Request for Proposal
Interactive Curriculum Builder Development
Date of Announcement: February 10, 2025
About NAMI
NAMI (the National Alliance on Mental Illness) is the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness. What started as a small group of families gathered around a kitchen table in 1979 has blossomed into the nation’s leading voice on mental health. Today, we are an alliance of more than 600 local Affiliates and 49 State Organizations?who work throughout the country to raise awareness and provide support and education to those in need.
NAMI’s mission is to provide advocacy, education, support, and public awareness and we are fueled by the values of hope, inclusion, empowerment, compassion, and fairness. As a patient and family advocacy organization, we are dedicated to ending injustices and inequities and to promoting dignity, inclusion, and wellness for all people who experience mental health conditions.
Project Background
NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, is the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to improving the lives of individuals and families affected by mental illness. NAMI provides advocacy, education, support, and public awareness so that all individuals and families affected by mental illness can build better lives.
Half of all lifelong mental health problems onset by age 14, and one in four youth will experience an impairing mental health condition. The COVID-19 pandemic only worsened these issues, yet fewer than half of those in need will ever receive mental health services.
Public schools are well-positioned to overcome many barriers that keep young people from seeking treatment, including opportunities to reduce stigma and increase mental health literacy. There are also now at least 20 states with mental health education in statute, however, no national, evidence-based curricula, competencies, or standards exist to support educators in delivering research-informed mental health literacy instruction.
Flexible Learning for Adolescent Resiliency Education (FLARE) offers a mental health literacy curriculum for middle school students in an adaptable and approachable way for teachers and students alike. FLARE meets middle school students where they are and builds awareness and self-advocacy skills so that students better understand mental health and how to achieve and sustain mental wellness.
We at NAMI seek to support middle school students by introducing a free, easy-to-access mental health curriculum with lesson plans that address stigma, mental health conditions, and help-seeking behavior, in the hope that we can make a significant difference in the lives of youth and help them build better lives for their future.
Scope of Work: Mental Health Curriculum Project
Platform: Development of a website using WordPress with native editor (Gutenberg).
Content Management: Introduction of lesson plans through an interactive interface that includes summaries and teasers.
Functional Requirements:
1. Curriculum Builder: A web-based tool that allows educators to customize their lesson plans. This tool should feature:
2. Mandatory Starting Lesson: The tool should enforce a specific lesson as the starting point for any curriculum built. This lesson must be included in every customized plan.
3. Lesson Selection: After the initial required lesson, educators should be able to freely choose from the remaining 19 lessons and add them to their curriculum in any desired order.
4. Lesson Introduction Method: Each lesson should have the options to view video introductions and read descriptive blurbs of each lesson without giving away the full PDF content to ensure security and intellectual property protection.
5. Drag-and-Drop Interface: Maintain the functionality that allows for an intuitive drag-and-drop interface to organize lessons.
6. Filtering: Filters to select lessons based on specific goals, topics, and durations.
7. Compilation and Download: Once the curriculum is built, there should be an option to download the selected lessons as a single PDF document. This feature must intelligently compile all chosen lessons into one cohesive file, ensuring that the formatting is consistent across all included content.
8. Saving: Functionality to save and retrieve previously constructed lesson plans.
9. Recommendation Engine: Intuitive suggestions of paired lessons and additional content based on educator selections
10. Open Access with Late-stage Verification: Allow all users to access and use the curriculum builder without initial verification to maximize interaction and engagement.
Additional Content – A user-friendly interface that provides:
1. A clear homepage with a direct call-to-action.
2. Seamless navigation through all 20 lesson plans available as web pages. They should introduce the lesson plan without providing the entire PDF of the lesson plan.
3. Visual aids such as screenshots and video content.
Verification & Content Access – email verification for downloading compiled lesson plans.
1. Implement security measures to protect the full lesson plan PDFs from unauthorized access. Only summarized or introductory content should be viewable online.
2. Once verified, users should have the ability to freely access the curriculum builder and download content as needed.
3. Implement session-based access control, ensuring that users are logged in to view content and build curricula.
4. We may wish to include in the verification process the collection of contact information. This information would be used for follow-up communications and to understand the demographics of the tool’s users.
