Appendix F. Outreach E-Mail to Intermediary or Local Service Organizations to Help Recruit Focus Group Participants

Appendix F. Outreach E-Mail to Intermediary or Local Service Organizations to Help Recruit Focus Group Participants

TO: [Point of Contact] 

FROM: [______________] 

CC: [______________] 

SUBJECT: ACF Study on Child Care and Early Education Supply-Building and Sustainability

Dear [Intermediary/Local Service Organization],

My name is [NAME] and I am a researcher at the Urban Institute, a nonprofit research organization in Washington, DC. The Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) has contracted with the Urban Institute to lead a project called “Understanding Supply-Building and Sustainability Efforts of the Child Care and Early Education Market.” The attached document provides more information about the project. We were given your name by [NAME OF STATE AGENCY OR OTHER ORGANIZATION] as an organization that may be able to help us with our study.

We are writing to ask you to share information about our study with child care providers in your community. We are asking providers to participate in a 75-minute virtual focus group. We want to learn more about providers’ experiences with [DESCRIBE STRATEGY]. We will offer each [center director/family child care provider] a $50 gift card as a thank-you for participating.

Steps will be taken to ensure that the identities of child care providers and any agencies that work with providers such as your agency are not revealed. No names of people or [child care centers/family child care businesses] will be included in any study products.

What do we ask of you?

To help us reach child care providers, we are asking you to share the attached flyer by [DATE] with eligible [child care center directors and family child care providers] and encourage their participation. [SPECIFY ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA].

Our goal is to recruit 8 providers to participate in a focus group. To make sure we don’t have more providers sign up than can participate, we ask that you share this flyer with no more than 25 providers who you think may be eligible to and interested in participating in the study.

As described in the flyer, we are asking child care providers to contact our study team directly by email or phone, or through a web-based contact form. If providers express their interest to you, please encourage them to contact our project team directly. To help us protect their privacy, please do not share the names and/or contact information of any potentially interested child care providers with us by email.

Please respond to this email by [DATE] to let us know if you are able to assist us with this process.

Thank you for your time and support! Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

[NAME]

This information collection is voluntary. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB number and expiration date for the described collection are OMB #0970-0356, Exp: 1/31/2027. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to: Urban Institute, 500 L’Enfant Plaza SW, Washington, DC 20037.

Understanding the Supply Building and Sustainability Efforts of the Child Care and Early Education Market OMB Supporting Documents: Case Studies of Supply Building and Sustainability Strategies