The Department of Veterans Affairs, Network Contracting Office 7, intends to negotiate a sole-source contract with The PAIRS Foundation, 1675 Market Street Suite 207, Weston, FL 33326-3681, on or around September 15, 2012 to provide Practical Application for Intimate Relationship Skills (PAIRS) "Train the Trainer" workshop. The workshop is part of a nation-wide VA initiative to certify VA employees to provide relationship counseling services for combat veterans. The workshop is funded by a grant from the VA Patient-Centered Care and Cultural Transformation Initiative. The PAIRS "Train the Trainer" seminar is specifically designed to certify chaplains, social workers and clinical psychologists from VA Medical Centers across the nation to certify performing PAIRS counseling/communication techniques with veterans and their family members. This is a specialized training course that focuses three-fourths of its curriculum on "emotional literacy" and improving communication skills of returning combat veterans and their spouses suffering with marriage issues related to combat stress. The training includes information on levels of learning, stages of relationships, hopes and fears in relationships, relationship road maps, communication stress styles, leveling, daily temperature readings of relationships, good talking and listening skills, fulfilling one's emotional relational needs, caring behaviors, essentials in relationships, emotional stages of development, emotional needs, fair fighting for change, tips for time-out, fight style evaluation, fight results profile, guide for coaches, fair fight checklist (scorecard), relationship agreements, love knots with worksheets, untangling love knots, power grams, decision-making worksheets, emotional allergy negative infinity loops, emotional allergy worksheets, confiding an emotional allergy, and finally transforming the loop with a final course evaluation. Each participant will receive certification credentials by PAIRS along with an instructor's handbook. At the conclusion of this four-day seminar each certified participant will be able to conduct PAIRS training/counseling and marriage enrichment retreats for veterans and/or active duty personnel and family members utilizing PAIRS curriculum and handouts. Each certified participant will have a superior understanding and skill set to provide intense emotional literacy communication not available to them prior to this training by this vendor. There is no other evidence-based source that offers this intense "emotional literacy-filled and effective communication skills" program. The PAIRS "Train the Trainer" program is unique in that it is not faith-based, which makes it a distinctive choice for the VA since we are required to be diverse in our training materials so as not to exclude any veterans. NAICS Code: 611699 All Other Schools and Instruction (Size Standard $7.0 Million) This proposed procurement is for services for which the government intends to solicit and negotiate with only one source in accordance with FAR 6.302-1(b)(1)(i), Only One Responsible Source and no Other Supplies or Services will Satisfy Agency Requirements. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive quotes. However, interested parties may identify their interest and capability to respond to this requirement no later than September 6, 6 p.m. EST. A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed contract based on responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Point of Contact: Whitney Warrington, Contract Specialist (Fax: 478-277-6576; e-mail:
[email protected])