RFP 40DHHS-S2254 Final.docx

STATE OF NEVADA

DEPARTMENT OF ADMINISTRATION

Purchasing Division 515 East Musser Street, Suite 300 │ Carson City, NV 89701 Phone: 775-684-0170 │ Fax: 775-684-0188

Solicitation: 40DHHS-S2254 For Rural Nevada Foster Care Recruitment

Release Date: 02/09/2023 Deadline for Submission and Opening Date and Time: 03/21/2023 @ 2:00 pm

Single point of contact for the solicitation:

Christine Phipps, Purchasing Officer II Phone, 775-684-0195 Email Address, c.phipps@admin.nv.gov

(TTY for Deaf and Hard of Hearing, 800-326-6868 Ask the relay agent to dial, 1-775-515-5173/V.)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

APPLICABLE REGULATIONS GOVERNING PROCUREMENT

All applicable Nevada Revised Statutes (NRS) and Nevada Administrative Code (NAC) documentation can be found at: www.leg.state.nv.us/law1.cfm.

Prospective vendors are advised to review Nevada’s ethical standards requirements, including but not limited to NRS 281A, NRS 333.800, and NAC 333.155.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

The State of Nevada Purchasing Division, on behalf of the Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Child and Family Services, Child Welfare is seeking proposals from qualified vendors to provide comprehensive recruitment activities for foster home recruitment in the 15 rural Nevada counties. This contract is to ensure recruitment efforts are locally based and the coverage is county wide. The campaign will utilize all rural media to include billboards, newspapers, other print media, local television and radio stations and social/online media, to reach as large an audience as possible. Quarterly meetings with vendor and DCFS staff for recap of activities and expenditures; DCFS Foster Care staff available weekly for collaboration and input on PR activities for recruiter, updates to social media sites, Recruitment platform and Foster Parent Training updates, and to assist with written Public Service Announcements for radio and television, as described in the scope of work and attachments.

The project is anticipated to begin July 1, 2023, upon BOE approval, and the end date will be June 30, 2027. The contract budget total is $150,000.00 annually beginning FY2024 (July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2024); FY2025 (July 1, 2024 – June 30, 2025); FY2026 (July1, 2025 – June 30, 2026); FY2027 (July 1, 2026 – June 30, 2027). Total contract amount not to exceed $600,000.00.

The State intends to award one (1) contract in conjunction with this Request for Proposals (RFP), as determined in the best interests of the State. The Division of Child and Family Services shall administer contract(s) resulting from this solicitation. The resulting contract(s) are expected to be for a contract term of four (4) years, subject to Board of Examiners approval.

AGENCY BACKGROUND

The Division of Child and Family Services needs more foster homes to keep children involved with the child welfare system in their communities, schools of origin and near family and friends. Without enough foster homes, children are placed out of their communities and away from family supports which makes reunification more difficult.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

The goal of the rural recruitment efforts is to educate and encourage potential foster families living in rural Nevada communities to foster children in their communities; and communicate the vital importance of children staying in their rural communities, in their school of origin, and with their siblings. This can reduce the trauma and anxiety caused by their removal from their parents for identified safety reasons until they can be returned home.

EXPERIENCE

Vendors shall describe their experience advertising in Nevada, specifically rural 15 counties. Minimum of 1 year experience required.

Familiarity with Nevada, and preferably rural Nevada, and some knowledge of foster care.

SCOPE OF WORK

The vendor must provide a comprehensive marketing strategy or workplan to increase the number of foster homes in rural Nevada. The plan should identify marketing and promotional opportunities within rural Nevada communities.

Proposing vendors shall provide a sample billboard design or print story or 60 second radio PSA that message the need for foster homes in rural communities where the children originate. Please provide as a separate attachment to your technical proposal and attach in NevadaEPro.

Services to be provided:

Ongoing bi-weekly communication with DCFS recruitment team and draft recruitment messages for all forms of outreach available in rural Nevada to include but not limited to:

Creating an advertising and communications plan;

Create a rural Media list for advertising opportunities;

Create new content for RuralNVFosterCare.com;

Create banner ads for social media sites and online;

Create 60 and 30 second calls to action for radio throughout the year;

Update/refresh existing radio ads;

Create new billboard content as needed;

Create PR opportunities with all rural media outlets;

Interview guest sheets for DCFS recruiter for radio/television and with approval from Systems Advocate;

Create digital and online follow up gifs;

Negotiate placement, creation of advertising;

Fulfillment of the advertising purchased;

Draft and distribute press releases for rural media distribution;

Create analytic reports for advertising and PR recap to agency.

