External Evaluator : Inclusive Youth Leadership Journey

Dear Colleagues,

Special Olympics North America (SONA) is pleased to announce a Request for Proposals (RFP) for an external evaluation partner to conduct a multi-year impact evaluation of our new Inclusive Youth Leadership (IYL) Learning Journey.

The IYL Learning Journey is a newly developed, comprehensive suite of leadership development materials designed to build six core skills—openness, empathy, bravery, accountability, collaboration, and innovation—in youth with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Materials are being developed for five grade bands (early elementary, upper elementary, middle school, high school, and college) and will be implemented through the Special Olympics Unified Champion Schools® (UCS) network across the United States.

SONA is seeking a qualified evaluator to design and implement a rigorous, multi-phase evaluation to assess:

• Whether and to what extent the IYL Learning Journey strengthens the six target leadership skills
• The added value of the Learning Journey above and beyond typical inclusive youth leadership activities in UCS schools

• RFP released:
  Feb 13, 2026
• Q&A session (SONA to answer questions from respondents):
  Mar 2, 2026 1:30pm ET
• Full RFP response submission due:
  Mar 13, 2026 11:59pm ET
• SONA review submissions, reference checks, follow up as needed:
  Mar 16-27, 2026
• Notification of selected proposal:
  Mar 30, 2026
• Contract negotiation begins:
  Apr 6, 2026
• Implementation start:
  May 15, 2026

Proposals must be submitted in PDF format via email. Detailed submission instructions, scope of work, required proposal components, and budget guidance are included in the full RFP document.

If you would like to attend the March 2 Q&A session, please use the contact information below to request an invite link:

Jennifer Donahue
Director of Applied Research and Knowledge Translation
Unified Champion Schools
jdonahue

We encourage you to share this opportunity with colleagues and organizations who may be well positioned to support this important work.

We look forward to your interest.