Request for Proposals: Early Childhood Systems Consultant

Background and Purpose

Established in 1994, the Chatham County Partnership for Children (CCPC) is a public, private
non- profit organization, which administers Smart Start funds and services for children ages birth
through five and their families in Chatham County, North Carolina. Smart Start is North
Carolina’s statewide, award-winning early childhood initiative. Effective January 1, 2016, Chatham
County Partnership for Children merged with the former nonprofit, Child Care Networks, and
now serves as the lead Resource and Referral Agency for Region 13 (a 5-county region including
Chatham, Lee, Harnett, Johnston, and Wayne Counties). CCPC also serves as the contractor for
the NC Pre- Kindergarten Program in Chatham County and is a Sponsoring Organization with
the Child Care and Adult Food Program (CACFP) supporting child care facilities in 12 NC
counties.

The mission of CCPC is to work with our community partners and families to ensure that all
children enter school healthy and ready to succeed. Governed by a 16-member Board of
Directors, the Partnership primarily focuses its services on children birth to age 5 (kindergarten
entry) who live in Chatham County.

Chatham County Partnership for Children was recently awarded a contract with the Chatham
Education Foundation to prepare a study of the opportunities, barriers, and costs to expand
access to high quality pre-K for 40-year-olds in Chatham County. CCPC plans to integrate this
Supply and Demand study with our broader Community Needs Assessment scheduled to
commence in March of 2022. This Needs Assessment will identify the key challenges and
opportunities that families, caregivers, and teachers of children ages birth to 5. The end goal of
the integrate Supply and Demand Study and Needs Assessment will be to create a comprehensive
Early Childhood Action Plan and long-term financing model for the county’s investment in early
childhood, include of expanded Pre-K for Chatham’s four-year-olds and services for children
birth to three.

The purpose of this RFP is to engage a consultant who can assist in the development,
execution, and analysis of CCPC’s Supply and Demand Study and Needs Assessment to ensure
that the process is comprehensive of all available data, and equitable and inclusive of all
segments of Chatham County’s population.

What We Need/Want

We seek an inclusive and forward-thinking community needs assessment and strategic
planning process that will result in a clear picture of the landscape of Early Childhood in
Chatham County; actionable goals, priorities, and outcomes related to early childhood; and
a concrete financing proposal to for local government investment in Chatham County’s
early childhood systems.

We want this process to include:

• Inclusive data collection, analysis, and summary that engages key stakeholders in our
  community, including parents, caregivers, and early childhood educators
• Integrated use of existing available data sets (such as publicly available population
  statistics and data available through early childhood partners such as the Division of
  Child Development and Early Education or the CCR&R Council), quantitative data
  collected through community surveys, and qualitative data collected through
  community interviews and focus groups.
• Analysis of the cost of recommended programs and services, the necessary
  investment in early childhood based on identified need, current investment in early
  childhood system, and the gap between the current and necessary investment. This
  will result in the creation of a long-term financing model to propose to county
  government for support of Early Childhood Systems in Chatham County.

Key Deliverables of this project will be:

• Consultation to develop a qualified Supply and Demand study, including:
  • Survey Development
  • Focus Group structure, selection, and interviews
  • Other study components recommended by consultant
• Consultation to conduct a qualified supply and demand study, including:
  • A descriptive analysis of existing pre-school and pre-k services in Chatham,
    including accreditation and rating status, license capacity, targeted vs maximum
    enrollments, ability to support special needs children, transition to kindergarten
    practices, staffing qualifications/demographics/turnover, hours of operation,
    rates and fees, services such as transportation, etc.
  • Survey of key stakeholders (including parents, caregivers, and teachers) and
    analysis of resulting data that describes parent and caregiver’s attitudes,
    perspectives, and barriers to participating in preschool and pre-k in Chatham;
    current childcare arrangements for working families in Chatham; early
    childhood educators’ attitudes, perspectives, and barriers to expanding pre-k in
    Chatham (such as workforce, teacher education, costs); and family viewpoints
    on pre-k programs including their interest in publicly funded pre-k and features
    of importance.
• Consultation for survey and other data analysis, including:
  • Analysis and visualization of survey data that illustrates key trends and considerations
  • Analysis of the cost of recommended programs and services, the necessary investment
    in early childhood based on identified need, current investment in early childhood
    system, and the gap between the current and necessary investment. This will result in
    the creation of a long-term financing model to propose to county government for
    support of Early Childhood Systems in Chatham County.

Compensation
The Chatham County Partnership for Children will compensate the organization or individual on
an agreed upon schedule throughout the contract period.
Compensation for the work is not expected to exceed $15,000.

Responding to the RFP
Proposed Timeline for the process: March 2022-December 2022
(May be negotiable based on agency and/or contractor needs.)

Individuals/organizations responding to the RFP should provide the following:

1) Describe your background and qualifications to complete the work.