ATTACHMENTS

ATTACHMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE. To be read and not returned.

Terms and Conditions for Services Terms and Conditions for Goods Rural Region Map

ATTACHMENTS FOR REVIEW. To be read and not returned (unless redlining).

Contract Form Insurance Schedule

PROPOSAL ATTACHMENTS. To be completed and returned.

Cost Schedule: Provide an itemized budget for one year of the project, to include all services listed in the scope of work, not to exceed $150,000.00.

Proposed Staff Resume Reference Questionnaire Attachments for Signature

Vendor Information Response Vendor Certifications Certification Regarding Lobbying Confidentiality and Certification of Indemnification

TIMELINE

QUESTIONS. All questions regarding this solicitation shall be submitted using the Bid Q&A feature in NevadaEPro.

TIMELINE. The following represents the proposed timeline for this project.

All times stated are Pacific Time (PT).

These dates represent a tentative schedule of events.

The State reserves the right to modify these dates at any time.

EVALUATION

Evaluation and scoring are conducted in accordance with NRS 333.335 and NAC 333.160-333.165.

Proposals shall be kept confidential until a contract is awarded.

In the event the solicitation is withdrawn prior to award, proposals remain confidential.

The evaluation committee is an independent committee established to evaluate and score proposals submitted in response to the solicitation.

Financial stability shall be scored on a pass/fail basis.

Proposals shall be consistently evaluated and scored based upon the following factors and relative weights.

Cost proposals will be evaluated based on the following formula.

Cost Factor Weight x (Lowest Cost Submitted by a Vendor / Proposer Total Cost) = Cost Score

MANDATORY MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

Pursuant to NRS 333.311 a contact cannot be awarded to a proposal that does not comply with the requirements listed in this section. Proposal shall include confirmation of compliance with all mandatory minimum requirements.

NEVADA LAW AND STATE INDEMNITY. Pursuant to NRS 333.339, any contract that is entered into may not: (1) Require the filing of any action or the arbitration of any dispute that arises from the contract to be instituted or heard in another state or nation; or (2) Require the State to indemnify another party against liability for damages.

NO BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL. Pursuant to NRS 333.338, the State of Nevada cannot enter a contract with a company unless that company agrees for the duration of the contract not to engage in a boycott of Israel. By submitting a proposal or bid, vendor agrees that if it is awarded a contract, it will not engage in a boycott of Israel as defined in NRS 333.338(3)(a).

INDEMNIFICATION. Required contract terms on Indemnification: "To the fullest extent permitted by law, Contractor shall indemnify, hold harmless and defend, not excluding the State’s right to participate, the State from and against all liability, claims, actions, damages, losses, and expenses, including, without limitation, reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs, arising out of any breach of the obligations of Contractor under this contract, or any alleged negligent or willful acts or omissions of Contractor, its officers, employees and agents. Contractor’s obligation to indemnify the State shall apply in all cases except for claims arising solely from the State’s own negligence or willful misconduct. Contractor waives any rights of subrogation against the State. Contractor’s duty to defend begins when the State requests defense of any claim arising from this Contract."

LIMITED LIABILITY. Required contract terms on Limited Liability: "The State will not waive and intends to assert available NRS Chapter 41 liability limitations in all cases. Contract liability of both parties shall not be subject to punitive damages. Damages for any State breach shall never exceed the amount of funds appropriated for payment under this Contract, but not yet paid to Contractor, for the Fiscal Year budget in existence at the time of the breach. Contractor’s tort liability shall not be limited."

CONTRACT RESPONSIBILITY. Awarded vendor shall be the sole point of contract responsibility. The State shall look solely to the awarded vendor for the performance of all contractual obligations which may result from an award based on this solicitation, and the awarded vendor shall not be relieved for the non-performance of any or all subcontractors.

DATA ENCRYPTION. State IT requires that data be encrypted in transit and in rest.

STATESIDE DATA. State IT requires that State data assets must be maintained in the United States and data will not be held offshore.

NEVADA BUSINESS LICENSE. Pursuant to NRS 353.007, prior to contract execution awarded vendor must hold a state business license pursuant to NRS chapter 76 unless exempted by NRS 76.100(7)(b).

DISCLOSURE. Each vendor shall include in its proposal a complete disclosure of any alleged significant prior or ongoing contract failures, contract breaches, any civil or criminal litigation or investigations pending which involves the vendor or in which the vendor has been judged guilty or liable.

