Youth Art and Community Projects Competitions

This is a SMALL BUSINESS SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal of 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 (e.g., 8(a), Veteran-owned small businesses, service-disabled Veteran-owned small businesses, HUBZone small businesses, small disadvantaged businesses, and women-owned small businesses); and (3) their size classification relative to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for the proposed acquisition. Your response 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. This notice is issued to help determine the availability of qualified

companies technically capable of meeting the Government requirement and to determine the method of acquisition. It is not construed as a commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation or ultimately award a contract. Responses will not be considered as proposals or quotes. No award will be made as a result of this notice. The Government will NOT be responsible for any costs incurred by the respondents to this notice. This notice is strictly for research and information purposes only. Background: As part of its mission, The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), seeks to identify intervention strategies and leverage resilience to combat drug addiction. Native American (American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian) youth have higher rates of substance misuse relative to other racial or ethnic minority groups, making strategies to combat addiction in this population particularly important. Despite these higher rates of substance misuse, Native American communities, youth, and culture are also replete with many inherent strengths that protect against substance misuse. Directly hearing from youth about the resilience they see in their culture is critical to highlight these strengths and to understand the resilience factors that may be particularly important to support in interventions that seek to reduce substance misuse rates. Identifying these factors can support testing interventions through research that resonates with youth. As such, NIDA seeks to highlight the perspectives and voices of youth with unique knowledge of Native American cultures to understand and showcase how they conceptualize and operationalize resilience to substance misuse. Requirements: The primary goal of this contract is to identify and highlight creative youth-led innovations to combat substance misuse in Native American communities. This Statement of Work (SOW) invites proposals to administer all facets of two competitions for youth that showcase youth conceptions of resilience to substance misuse. These are the Art Competition and the Community Project Competition. The two competitions will encourage youth with deep knowledge of Native American cultures to 1) create and submit art for prizes (Art competition) or 2) create projects that could be implemented in a community (their community or another community) to enhance resilience (Community Project Competition). Both competitions should seek to explore and highlight the strengths of Indigenous culture and resiliency to substance misuse. Winning submissions for both competitions will be widely shared across various media outlets, igniting conversation, and prompting youth across the country to reflect on their own resilience. Additionally, winning project proposals will be made easily accessible to inspire others to improve their communities, even using the ideas or plans as a framework to implement similar efforts in their own communities. Winning projects will also be shared with communities and researchers to inform research efforts that seek to reduce substance misuse. This contract will model a similar competition, called I Strengthen My Nation, sponsored by NIDA in 2021 (see more information from NIDA and We R Native). The offeror will support NIDA with the development, publication, advertisement, coordination, administration, winner selection, and dissemination of the two competitions and the awards. To effectively manage these competitions, the offeror must possess strong ties to youth with deep knowledge of Native American cultures, demonstrating an ability to reach and engage this audience. The offeror shall possess broad outreach, networking, media, and communication expertise specific to this group of youth. The contractor will also demonstrate the ability to manage the logistics of competitions of this nature. Principle Tasks: Interested organizations must show their capability of providing the following required tasks to support both the Using Art and Resilience to Stand Against Substance Misuse and the Youth-led Community Projects to Prevent Substance Misuse competitions: 1. Overall Coordination and Facilitation Schedule, coordinate, and attend monthly meetings with the NIDA Team. Ensure timely communication with NIDA. Create an Overall Timeline for the competitions, including internal project management deadlines and external target dates, to be approved by NIDA. 2. Competition Development Develop and finalize the competition structure (including youth age range and any other parameters), process, and guidelines. Evaluate the guidelines from previous competitions (provided by NIDA), and make recommendations to enhance the reach and success of the competitions. 3. Administration Administer all facets of the two competitions. Develop and administer a process for accepting submission of the entries. Develop and administer a system to review entries. In collaboration with NIDA, develop a process to disseminate awards to competition winners. Assist in additional administrative and communication tasks, as needed. 4. Competition Outreach, Dissemination, and Marketing Design and execute comprehensive communication and recruitment efforts targeted to potential Art and Community Project youth participants. Design and execute a comprehensive strategy to celebrate and showcase the Art and Community Project competition winners. Instructions: Interested organizations shall demonstrate and document in the submitted capability statement extensive experience in the technical areas listed above. Furthermore, organizations should include relevant and specific information on each of the following qualifications: 1) Approach: Vendors should prepare a narrative describing the methodologies, approach and techniques utilized on similar relevant projects to achieve the requirements listed above. 2) Experience: An outline of previous similar projects, specifically the techniques employed in the areas described above and including description of experience working with and/or ties to youth with deep knowledge of Native American cultures. 3) Personnel: Name, professional qualifications of personnel with specific experience in the work requested and knowledge of, and experience in, the requirements outlined above. The Government will assess the appropriateness of professional and technical personnel classifications. The Government will consider any other specific and relevant information about this particular announcement that would improve our evaluation of respondents. Organizations should demonstrate capability to administer and coordinate interrelated tasks in an effective and timely manner. Documentation may include, but is not limited to, contracts in which the organization performed equivalent tasks (Government and commercial); references, i.e., names, titles, telephone numbers and any other information serving to document the organizations capability; and awards or commendations. The established NAICS code is 711320 - Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services. The U.S. Small Business Administration establishes a size standard for 711320 of $22,000,000 or less in annual revenue. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS: This notice is for information and planning purposes only and does not commit the Government to any contractual agreement. The Government does not intend to award a contract based on responses under this announcement nor otherwise pay for preparing any information sent for the Government's use. All capability statements must provide the following: 1) company name and address, UEI number; 2) point of contact; 3) phone/fax/email; 4) NAICS Code(s), 5) business size and status; 6) type of small business your organization classifies itself as (i.e.: women-owned, HUBZONE, etc.). Capability statements must be SUBMITTED ELECTRONICALLY NO LATER THAN 1 p.m. EST on APRIL 26, 2024 to the primary point of contact. The Subject line for the submission should include this Small Business Sources Sought Number. Disclaimer and Important Notes: 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. After a review of the responses received, a presolicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published in www.sam.gov. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation. Confidentiality: 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).