Victim-offender mediation (VOM) services

An advanced contract award notice (ACAN) is a public notice indicating to the supplier community that a department or agency intends to award a contract for goods, services or construction to a pre-identified supplier, thereby allowing other suppliers to signal their interest in bidding, by submitting a statement of capabilities. If no supplier submits a statement of capabilities that meets the requirements set out in the ACAN, on or before the closing date and time stated in the ACAN, the contracting officer may then proceed with the award to the pre-identified supplier. 1. Definition of the requirement: Policy on Reciprocal Procurement: the Policy on Reciprocal Procurement does not apply to this procurement. The Correctional Service Canada (CSC) has a requirement to deliver post-sentence victim-offender mediation services to individuals impacted by serious crime (federally sentenced offences). The Contractor must provide services to victims residing in British Columbia and the Northern Territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, & Nunavut), as well as to offenders who are incarcerated or on conditional release within these regions. This includes cross-regional cases where one participant is located within the region specified and the other is outside said region and supported by a mediator assigned to another region (Prairie, Ontario, Quebec, Atlantic). The work will involve the following: 1.1 Objective: To provide victim-offender mediation (VOM) services in accordance with the Victim-Offender Mediation Program (VOMP) model CSC has approved, based on the values and principles of restorative justice. The goal of delivering VOM services is to provide victims and offenders, in western Canada and the northern territories, the opportunity to communicate about and address the harms caused by the offence(s). The expected result is to prepare, facilitate, and assess safety throughout the restorative justice process between the participants and to meet their needs in areas of accountability, information sharing, increased understanding and empathy, healing, safety planning and the prevention of future harm. The Contractor must provide a minimum of two (2) qualified and professional victim-offender mediators to respond to all referrals requesting victim-offender mediation services involving offenders under CSC's jurisdiction. The mediators must collectively deliver approximately 3,500 hours of victim-offender mediation services annually to meet the following requirements: a. Deliver a combined minimum of 20 hours to a maximum of 80 hours per week of mediation services; b. Provide expertise, training and consultation on the Victim-Offender Mediation Program (VOMP) process model addressing serious crime with CSC’s Restorative Opportunities mediators, Restorative Justice Division, and CSC operational staff. c. Provide the level of expertise and mediation skills expected to complete victim-offender mediation processes, based on the VOMP process model, that include and are not limited to: i. Letter exchanges ii. Video exchanges iii. Shuttle mediation iv. Community conferencing v. Healing circles vi. Face-to-face meetings. 1.2 Tasks/Responsibilities: The Contractor must complete the following tasks that include, but are not limited to: 1. Forward all victim-offender mediation referrals received from CSC staff and contracted service providers working at the institutional and community level, from victims of crime, victim serving agencies, Parole Board Canada staff to the Restorative Justice Division at National Headquarters (NHQ) for initial review, creation of a case initiation form and Offender Management System (OMS) file creation in the Restorative Justice (RJ) Module. 2. Receive case referrals for victim-offender mediation services through CSC’s Restorative Justice Division, NHQ. 3. Assess all case referrals to determine their suitability for victim-offender mediation services. For cases deemed appropriate, the Contractor must prepare all participants for a victim-offender mediation process based on the participants needs and in accordance with VOMP process model. The contractor must begin with the participant that requested the service and only move on to the other participant if consent is given by the participant to proceed. 4. Perform ongoing assessments at each stage of the VOMP process and throughout service delivery to determine safety, security and confidentiality. 5. Maintain accurate and up to date records of all victim-offender mediation case activities by entering weekly updates in the RJ Module in OMS within 7 business days of the case activity taking place. 6. Participate in the annual Restorative Opportunities (RO) gathering and all other RO video conference calls, WebEx, MSTeams and Zoom meetings as requested by the Project Authority (PA). 1.3 Expected results: The Contractor must prepare, assess, and deliver post-sentence victim-offender