CRITICAL ITEMS

In addition to the Scope of Work and Attachments, the items listed in this section are critical to the success of the project. These items will be used in evaluating and scoring the proposal. Vendor proposal should address items in this section in enough detail to provide evaluators an accurate understanding of vendor capabilities. Proposals that fail to sufficiently respond to these items may be considered non-responsive.

CONTRACT FORM. The State strongly prefers vendors agree to the terms of the attached Contract Form as is. Ability to agree to contract terms is a high priority to the State. Vendors who cannot agree to the contract as is must include a redlined Word version of the attached Contract Form with their proposal response. To the extent a vendor has prior contractual dealings with the State, no assumption should be made that terms outside those provided herein have any influence on this project.

INSURANCE SCHEDULE

The State strongly prefers vendors agree to the terms of the attached Insurance Schedule as is. Vendors who cannot agree must explain which areas are causing non-compliance and attach a red line if necessary.

Awarded vendor shall maintain, for the duration of the contract, insurance coverages as set forth in the fully executed contract.

Work on the contract shall not begin until after the awarded vendor has submitted acceptable evidence of the required insurance coverages.

Failure to maintain any required insurance coverage or acceptable alternative method of insurance shall be deemed a breach of contract.

VENDOR BACKGROUND

Company background/history and why vendor is qualified to provide the services described in this solicitation.

Provide a brief description of the length of time vendor has been providing services described in this solicitation to the public and/or private sector.

VENDOR STAFF RESUMES

A resume shall be included for each proposed key personnel, see Proposed Staff Resume.

A resume shall also be included for any proposed key subcontractor personnel.

SUBCONTRACTORS

Subcontractors are defined as a third party, not directly employed by the contractor, who shall provide services identified in this solicitation. This does not include third parties who provide support or incidental services to the contractor.

Proposal should include a completed Vendor Information Response form for each subcontractor.

Vendor shall not allow any subcontractor to commence work until all insurance required of the subcontractor is provided to the vendor.

Vendor proposal shall identify specific requirements of the project for which each subcontractor shall perform services.

How the work of any subcontractor(s) shall be supervised How channels of communication shall be maintained How compliance with contracts terms and conditions will be assured Previous experience with subcontractor(s)

VENDOR FINANCIAL INFORMATION

The information requested in this section is designated as confidential business information by the Administrator pursuant to NRS 333.020(5)(b) and is not public information pursuant to NRS 333.333.

This information should be submitted as a separate attachment, flagged as confidential in NevadaEPro.

Proposing vendor shall provide the following financial information and documentation:

Dun and Bradstreet Number Federal Tax Identification Number

BUSINESS REFERENCES

The information requested in this section is designated as confidential business information by the Administrator pursuant to NRS 333.020(5)(b) and is not public information pursuant to NRS 333.333.

Vendors shall provide a minimum of three (3) business references from similar projects performed for private and/or public sector clients within the last five (5) years, see Reference Questionnaire.

The purpose of these references is to document relevant experience and aid in the evaluation process.

Business references should return Reference Questionnaire directly to Single Point of Contact via email.

Business references will not be accepted directly from proposing vendor.

The State will not disclose submitted references, but will confirm if a reference has been received.

The State reserves the right to contact references during evaluation.

SUBMISSION CHECKLIST

This section identifies documents that shall be submitted to be considered responsive. Vendors are encouraged to review all requirements to ensure all requested information is included in their response.

Proposals must be submitted as a Quote through NevadaEPro, https://NevadaEPro.com.

Vendors are encouraged to submit a single file attachment per proposal section if possible.

Technical proposal information and Cost proposal information shall not be included in the same attachment.

Cost proposal attachment shall not be flagged as confidential in NevadaEPro.

Additional attachments may be included, but are discouraged and should be kept to a minimum.

TECHNICAL PROPOSAL

Title Page Table of Contents Response to Mandatory Minimum Requirements Response to Critical Items Response to Scope of Work Proposed Staff Resumes Other Informational Material

PROPRIETARY INFORMATION. If necessary. Attachment should be flagged confidential in NevadaEPro.

Title Page Table of Contents Trade Secret information, cross referenced to the technical proposal

COST PROPOSAL

VENDOR FINANCIAL INFORMATION. Attachment should be flagged confidential in NevadaEPro.

SIGNED ATTACHMENTS

Vendor Information Response Vendor Certifications Confidentiality and Certification of Indemnification Certification Regarding Lobbying

OTHER ATTACHMENTS. If necessary, not recommended.

REFERENCE QUESTIONNAIRES. Not submitted directly by vendor.

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