[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 128 (Wednesday, July 3, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 40190-40191]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-16014]
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DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
National Institute of Corrections
Solicitation for a Cooperative Agreement--Sexual Safety in
Women's Institutions
AGENCY: National Institute of Corrections, U.S. Department of Justice.
ACTION: Solicitation for a Cooperative Agreement.
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SUMMARY: The National Institute of Corrections (NIC) is soliciting
proposals from organizations, groups, or individuals to enter into a
cooperative agreement for an 18-month period to begin no later than
September 15, 2013. Work under this cooperative agreement will involve
the development and piloting of a blended-learning curriculum, which
could include the use of virtual instructor-led training (VILT), to
address the safety of women inmates within correctional institutions.
The audience for this curriculum represents correctional staff,
volunteers, contractors, community stakeholders who work within women's
correctional institutions, and community residential facilities. This
project will be a collaborative venture with the NIC Community Services
Division.
NIC Opportunity Number: 13CS10. This number should appear in the
reference line in your cover letter, on Standard Form 424 in section 11
with the title of your proposal, and in the right justified header of
your proposal.
Number of Awards and Funds Available: Under this solicitation, 1
(one) award will be made. The total amount of funds available under
this solicitation is $80,000.00. Funds awarded under this solicitation
may only be used for activities directly related to the project as
described herein unless otherwise amended in writing by NIC.
Applications: All applicants must be submitted electronically via
http://www.grants.gov. Hand delivered, mailed, faxed, or emailed
applications will not be accepted.
DATES: Application must be submitted before midnight on Tuesday, July
16, 2013.
Authority: Public Law 93-415.
Eligibility of Applicants: An eligible applicant is any public or
private agency, educational institution, organization, individual or
team with expertise in the described areas.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background: In 2006 the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) funded
a study titled ``Gendered Violence and Safety: A Contextual Approach to
Improving Security in Women's Facilities.'' More recently, the National
Institute of Corrections funded the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA)
Validation Project for Improving Safety in Women's Facilities
(cooperative agreement 10PEI34GKB6), which further contributed
to the body of work addressing this issue. Sandwiched between those
efforts has been the release of the PREA National Standards to Prevent,
Detect, and Respond to Prison Rape, released in 2012, which has
significant implications for correctional settings housing women and
girls. A collection of standards comparison materials is available on
the Web at the following locations: http://nicic.gov/Library/026085;
http://nicic.gov/Library/026082; http://nicic.gov/Library/026083;
http://nicic.gov/Library/026084. Over the past few decades, through
research efforts and improved practice, the corrections profession has
had access to a great deal of information, which has influenced
continuing research efforts, training, assessment and classification,
development of program models, and the creation of promising practices
specific to improving system outcomes and individual outcomes for
justice-involved women. While many current practices within criminal
justice are seen as applicable to both justice-involved men and women,
more recently the corrections profession has had opportunities to
sharpen practice and more effectively manage resources in working with
women in correctional settings.
Scope of Work: The awardee must develop a blended learning
curriculum, including the piloting of the curriculum. The curriculum
must use a variety of delivery methodologies, which could include
readings, case study review, webinars, onsite delivery, and pre- and
post-training activities. A virtual instructor-led training format will
be considered if it can be demonstrated that the transfer of knowledge
to the participants is effective. Awardees should develop the materials
specific to physical and sexual safety in women's correctional
facilities, based on current research, knowledge, best practice, and
reflective of the experiences of corrections professionals and the
target population. It should also include outlined method(s) for the
transfer of learning, opportunities for skills practice, follow up
coaching/assistance, and a method to measure the effectiveness of the
training curriculum. The deliverables will help advance and foster
professional correctional environments while enhancing safety and
security and positively influencing systems, staff, and justice-
involved women.
Deliverables: Tasks to be performed through this cooperative
agreement include: (1) Conducting a literature search to contribute to
curriculum development (2) convening a working session at an approved
location; designing the working agenda; providing facilitation; and
using content from the session to inform project deliverables. Working
session participants will be identified in collaboration with and upon
the approval of the NIC project staff. (3) working with NIC project
staff and designated experts to develop deliverables. Deliverables
could include a facilitator's manual and participant workbook,
audiovisual materials, supplemental readings, pre/post measures of
learning and other materials that facilitate learning. (4) developing
and delivering the final curriculum modeled on the instructional theory
into practice format (5) creating a final report that summarizes the
project.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: All technical or programmatic
questions concerning this announcement should be directed to Maureen
Buell, Correctional Program Specialist, National Institute of
Corrections, who may be reached by email at [email protected]. In addition
to the direct reply, all questions and responses will be posted on
NIC's Web site at www.nicic.gov for public review (the names or
affiliations of those submitting questions will not be posted). The Web
site will be updated regularly and postings will remain on the Web site
until the closing date of this cooperative agreement solicitation.
