RAPID Survey Project Community Voices Partnership

Request for Proposals: 
RAPID Survey Project
Community Voices Partnership
September 16, 2025

The Community Voices Partnership request for proposals is now closed for the 2026 cohort.

Background

The RAPID Survey Project, based in the Stanford Center on Early Childhood (SCEC), is a program of national, state, and community surveys that listens to parents and caregivers of children under age 6 across the country every month. RAPID seeks to understand and elevate the experiences and challenges facing families with young children and to provide timely, actionable data that inform policies and programs that help each and every child thrive from the start.

Since the first survey in April 2020, RAPID has heard from more than 23,000 households with young children and more than 15,000 members of the early care and education workforce in all 50 states. In 2022, RAPID launched Community Voices, an initiative to collaborate with local organizations and leaders to implement place-based surveys. The purpose of Community Voices is to (1) promote data-informed programs, advocacy, and policymaking at a community level and (2) build the capacity of public, private, and non-profit community-based organizations to efficiently and effectively gather and act on the voices of and data from parents, families, and/or providers. 

Community Voices surveys are both aligned with the goals of the RAPID Survey Project and co-designed with our partners to meet specific local data needs. Community Voices partners include organizations working at the neighborhood, local/municipal, city, county, and/or regional levels. All Community Voices partners 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 and/or provider voices and experiences in the design of policies, programs, and services that are intended to support them. 

The RAPID team is currently implementing Community Voices with its 2024 cohort of community partners, active in Whatcom County, WA; Onondaga County, NY; Monroe County, NY; Albuquerque, NM; and Minneapolis, MN. With this request for proposals (RFP), RAPID is seeking applicants* to be considered for the 2026 cohort of Community Voices partnerships (June 2026 - May 2028) – the third Community Voices Cohort. 

This RFP is open to all interested applicants that are working at the neighborhood, local/municipal, city, county, and/or regional level and have not yet participated in RAPID Community Voices efforts. We welcome applicants from all sectors, including joint applications where applicants name cross-sector partners. Organizations working at the state level, or CA-based organizations (e.g., First 5s) interested in partnering with our States team are encouraged to reach out to rapidcommunity@stanford.edu to connect and learn more about partnership opportunities.

The Opportunity

RAPID will partner with up to six local organizations/teams to conduct Community Voices surveys. Each local project team and the SCEC RAPID team will work together in a rapid-cycle process to design surveys, recruit participants, gather responses, interpret the resulting data, and ultimately take action on the data. 

In consultation with RAPID, Community Voices partners determine:

• Survey frequency (max of four per year)
• Survey content, with partners gaining access to all current RAPID survey questions, including questions in our core focus areas of material hardship, parent and/or provider emotional well-being, child emotional well-being, child care, and preventive health care
• Number of participants (i.e., desired sample size)
• Languages in which to administer the survey (RAPID always administers surveys in English and Spanish at a baseline, but community partners may suggest more)
• Recruitment strategies, leveraging public, private, and non-profit community-based organizations that are trusted by parents, families, and/or providers
• How to communicate about the RAPID partnership and data findings, and when and how to use and share the data and parent and/or provider voices to help inform local policy and advocacy initiatives

What RAPID Offers to Community Voices Sites

RAPID will assign an SCEC team member with experience partnering with local organizations to liaise with the research team and work alongside the local team. The person in this role will provide resources to facilitate the design activities outlined above. Additionally, the RAPID team will provide the following support:

• Advise on survey questions and design
• Build and administer the surveys
• Translate the surveys into other languages, as needed and as resources allow
• Support the local team’s recruitment strategies and provide data on survey responses and engagement
• Collect, process, and analyze data
• Provide data reports
• Support with data interpretation
• Send gift cards to compensate parents and/or providers for their time
• Communicate with parents and/or providers by sharing findings and resources
• Provide de-identified raw data files when requested (and with either a formal or informal contract in place per SCEC leadership's discretion), to allow for secondary analysis by community partners

SCEC will cover RAPID staff time, as well as the resources needed to complete all of the research activities listed above. In addition, SCEC will cover up to $5 in gift cards to participants for each survey they complete. 

More information about RAPID’s methods and approach can be found here. 

All Community Voice partners will be invited to join the RAPID Community Learning Network, a space in which they can connect directly with one another to exchange information about survey implementation, discuss data findings, share ideas and lessons learned, and access technical support. 

