RAPID and Harris County Office of Early Childhood Initiatives partnership

Community served

The Harris County Office of Early Childhood Initiatives is a local government agency that works on behalf of young children, families and communities in Harris County, the most-populated county in Texas and home to the city of Houston. 

Priorities and goals

The division works with community partners in Harris County to support programming that revolves around five focus areas:

• High quality affordable child care via access to programming.
• A thriving early childhood educator workforce through work and professional development opportunities.
• Vulnerable populations afforded equitable opportunities.
• Parent education through utilization of programs and practices that promote healthy early childhood development.
• Data and analysis via utilization of resources and opportunities to inform early childhood stakeholders of critical information.

Engaging families

Since 2023, the RAPID Survey Project has worked with the Harris County Early Childhood Initiatives division, the University of Houston Institute for Research on Women, Gender & Sexuality (IRWGS), and 17 community partners in Harris County, Texas, to listen to Harris County families with young children about their experiences, the supports they need, and what’s going well. Harris County and IRWGS will share the insights with stakeholders to inform program and policy decisions in the community.

Data and insights

In this fact sheet, we lay out what we’ve learned from parents with children under age 6 in Harris County about their experiences with child care, and family economic and emotional well-being. These data were gathered in surveys between April 2023 and June 2024, and represent 1,125 parents with young children across Harris County.