R426--Solicitation for communication support and paid media for suicide prevention efforts

Page 2 of 2 PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention (OMHSP) Suicide Prevention Program (SPP) and Veterans Crisis Line (VCL) 1.0 TITLE: Suicide Prevention Communications Services 2.0 BACKGROUND The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is the second largest Federal department and has over 411,000 employees. Among the many professions represented in the vast VA workforce are physicians, nurses, counselors, statisticians, architects, computer specialists, and attorneys. As advocates for Veterans and their families, the VA community is committed to providing the very best services with an attitude of caring and courtesy. VA is comprised of a Central Office (VACO), located in Washington, DC, and field facilities throughout the Nation administered by its three major service line organizations: Veterans Health Administration (VHA), Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA), and National Cemetery Administration (NCA). The VHA

is the largest integrated healthcare system in the United States, providing care at a network of health care facilities, including 171 VA Medical Centers and 1,113 outpatient sites of care of varying complexity (VHA outpatient clinics), serving more than 8.9 million Veterans each year. As the largest integrated healthcare system in the country, VHA is committed to providing timely access to high-quality, recovery-oriented mental health care and suicide prevention interventions and services that anticipate and respond to Veterans needs through its Office of Mental Health Services and Suicide Prevention (OMHSP) that supports and treats challenges such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), substance use disorders, depression, and suicidal ideation. OMHSP employs a recovery approach that empowers Veterans to take charge of their treatment and live a full and meaningful life. In addition to mental health treatment, VHA s OMHSP is tasked with significantly reducing or eliminating Veteran suicide. Recent evidence from the Department s comprehensive Veteran suicide analysis demonstrates that access to VA care significantly reduces the risk of Veterans dying by suicide. The latest data from 2022, shows that the unadjusted rate of Veteran suicides rose from 23.3 per 100,000 in 2001 to 31.7 per 100,000 in 2020. From 2018 to 2020, age adjusted rates for Veterans fell by 9.7%. By comparison, the adjusted rate for non-Veteran U.S. adults fell by 5.5%. From 2001 through 2018, the number of Veteran suicides increased on average by 47 deaths per year. From 2019 to 2020, there were consecutive reductions, of 307 and 343 suicides, respectively, an unprecedented decrease since 2001 OMHSP is dedicated to increasing the number of Veterans who seek and get mental health support while reducing Veteran suicide and ensuring every Veteran who needs assistance with a mental health challenge or suicide crisis is aware of and educated about VA s programs and resources and are able to access them in a timely manner. Additionally, VA/VHA is mandated by Congress to provide Veterans with responsible, accurate, and critical information about mental health signs, symptoms, and conditions, available treatments, and suicide prevention resources and assistance through 38 U.S.C. § 6303; the DoD/VA Joint Strategic Plan; the Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Act of 2007, H. Rept. 110-55 - JOSHUA OMVIG VETERANS SUICIDE PREVENTION ACT | Congress.gov | Library of Congress, the Clay Hunt SAV Act of 2015, H.R.203 - 114th Congress (2015-2016): Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act | Congress.gov | Library of Congress, and the Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act (the Hannon Act) of 2020, Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act (va.gov),the 2014 Cross- Agency Priority Goal and Executive Actions related to Service Members and Veterans Mental Health. 3.0 SCOPE The goal of the contract is to develop and implement a variety of communication products and tools, proactive strategies, and effective distribution processes related to suicide prevention to ensure Veterans, family members, friends and other Veteran stakeholders, VA personnel, including senior leadership at VACO; healthcare facility directors; clinical staff; and, non-clinical, administrative, and support staff are all well versed in VA s resources for reducing Veteran suicide. Additionally, the Contractor will develop and implement a variety of communication products and tools, proactive strategies, and effective distribution processes related to suicide prevention to ensure and support a public health, bundled, community approach to reducing Veteran suicide. Of note, VA recognizes that partnering with other Federal agencies in addition to state, community, and local government, non- profits, and other partners is a required element of the campaign. The Contractor shall develop products and leverage VA and partner delivery mechanisms (VA publicly facing webpages, blogs, social media, etc.) in new, creative, and data-driven ways. The contractor will ensure that a diverse set of communication tools is made available for a variety of individuals including Veterans, VA personnel who interact with Veterans, Federal and community