The Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency/U.S. Fire Administration (DHS/FEMA/USFA) intends to negotiate and award a purchase order on a sole source basis (IAW FAR 6.302) with the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), located at 4795 Meadow Wood Lane, Suite 100, Chantilly, VA 20151. The Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1974 (PL 93-498) authorizes the National Fire Data Center (NFDC) in the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) to gather and analyze information on the magnitude of the nation's fire problem, as well as detailed characteristics and trends. The act further authorizes the USFA to develop uniform data reporting methods, and to encourage and assist state agencies in developing data and reporting fire damage. To carry out the intentions of the Act, the NFDC established the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) in the mid-1970s. NFIRS has two objectives: 1. To help state, local, tribal and U.S. territory governments develop fire reporting and analysis capability for their own use. 2. To obtain data that can be used to assess and subsequently to combat the fire problem more accurately at a national level. NFIRS is a reporting standard that fire departments use to uniformly report on the full range of their activities, from fire to Emergency Medical Services (EMS) to severe weather and natural disasters. NFIRS is a model of successful federal, state, tribal, U.S. territory and local government partnerships. The database constitutes the world's largest national collection of fire department response incident information currently reporting over 28 million incidents annually from over 24,500 fire departments. Every U.S. state and the District of Columbia report NFIRS data. The Department of Defense, Native American tribal and U.S. territory governments participate in NFIRS. However, despite its tremendous impact throughout the U.S., there are still individuals in the fire service, as well as state and local level governments, that do not understand what NFIRS is or how it may be of assistance in such areas as: • Tracking and managing apparatus, personnel and casualty information, documenting the full range of department activity, and justifying budgets with summary and statistical data. • Using NFIRS data to address current community challenges, mitigation planning, future issues, and program performance measurement. There is a need for effective outreach and marketing of NFIRS to educate uninformed individuals in the fire service about NFIRS and how it can be beneficial to their organization. The objective of this project is to develop a comprehensive outreach and marketing plan to include the content of tools and materials that can be used by USFA or other organizations to promote the use of NFIRS. The target audience of this plan is fire departments and state and local level governments, as well as national-level fire service and EMS constituent groups. A special focus will be the development of an NFIRS Awareness Week marketing and outreach effort. This project will also enhance the support and advocacy for NFIRS within the fire service to enhance its use and data accuracy. The marketing plan from this project will be incorporated into a marketing campaign which could include a variety of dedicated outreach efforts including presentations at national-level fire service and other conferences, partnership development, as well as initiatives which could include other potential partnerships with national-level fire service, EMS, and other organizations, new publications, and training programs, etc. The IAFC shall provide input as well as involve the major national-level fire associations such as: International Association of Fire Firefighters (IAFF), the National Volunteer Fire Council (NFVC), the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), the International Fire Service Training Association, the Center for Public Safety Excellence (CPSE) as well as other organizations and agencies with a background in this topic, especially those representing local level governments including the International City/County Management Association (ICMA), National League of Cities (NLC), National Association of Counties (NACO), National Association of Towns and Townships (NATaT), etc. This outreach shall examine how this effort would assist the fire service in meeting relevant fire service data reporting standards and also how project efforts can be incorporated into relevant CPSE initiatives. This project shall include training and outreach seminars during the IAFC's Fire Rescue International Conference, the Fire Rescue Med EMS Conference, and other IAFC-sponsored Conferences as well as other national fire service, EMS, local government conferences such as the Fire Department Instructors' Conference (FDIC), FireHouse Expo, etc. The IAFC shall not use any technical methods that require any Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Information Collection approvals or that would invoke the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) requirements. The contractor must be able to meet core capabilities required for this requirement as follows: • Expertise in gathering and analyzing data and information on on programs and practices by fire agencies nationwide. • Expertise in the research on the marketing and outreach of new programs or practices to the fire and emergency services. • Expertise in performing research on the development and demonstration of best practices to successfully market a new program or practice to fire service agencies nationwide. • Expertise in performing outreach and coordination to provide information on the values of a new program or practice to local level fire and EMS responders and their agencies. Requirements: • Experience with performance of successful complex research studies of fire and EMS agencies, for both the USFA and the fire service in general; • Existing mechanism to deliver outreach, information, and training targeted toward the fire service in the United States, specifically utilizing existing IAFC web-based training programs; • Experience with the development and delivery of materials targeted specifically for culture and programmatic change in fire service agencies. The IAFC has a long history of performing complex fire service projects and studies for both the USFA and the fire service in general. Founded in 1873, the IAFC and their staff have extensive experience and credibility among the U.S. fire service for their over 145-year history of serving the needs of the fire service, not just in the United States but internationally as well. They are a national level focal point of expertise in numerous areas for the fire service. IAFC's website will greatly expand the outreach required for this project. This IAFC website is well known and utilized among the fire and emergency services community to access information on numerous fire service topics. The IAFC will not allow any other organization such unrestricted access to the website. Additionally, the IAFC will provide deliverables developed through participation during IAFC-sponsored national level fire service leadership conferences, including Fire Rescue International as well as other fire service resources of their organization. The IAFC has not developed a national-level fire data reporting or similar system. The IAFC possesses unique qualifications, experience, expertise and resources to conduct this marketing and outreach effort for NFIRS. IAFC is the only organization capable of performing the tasks to satisfy this requirement. This notice is NOT a request for quotation (RFQ) for competitive quotes/proposals and no solicitation document exists for this requirement. However, parties interested in responding to this notice shall submit technical data, sufficient to determine capability in providing the same services. All capability statements received by the closing of this notification of this synopsis will be considered by the Government. A determination by the Government not to compete based on responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. Based on the above information, the only known organization which can provide technically acceptable services is the IAFC. Submit capability statements (using PDF, MS Word, Excel attachments) to Kim Logue, Contracting Officer at
[email protected]. Statements are due by 11:00 a.m. EST on July 10, 2019. Primary Point of Contact: Kim Logue Contracting Office Address: DHS/FEMA/NETC Building D 16825 South Seton Avenue Emmitsburg, MD 21727 Place of Performance: Contractor's location Classification Code: B537 NAICS Code: 813920