Now Accepting Applications: Best Starts for Kids Prenatal to Five Data and Evaluation Activities
Best Start for Kids Prenatal to Five Data and Evaluation Activities funding opportunity is now open. This Request for Proposals (RFP) seeks organizations that will apply applicable study designs to answer project-specific questions within allocated funding.
There are two separate projects under the “Investing Early: Prenatal to Five Strategies” BSK programs and strategies under this RFP. The scope, including project activities, project questions, and available funding are included below for each.
Project A and Project B bidders are expected to apply independently for each project. Applicants may apply for more than one project.
These “Investing Early” strategies focus on prenatal programs and support for babies, young children, and their parents or caregivers. For more information about Investing Early strategies, see www.kingcounty.gov/beststarts and beststartsblog.com.
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Scope of Work
Project A: Prenatal to five culturally relevant measurement tool
- Contract period: Execution Date-December 2021.
- Available Funding: Up to $250,000 for contract period
- Anticipated number of awards: 1 agency/organization
Purpose: Best Starts for Kids invites agencies/organizations to submit their proposals to review existing tools and adapt/develop a culturally relevant, multilingual tool for measuring outcomes related to protective factors[1] for community designed promotion, prevention, and early intervention programs for families with children under 5. This could include adapting an existing tool. This is an opportunity to support community-designed programs in demonstrating their effectiveness and building evidence for new program models. Examples of the BSK programs and populations who may be engaged by the successful applicant of this project include:
- Help Me Grow Coordinated Access or Family and Community Engagement
- Evidence-Based/Evidence-Informed Home-Based
- Community-Designed Home-Based
- Community Based Parent/Caregiver Information and Support
- Developmental Promotion
Key populations being served by Best Starts for Kids for whom current assessment or measurement tools are not culturally or linguistically relevant may include:
- Asian (specifically Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, among others)
- American Indian/Alaska Native
- Black and African American
- East African
- Hispanic and Latino/a/x
- Middle Eastern or North African
- Families of children with special needs
Preliminary Activities: The successful applicant will be responsible for the following kinds of activities
- Conduct a literature review to identify and critically review existing measurement tools, constructs, or scales to identify culturally relevant tools for key populations (above) being served by Best Starts for Kids
- Review and illuminate gaps in existing survey tools for measuring or assessing protective factors for culturally and linguistically diverse families
- Use participatory processes to:
- Elicit and document how key populations being served by Best Starts for Kids define protective factors,
- Identify culturally and linguistically relevant methods for collecting data about these family level protective factors, If needed, refine family level protective factors into constructs and domains to be included in a new/adapted measurement tool for culturally and linguistically diverse populations being served by BSK-funded programming,
- Conduct initial activities to determine construct validity of any new/adapted measurement tool. Proposed activities should minimize burden to BSK-funded program staff and participants.
Project B: Prenatal to five early support for infants and toddlers child welfare evaluation landscape analysis
- Contract period: Execution Date-December 2021.
- Available Funding: Up to $250,000 for contract period
- Anticipated number of awards: 1 agency/organization
Purpose: Best Starts for Kids invites agencies/organizations to submit their proposals to conduct a landscape analysis assessing outcomes of current models for providing Early Support for Infants and Toddlers (ESIT) services to children in out-of-home care and/or involved in the state child welfare system. This project will provide an improved understanding of who, how, and which children are being served by ESIT within the child welfare system. It will also provide an understanding of what our King County system could do at each phase to better support and engage parents and families.
Examples of the BSK programs and populations who may be engaged by the successful applicant this project include:
- Child Welfare Early Learning Partnership
- “Parents for Parents” model
- CHERISH 0-3 and 3-5 services
- Other ESIT service delivery models for focused population
Preliminary Activities:
The successful applicant will 1) use a participatory process to refine and address draft project questions (below), then 2) conduct a landscape analysis to address finalized questions. Method utilized in the landscape analysis may include literature reviews, quantitative analyses of programmatic data (provided by King County), key informant interviews, and focus groups. Draft questions include (the final list of questions may include some but not all of the questions below):
Service Model Level:
- How does parent engagement differ based on service model? What is the impact of these differences?
- How do outcomes differ based on service model? Outcomes to explore include, but are not limited to, ESIT Child Outcomes Summary, Family Survey, and other child-welfare specific outcomes such as number of placements, speed of reunification, and success of reunification.
- How does each service model promote equity and equitable outcomes for children and families engaged in these services? For example, ensuring cultural and/or linguistic matches between families and providers and engaging parents with experience in the child welfare system in delivery of services.
Systems Level:
- In what ways do ESIT and the child welfare system interact? How could we be working more effectively upstream, before a child is in out-of-home placement?
- What are systemic ways that racism plays out in the child welfare system?
- What shifts do we need to make as a county in how we approach the child welfare system to improve outcomes for children and families involved in this system?
- Are there systemic perpetuations of inequity that we could address differently through how we approach or fund this work? For example, what would equitable training and technical assistance look like for the systems level ? What would equitable funding look like to improve outcomes?
Available Funding
A total amount ranging up to $250,000 per project is available for the 2020-2021 period of the contract. The strategy-specific amount is listed below:
| Strategy | Total Amount Available |
| Project A: Culturally Relevant Measurement Tool | Up to $250,000 |
| Project B: Early Support for Infants and Toddlers Child Welfare Evaluation | Up to $250,000 |
Seventeen months of program funding (from the estimated contract execution date of August 15, 2020 through December 31, 2021) is available through this RFP. Continued funding after December 31, 2021 is contingent on BSK levy approval, program performance and continued funding availability through King County biennial budget process.
Timeline
| RFP released | June 17, 2020 |
| Final day to ask questions via ZoomGrants | July 10, 2020 |
| RFP responses due | July 24, 2020 |
| Interviews with applicants, if necessary | July 2020 |
| Notice of selection | July 2020 |
| Earliest start date | August 15, 2020 |
For more information, please review the RFP on ZoomGrants. Please contact BSK.Data@kingcounty.gov with questions about the RFP. Answers will be posted online through ZoomGrants.
#Investing Early: prenatal to 5 years #Request for Proposals
[1] Protective factors refer to the Center for the Study of Social Policy’s Strengthening Families Protective Factor Framework. For more information, visit www.strengtheningfamilies.net