when any IR contains evidence of the threat, risk of, or actual harm of any person, or when multiple IR are submitted for one home. CIRs occur in the form of meetings and are attended by the staff who initiated the IR and their supervisor, as well as the Chief of Programs, the Quality Assurance Manager, the Foster Care Director and Manager, the Clinical Director, the Family Services Director, and Youth in Transition Program Manager. If the incident is of a continuous or serious enough nature, the incident/family/placement is referred to the Agency Risk Management Committee which meets quarterly.

Any recommendations from the CIR to mitigate risk factors are communicated to the Risk Management Committee and tracked through the agency Performance Quality Improvement process.

State of Arizona Department of Child Safety

Office of Procurement & Contracts

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If awarded this contract, CFC will continue to apply its high standards of excellence and continuum of services to the children in need of permanency.

a. Experience in developing Child Specific Recruitment Plans.

CFC has extensive experience in the development of Child Specific Recruitment plans having written over a thousand over the past 6+ years. CFC has demonstrated the development of child-specific, non-generic CSRPs that reflect the individual and unique needs, interests, and strengths of the youth. To create these plans, the Youth Advocate (YA) combines information gleaned from the file dig, from interviews with current and past team members and current and past caregivers with the information learned during their first child interview. More importantly, we seek to truly understand who the youth is – their interests, hobbies, needs, and strengths. We base the recruitment plan around these things. The YA’s goal is to find out from the youth what is important to them about a potential adoptive family. They seek to understand their perspective and point of view rather than just asking questions to gather facts and details. YAs encourages youth to take an active and central role in their recruitment plan and involves them in decisions on recruitment materials and methods. YAs understand that for a placement to be successful, they must spend time educating and preparing the youth for adoption. As much emphasis must be placed on the youth’s mental and emotional preparation for the transition into an adoptive home as the efforts to recruit a family.

b. Experience in interviewing children and adults associated with the child.

CFC's perspective on interviewing adults associated with the child’s case has evolved with experience. Early on under the current contract, the YA would send for a Seneca report which generated dozens of names and then send certified letters to those individuals. Over the past three (3) years, our philosophy and process has changed. Now, when we contact family or past connections, we value the potential relationships themselves, as much as we do the answer to question of whether they can provide permanency. We try to integrate the work we do with youth in the 3-5-7 Model into this process by engaging family or past connections in their healing journey. At a minimum, information from family or past connections can help the youth interpret the facts differently. Often, the child blames themselves for one aspect or another related to their removal. We have experience engaging family and past connections in repairing this thinking by requesting that they write a letter to the youth explaining the facts and how/why it was not their fault. We approach interviews with past and present connections as a way of gathering information, identifying potential long term or permanent supports, and using these things to help the use make sense of their past because this better prepares them for adoption.

c. Experience in collaborating with professionals to meet the needs of the child.

CFC values all members of a child’s current Child and Family Team. We seek to establish connections with members of the team as early in the process as possible. Time is spent outside the CFT meeting talking with and interviewing key team members to better understand the youth in order to advocate for their needs in a family. This also helps to build a better family profile. Since YAs have no actual decision-making power regarding matching and placing, these relationships are critical when it comes to the influence we want to have in potential matches and/or transition planning.

We understand that 3-5-7 work is not therapy. However, it can support the good work being done in therapy. Partnering with the child’s therapist around therapy goals helps us to better support the youth in the 3-5-7 work. Interviewing and engaging in ongoing conversations with the child’s therapist can help the YA shift their energy toward building a profile for the preferred family and stay away from digging into the past to identify past hurts or grief and loss when contraindicated.

Question 2: Describe in detail, the Entity’s experience in providing culturally relevant services, including but not limited to non-English speaking families.

State of Arizona Department of Child Safety

Office of Procurement & Contracts

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a. Describe your agency’s experience working with families and children who are part of the LGBTQ community.

Offeror Response:

EXPERIENCE PROVIDING CULTURALLY RELEVANT SERVICES CFC demonstrates respect and provides culturally relevant services to all clients, volunteers, community partners, and youth and families in the SYP program.

CFC does not discriminate against age, race, sex, religious or political affiliation, sexual orientation, or physical handicap when receiving a child referred for care by AZDCS. CFC values each of these attributes as vital pieces of a person’s identity and understands the impact upon a child when they are placed into a home where any of these are incongruent or when caregivers are not educated or accepting of such differences. CFC strives to support youth and families in having healthy conversations surrounding topics they do not have the luxury to ignore because of adoption.

