Statement_of_Work.docx

Statement of Work

I. TITLE: Cool & Connected -- Sustainable Communities Planning Assistance

II. PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE:

From: Date of award To: Date of Award to February 2017

III. BACKGROUND:

Cool & Connected is a new program to help communities create walkable, healthy, economically vibrant places by leveraging enhanced internet access. This new initiative is supported by the U.S. EPA Office of Sustainable Communities (EPA/OSC), the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Utilities Service (USDA/RUS) and the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC).

Cool & Connected will be modeled on Local Foods, Local Places. Through that program, federal partners provided planning assistance for 26 communities to develop action plans promoting local food enterprise and community revitalization. As with the Local Foods, Local Places program, Cool & Connected will focus on communities that are economically challenged, including those in rural Appalachia.

Local Foods, Local Places helps communities take advantage of local foods to promote smart, sustainable development. Cool & Connected will help communities take advantage of enhanced internet access to promote smart, sustainable development.

Upon the successful completion of this pilot phase of Cool & Connected, agency sponsors intend to assist additional communities through one or more subsequent phases of the program.

IV. PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES:

The purpose of this project is to promote community planning for economic vitality, environmental protection, and public health by taking advantage of new or enhanced telecommunication service. The objectives of this Statement of Work (SOW) are for the contractor to develop a Cool & Connected community planning toolkit and deliver to five (5) communities planning assistance on place-based community revitalization and broadband or other forms of enhanced internet access. The planning assistance for each of the five (5) partner communities will be centered on a community workshop, and will also include analysis, consultations, and preparation of a community action plan.

V. QUALITY ASSURANCE (QA) REQUIREMENTS:

A Quality Assurance Project Plan or Quality Management Plan are not required for this project.

VI. TASKS AND DELIVERABLES:

The EPA Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) will review all deliverables in draft form and provide revisions or comments to the Contractor. The Contractor shall prepare the final deliverables incorporating the COR’s comments. The Contractor shall provide the COR with copies of all deliverables, including each draft and final version. The Contractor shall develop all written deliverables using the EPA/OSC Style Guide (which is attached to the solicitation) and technical assistance report guidance, which the COR will provide. Deliverables shall be submitted as Microsoft Word documents or in another format, agreed to by the COR and that can be edited easily by EPA/OSC. Deliverables shall be written in plain English, and all deliverables, including drafts, shall be proofread for errors before delivery to EPA/OSC. All deliverables must include appropriate citations with complete bibliographic information for all quotes, assertions, statistics, and other information that comes from a specific source. Any text that is a direct quote from another source must be in quotes and must be accurately cited. Any images used must have the image source and either written permission from the image owner for their use in the deliverable or, if they are in the public domain or under a free-use license, written proof that we are allowed to use the images without explicit permission.

Contractor personnel shall at all times identify themselves as Contractor employees and shall not present themselves as EPA employees. Furthermore, they shall not represent the views of the U.S. Government, EPA, or its employees. In addition, the Contractor shall not engage in inherently governmental activities, including but not limited to actual determination of EPA policy and preparation of documents on EPA letterhead.

Task One – Manage the Project and Develop Schedule

The purpose of this task is to develop and maintain a project schedule and ensure coordination among the Contractor, EPA/OSC, USDA/RUS, and ARC.

Within 10 business days of the date of contract award, the Contractor shall schedule and conduct a kickoff meeting or conference call of no more than two (2) hours with the COR and the Contracting Officer and, as appropriate, other federal partners to discuss the background, purpose, and activities of this SOW.

Within 15 business days of the date of contract award, the Contractor shall propose any revisions, if needed and if appropriate, to their technical proposal in order to more accurately state the schedule for the completion of all activities in this SOW. The COR will review and provide guidance to the Contractor as appropriate on the notional schedule within five (5) business days. The Contractor shall revise the schedule as appropriate throughout the period of performance and inform the COR if the proposed schedule is expected to slip.

During performance, the Contractor shall convene a weekly check-in conference call with the COR and other federal partners that the COR deems appropriate. These check-in calls are intended to ensure coordination and to allow for discussion of any issues that arise in the execution of this project. The check-in calls should normally last no longer than 60 minutes.

At least once during performance, the Contractor shall meet (in person) with the COR and other available representatives of the Cool & Connected federal agency sponsors. The purpose of this meeting is for the Contractor to brief the COR and other participants on the overall progression of the project. The meeting will be hosted and convened by EPA or another federal partner, will take place in the Washington, DC area, and will last no longer than 90 minutes. The Contractor and COR by mutual agreement will decide when the meeting will take place.

Task Two – Develop the Cool & Connected Planning Toolkit

The Contractor, in consultation with the COR, shall develop a Cool & Connected planning toolkit. The toolkit shall be modeled on the Local Foods, Local Places toolkit. A distinction is that the Local Foods, Local Places planning toolkit is designed for using local food enterprise to advance place-based development, while the Cool & Connected planning toolkit shall be designed for using broadband or other enhanced internet access to advance place-based development.