Application Requirements: Application Requirements: Applications
should be typed, double spaced, in 12-point font, and reference the
project by the ``NIC Opportunity Number'' (13CS10) and title in this
announcement, ``Sexual Safety in Women's Institutions.'' The package
must include: a cover letter that identifies the audit agency
responsible for the applicant's financial accounts as well as the audit
period or fiscal year that the applicant operates under (e.g., July 1
through June 30); a concisely written program narrative, not to exceed
[[Page 40191]]
30 numbered pages, in response to the statement of work, and a detailed
budget with a budget narrative explaining projected costs. Applicants
may submit a description of the project teams' qualifications and
expertise relevant to the project, but should not attach lengthy
resumes. Attachments to the proposal describing your organization or
examples of other past work beyond those specifically requested above
are discouraged. These attachments should not exceed 5MB.
The following forms must also be included: OMB Standard Form 424,
Application for Federal Assistance; OMB Standard Form 424A, Budget
information--Non-Construction Programs; OMB Standard Form 424B,
Assurances--Non-Construction Programs (these forms are available at
http://www.grants.gov) and DOJ/NIC Certification Regarding Lobbying;
Debarment, Suspension and Other Responsibility Matters; and the Drug-
Free Workplace Requirements (available at http://nicic.gov/Downloads/General/certif-frm.pdf. Failure to supply all required forms with the
application package may result in disqualification of the application
from consideration.
Note: NIC will NOT award a cooperative agreement to an
applicant who does not have a Dun and Bradstreet Database Universal
Number (DUNS) and is not registered in the Central Contractor
Registry (CCR). A DUNS number can be received at no cost by calling
the dedicated toll-free DUNS number request line at 1-800-333-0505
(if you are a sole proprietor, you would dial 1-866-705-5711 and
select option 1).
Registration in the CRR can be done online at the CCR Web site:
http://www.bpn.gov/ccr. A CCR Handbook and worksheet can also be
reviewed at the Web site.
Review Considerations: Applications received under this
announcement will be subject to the NIC Review Process. Proposals which
fail to provide sufficient information to allow evaluation under the
criteria below may be judged non-responsive and disqualified.
The criteria for the evaluation of each application will be as
follows:
Programmatic (40%)
Are all of the project tasks adequately discussed? Is there a clear
statement of how each task will be accomplished to include the overall
project goal(s), major tasks to achieve the goal(s), the strategies to
be employed in completing the tasks, required staffing, and other
required resources? Are there any approaches, techniques, or design
aspects proposed that are new to NIC and will enhance the project?
Organizational (35%)
Do the proposed project staff members possess the skills,
knowledge, and expertise necessary to complete the tasks listed under
the scope of work? Does the applicant organization, group, or
individual have the organizational capacity to achieve all project
tasks? Does the proposal contain project management and staffing plans
that are realistic and sufficient to complete the project within the
project time frame?
Project Management/Administration (25%)
Does the applicant identify reasonable objectives, milestones, and
measures to track progress? If consultants and/or partnerships are
proposed, is there a reasonable justification for their inclusion in
the project, and a clear structure to ensure effective coordination? Is
the proposed budget realistic, does it provide a sufficient cost
detail/narrative, and does it represent good value relative to the
anticipated results?
Specific Requirements: Documents or other media that are produced
under this award must follow these guidelines: Prior to the preparation
of the final draft of any document or other media, the awardee must
consult with NIC's Writer/Editor concerning the acceptable formats for
manuscript submissions and the technical specifications for electronic
media. For all awards in which a document will be a deliverable, the
awardee must follow the guidelines listed herein, as well as follow the
Guidelines for Preparing and Submitting Manuscripts for Publication as
found in the ``General Guidelines for Cooperative Agreements,'' which
can be found on our Web site at www.nicic.gov/cooperativeagreements.
All final documents and other materials submitted under this
project must meet the federal government's requirement for Section 508
accessibility, including those provisions outlined in 1194 Subpart B,
Technical Provisions; Subpart C, Functional Performance Criteria; and
Subpart D, Documentation and Support. NIC's government product
accessibility template (see www.nicic.gov/section508) outlines the
agency's minimum criteria for meeting this requirement; a completed
form attesting to the accessibility of project deliverables should
accompany all submissions.
Note Concerning Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number:
The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) should be entered
into box 10 of the SF 424. The CFDA number for this solicitation is
16.601. You are not subject to Executive Order 12372 and should
check box b under section 16.
Robert M. Brown, Jr.,
Acting Director, National Institute of Corrections.
[FR Doc. 2013-16014 Filed 7-2-13; 8:45 am]
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