WestEd is requesting proposals from community-based organizations, not-for-profit organizations, tribes/tribal organizations, public or governmental agencies, schools, and school districts serving communities in King County comprised of self-identified groups of prenatal-to-five providers who are seeking ongoing professional development with an emphasis on the following priority areas:

1.    Healthy Child Development

2.    Racial Equity Training

3.    Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health

The goal of this RFP is to create space for these groups to collaborate as a cohort, forming Communities of Practice (CoP) to gain deeper content knowledge, build mutual supports with one another, reflect on their multidisciplinary work experiences, and apply what they are learning to real-life scenarios with children and families.

This RFP contains background information on Best Starts for Kids and WestEd and outlines specific information that must be included in the bids submitted. Applications are due on July 20, 2023. but will continue to be accepted throughout the year and considered as additional needs arise.

Applications must be submitted online via this form and be received no later than 5pm PST on July 20, 2023 to be considered as part of the initial applications. Applications are limited and should contain a maximum of 4500 characters in total.

The Information Session for this RFP will be held on Tuesday, June 20, 2023 from 12:00 - 1:30 p.m. PST. To register for this session, please click here.

Free proposal assistance, also known as Technical Assistance (TA) is available to support organizations applying to this RFP. Please see the Best Starts’ blog for a list of TA consultants and their contact information. We encourage you to reach out to a TA consultant as early as possible. We cannot guarantee TA consultant availability within five business days of this RFP’s deadline for proposals. Organizations wishing to access TA should email the consultants directly. We encourage you to only contact one TA consultant at a time and allow them 24 hours to respond before contacting any other consultants.

If you have any questions, please email Diana de la Lanza at bsk-wested@wested.org.