Proposals were due Friday, March 9, 2018.

The District Attorney’s Office is requesting proposals to develop a plan for a Center for Trauma Innovation (CTI) based in New York City. The plan may form the basis for a potential larger investment in the CTI itself. The goal for the CTI is to address gaps and challenges in the existing system of services for people exposed to trauma. The CTI will offer comprehensive, culturally-competent, free or low-cost services to individuals experiencing trauma, with a focus on reaching people and communities in NYC that are most impacted by violence, people who do not traditionally seek out victim services, and organizations seeking to incorporate and/or enhance trauma-specific interventions in their work.

Currently, existing trauma-specific services may often focus specifically on populations exposed to primary trauma (i.e., interpersonal, acute, or physical traumas). This leaves a gap in services and treatment for populations with exposure to secondary trauma (i.e., systemic trauma, or physical, psychological, or emotional harm caused by environments and institutions; or, exposure to individuals with primary exposure to trauma, such as through family members), which means that some of the people and communities in NYC that are most affected by trauma as a result of poverty and/or regular exposure to violence may not have access to the services they need. In addition, many people with primary exposure to trauma, especially men of color and justice-involved individuals and families, do not access services due to biases, lack of effective treatment from providers, etc. The CTI will test interventions to fill these gaps and provide training and technical assistance (TTA) on strategies for incorporating and/or enhancing trauma-specific interventions to organizations serving people and communities who experience these gaps.

The long-term vision for the CTI will serve three functions:

• Expand and strengthen the response to populations exposed to primary and secondary trauma through designing and testing community-based demonstration projects and innovative clinical interventions, which develop, implement, and evaluate trauma-informed and trauma-specific interventions and engagement strategies (see the full RFP PDF below for more detail).
• Enhance the capacity of existing trauma services in New York City and community-based responses to populations targeted by CTI through the provision of training and technical assistance (TTA) to city agencies and community-based organizations (see the full RFP PDF below for more detail).
• Create a trauma innovation learning community. It is anticipated that the center will bring together a consortium of providers and other experts across sectors who will share best practices for intervention and engagement strategies, inform, lead, participate and/or benefit from CTI’s demonstration projects, and make use of and/or deliver TTA (see the full RFP PDF below for more detail).

Thus, this RFP will identify an entity to produce a plan in service of a potential, later investment in a CTI, as envisioned above.

The District Attorney’s Office will fund up to $150,000 for a 6-month award to plan a Center for Trauma Innovation.

For service providers interested in connecting with one another to collaborate on proposals, ISLG has created a CJII networking group on LinkedIn. You can share information about your organization and see what other service providers are offering and connect.

Documents

• DOWNLOAD: CJII request for proposals for Center for Trauma Innovation Planning
• DOWNLOAD: Addendum 1 – Applicant Questions and Answers

Deadlines

• The deadline to submit questions about this RFP was Friday, January 19, 2018, at 11:59 p.m. EST.
• The deadline to submit proposals was Friday, March 9, 2018, at 11:59 p.m. EST.
  

Background

The CUNY Institute for State and Local Governance is the technical assistance consultant to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office for CJII. ISLG manages the grantees funded under CJII and provides oversight and performance measurement throughout the lifetime of the initiative. All funds are administered through the Research Foundation of CUNY (Research Foundation).