Description
The Program Support Center, a Division of Acquisitions Managements, intends to award a sole source contract using the Simplified Acquisition Producers to National Assoc for Children of Alcoholics. Background: Faith-based organizations have historically impacted communities and individual behavior. The local faith community is uniquely positioned to help persons affected by alcohol or drug addiction or members of their families break down the barriers they feel are impenetrable in seeking help for their problems. Issues of alcohol and drug misuse, dependency and addiction, and mental health conditions affect the counseling work and efforts to provide spiritual direction to hurting congregants. Yet, many congregation-based leaders currently have neither the full knowledge nor the skills to work in resolving these issues with individuals and families facing addiction-related problems and mental health conditions. But, with training and resources, the faith community can be an effective facilitator in finding the help and services needed; especially if they have at hand the necessary tools to help the individual and family begin recovery. Providing the faith community with training, consumer-related education resource tools, and teaching them how to connect needed recovery-oriented resources within their local community, can help to facilitate efforts to reach persons who are suffering from their own or a family member's addiction within their congregation. In addition, faith leaders can help to educate others in the congregation to assist in the reduction of prejudice and discrimination and the elimination of barriers associated with substance use disorders and mental health conditions and the achievement of SAMHSA's mission "to reduce the impact of substance abuse and mental illness on America's communities." As with all HHS/SAMHSA activities and events, there will be consideration and emphasis to promote the interests of diverse ethnic and racial minority groups. These groups include African American, Asian Pacific Islander, Hispanic, American Indian, older Americans, adolescents and youth, individuals with co-occurring illness and the disabled community. In order to accomplish their goals, SAMHSA creates opportunities to join alliances with all levels of government agencies, the business community, recovery community, professional organizations and affiliates within the substance abuse treatment field. These relationships help to foster support to spread the word about the efficacy of treatment, as well as to eliminate disparities associated with substance use disorders and mental health conditions. Goals and Reasons: This initiative will work with, complement and enhance the effectiveness of existing SAMHSA/CSAT family and faith-based educational resources. Efforts to increase consumer-related outreach, training and educational material targeted to faith leaders can enhance their congregants' awareness about alcohol and drug problems. In addition, these materials provide clergy with appropriate information and congregation education materials to address these problems. This effort complements the work started through SAMHSA/CSAT's Faith Initiative - "Clergy Guide" on alcohol and drug problems. This effort will bring the guide to life in each congregation through an in-house training program on how to implement the suggested steps mentioned in the clergy guide. The effort will also provide collateral materials for individuals and family members to intervene with appropriate treatment and support needed to recover from alcohol and drug addiction. This initiative supports the SAMHSA Strategic Initiatives Prevention of Substance Abuse and Mental Illness and Public Awareness and Support. Specific Requirements and Tasks - Statement of Work: This initiative, Phase VII, will teach a cadre of multi-denominational clergy to expand their knowledge and understanding of the impact of alcohol and drug problems, to introduce resources available and useful strategies to intervene positively with affected congregants, including children. In Phase VII, the goal remains to disseminate materials already developed and compile lessons learned for the respective faith communities (be it denominational, geographic or allied professionals) in order to directly reach the consumer in need of information and help regarding addiction, mental health conditions, intervention, treatment and recovery. The contractor will organize eight (8) clergy training programs in both metro and rural areas and will attempt to secure the participation of no less than 100 members of the clergy and allied faith social services providers for each one of the training programs. The eight (8) sites will be determined in collaboration with and approval by SAMHSA/CSAT. The proposed eight (8) target venues will include: In Phase VII, the Clergy Education and Training Project® of the National Association for Children of Alcoholics (NACoA) propose to: • Conduct a one-day training event in eight communities that are diverse geographically, ethnically and racially, build on the lessons learned in the previous six phases, and disseminate and highlight the already created SAMHSA/CSAT materials. The goals of the training are (1) to impart information based on the SAMHSA document Core Competencies for Clergy and Other Pastoral Leaders In Addressing Alcohol and Drug Dependency and Its Impact on Family Members, and (2) to provide tools, strategies, materials and TA support to a minimum of 100congregational leaders in each of the eight communities, in a one-day training event, that will motivate