DHHS, Office of the Secretary, Office of Acquisition Management; Room 443H Humphrey Building, 200 Independence Ave., SW; Washington, DC 20201

B -- MULTISITE EVALUATION AND SYNTHESIS OF RESPONSIBLE FATHERHOOD PROJECTS SOL RFP-15-98-HHS-OS POC Point of Contact -- Cheryl Howe, Contract Specialist, 202-690-5552 The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) seeks qualified offerors to assist them in determining how well states and their local site partners are able to implement responsible fatherhood programs and to assess the extent to which these programs result in increased child support collection, greater father-child involvement, and enhanced self- sufficiency for fathers. The project will also assess whether the implementation of site specific management information systems improves readiness for evaluation activities. The results of this project will be used in the development of future Federal, State and local initiatives in this area. The cross-site evaluation will build on the development of a comprehensive management information system being implemented by each site, on the individual site evaluations that each demonstration project is required to undertake, and on the design work reported in "An Evaluability Assessment of Responsible Fatherhood Programs (DHHS, August 1997)". Because prior work has indicated that many responsible fatherhood projects do not have the capacity to collect systematic and detailed information for evaluation efforts to be successful, this project will be conducted in two phases. Phase One will include the overall design of the project, technical assistance to the projects on the development of their site-specific evaluations, completion of the site process evaluations, an assessment of whether sites information collection systems can support outcome evaluation activities, and an interim report. Phase Two is optional and would be conducted only at request of the government. It would include the implementation of the cross-site outcome evaluations, technical assistance to sites regarding information collection to support evaluation activities, and a final report that synthesizes the results of the cross-site evaluations. The period of performance will be eighteen months for Phase I and an additional twelve months for the optional Phase II. This is an announcement for an anticipated Request for Proposals. It is anticipated that a cost reimbursement type contract will be awarded as a result of this solicitation. The RFP will be available approximately fifteen calendar days after this notice is posted electronically. Following proposal submission and the initial review process, offerors comprising the competitive range may be asked to provide additional documentation to the Contract Specialist. Although the exact response date will be announced in the RFP, the government anticipates allowing offerors 30 days to respond. Requests for copies of this RFP must be made in writing to the address and contact point listed above. Requests may be faxed to Cheryl Howe at (202) 690-5698. This advertisement does not commit the Government to award a contract. No collect calls will be accepted. All proposals from responsible sources will be considered. (0169)

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