Inactive

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Community Living (ACL) and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA); and the U.S. Department of Education... The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Community Living (ACL) and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA); and the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services (OSERS) requires a performance-based contract to provide coordinated, comprehensive, and specialized training and technical assistance (T/TA) to support the Protection and Advocacy Systems (P&As) in providing legal advocacy services to people with disabilities and ensuring voting access. Under the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act of 2000 (DD Act), each state and U.S. territory has a P&A designated by the state’s governor. The DD Act and other authorizing statutes give the P&A authority to advocate for the rights of individuals with disabilities. The DD Act states that each P&A must have the authority to “pursue legal, administrative, and other appropriate remedies or approaches to ensure the protection of, and advocacy for, the rights of such individuals within the State.” 42 U.S.C. §15043. Each P&A uses a range of remedies to advocate for individuals with developmental disabilities, including self-advocacy assistance, negotiation and litigation. There are 57 P&As - one in every state and U.S. territory as well as one serving the Native American population in the four corners region. As a performance-based contract, this statement of objectives outlines the desired results and expected outcomes to be achieved for the work performed. Coordinated T/TA means addressing the P&A network needs related to implementing the various protection and advocacy grants from multiple funding Federal agencies. Comprehensive T/TA refers to resources that provide a broadly applicable foundation for all P&As regardless of size (small, medium, large) and capacity, yet are responsive to the emerging needs of P&As, such as highly complex, individualized issues. Specialized T/TA is tailored to the unique role of the P&As in providing legal advocacy services to people with disabilities and ensuring voting access. Under the direction of the ACL Contracting Officer Representative (COR) and the Federal partners (SAMHSA and OSERS), the Contractor is responsible for the provision of comprehensive, coordinated, specialized T/TA to P&As and shall plan, arrange, and provide all the required personnel, consultants, resources, facilities, and equipment needed to fulfill the requirements of the contract in the most cost-effective manner by: Designing T/TA that provides fundamental skills and knowledge that are proven to effectively address the specialized and highly complex legal advocacy activities and cases undertaken by P&As; Enhancing and leveraging the use of technology to increase the accessibility of content to all P&A staff using multiple platforms, modifying content where needed; Delivering T/TA in the most cost efficient manner to maximize resources available; Bolstering the use of peer-to-peer sharing techniques to share and transfer knowledge across the P&A network; Exploring ways to fully include individuals with disabilities in T/TA activities to ensure meaningful involvement of, and input from, the P&As and individuals with disabilities; and Directly including the expertise of individuals who are blind/visually impaired in the development and execution of T/TA efforts aimed at improving voting accessibility. All travel related to T/TA activities will require the prior approval of the COR. The contractor shall track separately HHS, SAMHSA and ED, OSERS funds that support T/TA activities.