organizations, family, friends, and policy makers that support Veterans. The contractor will also ensure that these individuals are educated and capable of communicating with provided tools. Data-driven deliverables should be directly related to components of VA s Suicide Prevention Strategy to help advance outcomes in areas of lethal means safety, increasing public education, taking a public health approach to address suicide prevention, etc. Further, this information will be shared with external audiences, including, but not limited to other Federal agencies, state and local governments, private sector non-profit and for-profit organizations, faith-based communities, volunteers, non-VA healthcare systems and providers, and other interested parties with a vested role in furthering the overarching suicide prevention effort and related mental health activities. 4.0 PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE The period of performance (PoP) will be for a base 12-month period and four (4) 12-month option periods. Base 12Months Option Year One 12Months Option Year Two 12Months Option Year Three 12Months Option Year Four 12Months 5.0 PLACE OF PERFORMANCE Tasks under this PWS shall primarily be performed through the VA Virtual environment or in VA facilities located in the Washington, DC area and across the nation. Locations will be further specified as the project progresses. The contractor is not required to reside in the DC area but must be able to travel on short notice. 6.0 OTHER DIRECT COSTS (ODCs) 6.1 MATERIAL ODCs The Government anticipates that ODCs will be required to address the requirements for production of communications, print, and video materials. ODCs are miscellaneous items such as deliveries, shipping, storage, photocopying, photography, video production (non- labor), video production equipment, post-production, duplication of video, promotional materials, etc. ODCs will be reimbursed at contractor cost. Each contractor invoice must include copies of all receipts that support the ODCs claimed in the invoice and written substantiation for the incurred cost. The Contractor shall perform due diligence to ensure most- favorable pricing prior to passing these costs on to the Government. All projected ODCs shall be reviewed by COR and authorized in advance. 6.2 TRAVEL COSTS The Government anticipates travel under this contract. VA offices are located across the United States. Offices not located in the Washington DC area may request Subject Matter Expert (SME) services that require the contractor to incur travel expenses. OMHSP leadership may additionally request support for certain high-profile meetings nationally. Travel must be approved in advance by the COR or PM and will be reimbursed in accordance with the Federal Travel Regulations in effect at the time of the travel. Each Contractor invoice must include copies of all receipts that support the travel costs claimed in the invoice. Local travel within a 50-mile radius from the contractor s facility is considered the cost of doing business and will not be reimbursed. This includes travel, subsistence, and associated labor charges for travel time. Travel performed for personal convenience and daily travel to and from work at the Contractor s facility will not be reimbursed. 7.0 GOVERNMENT-FURNISHED INFORMATION (GFI), EQUIPMENT (GFE), AND FACILITIES No Government information will be provided. Government furnished equipment will be provided to the contractor on a case-by-case basis and with justification. Contractors must have Personal Identity Verification (PIV) card access and shall maintain all necessary requirements. Contractors who have received VA email addresses shall always identify themselves as Contractor in their electronic communications and in their email signature block. 8.0 SPECIFIC TASKS During the life of this contract, the SPP is looking to expand its communications materials and capabilities in advancing innovative ways as well as improvements to existing communication mediums and tools to Veterans and their stakeholders. As the VA SPP portfolio of work, products, and resources grow, it will be important to reinforce a consistent brand and key messages across all materials. Additionally, expansion of Suicide Prevention 2.0 and support for the Veterans Crisis Line (VCL) are key. Clear and consistent communication about resources, mission, goals, and activities will be crucial to ensuring adoption of the public health approach to suicide prevention among external and internal stakeholders. SPP is implementing a broad-based public health approach to suicide prevention to include Suicide Prevention 2.0, expanding partnerships, implementation of the Staff Sergeant Parker Gordon Fox Suicide Prevention Grants Program (SSG Fox SPGP), and other efforts of its various workstreams to extend prevention beyond the health care setting to all Veterans. As the SPP core team moves from planning to execution of its activities, it will be important that Veterans understand the various resources available to them, when to use these resources, and how these resources can be used in coordination with other VA services. Veterans need to feel empowered, rather than compelled or persuaded to use VA services and suicide prevention resources. Additionally, it is important to ensure VA personnel can accurately articulate key program messages