First 5 SMC: Capacity and Network Building for Family Engagement & Support Providers

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 providers 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 (Capacity and Network Building for Family Engagement & Support Providers) F5SMC intends to solicit proposals from qualified agencies and organizations interested in implementing services and innovative strategies that will enable providers in the Target Population to take time for restoration and reflection, build a network of supportive professional peers, and improve access to information and resources that can help them tackle the everyday challenges that arise in their work with families.

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, through June 30, 2030.
• The total budget amount over the three year term is $534,000.

Areas of Interest

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

• Friday CAFEs (for more information on this model, including the work of our local San Mateo County chapter, visit https://fridaycafe.org and https://fridaycafe.org/chapters/san-mateo ).

• Regular multi-disciplinary (cross-agency, cross-sector) Community of Practice meetings that enable providers to share effective ways to engage parents in services, surface family needs, identify resources that can meet those needs, and connect families to those resources.

• Work with existing online resource hubs to improve the accuracy, searchability, and level of detail available to users looking for resources to support expectant parents and families with children ages 0-5.

F5SMC will entertain proposals structured as follows:

• Proposals to implement all three of the Desired Activities are eligible to apply for the full amount available through this RFP.
• Proposals to implement the Friday CAFE Program and the multi-disciplinary meetings are eligible to apply for up to $425,000 over three years (average of $142,000/year). These proposals must include both activities.
  
  • Proposals to implement the Friday CAFE Program only are eligible to apply for up to $300,000 over three years (average of $100,000/year).
  • Proposals to implement the multi-disciplinary meetings only are eligible to apply for up to $135,000 over three years (average of $45,000/year)
• Proposals to implement the multi-disciplinary meetings and work with online resource hubs are eligible to apply for up to $245,000 over three years (average of $82,000/year)
  
  • Proposals to work with online resource hubs only are eligible to apply for up to $110,000 over three years (average of $37,000/year).
• Please note: F5SMC reserves the right to mandate collaboration between organizations performing any of these functions as a condition of funding.

Target Populations for Friday CAFE and the Multi-Disciplinary Community of Practice

Providers who work in the family engagement and support field may hold different types of credentials and titles and be located within various systems and sectors. They may be called home visitors, case managers, community workers or community health workers, parent navigators, parent liaisons, family advocates, family service coordinators, family support specialists, promotoras, or paraprofessionals (among other titles). Work settings may include public agencies, non-profit organizations, early learning settings, health care settings, and safety-net organizations. Friday CAFEs and multi-disciplinary meetings should be able to successfully engage and support providers across these various roles and service sectors.

F5SMC is prioritizing proposals and approaches that focus on supporting child- and family-serving providers who work in the following functions:

1. Home visiting (e.g. prenatal and newborn home visiting programs provided through the San Mateo County Health System's Family Health Services and Behavioral Health & Recovery Services programs; home visiting programs offered by non-profit organizations such as Healthy Homes or Early Head Start)

2. Care coordination and case management (e.g. Baby Bonus Community Health Workers, Help Me Grow Care Coordinators)

3. Family engagement and support (providers whose primary role within an early learning, health, or safety-net organization or program is to engage families, identify their needs, advocate for them and support them in advocating for themselves and their children, and connect them to resources)

Desired Outcomes

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

1. San Mateo County leaders and partners fully invest in young children and their families.
2. Communities provide a safe and healthy environment for young children.
3. Families feel connected to and supported by their community and able to nurture their children's health and development.

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

• The number and characteristics of partnerships among the organizations that comprise the early childhood ecosystem in San Mateo County.
• The number of child and/or family-serving providers that express having the capacity to participate in systems-level efforts.
• The number of child and/or family-serving providers that express feeling connected to a network and supported.
• The percentage of providers across sectors reporting adequate resources and manageable levels of stress related to participating in systems-level meetings and gatherings.
• Experiences with San Mateo County early childhood systems, as measured qualitatively through partner and family stories.

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.

Family support and engagement providers are often providing critical services to overwhelmed, and traumatized families, leaving those providers vulnerable to secondary traumatic stress and burnout. Providers may also be working without a robust network of professional peers to provide emotional support, troubleshoot challenges that arise with families, or suggest additional resources that might be helpful. Although San Mateo County is by some measures a resource-rich environment, it is not always straightforward for families or providers to access these resources. Online searchable resource sites may not include relevant functionality (such as the ability to search by child age) or information (like the length of a wait list), making it difficult for users to know whether it is worth their time to reach out.

San Mateo County's Friday CAFÉ Program

Originally developed by practitioners in Connecticut, Friday CAFÉs have been implemented in San Mateo County since 2017.

Currently funded through an F5SMC grant to the San Mateo County Office of Education, the goals of our local Friday CAFÉ program are to: