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Facilitation Services for Durham Preschool Collaborative Meetings RFP Updates and Questions
Durham PreK (DPK) is a universal public preschool program for Durham’s 4-year-olds funded by Durham County and administered by Early Years.
Early Years, as the management agency hired by Durham County Government to coordinate and lead the local universal preschool initiative, posts this request for proposals to facilitate meetings to support the Durham Preschool Collaborative, established at the founding of DPK. This group, comprised of leaders from Early Years, Durham Public Schools, Families and Communities Rising (as administrator of Durham Head Start), and Durham’s Partnership for Children (as administrator of NC Pre-K), works together to deliver services in public and private licensed sites across all public preschool funding streams.
To enrich and maintain this collaborative partnership model, Early Years seeks an independent contractor or group to facilitate vision and planning meetings.
DEADLINE for proposals: 5 p.m., January 5, 2026
NOTIFICATION of selection by January 30, 2026
CONTRACT PERIOD is from March 1, 2026, to June 30, 2027
Proposal submissions should be sent to: rfp@earlyyearsnc.org.
Thank you for considering our proposal request.
Questions about the RFP
Disclaimer: Some questions may have been modified from their original state to ensure clarity for all and to help consolidate duplicate questions. If your question is not listed and answered below, it may have been deemed more appropriate for a different phase of this project rather than initial RFP review.
General
In advance of sessions, the facilitator supports the leadership team from Early Years in building dynamic responsive agendas for meetings to be held with representatives from all four Durham PreK collaborative agencies. Focused meetings, on track in alignment with the agenda, best support the group in planning for the activities and roles of each agency. The meetings are intended to explore processes and support consensus on action dates and processes. The
meetings address all of the areas listed in the question but focus heavily on logistics and balancing competing priorities.
Facilitated meetings have been held for 7 years prior and agreements and meeting norms are established. The group is adaptable and open to new frameworks.
We are open to new formats suggested by the chosen facilitation contractor.
The collaborative partners have been working together and are highly professional. The participants navigate differences by surfacing concerns with respect. The group members represent programs with very different funding allocation strategies and different child placement priorities. These are acknowledged while seeking consensus for program timelines and role assignments. Tensions arise regularly but are handled with respect. There are more areas in common than there are differences.
The meeting priorities are set based upon established program goals, timelines, data, resource allocations participant surveys and trends. The EY staff will work with the contractor to plan out the priorities throughout the contract period.