to internal and external audiences, including members of the media, communicate about timely and high-profile issues such as data releases and action reports, and provide the field and members of the public with the most up-to-date resources and information developed by the SPP and other key internal partners. During this effort, the contractor will refine communication materials and approaches to relay and standardize information to address the public health approach to preventing Veteran suicide. INTERNAL & EXTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS SUPPORT The Contractor shall provide communications support services to internal and external stakeholders as identified. Communications services include strategic corporate communications, content development, graphics and product design, web design and customer usability, community collaboration and outreach, paid media/print advertising development, and video production. Internal stakeholders include OMHSP, VHA, VBA, NCA, and VACO leadership, staff, personnel, etc. External stakeholders are defined as non-VA employees, Veterans, Veteran Service Organizations (VSOs), Active-Duty service members, policymakers, interest groups, industry, the Department of Defense, other federal departments and agencies, media, and the U.S. public. 8.1 TASK ONE: PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND REPORTING The contractor shall: 8.1.1. Schedule and hold a Project Kick-Off Meeting within five (5) business days after contract award or as agreed upon between the VA Contracting Officer Representative (COR) and contractor. Meeting will include contractor, COR/PM, and project advisory group comprised of key stakeholders and subject matter experts (SMEs) identified by the VA COR/PM. At the Kick-Off Meeting, the contractor shall present the details of the initial Project Management Plan (PMP), which shall include the contractor s intended approach, work plan and project schedule including deliverable dates with major milestones for review and approval by the VA COR/PM. Work shall not commence until the VA COR/PM approves the PMP (i.e., approach/methodology, work plan, and schedule with major milestones) on behalf of the project advisory group. 8.1.2. The contractor shall prepare and deliver a weekly project management status report during a weekly progress meeting. The contractor shall establish a weekly meeting cadence that will include COR/PM, and project advisory group comprised of key stakeholders and subject matter experts (SMEs) identified by the VA COR/PM. The contractor will present status of projects by workstream, schedule of upcoming meetings and briefings, communication recommendations, areas of risk (including risk mitigation considerations), and activities from the prior weekly progress meeting information as it relates to the previous and current week. The contractor shall reference the minutes of the prior week s meeting in the weekly progress report and ensure full minutes are available in a shared database no later than two (2) business days after the meeting. 8.1.3. Prepare and deliver Quarterly Progress Reports verbally and in an electronic format in Microsoft Word and/or Microsoft Excel. The Quarterly Progress Reports will be due on or before the 10th business day of the month following the end of the quarter with the final report being due at an agreed upon timeframe prior to the end of the PoP (but no later than 10 business days prior to the close of the PoP). The Quarterly Progress Reports shall cover all work completed during the reporting period and work planned for the subsequent reporting period. The reports shall also identify any problems that arose and a description of how the problems were resolved. If problems have not been completely resolved, the Contractor shall provide an explanation including an action plan and timeframe for resolving the issue. The Quarterly Progress Report will also serve as an impact metrics report that includes metrics for communications products such as internal and external messaging engagement data, impressions and other useful data made by external earned and paid media products, views of on-line content, social media metrics (including, when possible, reach, impressions, audience growth rate, engagement rate, amplification rate, virality rate, video views with views being defined per platform, video completion rate, conversion rate, cost-per-click, cost per thousand impressions, social share of voice, social sentiment, and comment analysis), click through rates and any additional metrics available to reflect the impact of the communications. 