With this RFP, ACS is seeking to contract with providers that can offer clinical staff to provide the City’s CPS Teams access to quality expertise in mental health, intimate partner violence, and substance use. Ultimately, the goal for the Partners and the CPS Teams working with the identified families is to increase the capacity of parents and caretakers in complex circumstances to facilitate and enhance the well-being and safety of their children. In addition to improving child welfare case planning and family functioning where problematic substance use, intimate partner violence, and/or mental health challenges exist, the Partners with specialized expertise in these areas will enhance training of child welfare staff and facilitate engagement and referrals to necessary follow-up community services. The services proposed should be child-centered, family-focused, developmentally appropriate, strengths-based, trauma informed, and culturally sensitive. The services should emphasize collaboration and integration with ACS, its contracted provider agencies, and its collaborating providers in other NYC and NYS systems. The services to be provided will include frequent contact with CPS Teams and, where helpful and appropriate, with impacted family members. The Partners should be able to do this work in several different modalities: in person co-located in the relevant ACS borough offices, via audio and video conferencing, and in person with families in their homes and in meetings among family members, their support systems, and CPS Team members.
