Purpose
This Request for Information (RFI) is a formal request to prospective Bidders to solicit information for the development of a Request for Proposal (RFP) to provide a domestic violence prevention program that is delivered through utilizing a curriculum provided by the Reentry Division of the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC). The RFI is intended to provide a better understanding of the interest potential bidders may have and to gather information.
The current domestic violence prevention program that is delivered within the MDOC is known as Building Responsible Individualized Dynamics Gaining Essential Safety (BRIDGES). BRIDGES is a pre-treatment program designed to reduce an offender’s resistance to intervention, and to better prepare them for community-based batterers’ intervention treatment.
The new program that potential services are being sought for is the Michigan Domestic Violence Prevention (MiDVP). MiDVP is a treatment program that looks to identify, examine, and replace unhealthy, anti-social, and abusive cognitive thinking and beliefs. As well as develop prosocial, non-abusive inter-relational skills. This program intentionally steers away from the traditional models of batterers’ intervention and relies heavily on Motivational Interviewing and the use of cognitive-behavioral interventions.
The MDOC serves an offender population of approximately 63,579. There is no guarantee of any specific numbers offenders to be provided MiDVP services.
All staff provided by the prospective bidder shall have and must maintain in good standing all applicable current licenses to practice in the State of Michigan.
The Reentry Division of MDOC reserves the right to interview and accept or reject each candidate supplied by the prospective bidder for assignment under any subsequent Contract.
Plan
The MDOC is seeking potentials bidders to provide domestic violence prevention services as outlined in Attachment A, MiDVP Curriculum and Attachment B, Facilitator Guide.
At the specific request of the State, the potential bidder shall provide the MiDVP program at a proposed location. Participants will include offenders who have previously successfully completed BRIDGES, and then engaged in new battering behavior. The MiDVP intervention utilizes:
- A higher session frequency than the BRIDGES pre-intervention
- A cognitive-behavioral component combined with Motivational Interviewing
- Process Groups
- Interactive Journals
Two cohorts will run simultaneously. Each group cohort will meet for three, two hour Process Group sessions and three, one and a half hour Cognitive Skills sessions per week for 12 weeks, for a total of 72 group sessions (this equates to 126 group hours) per cohort. Each cohort shall have 12 – 15 participating offenders. The MDOC estimates having four to eight cohorts per year.