8.1.4 The contractor shall, in collaboration with SPP and VCL subject matter experts, develop a comprehensive crisis communications plan. The purpose of the plan will be to support VA and SPP communications staff if there is an event that affects services to the Veterans Crisis Line. This shall include website, phone, chat, and text planned and unplanned outages, natural disasters, etc. The plan shall include relevant details from the VHA Crisis Communications Planning Toolkit such as messaging matrices, redundancies, roles and responsibilities for the crisis communications team, templates for external and internal messaging, and other components typical to a crisis communications plan. The plan shall also contain a strategy and standard operating procedure for pausing and re-launching paid media campaigns. Deliverables: 8.1.1 Kick-Off meeting five (5) business days from date of award and PMP. 8.1.2 Weekly Project Management Status Reports 8.1.3 Quarterly Progress Reports 8.1.4 Crisis communications plan 8.2 TASK TWO: NATIONAL AND REGIONAL OUTREACH SUPPORT SERVICES The Contractor is responsible for developing and disseminating effective, leading-edge suicide prevention messaging in line with other public health agencies and organizations to Veterans, their family members and friends, including fostering and strengthening relationships with external stakeholders; increasing and sustaining support for the VA s public health approach to addressing Veteran suicide across the nation; and generating and sustaining awareness, support, and confidence of the Veteran population for supporting VA s suicide prevention goals and objectives. The Contractor shall: 8.2.1. Provide national level VSO, Community Based Organization (CBO), Non-governmental Organization (NGO), universities/colleges, and public/private entities support and outreach in accordance with the suicide prevention program public health approach and communication strategy. The Contractor shall advance the strategy and message of VA s suicide prevention programs and general VA mental health resources. This includes working closely with and assisting local Suicide Prevention Coordinators (SPC) when guidance on implementing SPC Outreach Training is required. The Contractor shall assist mental health clinicians, to include SPC s, Local Recovery Coordinators (LRC) and Peer Support Specialists in developing and maintaining VSO and community organization relationships. This also includes increasing the distribution of materials and messaging to Veterans and all applicable stakeholders. Based on national outreach assets, current partnerships, and relevant data provided by the program office, the Contractor shall continue to expand the multifaceted outreach campaigns nationally to VSO s, CBO s, NGO s, universities/colleges, public/private entities, and other influencers to help promote and disseminate effective messaging regarding Veteran suicide prevention and evidence-based intervention efforts. The Contractor shall also continue to develop and maintain existing partnerships and relationships via link building, teleconferences/video conferences, or in-person meetings when travel is not necessary. The contractor shall: 8.2.2. Develop and implement specific outreach methods for dissemination of effective suicide prevention and intervention messaging with various stakeholders and influencers to help promote and bring awareness of various resources. Develop new and update existing suicide prevention content to support and disseminate effective suicide prevention messaging and intervention information and available resources. Development and creation shall take place throughout the period of performance and shall include content for use internal and external to VA including newsletters, news releases, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), fact sheets and other materials, including the content of the twenty-four (24) VA News articles throughout the PoP. 8.2.3. Coordinate up to Forty (40) national event/conferences located across the continental U.S. with a 10 x10 exhibit space for VA. Provide logistical support, scheduling assistance for attendance and speaking opportunities, shipping of booth and promotional materials, and return service for booth materials. 8.2.4. Procure booth, collateral, and promotional outreach materials in quantities based on the demand by the field, for national shipments. Materials will be reimbursed at contractor cost. Each contractor invoice must include copies of all receipts that support the materials claimed in the invoice and written substantiation for the incurred cost. The Contractor shall perform due diligence to ensure most-favorable pricing prior to passing these costs on to the Government. Projected material costs shall be reviewed by COR and authorized in advance. (Note - Predominantly print materials can be procured by the government and sent directly to the Contractor for storage and distribution.) 8.2.5. Provide services for strategic order fulfillment, distribution, and storage of booth, collateral, and outreach materials (in space not to exceed covering 10,000 square feet, which shall include, but is not limited to: Logistics Management and tracking to assess product distribution to determine effectiveness of products, locally and nationally. Delivery of print materials four (4) times within the PoP. The delivery of materials weighing up to but not exceeding 650 lbs. First class mailing of print materials to locations within the VA healthcare system -- addresses shall be provided to contractor, with final approval by the COR/PM. One-off shipment of materials as deemed necessary by the COR or PM The contractor shall also support SPP in the implementation, management, and ongoing refinement of a suicide prevention communications strategy workstreams and work groups. This includes communications support for the Veterans Crisis Line. The Contractor shall: 8.2.6. Update monthly VA SPP toolkit to reflect changes in messaging, look and feel based on new data, research, etc. and general information including fact sheet, FAQ, talking points, general PowerPoint slide deck, and five infographics to convey to various audiences (internal and external) VA s public health approach to suicide prevention. 