RFQ- Garrett Lee Smith State/Tribal Youth Suicide Prevention and Early Intervention Grant Project Evaluator

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 Request for Quotes
Mississippi Department of Mental Health
Division of Outreach and Training

Garrett Lee Smith State/Tribal Youth Suicide Prevention and Early Intervention Grant
Project Evaluator


Contact: MarQuaita Lampkin
MS Department of Mental Health
239 North Lamar St.
Jackson, MS 39201
601-359-1288

HYPERLINK "mailto:marquaita.lampkin@dmh.ms.gov"
marquaita.lampkin@dmh.ms.gov

Date: Tuesday, September 15, 2026


1. Introduction
The Mississippi Department of Mental Health (DMH) certifies, provides, and/or financially supports a statewide network of services for people with mental illness, intellectual/developmental disabilities, and substance use disorders. DMHs goal is to improve the lives of Mississippians by supporting a better tomorrow one person at a time.
DMH, through its Division of Outreach and Training, is issuing this Request for Quotes (RFQ) to obtain the services of a qualified independent contractor to serve as Project Evaluator for the federally funded Garrett Lee Smith (GLS) State/Tribal Youth Suicide Prevention and Early Intervention Grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
The selected evaluator will lead and coordinate evaluation activities, including the collection, management, analysis, interpretation, protection, and reporting of project data to assess implementation, reach, outcomes, and progress toward grant goals and objectives.
2. Project Background
The GLS grant supports comprehensive youth suicide prevention and early intervention initiative focused on youth and young adults through age 24. DMH will implement activities with state and community partners, including schools and institutions of higher education, school-based health centers, juvenile justice professionals and youth-serving systems, community mental health partners, and other organizations serving youth, young adults, families, and caregivers.
The evaluation will assess the extent to which grant-funded strategies increase suicide prevention capacity; expand evidence-based training and awareness; strengthen early identification and suicide risk screening; improve referral, care coordination, and linkage to appropriate behavioral health services; strengthen prevention, intervention, and postvention capacity; and support sustainable systems and partnerships for youth suicide prevention across Mississippi.
3. Project Evaluator Qualifications
The successful offeror should demonstrate the following qualifications:
Knowledge of program evaluation methods and their application to behavioral health, public health, suicide prevention, or youth-serving systems.
Knowledge of quantitative and qualitative research methods.
Experience with data management, statistical analysis, performance measurement, and longitudinal or repeated-measures analyses.
Strong written and verbal communication skills and the ability to translate evaluation findings into actionable recommendations.
Experience evaluating federally funded programs, multi-site or multi-partner initiatives, and meeting SAMHSA reporting requirements is strongly preferred.
A minimum of a masters degree in social science, public health, behavioral health, education, evaluation, or related field is preferred.
Demonstrated ability to protect confidential, sensitive, and personally identifiable information and to maintain secure evaluation records.
4. Scope of Services
The Project Evaluator will develop and maintain an evaluation framework that aligns the grants goals, objectives, activities, deliverables, process measures, outcome measures, and required SAMHSA performance measures. Evaluation services must meet applicable federal and state requirements and any SAMHSA cross-site, national evaluation, performance reporting, or Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) requirements applicable to the award.
Upon execution of the contract, the successful vendor will be expected to:
Develop, refine, and maintain a comprehensive GLS evaluation plan aligned with the approved grant application, Notice of Award, DMH goals and objectives, subrecipient scopes of work, and applicable SAMHSA evaluation requirements.
Develop a logic model, performance measurement framework, data dictionary, data collection tools, reporting templates, and written data collection and quality-assurance procedures, as needed.
Collect, compile, validate, analyze, and report state- and subrecipient-level process, output, outcome, and performance data required by DMH and/or SAMHSA.
Establish and monitor a regular reporting schedule for DMH project staff and subrecipients and promptly identify missing, incomplete, inconsistent, or late data.
Evaluate the reach and effectiveness of grant-funded suicide prevention, early intervention, screening, referral, training, postvention, and systems-change activities.
Assess progress toward grant goals, objectives, performance targets, and subrecipient deliverables and provide actionable recommendations for continuous quality improvement.
Provide evaluation-related training and technical assistance to DMH staff, subrecipients, and project partners regarding data definitions, collection procedures, documentation, data quality, and reporting.
Coordinate with subrecipients, including Jackson State University, Mississippi State University, G.A. Carmichael Family Health Center, Jackson-Hinds Comprehensive Health Center, and other approved partners to ensure consistent evaluation and reporting practices.
Support evaluation of activities involving schools, higher education, school-based health centers, juvenile justice professionals and youth-serving systems, families/caregivers, community partners, and other populations identified in the approved grant.
Prepare routine evaluation reports and data summaries for the DMH Project Director and leadership and contribute evaluation findings to required SAMHSA progress, continuation, annual, and final reports.
Participate in project leadership, subrecipient, advisory, quality-improvement, and evaluation meetings as requested by DMH.
Serve as the Subject Matter Expert for GLS project evaluation at the state and local levels and advise DMH on evaluation design, performance measurement, interpretation of findings, and data-driven program improvement.
Participate in SAMHSA grantee, cross-site evaluation, technical assistance, and other required meetings, webinars, or activities as directed by DMH.
Maintain secure evaluation records and protect confidential, sensitive, and personally identifiable information in accordance with applicable federal and state requirements and DMH policies.
Provide DMH with all final evaluation datasets, codebooks, data collection instruments, reports, dashboards, analyses, and other grant-funded evaluation products in an accessible format at intervals requested by DMH and at contract closeout.
5. Evaluation Data and Performance Monitoring
Data collection and analysis will include, as applicable, approved grant activities and SAMHSA requirements:
Number and characteristics of youth, young adults, families/caregivers, professionals, and community members reached through grant-funded activities.
Number and type of suicide prevention, early intervention, crisis response, and postvention trainings delivered, including Shatter the Silence, Youth Mental Health First Aid, ASIST, safeTALK, and other approved evidence-based or evidence-informed activities.
Training participation, completion, pre-/post-assessment results, participant satisfaction, knowledge or confidence gains, and other training outcomes.
Number of individuals screened for suicide risk or suicidal ideation through participating grant-funded settings and partners.
Number and disposition of referrals for behavioral health, suicide prevention, crisis, or related services, including follow-up and linkage to care when data are available and permissible.
Implementation and reach of prevention and postvention activities in schools, c