and engage pastoral leaders to support efforts to reach directly to the consumer in need of information and help regarding addiction, mental health conditions, intervention, treatment and recovery both in their own congregations and in collaboration with other faith leaders in their communities. The (8) communities will be determined in collaboration with and the approval of CSAT/SAMHSA following NACoA research, and they will include at least one community serving a military base(s), one or more major metropolitan areas, one community with a high Hispanic population, and one serving rural areas. • Continue its partnership with the American Association of Pastoral Counselors, and engage the Faith Partners as an additional partner in the trainings and as a resource to facilitate the implementation of congregational teams and to follow-up with the communities hosting the trainings. • Design and host a Webinar for current and previous participants as a refresher and motivator to re-energize work already begun and to engage persons not yet trained. • Engage NACoA affiliate organizations, community coalitions, and NCADD affiliate organizations, where appropriate, to support the local faith organizations and partners in the recruitment and venue support needed for a successful training event and follow-up educational programs. • Utilize existing pamphlets and posters, in both English and Spanish, designed and used in earlier Phases as well as the Core Competencies for Clergy and Other Pastoral Ministers in Addressing Alcohol and Drug Dependence and the Impact on Family Members, the CSAT booklet What Is Substance Abuse Treatment? And the resource manual of information, educational materials, tools, tips, articles and ad slicks for use in congregational bulletins and the local religious press. • Expand the effort with all participant congregations to promote Recovery Month and to use the Recovery Month webcasts as the basis for community and family education programs/discussion groups. • Engage local prevention and treatment resources and county/state substance abuse directors to provide information and resources for ongoing support to local congregations following the training. • Invite representatives of ministerial conferences across denominations to encourage participation from the planning stages to the continued distribution and use of the project's materials. It is proposed to use the previous work and experience completed by the National Association for Children of Alcoholics (NACoA) to facilitate this initiative. This training effort will use existing materials, such as publications and videos, repackage them for use at the congregational level across denominations, and provide the participants with information on how to recognize, address, and refer congregants and their families to treatment for substance use disorders. Training topics will also include understanding addiction and the importance of finding the support and help for the affected individuals and family members, and to empower them to initiate and sustain steps toward recovery. In addition, the initiative will create and conduct training programs for representatives of faith congregations in designated cities. These training programs will demonstrate to clergy how to use the materials effectively to provide support, direction and hope for their congregants and other consumers in these communities. These materials will be provided directly to members of faith congregations to help support their individual and family efforts to address alcohol and drug problems, to intervene as appropriate, and to find the support they need to prevent or recover from alcohol and drug addiction. Task I: Submit contract plan within 30 days of award of contract. Status reports will be due end of 1st quarter, mid-year, end of 3rd quarter and final report. The reports will include number of individuals trained; their participant evaluation results from the training; orders of materials from SHIN; training and resource materials used; nature of local partner groups for each site, and follow-up activities. Task II: Review and update participant resource manual to include steps for implementing congregational-based recovery support teams. Task III: Engage clergy leadership and local faith organization partners in eight (8) communities across diverse geographic and ethnic/cultural populations to include research and identifying appropriate sites. The final eight (8) site selections will be approved by the SAMHSA/CSAT project officer. Engage local organizations, including NACoA and NCADD affiliates to partner in planning, recruitment and venue for each site. Broaden national partnerships to include the Faith Partners, in addition to the American Association of Pastoral Counselors. Facilitate planning meetings in each local community and initiate periodic planning conference calls with each. Provide graphics for flyers and brochures for all local partners to use for their training participant recruitment efforts. Task IV: Conduct a one-day training program in each of the eight (8) communities by providing training to leadership representatives of faith congregations in each designated city on how to establish a welcoming environment for impacted congregants and how to use the resources and SAMHSA materials effectively. Recruit 100 pastoral leaders to participate at each site. Task V: Develop and host a 1-hour Webinar as a refresher for previous participants from Phases I-IV and for those in this current Phase, engaging 100 participants. The Webinar materials must be provided to the project officer in advance.