8.2.7. Create 2023 - 2028 VA SPP Data/Annual Reports, state data sheets, and accompanying communications, to include talking points, press releases, VA News articles, FAQs, infographics, social media content, etc. The 2023-2028 Reports shall convey to audiences the changes in the report from year to year. The contractor shall edit, design, socialize, and distribute plan with content provide by SPP staff. 8.2.8. Update and refine the previous communications implementation plan and suicide prevention strategic communication plan. The updated/revised strategic plan is to be completed NLT two (2) months after the start of the PoP. The subsequent implementation plan shall include all the necessary elements of an implementation plan allowing for that implementation to take place through the remainder of PoP taking into consideration all external elements and campaigns outside of SPP. 8.2.9. Develop and implement the social media plan and develop social media content to be used for SPP outreach efforts. The Contractor shall develop monthly social media content to be distributed internally within VA, to internal/external partners such as VSOs, CBOs, local/state governments, etc., and to other relevant stakeholders as determined by the VA. Develop twenty (20) unique social media posts per month primarily for Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter channels. The content and assets shall reflect the overall VA Suicide Prevention Strategy and public health approach to suicide prevention as well as empower, rather than compel or persuade, Veterans and their families/friends to use VA resources, including VCL. The contractor, in collaboration with SPP/VCL communications subject matter experts, shall identify, in an ongoing manner, additional social media networks where Veteran engagement is high or increasing in frequency to determine the feasibility of developing and implementing suicide prevention content for those platforms. Social media content shall be delivered for review approximately a month in advance to allow time for review, editing, and revision. The Contractor shall continue to monitor social media channels for crisis-related engagement and concerning comments, including negative comments regarding VA services or resources that may discourage others to seek access. The Contractor shall develop and implement a moderation standard operating procedure (SOP) that effectively addresses these concerns and engagements, referring social media users to the Veterans Crisis Line when deemed necessary according to this SOP. 8.2.10. Update and refine the previous communications implementation plan for suicide prevention grants efforts in response to Section 201 Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act of 2020 (SSG Fox SPGP). The communication plan shall include email messages, FAQs, talking points, fact sheet updates, presentation support, website content, press release content for funding opportunities and award notifications, and support for two (2) webinar events including host registration, presentation support, and transcript support. 8.2.11 In concert with VA suicide prevention and VHA Communications subject matter experts, develop, publish, and update suicide prevention website content to facilitate the coordination and dissemination of broad VA suicide prevention efforts across multiple lanes of effort. Deliverables: 8.2.1 Support implementation of outreach on a national level for suicide prevention efforts. 8.2.2 Develop and update existing suicide prevention content, including content focused on increasing support and awareness of suicide prevention efforts. Content shall include twenty-four (24) VA News article posts. 8.2.3 Logistics support, for up to thirty (30) professional events/conferences within the U.S. 8.2.4 Procurement of booth, collateral, and promotional outreach materials 8.2.5 Fulfillment, distribution, tracking and storage of collateral and other materials and assessment of effectiveness. 8.2.6 Update program communications products on a monthly basis 8.2.7 Create VA Suicide Prevention Program Annual/Data Report and state data sheets 8.2.8 Updating and revising suicide prevention communications strategy and implementation plan 8.2.9 Social media plan: Social media content and assets for Facebook, Instagram, and additional current platforms. 8.2.10 Develop content for SSG Fox Grant Program 8.2.11 Develop, publish, and update suicide prevention website content 8.3 TASK THREE: PAID MEDIA PLANS AND MEDIA PLACEMENT Please note, paid media is subject to change per year based on funding availability. The Contractor shall develop a paid media plan based on available money and taking into consideration previous years paid media plans. Prior paid media budgets for this contract have ranged from $930,420.00 to $960,332.60. These amounts are merely examples. The Paid Media Budget will be defined for each PoP and the subsequent paid media buys should not exceed this budget for PoP without prior approval from the COR/PM. Upon award, the Contractor will be provided with previous paid media plans to assist in the development of subsequent plans. 