Family Connectivity and Leadership

In December 2024, the First 5 San Mateo County Commission (F5SMC or the Commission) updated its Strategic Plan for 2025-2030, which guides the Commission’s priorities and investments. The 2025-2030 Strategic Plan is consistent with the focus and intent of the Children and Families Act, building on what has been learned and accomplished locally and providing a framework for the Commission and the community for how Proposition 10 funds will be strategically invested over the next five years. Central to the success of these investments is a strong foundation that adequately prioritizes early childhood systems and services in San Mateo County. Proposers are strongly encouraged to review the F5SMC 2025-2030 Strategic Plan, which is available in the Attachments section of this RFP as Attachment C.

As outlined in its 2025-2030 Strategic Plan, the Commission is prioritizing partnerships with entities that are achieving both direct impact and positive systemic change. This approach fosters sustainable improvement within agencies and systems, and allows families beyond the direct service reach to benefit. Many of our investments serve present needs as well as examining and improving the underlying systems.

Through this RFP (Family Connectivity & Leadership), F5SMC intends to solicit proposals from qualified agencies and organizations interested in implementing services and innovative strategies that will build family connections, leadership, and other protective factors to promote children’s healthy development, strengthen family resiliency, and advance systems change.

Contract Term and Budget

• The contract term will be three (3) years, from July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2028. There will be one (1) opportunity to extend the contract for up to two (2) years.
• The total budget amount over the three year term is $225,000.

Desired Outcomes

Successful proposals in response to this RFP will demonstrate how their proposed activities and approach will help F5SMC achieve the relevant Desired Outcomes in our 2025-30 Strategic Plan, specifically:

1. Families feel connected to and supported by their community and able to nurture their children's health and development.
2. Families have agency and voice to direct policies and systems that impact their children.

In service of these larger strategic outcomes, F5SMC anticipates that funding this work will positively impact population and participant level indicators such as:

• The percentage of parents who report feeling connected to a support network.

• The percentage of parents reporting confidence in their ability to nurture their children and support their development.

• The percentage of parents who report feeling confident in their ability to advocate for their child.

• The percentage of parents reporting increased confidence and capacity to engage in leadership roles and influence systemic change.

Successful proposers will be required to participate in F5SMC Evaluation Activities, including (but not limited to) administering surveys to program participants as directed by F5SMC staff and evaluation consultants. Surveys will include items assessing the indicators listed above, as well as items associated with other indicators specified in our 2025-30 Strategic Plan.

Strategies & Domains

This RFP is intended to identify and fund agencies and partnerships that will: 1) Develop parent-to-parent networks of support, in order to promote resilient families, healthy children, and foster systems change; and 2) Build capacity for parents to advocate for themselves and their children and gain leadership skills.

Areas of Interest

Proposers should demonstrate their ability to design and implement specific approaches and services in one or more of the following areas:

• Parent Cafés

• Parent-led community building activities other than Parent Cafés

• Parent advocacy training and support

• Cross-organizational sharing of effective ways to integrate parent voice into program development, service delivery, evaluation, and other agency activities

Target Populations

F5SMC is prioritizing proposals and approaches that focus on serving the following target populations:

1. Expectant parents and families of children ages 0-5 who may experience social isolation

2. Expectant parents and families of children ages 0-5 who participate in systems/services where they may benefit from support for self-advocacy and/or advocacy for their children

3. Expectant parents and families of children ages 0-5 whose position within our society (e.g. socioeconomic class, educational level, mental health diagnosis, immigration history, home language, race/ethnicity, history of trauma) may be associated increased barriers to civic participation as well as with reduced comfort with or knowledge about how to effectively advocate for themselves and their children.

Secure, stable, and supportive relationships with caring adults significantly contribute to a child’s healthy brain development. A loving and caring environment within the parent-child relationship is associated with many positive outcomes including higher self-esteem, increased communication, and fewer psychological and behavioral problems. Furthermore, lower levels of parenting stress may serve as a protective factor of the social-emotional health of their children. The early childhood field has gained tremendous knowledge in recent years about the ways in which families should be engaged in children’s healthy development. The Strengthening Families Protective Factors Framework articulates five elements that can support child development and reduce the likelihood of abuse and neglect through engaging families in a strengths-based approach. These factors include: parental resilience, social connections, knowledge of parenting and child development, concrete support in times of need, and social and emotional competence of children. In order to cultivate these protective factors in families, there needs to be concerted strengths-based efforts to build parent partnerships, create avenues for social connection, mutual support, and inclusion, promote engagement, and support parents as decision-makers and leaders.

Strength-based approaches that authentically affirm different cultures, languages, and family structures are accepted by the field as the best way to partner with families to achieve positive outcomes for children. Research on family engagement has repeatedly demonstrated that the majority of parents want the best for their children but may lack the knowledge and resources to advocate for their children and promote development in the critical early years. It is important for parents to feel confident and competent as they interact with the service systems touching their families. For example, when parents act as their child’s advocate and are involved in their child’s education, it is more likely that their child will have increased school attendance and higher academic achievement. By working with parents as equal partners in their child's healthy development, as well as acknowledging parents, schools, and communities as collectively responsible for the success of children, we promote reciprocal relationships that exponentially benefit children.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and its many aftereffects, many San Mateo County families continue to struggle with stress and social isolation. This stress, which is primarily due to economic inequality and social isolation, is particularly profound for families that face low annual household incomes, or middle-income families who do not qualify for public programs but are unable to afford market rates for critical resources such as housing, childcare, or health insurance. Findings from a 2024 F5SMC survey conducted with 69 parents of children with Medi-Cal eligible children in the County revealed that 34% face housing insecurity, 31% report financial concerns, and 31% experience food insecurity. Additionally, 24% of parents reported feeling socially isolated. These stressors have ripple effects on children’s mental and emotional well-being.