THE DEADLINE TO RESPOND TO THIS RFP HAS BEEN EXTENDED! RFP responses are now due by 5pm on Friday, May 20th, 2022
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.
- A descriptive analysis of existing pre-school and pre-k services in Chatham,
- 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.
THE DEADLINE TO RESPOND TO THIS RFP HAS BEEN EXTENDED! RFP responses are now due by 5pm on Friday, May 20th, 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