All Community Voices partners will also have the opportunity to nominate a fellow from their community for the Zaentz Community Fellowship. The selected fellow will develop their leadership, data, and research skills and confidence while working on a community change project that is informed by RAPID data and parent voice.

Community Voices Partner Organization Responsibilities

Organizations chosen to be Community Voices partners will convene a local project team and cover the costs of one or more dedicated staff members’ time and resources necessary to participate in survey design, recruit participants, and act on the data resulting from the surveys. Costs to local organizations are expected to vary on a case-by-case basis and differ depending on the makeup of the project team, parent recruitment strategies, and data dissemination plans. For example, it has been helpful to some of our Community Voices partners to provide stipends to community-based organizations that support parent and/or provider recruitment, to offset the costs associated with their staff’s time, printing flyers, or other expenses, while others have existing arrangements with partnering organizations and funders in their communities. 

A key to the success of a Community Voices collaboration is a strong team and two clearly defined and agreed-upon roles: a local Project Manager and a local Decision Maker from the community. The Project Manager will convene the local project team, be present in regular check-in meetings with the SCEC RAPID team, and work with their SCEC RAPID counterpart to ensure all project milestones are attended to. The Project Manager will be able to devote an average of two hours per week to the initiative, with this time commitment fluctuating depending on the stage of the partnership and the surveys being fielded. The Decision Maker will serve as the sponsor or champion for this initiative among other partnering organizations in the community, and will have the authority to provide and/or facilitate all necessary decision-making. Please note that some of RAPID’s Community Voices partners have found it helpful for one person to fill both the Project Manager and the Decision Maker roles, while others have had different people in each role. The organization that this person is/people are employed by will serve as the Lead Organization representing the community in this partnership. Local project teams can vary in terms of the size of the team, roles represented on the team, how responsibilities are distributed among team members, and other local partners engaged with the team.

Eligibility

This RFP is open to all interested applicants that are working at the neighborhood, local/municipal, city, county, and/or regional level and have not yet participated in RAPID Community Voices efforts. We welcome applicants from all sectors, including joint applications where applicants name cross-sector partners. Organizations working at the state level, or CA-based organizations (e.g., First 5s) interested in partnering with our States team are encouraged to reach out to rapidcommunity@stanford.edu to connect and learn more about partnership opportunities. 

If your organization is eligible and interested in joining the 2026 cohort of RAPID Community Voices partnerships, please send a response to the following questions by Friday, October 10, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time. The recommended response length is 5 pages. Incomplete applications will not be considered.

If your organization previously applied to join the 2024 cohort of Community Voices partnerships, is not actively engaged with RAPID at this time, and is otherwise eligible, the RAPID team will reach out to assess your interest in being considered in this pool of applicants and provide details on how to update your previous application.

Response Requested

1. What is the name of the community (e.g., neighborhood, city/municipal locality, or county/region) you will represent in this project?
2. Briefly describe the lead organization and its work on behalf of young children, parents, families, and/or providers. Please include details about the community the organization serves (e.g., demographic-level information) and the nature of the organization’s work.
3. Please tell us who will be the Project Manager and Decision Maker from your community? What role does this person or people play in your organization? Why are they the best choice to lead this initiative? Alternatively, how would you propose to structure your project team in a way that works for your community?
4. How will your organization aim to recruit parents of young children and/or providers to take the survey? If you will rely on partnerships with other organizations in your community, please describe how your team will build or leverage those partnerships.
5. How would a Community Voices initiative support your community and your organization in its mission to serve young children, parents, families, and/or providers?
6. What are your initial thoughts on how the data and parent and/or provider voices could be used in your community?
7. Please share some past examples of successes and challenges in incorporating parent and/or provider voices in your organization’s work (e.g., community advisory groups, needs assessments)?

Next Steps

RAPID will be holding an optional information session about this RFP and Community Voices. This information session is intended to support potential applicants. The session will be held virtually via Zoom on Friday, September 26, 2025 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time. The session will be recorded and shared with all those who register, including those unable to attend. We strongly encourage interested communities to attend the session. You can register to attend here.

Interested applicants may also contact rapidcommunity@stanford.edu with any questions about this RFP, RAPID, and Community Voices partnerships. 

We aim to inform you of decisions re your response by November 14, 2025. Before that date, we may contact the primary applicant listed in the RFP for additional information. 

Thank you for your interest in RAPID! 

Key Dates