Inactive

THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR COMPETITIVE QUOTES: The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Office of the Administrator (OA), Office of Public Affairs (OPA) requires contractor support in e... THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR COMPETITIVE QUOTES: The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Office of the Administrator (OA), Office of Public Affairs (OPA) requires contractor support in evaluation of the agency’s requirement, Connecting with Hard-to-Reach Audiences: Improving EPA’s Access to Communicate Climate Risk Messages to Improve Protection of Health and the Environment. The overarching aim for this work is to develop strategies, methods, and materials for EPA to better communicate actionable trustworthy climate risk information critical to for protecting vulnerable communities and individuals. This is to be accomplished by working with and through more trusted individuals already connected with these at-risk segments of the public. Trust is widely considered the most important mediator of effective risk communication. If a messenger is not deemed trustworthy, even the most accurate and polished risk messages will be discounted, disbelieved, or simply ignored. Decades of research show that levels of public trust in the Federal Government are generally low, and that certain segments or groups such as poor communities, or parents of young children, or recent immigrants, are particularly mistrustful of messaging and information coming from official Federal sources. Unfortunately, many of these least trusting groups also tend to be the most vulnerable to environmental and public health hazards, including the cumulative risks associated with climate change. Connected to the idea that there may be a potential lack of trust in risk information that that is received, many of the most at-risk individuals are unlikely to seek out risk information from EPA or any Federal Agency. Improving our ability to engage and to share important information about climate risk and protective behaviors with these hard-to-reach groups is vital to achieving EPA’s mission to protect public health. Against this challenging backdrop, the work includes tasks aimed at improving EPA’s ability to effectively communicate with, and to promote health protective behaviors among communities and groups at the intersection of extreme climate vulnerability and lack of trust in the Federal Government/ EPA. This includes working closely with EPA staff to: 1) identify groups or segments of the US population that are especially vulnerable to the risks or impacts associated with climate change (or an important subset of those risks and impacts); 2) assess and/ or identify the subset of vulnerable segments or groups where trust in the Federal Government/ EPA is particularly low; 3) identify the most trusted gatekeepers or messaging influencers for those hard-to-reach but vulnerable groups and assess EPA’s ability to access them; 4) aid EPA in selecting a small number of hard-to-reach, but vulnerable groups matched to gatekeepers and influencers that EPA can access for further strategic risk communication and messaging development; 5) develop strategies for improving EPA’s ability to access those matched gatekeepers and influencers with the risk information, methods, and other materials they need to improve climate actions to protect health and the environment whether through mitigation or adaptation; and 6) develop audience-focused messaging and engagement strategies/ templates for meaningful, understandable, and actionable risk communication, either through those gatekeepers or influencers, or directly when necessary. This work is especially pertinent in the environmental justice and equity space, where impacted individuals face a disproportionate risk of adverse, cumulative impacts from climate change, and EPA faces even greater challenges in terms of trust and our ability to connect with these audiences. Accordingly, improving our climate risk communications channels and access to communities pursuing environmental justice will form a special area of emphasis for this work. The requested services are only known to be available solely from George Mason University. The anticipated North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this procurement is 541620 Environmental Consulting Services. Interested and capable parties may submit a brief capability statement demonstrating how their firm is technically capable of providing the services stated in this notice along with the requirements of the draft Performance Work Statement (PWS) provided with this notice. Please indicate the following information in your response, not to exceed 20 single-sided pages formatted with 1-inch margins and 12-point font: 1. A detailed technical approach to meeting all requirements of the draft PWS. 2. One primary and one alternate point of contact within your firm, including telephone numbers and email addresses. 3. Name of business, business size for the referenced NAICS code. Additionally, firms are allowed to propose additional NAICS codes should they believe they are more applicable to this requirement. 4. GSA Schedule contract number (if applicable). 5. Discussion of any potentially significant organizational conflicts of interest. Feedback and/or evaluation information will not be provided to any firm regarding their individual capability statements. Telephone calls, facsimiles, and/or requests for a solicitation will not be accepted or acknowledged. Businesses shall submit electronic copies of their respective capability statements through FedConnect or via email to Daniel Fox at fox.daniel@epa.gov and Patrice Cunningham at Cunningham.patrice@epa.gov no later than 3:00 pm Eastern Standard Time (EST) March 20, 2022. As stated previously, George Mason University is the only known source, at this time, that can provide the training and certification. Therefore, should no additional capable sources be found, the EPA will award a Sole Source purchase order pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 13.106-1(b) to George Mason University.