8.3.1. The Contractor shall develop a paid media plan identifying an effective distribution method using a variety of digital placement options including web, social, tv, digital out of home and other multimedia and social media tools to deliver messaging and materials to the relevant audiences and events. These placement options will include, but are not limited to, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Twitch, podcasting platforms (iHeartRadio), Pandora, Spotify, and insertion order buys. The Contractor s paid media plan shall be consistent with and complement other VA mental health and suicide prevention programs. The Contractor s paid media plan shall identify primary online channels and digital out of home options and shall be based off previous lessons learned from the campaigns launch (to be provided to Contractor). 8.3.2. The Contractor shall negotiate all media placements in accordance with research and analysis, data and accounts provided by current contractor, and other relevant data, and purchase paid advertising utilizing a not-to-exceed amount specific to funding availability per year. The Contractor shall meet all deadlines to ensure prompt placement. All media buys must be pre-approved by VA and only placed in areas agreed upon by the Government. The Contractor shall coordinate with SPP/VCL point of contacts to monitor any increases or surges of volume to the Veterans Crisis Line (calls, texts, and chat) to assess specific allocation of funding. There are to be no established thresholds where funding is adjusted to affect volume of VCL contacts through paid media conversions without prior approval from VA leadership. Suggested media buys shall not be placed in controversial venues or considered offensive or unprofessional as determined by VA and should, where applicable, apply best practices for brand safety. 8.3.3. In addition, the Contractor shall monitor public health and suicide prevention specific paid media content on VA social media platforms. The contractor shall monitor specific content or comments that are of concern, related to behavioral health crises, or indicate suicidal ideation. The contractor shall monitor content, posts, and ads generated by this contract and placed on VA social media accounts 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year for the task s PoP. The contractor shall ensure they monitor every paid media post while active every hour and shall work to notify the Veterans Crisis Line immediately, as appropriate for crisis content, comments, and posts. Deliverables: 8.3.1 Paid media plan 8.3.2 Paid media buys 8.3.3 Paid media social media monitoring 8.4 TASK FOUR: GRAPHICS SUPPORT The Contractor shall: 8.4.1. Provide graphic artist/designer services develop or expand suicide prevention outreach communication material. The Contractor shall develop or update a variety of products including, but not limited to brochures, posters, promotional materials, fact sheets, eBooks, presentations, postcards and business cards, billboard signs, online products such as social media products, graphics, banners, badges, and icons, and other paid media/print advertising. The Contractor shall update existing resources such as those mentioned above to include Spanish language versions. Spanish language versions should also be included when developing new materials. In addition to updating existing materials with the graphic artist/designers, the Contractor shall provide additional graphic artist/designers to create paid media material specific, as needed, to the following: Suicide Prevention Month and associated campaign, Veteran Crisis Line Campaign, and Lethal Means Campaign. The materials shall include online products such as social media products, graphics, banners, and other items specific to paid media advertising. The Contractor s products shall support existing materials with a focus on promotional items to positively reinforce identified calls to action. All products developed shall be readily available in color, black and white, and web versions that can be customized for use by VSO, CBO, NGO, university/college, public/private stakeholders, VAMCs, Vet Centers, Community-Based Outpatient Clinics, etc. 8.4.2. All media products shall be 508 compliant in accordance with Federal 508 standards, which can be found at: www.Section508.gov. The Contractor may be directed by the PM/COR to translate to Spanish a limited number of communication products (not exceeding 100 pages in total for all products), such as brochures, flyers, and posters. Finally, the Contractor shall include a set of instructions to optimize for local or commercial printing for various outreach and mental health staff at VA medical centers. Deliverables 8.4.1. Full time graphic support to develop new material and develop or expanded current outreach tool kits in color, black and white, and web versions with print instructions, and a mobile display ensuring 508 compliance. 