• Knowledge of and expertise in the Early Childhood Systems in North Carolina
• Experience in the development and execution of comprehensive community needs assessments, supply and demand studies, and/or strategic plans
• Knowledge and experience in data collection, analysis, visualization, and reporting for community needs assessments and supply and demand studies
• Knowledge of early childhood data sources and experience in successfully developing data sharing agreements or obtaining requested data from state and local partners

2) Describe your process for providing consultation and support for community needs
assessments, data collection, and data analysis, and data visualization and reporting.
Please be sure to address:

• Your process for developing and executing study designs and surveys
• Your process working with clients and partners to identify data sources and collect
  additional data
• Your approach to identifying data sharing partnerships
• Your approach to analyzing, visualizing, and reporting data for supply and demand
  studies and community needs assessments.

3) A draft of your proposed services, including a description of any data collection,
analysis, and or visualization services you could provide directly.

4) Budget
Please ensure that your proposal includes a not-to-exceed cost with accompanying budget
detailing the number of hours, hourly rate, and other expenses.

RFP responses are due by 5pm on Friday, April 1st, 2022 and are to be submitted
electronically only to:
Elizabeth Anderson, Program Director
elizabeth@chathamkids.org

Questions and inquiries may be submitted between March 8 and March 25, 2022 ,
to Genevieve Megginson, Executive Director, genevieve@chathamkids.org (email preferred),
or at(919) 542-7449, ext. 124

Request for Proposals: Community Engagement and Research Services

Background and Purpose

Established in 1994, the Chatham County Partnership for Children (CCPC) is a public, private
non- profit organization, which administers Smart Start funds and services for children ages birth
through five and their families in Chatham County, North Carolina. Smart Start is North
Carolina’s statewide, award-winning early childhood initiative. Effective January 1, 2016, Chatham
County Partnership for Children merged with the former nonprofit, Child Care Networks, and
now serves as the lead Resource and Referral Agency for Region 13 (a 5-county region including
Chatham, Lee, Harnett, Johnston, and Wayne Counties). CCPC also serves as the contractor for
the NC Pre- Kindergarten Program in Chatham County and is a Sponsoring Organization with
the Child Care and Adult Food Program (CACFP) supporting child care facilities in 12 NC
counties.

The mission of CCPC is to work with our community partners and families to ensure that all
children enter school healthy and ready to succeed. Governed by a 16-member Board of
Directors, the Partnership primarily focuses its services on children birth to age 5 (kindergarten
entry) who live in Chatham County.

Chatham County Partnership for Children desires to study and better understand the attitudes,
perspectives, and barriers to accessing early childhood education in Chatham County. To that
end, the Partnership has undertaken to conduct a multi-faceted Comprehensive Community
Assessment to identify the key challenges, opportunities, and barriers facing families, caregivers,
and teachers of children ages birth to 5 years. The end goal will be to create a comprehensive,
data informed Early Childhood Action Plan (ECAP) and long-term financing model for
investment in early childhood education and services for children birth to kindergarten in
Chatham County. The framework for the ECAP will follow the recently adopted NC Early
Childhood Action Plan.

Our vision is to better inform policy leaders and their decisions the structure of and investments
in the early childhood service support system. We desire a process which elevates the
perspectives of parents and caregivers of young children ages birth to 5 years, before the age of
Kindergarten. We also value the input and perspectives of the direct services providers serving
families with young children.

The purpose of this RFP is to engage a specialized consultant to conduct community
engagement process that explores and documents current needs, perspectives and visions for
childcare and child wellness in Chatham County, while also fostering community dialog. We
expect this process to be inclusive of a diverse cross section of key constituents including
families, caregivers, and early educators of children age birth to 5 years (kindergarten age).
We are seeking a research-based approach to community engagement and visioning that utilizes
interviews, documentary film, quantitative analysis and a structured public input process.

Compensation

The Chatham County Partnership for Children will compensate the organization or individual on
an agreed upon schedule throughout the contract period.

for the work is expected to be in the range of $25,000 to $50,000.

Responding to the RFP

Proposed Timeline for the process: April 2022-December 2022
(See attached detailed timeline)

Individuals/organizations responding to the RFP should provide the following:

1) Describe your background and qualifications to complete the work.

• Knowledge, expertise, and experience in the design and execution of
  comprehensive community needs assessments and strategic plans
• Expertise and experience integrating qualitative and quantitative data from data from
  public sources and local stakeholders

2) PROPOSED SERVICES
Provide a detailed description of your proposed process and key deliverables as well as
limits on expectations for your services. Please also answer these questions: How will you
approach the work? What makes your approach uniquely suited for our purposes? What
do you require from the Partnership for Children and study participants?
Please be sure to address:

• Your process for working with clients and partners to create engagement and
  support for the assessment process
• Your approach to identify data sources and developing data presentation
• Your plans for providing support and technical assistance to the Partnership
  throughout their process

3) Cost Proposal
Please ensure that your cost proposal identifies key deliverables and a payment schedule.
An initial payment/advance may be requested as part of the payment schedule.

RFP responses are due by 5pm on Friday, April 1st, 2022 and are to be submitted
electronically only to:
Elizabeth Anderson, Program Director
elizabeth@chathamkids.org

Questions and inquiries may be submitted between March 8 and March 25, 2022 ,
to Genevieve Megginson, Executive Director, genevieve@chathamkids.org (email preferred),
or at(919) 542-7449, ext. 124