Rigorous Evaluation of Promising Teen Pregnancy Interventions

Sources Sought Notice: Rigorous Evaluation of Promising Teen Pregnancy Interventions

INTRODUCTION

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of the Secretary (OS), Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH), Office of Population Affairs wants to identify viable small businesses that are capable of fulfilling the objectives of this requirement.

This is a Small Business Sources Sought notice. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding: (1) the availability and capability of qualified small business sources; (2) whether they are small businesses; HUBZone small businesses; service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses; 8(a) small businesses; veteran-owned small businesses; woman-owned small businesses; or small disadvantaged businesses; and (3) their size classification relative to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for the proposed acquisition. Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method, including whether a set-aside is possible. An organization that is not considered a small business under the applicable NAICS code should not submit a response to this notice.

BACKGROUND

The purpose of this contract will be to design and launch one or more rigorous evaluations of promising teen pregnancy prevention programs that (1) implement body literacy education that is medically accurate, age-appropriate, and essential to informed consent; and (2) incorporate reproductive goals counseling to support adolescents in making informed, future-oriented decisions that reduce teen pregnancy and promote long-term well-being.

The contractor will be required to perform the following:

1. Demonstrated subject matter expertise in the Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) Program or field, including current issues in measuring the impact of such programs, key policy questions about these programs.
2. Demonstrated knowledge of body literacy education and reproductive goals counseling approaches.
3. Demonstrated ability currently or in the past 5 years to apply advanced, rigorous analytic and statistical methods (causal inference, longitudinal modeling, RCT analysis) to large data files (i.e. 2,000-10,000 respondents and hundreds of variables) from multiple waves of nationally representative, cross-sectional and/or longitudinal studies with complex sampling frames. Please specify the data sets for which you have this experience.
4. Demonstrated ability currently or in the past 5 years to protect PII and sensitive data using secure systems, implementation of disclosure avoidance techniques, and controlling access and compliance with federal data security standards.
5. Demonstrated ability to conduct qualitative interviews in multiple sites/organizations across a nationwide grant program, including recruiting and training staff to conduct the interviews, using appropriate sampling methodologies, developing interview protocols, recruiting participants, and recording, coding, analyzing, and reporting on qualitative data including synthesizing data into succinct summaries and themes of successes and lessons learned. Please provide links to examples of this experience.
6. Demonstrated to produce a variety of products including technical reports, findings briefs, and journal articles, as well as derivative dissemination products (such as briefings, webinars, presentations, blogs, social media, graphic illustrations, data dashboards) that highlight successes and challenges of grant programs put into plain language appropriate to non-technical audiences.
7. Demonstrated experience and ability in managing multiple, large-scale research and evaluation projects including multi-arm randomized control trials, quasi-experimental evaluations, implementation studies, correlational studies, literature reviews, cost analyses, and others simultaneously, and meeting the government objectives, ensuring the quality and timeliness of deliverables, within budget, and coordinating with the government-funding agency.
8. Demonstrated ability to produce fully accessible deliverables compliant with HHS Section 508 standards.
9. Demonstrated evidence of your corporate experience obtaining and maintaining an Authority to Operate (ATO) from HHS (or similar federal agencies) that meets the requirements to save and use data that contains PII.

INSTRUCTIONS TO INDUSTRY

INTERESTED SOURCES POSSESSING THE CAPABILITIES TO MEET THE ABOVE REQUIREMENTS SHOULD SUBMIT A COVER LETTER ALONG WITH A CAPABILITY STATEMENT FONT SIZE TIMES NEW ROMAN 11 OR LARGER) DEMONSTRATING ABILITY TO PERFORM, AND SHOULD INCLUDE AN OUTLINE OF PREVIOUS OR SIMILAR PROJECTS SO THAT THE GOVERNMENT CAN PERFORM A PROPER EVALUATION OF THE COMPANY’S CAPABILITY.  THE STATEMENT SHOULD ALSO INCLUDE AN INDICATION OF CERTIFIED SMALL BUSINESS STATUS; THIS INDICATION SHOULD BE CLEARLY MARKED ON THE FIRST PAGE OF THE CAPABILIITY STATEMENT.

This notice is for planning only. This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization’s qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. Respondents will not be notified of the results of this evaluation.  Capability statements will not be returned and will not be accepted after the due date.  After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published in Federal Business Opportunities. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation.

No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s).

Interested small business firms are highly encouraged to respond to this notice. However, firms should understand that generic capability statements are not sufficient for effective evaluation of their capacity and capability to perform the work required. Responses must directly demonstrate the company’s capability, experience, and ability to marshal resources to effectively and efficiently perform the objectives described above.

The written response to this notice should consist of the following items:

a.   Company Name.

b.   Company DUNS number.

c.   Company point of contact, mailing address, telephone and fax
      numbers, and website address

d.   Name, telephone number, and e-mail address of a company point of contact

      who has the authority and knowledge to clarify responses with government representatives

e.   Date submitted.

f.    Applicable company GSA Schedule number or other available procurement vehicle.

g.   Do you have a Government approved accounting system?  If so,
      please identify the agency that approved the system.

h.   Type of Company (i.e., small business, 8(a), woman owned,
      veteran owned, etc.) as validated via the System for Award Management 
     (SAM). All respondents must register on the SAM located at  
       https://www.sam.gov

Responses must be submitted no later than Monday, April 27th via email to  Cynthia.gray@hhs.gov. Capability statements will not be returned and will not be accepted after the due date.  The maximum number of pages for submission is 10 pages.
 

As previously stated, the Government will not entertain questions regarding this Market Research; however, general questions may be forwarded to the following:

Contract Specialist: Cynthia Gray

Email Address: Cynthia.gray@hhs.gov