8.4.2. Graphic support to develop in English and Spanish language new 508 compliant material specific to paid media campaigns: Lethal means, Veterans Crisis Line, Suicide Prevention Month and associated Reach Out Campaign in English and Spanish language 8.5 TASK FIVE: WEBSITE MANAGEMENT (HTML AND MOBILE) The Contractor shall: 8.5.1. Provide web content updates, graphic updates, web oversight, management, technical support, development, server management/maintenance and migration to content structure as needed. The Contractor shall ensure websites/webpages continue to broadly and effectively appeal to targeted audiences and stakeholders and optimize customer usability experiences. Websites shall comply with all VA Web Operations policies as outlined in the updated VA Directive 6102 as well as government-wide regulations including Section 508 accessibility requirements. The Contractor shall assist with the successful transition of the maintenance of the website to VA Web Operations staff once the PoP has ended. VeteransCrisisLine.net is hosted on commercial servers outside the VA domain with industry standard redundancies. The Contractor will be required to assume control and cost (operation and license) for those properties and all applicable safeguards. The contractor will only be responsible for content/graphic/image updates and NOT server management, maintenance, or cost for Government owned sites, servers, or property. 8.5.2. Provide additional support maintaining SharePoint and website presence to include optimizing the site in guidance with best practices, resource, and information connections across multiple different suicide prevention websites, provide technical guidance, regularly publish, and promote relevant content and maintain updates as requested. This is to include a web structure for supporting SPP grants efforts, which shall be created to improve upon the following structure found in the following link: https://www.va.gov/homeless/ssvf/. The actual page shall reside on a va.gov site where the contractor is only responsible for the coding, which will be implemented by the owners of the overarching mental health site that resides on VA Content Management System (CMS) TeamSite. 8.5.3. Provide 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year support to maintain constant hosting, DevOps services, governance and security, and monitoring and availability of VeteransCrisisLine.net and failover environments (Azure and Amazon Web Services) and support content and authoring of VeteransCrisisLine.net (Umbraco CMS). The Contractor shall provide an afterhours number if support is needed and will respond within thirty (30) minutes. Contractor will respond with qualified personnel specialized in providing troubleshooting and support specific to the incident. Deliverables: 8.5.1 Website maintenance including structure and overall support for web and mobile sites, including suicide prevention content. 8.5.2 Maintain SharePoint to include optimizing the site in guidance with best practices, provide technical guidance, regularly publish, and promote relevant content and maintain updates as requested. 8.5.3 Afterhours support 8.6 TASK SIX: STILL PHOTOGRAPHY SHOOTS AND EDITING The Contractor shall: 8.6.1. Hold remote photo shoots, capturing 150 Veterans from a wide variety of backgrounds and provide VA with a wide array of photo options, including metaphor (hands only, holding a brochure, a Veteran holding a keychain); setting (park/gym/school); support (hug, concern); and action (walking, working out). The models shall be Veterans, active-duty service members (including National Guard or Reserve), individuals portraying a role (family, friends, healthcare profession) or service animals and shall be from all available eras, branches, genders, and ethnicities. Selected models shall accurately represent the various backgrounds and demographics of Veterans and service members and consider the serious tone, nature, and sensitivity of suicide prevention and mental health as the topic. Each model shall have various approved wardrobe options that are relevant to a work environment or casual climate with family or other appropriate scenarios as required by the shot. The Contractor is responsible for all creative direction, which includes the shot-list for a wide variety of photos that shall be used for material in toolkits. The photoshoot shall take into consideration the physical distancing requirements as a result of COVID-19. The Contractor shall provide the necessary equipment, guidance, and support to capture photos of Veterans to ensure the widest possible array of photographs are captured for use. All photographs taken shall be provided, when possible, in a raw format and shall remain the property of VA with exclusive use of material. The Contractor shall use only Veterans or service members for roles determined to be Veterans or service members and will obtain the proper VA 10-3203 release forms and DD-214s for all participants, as applicable. 