CFC requires all Youth Advocates (YA) to receive at least three hours annually of continuing education in cultural competence training to increase understanding and sensitivity to the various cultures encountered while serving SYP children and the families who provide them with permanency. The SYP program is child-specific which means the focus is on the needs of each child. YAs take a learners approach with the youth on their caseload and maintain awareness of intrinsic biases, assumptions, and stereotypes. They create the space and opportunity for the youth to talk, using empathetic listening to see the world from the youths’ lens and perspective. YAs routinely seek out training opportunities to deepen their knowledge and understanding of topics they identify as deficits. CFC budgets money for each YA to attend trainings for job-related topics. After the YA attends a quality training, they prepare a presentation of what they learned to the other YAs so all can benefit.

CFC teaches families about Transracial and Cross-Cultural Adoption. We want families to make an informed decision about parenting a child from a race and/or culture that is different from their own rather than to approach adoption from a color-blind perspective. This education is intended to help families think through the importance of celebrating race and culture and finding ways to keep the child connected to their heritage. We teach parents that differences are noticed even if they are not spoken about by the child. It is the parent’s job to help the child adjust, stay connected to their heritage, and to combat racism as a family. We believe this approach best provides a child with the safety they need to be nurtured, grow, and thrive. Our class on transracial adoption is in current development to become a webinar, making it accessible and convenient to all families within CFC and outside the agency.

NON-ENGLISH-SPEAKING FAMILIES It is not uncommon for families who do not speak English to inquire about services for a specific SYP youth. CFC makes every attempt to hire and retain bilingual staff to better serve non- English-speaking clients. When a staff who speaks the primary language of a client is unavailable, CFC has experience using Language Connection to communicate with the client. CFC understands and supports the concept that language should not be a barrier to quality service delivery. CFC has recently focused on intentionally serving the Hispanic community, providing trainings and webinars in Spanish, as well as English.

CFC also has experience working with Native American youth and values the intent of the Indian Child Welfare Act to preserve a child’s connection to their tribe and heritage. CFC works closely with Tribal Case Managers.

a. EXPERIENCE WORKING WITH LGBTQ FAMILIES AND CHILDREN

Occasionally, youth in the SYP program will identify as part of the LGBTQ community or express confusion or questions about their gender or sexual identity. Youth Advocates (YA) have worked with youth who are gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, trans, and questioning; they approach these youth with the same respect, non-judgement, and acceptance as they do all youth. CFC has experience working with families from the LGBTQ community in our SYP program. CFC does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, sex, religious or political affiliation, sexual orientation, or physical handicap when vetting families interested in SYP youth. Our screening process is focused on the specific needs of the youth; this helps us consistently vet all families in the same strength-based way. Families are initially asked questions about the ways in which they plan to support a youth if their family culture, religious beliefs, or sexual orientation is different from the identified youth and challenges them to look for areas in which they may need to seek some knowledge and training.

State of Arizona Department of Child Safety

Office of Procurement & Contracts

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Taking a learner’s approach, CFC has invested in community relationships to better serve this population. For example, staff recently met with a counselor at Mulligan‘s Manor in Tempe to learn more about a specific youth, his needs, and how we could best support him. Another staff helped support and transition a trans-male youth into a home with same sex parents. As a result, the youth felt safe enough to identify as “Ben.” Another example of the support provided to an LGBTQ was when a YA connected a youth to a mentor of the same race in her community because the youth had expressed the struggle she was having in a school with no other children who looked like her.

Our approach with families adopting LGBTQ youth is to instill in them the need for and benefit of patience with the processing and discovery phase of adolescence, as well as the skills to give the youth room to explore these things without bias. This is the same approach we take with families who are parenting transracially, parenting a highly traumatized youth, or parenting a child with different religious beliefs.

Question 3: Describe how you’ve been successful in identifying adoptive and/or legal guardians for children in out-of-home care.

a. What measures have you taken to locate potential permanent caregivers for children who have been identified by DCS as falling into specific categories such as teens and siblings?

Offeror Response:

DEDICATED WEBSITE CFC maintains a website dedicated to the children in our SYP program – www.ConnectOneNow.org. All youth with a media release are posted to this website and the website is regularly promoted on social media. Families who find the website are provided information on how to adopt, if not already certified, and contact information for the children in CFC’s SYP program. Inquiries about specific children are sent to the CFC Family Finder. From October 2020 through May 2021, 606 inquiries were forwarded to the Family Finder from this website.

FAMILY FINDER POSITION AND INTERNAL DATABASE OF FAMILIES The role of the Family Finder is to screen potential families for compatibility with the needs of the children in the program. Inquiries are responded to by the Family Finder as promptly as possible within 2 business days. The Family Finder focuses on building rapport with the family and uses a consistent, structured approach to screening and follow-up. Since not every family who inquirers about a particular child is best able to meet that child’s needs, the Family Finder gets to know the family’s strengths and hopes for adoption and adds certified families to an internal database. This database gives Youth Advocates an additional source of families from which to draw upon when looking for families for newly referred youth. Since this position was implemented in 2019, 371 families have been vetted and 10 have been matched with a youth in the CFC SYP program.