The Cool & Connected planning toolkit shall include documents that facilitate the delivery of the planning assistance under Task Three, to include:

· Sample site visit schedule, community workshop agenda, and participation list

· Sample invitations to participate in community workshops and other site visit meetings

· Sample presentations on enhanced internet access and the development of walkable, livable, economically vibrant communities, with speaker notes, as appropriate

· Sample maps

· Sample case studies and examples of best practices for communities to leverage enhanced internet access to create walkable, healthy, economically vibrant places

· Sample interactive workshop exercises to facilitate discussions among participating community members and telecommunication providers, with notes for facilitator as appropriate

· Sample concluding presentation with speaker notes as appropriate

The Contractor shall provide the COR with a draft of the Cool & Connected planning toolkit within 30 business days of contract award. EPA will review the draft planning toolkit and provide any feedback within 10 business days of receipt by EPA.

Template materials for the Local Foods, Local Places Toolkit are available at: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B5UsyBglzPh5fldVaHBTN05OY2RlcUJfSlhqTEtwajh6X1ZPeXBqb1AzX2xnOHZQOXZ6Y0E&usp=sharing

Task Three – Deliver Planning Assistance

The Contractor shall deliver Cool & Connected planning assistance to five (5) communities. The COR will identify these communities by March 2016.

As a focal point of the planning assistance, the Contractor shall conduct a two (2)-day site visit and community workshop in each partner community.

In advance of each site visit, the Contractor shall organize and conduct at least three (3) conference calls with appropriate representatives of the community, local telecommunications provider, and federal agency partners, as identified by the Contractor in consultation with the local community point of contact and COR. Calls shall be scheduled approximately two (2) weeks apart, with the final call scheduled one (1) to three (3) weeks before the site visit. The purpose of these conference calls is to:

· Gather background information on past community efforts that led to the request for planning assistance.

· Help the community define three (3) to five (5) clear goals for the site visit.

· Help the community develop a list of invited stakeholders and an outreach plan to advertise the site visit meetings.

· Plan the agenda and logistical arrangements for the site visit.

· Otherwise facilitate appropriate analysis and work by the Contractor that will help ensure the successful delivery of the Cool & Connected planning toolkit.

Each site visit should include public workshop activities such as those in the current Local Foods, Local Places toolkit, with particular activities selected and tailored by the Contractor as appropriate for each community. The Contractor shall facilitate all public meetings, workshops, activities, and interactive group work during the site visit, including making presentations as needed.

The Contractor, in consultation with the COR, shall help identify any local stakeholders who should be present during the public workshop or participate in one more aspects of the site visit. Participants might include elected officials, representatives of local telecommunications providers, local government staff, local business owners and downtown property owners, representatives of non-governmental organizations or foundations, state or regional organization officials, and any other potentially interested members of the community. Headquarters and regional staff from USDA, EPA, ARC and other federal and state agencies shall also be welcomed to join in the conference calls and site visits as appropriate.

For each of the five (5) communities, the Cool & Connected planning assistance, presentations and related materials shall be modified as appropriate to reflect the particular circumstances of the community, and shall include aspects of local data or information analysis and case studies that to the greatest extent possible, reflect local challenges and opportunities.

Scheduling should allow for two (2) weeks between site visits on average.

Upon completion of the site visit of each community, the Contractor shall develop a Cool & Connected Community Action Plan of approximately eight (8) pages of text in length (not including images and appendices) that identifies community visions and goals identified during the planning assistance process, and actions the community can take to achieve them. Actions shall be identified in the form of a table or tables. The Contractor shall take photos during the site visit and, to the extent possible and appropriate, incorporate images in the action plan. Action plans shall be accompanied by appendices, including workshop sign-in sheets, all presentations made during the site visit, and legible reproductions of all materials produced by workshop participants. As a template for action plan format and content, the Contractor should review and be familiar with the Local Food, Local Places community action plan available at: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/0B5UsyBglzPh5ZVhJR2pOTjVLUnc The Contractor shall provide the community action plan, in draft form, to the COR within 10 business days following the conclusion of each site visit. The contractor shall prepare a final version of the action tables and complete each action plan within 10 business days after receiving COR comments on the first drafts. The Contractor shall deliver a total of five (5) community action plans under this task.

During the two (2)-month period following each of the site visits, the Contractor shall conduct at least three (3) conference calls (each call of up to one-and-a half hours) with appropriate community representatives to review the draft action tables and action plan and consult on next steps and implementation strategies. Calls shall be scheduled approximately two (2) weeks apart, with the first occurring approximately two (2) weeks following the site visit. Scheduling of all calls shall occur no later than the final planning call prior to the site visit. The Contractor shall invite EPA representatives and, as appropriate, other federal partners to participate in these post-visit conference calls. The calls shall include consideration of local policies and programs, and potential sources of investment and support for implementation of action plans. The calls shall also include consideration of federal, state and foundation sources of funding that may be available for implementation.

VII. SCHEDULE FOR DELIVERABLES:

The contractor shall provide the following deliverables to the EPA COR:

DELIVERABLE

FORM AND QUANTITY

SCHEDULE