5. Ensure that the verification process is streamlined and does not detract from the overall user experience.
Accessibility and Compliance: Ensure the platform complies with relevant accessibility standards to make it usable for all educators, including those with disabilities.
Theme Design:
1. Visual Design: The website should follow the established brand guidelines. The design must be visually appealing, professional, and suitable for an educational environment.
2. Responsive Design: The theme must be fully responsive, ensuring optimal viewing and interaction experience across a wide range of devices (including desktops, tablets, and smartphones).
3. User Interface (UI): Design a user-friendly interface that facilitates an intuitive curriculum-building experience. The UI should include clear navigation, accessible menus, and interactive elements that are easy to use for educators with varying levels of tech savviness.
4. Customization Capabilities: The theme should allow for easy modifications and updates by the organization’s internal team, without requiring extensive coding knowledge. This includes the ability to update content, change layout elements, and modify features as necessary.
Technical Requirements:
1. Hosting on organization’s servers with a GitHub repository for development tracking.
2. Implementation of organizational tracking codes and compliance with privacy policies.
Content Development:
1. There is not an expectation there will be much content development, but we will ask for support in determining appropriate content (like headlines and text content) needed to support the design. We expect the asks to include recommended length.
2. We expect the vendor to make stock photography recommendations for the theme design using Adobe Stock (NAMI will be responsible for purchasing).
Vendor Qualifications
1. Experience with WordPress and Gutenberg.
2. Proven track record in developing secure, accessible, and responsive course development/curriculum-building websites.
3. Capability to integrate advanced tracking and analytics systems.
4. Design capabilities: Accessible web design focused on user experience
Proposal Submission Guidelines
Submission Deadline: Friday, February 28
Proposal Format: Electronic submissions in PDF format are preferred.
Proposal Content:
1. Technical Approach: Detailed explanation of the technical methods and tools to be used.
2. Methodology: Describe your project management and development approach, including key phases from design to deployment, tools for tracking and communication, testing and quality assurance strategies, and risk management plans. Please include strategies for approaching unforeseen challenges.
3. Previous Project Examples: Include examples of past projects that demonstrate expertise in web design, particularly in educational or content-heavy platforms. Focus should be on projects that showcase good visual design and user interface development.
4. Proposed Project Timeline: Outline of key milestones and expected completion dates. Expected cycle of ongoing check-ins and approval processes.
5. Pricing Breakdown: Detailed cost estimate for all phases of the project, and any expected licensing fees.
6. Key Personnel Qualifications: Bios and qualifications of team members who will work on the project.
7. Post-Launch Support: Specify what process for ongoing maintenance, training, and support services are included after the project goes live.
Evaluation Criteria
1. Technical Solution: Appropriateness and innovativeness of the proposed technical approach.
2. Visual Design Capabilities: Evaluation based on the quality, professionalism, and relevance of the provided portfolio examples. Special attention will be given to past work that is on WordPress, which aligns with educational purposes and demonstrates an understanding of user-friendly design principles.
3. Vendor Experience and Technology Proficiency: Assessment of track record in successfully delivering similar projects and expertise relevant to the project requirements.
4. Cost: Competitiveness, clarity, and transparency of the pricing model, ensuring value for money.
5. Project Timeline: Feasibility of the proposed timeline.
6. Adaptability: How does vendor respond to project changes or unexpected challenges.
Project Timeline
Request for Proposals Announcement: Monday, February 10
Proposal Submission Deadline: Friday, February 28
Proposal Review: Friday, February 28 – Friday, March 21
Vendor Presentations and Selection: – Monday, March 24 – Monday, April 14
Contract Signing: Friday, April 25
Project Phases: Detailed development and testing phases leading to project acceptance in August.
Terms & Conditions
Confidentiality Agreement: Requirement for vendors to maintain the confidentiality of all project-related information.
Compliance: Adherence to all applicable laws and regulations.
Contacts, Questions & Clarifications
Tammy Bradford, NAMI Project Management Office: tbradford@nullnami.org