DCS ADOPTION PROGRAM SPECIALIZING IN OLDER CHILD ADOPTION CFC certifies families with a desire to adopt an older child through our DCS Adoption Program, which is under the FAS contract with AZDCS. This program specialized in the certification of families who desire to adopt an older child, 7+, since this is this is the greatest need.

We take a unique approach to training and preparation. To help shape realistic expectations and minimize the risk of disruption, we developed a 6 class, 24-hour Adoption “Boot Camp”. This education series was designed to prepare families in the topics of home study process/certification; grief, loss, and openness in adoption; trauma; attachment;

stress management/parenting strategies; and adolescent development/adoption identity. It also builds community among like-minded families and feeds into a support group specifically for families adopting older children. The education series is offered quarterly and promoted via social media to draw in new families. It is also promoted and offered to CFC foster families who may be considering fostering or adopting an older child, teen, or sibling group that includes a teen.

The DCS Adoption team and the Youth Advocates meet regularly to talk about the families in process, certified families and whether any are a match to the current youth needing permanency.

The RFP clearly communicates the State’s initiative to transition children into family-like settings. This education series is intended to increase the number of CFC adoptive and foster families who make an informed decision to http://www.connectonenow.org/

State of Arizona Department of Child Safety

Office of Procurement & Contracts

Page 30 of 53 2 adopt or foster a youth and feel equipped to do so. This education series is also promoted by the Family Finder and offered to any family inquiring about our SYP youth regardless of their licensing agency. To remove barriers to attendance, the series is currently offered virtually and at no cost to non-CFC families interested in an SYP youth.

MEASURES TAKEN TO LOCATE POTENTIAL PERMANENT CAREGIVERS Creative and persistent strategies are used to locate and reevaluate potential permanent caregivers. Due to the length of time in care for many SYP youth, CFC knows that circumstances change and that past connections, family members, or previous caregivers may need a second or third look. Youth Advocates (YA) take a relentless approach to the pursuit of family members and past caregivers, when safe and appropriate to do so, and continually provide updates about youth. Rather than approaching potential caregivers with the concept of adoption, although this is the ultimate goal, YAs build rapport and ask questions aimed at identifying any barriers that may exist in providing permanency. This approach has been proven successful in the identification of caregivers capable of providing permanency and in creating a responsible plan to reenter them into the youth’s life and current circumstances. At the bare minimum, contact and communication with family provides information that may be missing from the youth’s story. The disconnection a youth has to their past and to their biological family leaves a gap in knowledge and a general sense of emptiness or loss. Even when the pursuit of biological family does not result in permanency, these connections broaden the youth’s support network and help the YA fill in gaps of missing information to help the youth process through grief and loss and better tell their story. As the CFC program manager likes to say, “Kids need grandma’s, too. If all they can do is be a grandma, that is significant to the youth.”

Youth Advocates take time to truly get to know the youth, which better directs their research into the community for potential caregivers. CFC casts a wide net in the community to find potential caregivers based on child-specific interests, hobbies, and needs. Social media is used to reach out to groups formed around a particular topic or need (such as Autism). SYP children are presented at Foster Parent College on a quarterly basis and documented in child’s subsequent CSRP. CFC partners with Bethany Christian Services on a quarterly basis to share profiles of youth in our program to their certified and licensed families, nationwide. CFC also works closely with Agape Adoptions, who share their family profiles monthly to promote potential matches.

Question 4: Describe the steps that you will take to ensure a low staff turnover rate of Key Personnel (employees responsible for carrying out tasks pertaining to this Scope of Work). Include how you plan to ensure ongoing responsiveness to the requirements of the Contract and to the needs of the State in case of staff turnover for designated Key Personnel.

a. Include staff turnover rate for the last year

b. Average time to hire staff

Offeror Response:

In 2018, CFC adopted a competency-based hiring and training method. Interviews are competency-based and training plans are designed to fill the competency gaps and strengthen existing competencies. CFC also hires based on the candidate’s connection with our mission and vision, which is important for engagement and retention. CFC also offers compensation and benefits in the top 25% of the market and provides annual increases. The agency prides itself on fostering a team-focused, connected work environment which includes statewide quarterly “all-staff” meetings, annual social and team-building events, and regular communication on Workplace Social Media.

The CFC application process requires an uploaded resume and complete job application which includes all contact information, previous employment data, 3 personal references and 3 professional references. CFC‘s hiring process takes place in our HR Information System, Paylocity. New employees are required to upload TB Test Results within the last year, a copy of their degree, a current Motor Vehicle Report Record (within 3 months), proof of auto insurance, a copy of vehicle registration, and their Arizona State fingerprint clearance card. CFC understands that we are required to verify that those providing services under this contract do not incur a DUI or at-fault accident.

