SOLICITATION NOTICE
69 -- Talk, Listen Connect: Phase II (TLC2)Deployment, Homecoming, and Changes Website
- Notice Date
- 9/4/2008
- Notice Type
- Combined Synopsis/Solicitation
- NAICS
- 512110
— Motion Picture and Video Production
- Contracting Office
- Department of the Army, U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity, U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity, US Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity, ATTN: MCMR-AAA, 820 Chandler Street, Frederick, MD 21702-5014
- ZIP Code
- 21702-5014
- Solicitation Number
- JHPFY08CMID11993
- Response Due
- 9/11/2008
- Archive Date
- 11/10/2008
- Point of Contact
- Justin Pickett, 301/619-7433<br />
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- The US Army Research Acquisition Activity intends to issue a sole source purchase order to Sesame Workshop 1 Lincoln Plaza 4th FL, New York, NY 10023-7180 to provide a companion website to accompany the Talk, Listen, Connect Phase 2 (TLC2) program to target young children within military families, including active duty, National Guard, and Reserve personnel. The bi-lingual web-based project will help children cope with the difficulties of all the stages of deployment, including multiple deployment, and the challenges when a deployed parent returns home changed,either due to a physical and/or psychological injury, such as amputation or disfigurement, or an invisible injury, such as traumatic brain injury, or mental health disorders, including post traumatic stress disorder. Sesame Workshop will provide an advanced graphical website with games, activities, streaming video, and educational information that is a direct companion to the highly-successful and currently funded Sesame Workshop Talk, Listen, Connect Phase II program aimed at children and adults. Content will include games and activities with the world-famous Muppets oriented towards the Talk, Listen Connect Phase II program which deals with injury and psychological problems after deployment. Website will be available in both English and Spanish. No solicitation documents exist. Any firm that believes it can provide the stated capability is invited to submit a written notification to the Contracting Officer with in five (5) calendar days from the date of publication of this notice. Supporting evidence must be furnished in sufficient detail to demonstrate the firms ability to provide the stated capability. Information can be sent to the Contracting Officer at: USAMRAA, ATTN: MCMR-AAA-P (Justin Pickett), 820 Chandler Street, Frederick, MD 21702-5014. No telephone or facsimile requests will be accepted. Responses received will be evaluated; however, a determination by the Government not to compete the proposed procurement based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. If no responses are received, USAMRAA will proceed with the sole source contract. Note 22 applies. **Sole Source Justification 1. Authority Cited. The statutory authority for other than full and open competition is 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1) as implemented by 6.302-1(a)(2) -- When the supplies or services required by the agency are available from only one responsible source, or, for DoD, NASA, and the Coast Guard, from only one or a limited number of responsible sources, and no other type of supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements, full and open competition need not be provided for. 2. Reason for Authority Cited. The current program is directly integrated with the highly-successful Phase II project initiated by Sesame Workshop in 2008 called Talk, Listen, & Connect Phase II, that was oriented towards helping children cope with the deployment of a parent and with physical and psychological injuries. The website must have content compatible with the 700,000 purchased DVD kits (400,000 initial purchase with 300,000 additional kit option) and only Sesame Workshop can provide material consistent with the Muppet theme and overall content from the DVD kits. Only Sesame Workshop can provide content containing the licensed characters contained on the existing DVD kits. Developing a website that is not consistent with the content of the DVD kits would necessitate developing a new series of DVD kits to correspond with the website content. TLC2 is aimed at preventing emotional or behavioral disorders and uses similar techniques and materials to previous Sesame Workshop programs for DoD to look beyond issues related to the initial deployment and parental separation, to those dealing with issues related to multiple deployments and also with the possibility of psychological or physical injury of a parent. Sesame Workshop is the only vendor whose previous work has been scientifically established to have been associated with decreased feelings of depression and hopelessness in wives of deployed service members as demonstrated in an external impact study (see paragraph 8), completed by the Military Family Research Institute at Purdue University and Russell Research. This action represents a continuation and further refinement of the Phase 2 multi-media/multi-venue approach to help military families cope with deployments, multiple deployments, and serious injuries. The website is an integral part of the program and supplements material contained in the kits. Seeking a vendor other than Sesame Workshop would cause undue delay (approximately one year to recreate the work completed in Phase I and Phase II), at a point when operational tempo is high and family separations (and the stresses that go with them) are frequent and difficult for those left at home to manage. It would require from scratch development of new products to replace the products which have already been shown to be successful and would need to duplicate those developed in Phase I and Phase II described above in order to maintain consistency in the characters portrayed and messages imparted. Furthermore, seeking another vendor would cause a substantial duplication of costs (approximately $2.3M; the initial cost of Phase I effort) to the Government that would not be expected to be recovered through competition. 3. Efforts to Obtain Competition. Discussions and interviews were held with various DoD Subject Matter Experts from the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences Department of Psychology (specifically child psychologists), who were asked to provide recommendations of appropriate potential offerors. The internet was also searched extensively to find companies that had experience and could compete in this area. None were found that could support the specific requirement of high trust and recongnizability in the target age group while providing materials that are both educational and entertaining. 4. Actions to Increase Competition. This is a one-time requirement and no future similar acquisitions are anticipated. However, if a similar requirement arises, every effort will be made to compete it to the maximum extent practicable
- Web Link
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- Place of Performance
- Address: US Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity ATTN: MCMR-AAA, 820 Chandler Street Frederick MD<br />
- Zip Code: 21702-5014<br />
- Zip Code: 21702-5014<br />
- Record
- SN01660049-W 20080906/080904222435-3aad73350b8981a815eabba444037ec3 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
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