8.6.2. Provide a full-time photo editor for chosen selects to be used in all campaign material. The Contractor shall: Recruit Veterans, active-duty service members or family to participate in a remote photoshoot in multiple locations across the United States. Provide, when necessary mobile lighting kit and camera or phone for participants to capture images and relay the look needed for suicide prevention and mental health material. Handle all associated logistics and paperwork related to the photo shoots. Provide professional, still photography in coordination/conjunction with video shoots. All PSA, education/awareness video shoots shall have a behind the scenes photographer. Shoots shall take place in a room no smaller than 15 x 25' with ceilings no lower than 10'. All Testimonial video shoot participants shall be provided electronic copies of all their photographs. Provide a photo editor for select photos to be used in all communication material. The still photographs and video shall: Depict Veterans and families from a broad array of racial, ethnic, gender, age, and military service backgrounds. Be compliant with Section 508 of the Americans with Disability Act for user interfaces and must include closed captioning, which includes descriptive captioning for videos; and Accurately depict the benefits and services being portrayed. Deliverables: 8.6.1 Still photography for all video shoots including remote photoshoots with 150 Veterans for suicide prevention efforts. Individual copies (electronic) of photos for all testimonial shoots for each participant. 8.6.2 Still photo editor for suicide prevention efforts 8.7 TASK SEVEN: METRICS AND EVALUATION REPORTING The Contractor shall evaluate outreach activities as they relate to Veterans. Using data gathered to date (to be provided by the Government), the Contractor shall assess effectiveness of existing metrics, provide suggestions for improvement, implement improvements, and monitor and report campaign results on a monthly basis. The Contractor shall refine, tailor, or create key metrics to monitor and ensure communication materials and other communication media (outreach, web, mobile, social media, and PSAs) are achieving intended results, improving Veterans and their families perceptions of suicide prevention services, treatment, and increasing awareness of and use of the resources identified (both web-based and mobile-based versions). 8.7.1. The Contractor shall provide website metrics as it relates to the Veterans Crisis line along with organic and paid social media metrics as it relates to the VCL on a weekly basis. Reporting will include, when possible, reach, impressions, audience growth rate, engagement rate, amplification rate, virality rate, video views with views being defined per platform, video completion rate, conversion rate, cost-per-click, cost per thousand impressions, social share of voice, social sentiment, and comment analysis.), click through rates, resource locator uses, self-check screener uses, and any additional metrics available to reflect the impact of the communications. The Contractor shall provide access to an updated dashboard of social media data and metrics. Additionally, the contractor will provide metrics for new PSAs six (6) months from airing using Nielsen SpotTrac data, and Online advertising. The contractor shall establish metrics and report on effectiveness of outreach and conferences/events for suicide prevention efforts. Outreach outcomes and results will be included in the required quarterly progress reports detailed in section 8.1. Per the Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act of 2019 Section 401 (e), the contractor shall convene focus groups of Veterans to assess the effectiveness of suicide prevention and mental health outreach. Each focus group shall, to the extent practicable, include Veterans of diverse backgrounds, including: (i) Veterans of all eras, as determined by the Secretary of VA (ii) women Veterans (iii) minority Veterans (iv) Native American veterans, as defined in section 3765 of title 38, United States Code (v) Veterans who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (commonly referred to as LGBTQ ) (vi) Veterans who live in rural or highly rural areas (vii) individuals transitioning from active duty in the Armed Forces to civilian life; and (viii) other high-risk groups of Veterans, as determined by the Secretary. Deliverables: 8.7.1 Aggregate and monthly refined metrics document for all suicide prevention communication and outreach efforts as a whole and by campaign, to include organic and paid media efforts, aggregate and monthly web and social media dashboards, aggregate and monthly paid media reports. 8.8 TASK EIGHT: TRANSITION PLAN DEVELOPMENT & IMPLEMENTATION The Contractor shall: 8.8.1. Develop a transition plan. The draft is due 60 calendar days after the kick-off meeting. The plan shall include a 30- day period of familiarization and normalization with any contractor after this period of performance to ensure a smooth and non-disruptive transfer of all current campaign assets for SP efforts and efforts supported within the current performance work statement including: VCL (www.veteranscrisisline.net) website account and hardware or properties including administrative accounts and functions; paid media assets and ad word accounts/data; multimedia assets including all video, photography, graphic art source files, and other relevant and necessary Government, multimedia property; national outreach assets, contact sheets/information/stakeholders estimated at twenty-five (25) terabytes, and all relevant data; transfer of print material to Contractor s selected facility from previous contractors storage location; and, all relevant campaign reports, metrics, and other data to ensure minimal disruptions to metrics and reporting. 8.8.2. A finale Transition Plan (TP) is due no later than 30 calendar days after delivery of the referenced above draft. Implementation 30 calendar days before end of period of performance. Deliverables: 8.8.1. Transition Plan (TP) Development 8.8.2. Transition Plan (TP) Implementation