Within their first week as an employee, new employees fill out either Form DCS-1083 Direct Service Position Background Check Verification/Status Report (submitted to DCS for verification) or CSO-1637 Background Check

State of Arizona Department of Child Safety

Office of Procurement & Contracts

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Authorization (entered into AzDES electronic database, Quick Connect, for processing and verification). During the first week, the employee submits to a 5-panel drug screen and their degree is verified through National Student Clearinghouse or the school they attended. A complete personnel file with all of these items is kept in a secure folder on the CFC server with limited access.

Each year CFC participates in the National Best Christian Workplace (BCWP) Survey. This is a confidential survey of all CFC staff, including Foster and Adoptive staff, in order to determine levels of morale and communication within the organization. Where the scores are low in each program, focus groups are held and adjustments are made to improve communication, morale, and quality of leadership for the department. CFC has scored at the level of a Healthy or Flourishing Culture for the past 5 consecutive years in this BCWP survey.

Youth Advocates are provided training opportunities to further their professional development in topics that increase their skills and knowledge. Training topics related to the work they do with youth include, but are not limited to trauma, attachment, grief and loss, and adoption identity. The agency requires 14 hours of job-related training per year. Allowing Youth Advocates to vary their ongoing training according to their identified areas for growth benefits the entire team because Youth Advocates bring back a summary of the training content to the rest of the team. Every other month, all Youth Advocates participate in a 3-5-7 Model coaching session during which they learn strategies to use the model more effectively and to staff individual cases. Staff are required to attend the agency’s adoption education “Boot Camp” in their first year of hire. Staff are provided opportunities to participate in Trust Based Relationship Intervention® (TBRI) coaching sessions on a regular basis with a CFC clinician.

CFC is intentional about identifying Youth Advocates who desire to grow in their leadership potential. CFC provides excellent benefits, including tuition reimbursement and raises for the attainment of a master’s degree. Youth Advocates are provided monthly supervision which is used for staffing cases, problem-solving tough scenarios, and to discuss self-care and education and career goals.

The Youth Advocate turnover rate last year, 2020, was 10.4%. The average time to hire a Youth Advocate was approximately 30 days.

Question 5: Describe in detail your ability and capacity to perform under awarded contract.

Offeror Response:

CFC is ready, willing, and has the capacity to perform the services required to support the youth identified by the State as needing specialized recruitment for legal permanency. CFC has been working under contract to provide Child Specific Recruitment with an average capacity of 140 youth per year. We have the staffing structure in place to continue to serve the 115 children currently awaiting legal permanency.

As a program, SYP caseloads are currently below this RFP recommendation of 20-25 which means we have the capacity to absorb additional referrals in all counties. CFC has a matrix that helps to realistically balance case load by more than a number; cases are weighed based on where they are in the process and how much time is needed for that stage. Based on this matrix, current caseloads average 20 actual cases and 25 cases with the weighted average.

If the SYP program needs exceed our current caseload capacity, we will add staff to meet this demand.

CFC currently has 7 Youth Advocates, working out of two regional offices, who are employed to carry out the services described in the Scope of Work for this current RFP. Staff typically work Monday through Friday but have the flexibility to include evenings and weekends to best serve children and families. Staff have clear Central Registry Background Checks and current Level One fingerprint clearance cards. This is a hiring requirement of CFC prior to delivering services to children and families. CFC intends to provide these services through the following personnel and locations.

Southern Region: (Tucson) – Serving Pima and Pinal

• 1 Full-time Youth Advocate Central Region: (Phoenix) – Serving All Maricopa counties and Yavapai county

• 1 Full-Time Director of Family Services (Statewide position responsible for 6 programs)

State of Arizona Department of Child Safety

Office of Procurement & Contracts

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• 1 Full-Time Program Manager of Youth in Transition Services (SYP, Mentoring, Starfish; Statewide)

• 1 Full-time Program Supervisor of SYP (Statewide)

• 1 Part-time Program Coordinator (Statewide)

• 5 Full-time Youth Advocates

• 1 Part-Time Youth Advocates

• 1 Part-Time Family Finder

• 1 Full-time Administrative Assistant (Statewide)

The CFC Chief Programs Officer (CPO) oversees all programs at CFC, including the Specialized Youth Permanency program. The Director of Family Services receives supervision twice each month with the CPO. The Family Services Director provides monthly supervision with the Youth in Transition Program Manager. The Program Manager meets monthly for supervision with the SYP Supervisor.

End of Attachment 2-B