Announcing the 2024 RAPID Community Voices Cohort
The Stanford Center on Early Childhood (SCEC) is thrilled to announce the organizations selected to participate in the 2024 RAPID Community Voices cohort.
The RAPID team has been implementing Community Voices with its first cohort of community organizations (explore some of our findings) and sought applicants to be considered for a second Community Voices cohort from 2024-2026. These organizations will co-design and implement RAPID surveys to deeply listen to parents of young children in their communities and to take action using the insights and data that parents share.
After receiving a tremendous response to the Community Voices call for applications and completing a rigorous review process this spring, the SCEC has selected five organizations to collaborate on the implementation of RAPID surveys in their communities:
- Common Ground Health & ROC The Future Alliance, Rochester, New York
- The Early Childhood Alliance Onondaga, Onondaga County, New York
- Northside Achievement Zone, Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Partnership for Community Action, Albuquerque, New Mexico
- Whatcom County Health & Community Services, Whatcom County, Washington
Community Voices is an initiative to collaborate with local organizations and local governmental leaders to implement place-based surveys. The purposes of Community Voices are to: 1) promote parent- and data-informed programs, advocacy, and policymaking, and 2) build the capacity of community and state-based organizations to efficiently and effectively gather and act on parent voices and data.
In addition and new this year, two organizations were selected as RAPID Innovation Communities:
- Delta Health Alliance, Stoneville, Mississippi
- Fairfax County Department of Neighborhood and Community Services, Fairfax, Virginia, in partnership with George Mason University
Innovation Communities will collaborate with RAPID and the SCEC to explore, design, and implement innovative approaches to listening to parents and the community. These collaborations will bring together the strengths and expertise in the community with the adaptable methods RAPID is rooted in, to expand how RAPID can be implemented, the parent voices that are heard, and the community-led approaches to transforming data to action.
All the organizations in the 2024 RAPID Community Voices cohort share a demand for actionable, timely data and insights on the experiences of families and young children in their community and an interest in centering parent voices and experiences in the design of policies, programs, and services that are intended to support them.
As ever, we are encouraged and inspired by the work and dedication of our colleagues in community-based early childhood systems across the country.
