|
The Child Care Partnership Project Atlanta's Inn for Children |
|
|
Description In Atlanta, a group of businesses devised a way to make quality child care more accessible to their employees and other families in the community. The result is Atlanta's Inn for Children, a 6-day-a-week early learning and family resource facility that can accommodate up to 250 children, ages 6 weeks to 12 years. The Inn is located within walking distance of the hotel district in downtown Atlanta. Originally designed to meet the needs of hourly-wage employees of Atlanta's service industry, the center now includes children from families in the local community as well. Partners
History and Development In early 1993, five hotels-the Atlanta Marriott Marquis, Marriott Suites Atlanta Midtown, the Omni Hotel at CNN Center, Atlanta Hilton and Towers, and Hyatt Regency Atlanta-established a task force to address the child care needs of hospitality industry employees. Using research indicating that when child care concerns are met, employers benefit from improved employee morale, increased productivity, and a decrease in absenteeism and turnover, the task force developed a plan to establish a child care facility in the hotel district to which their wage employees and others in the community could send their children. In the first step in this plan, the five hotels collaboratively formed the Central Atlanta Hospitality Child Care, Inc. (CAHCI), a 501(c)(3) non-profit community-based organization for lower-income working families. CAHCI's founding Board members from the hotels sought additional members from the local community and added representatives from the YWCA, Georgia State University, the National Council of Jewish Women, and others to the Board's membership. CAHCI is a pioneer in many ways. First, it is a non-profit partnership of for-profit businesses. This type of partnership had never before been attempted, and the CAHCI Board had to work closely with the IRS for nearly a year and a half to secure the agency's approval for tax exemption. CAHCI received this status because the hotel partners did not offer child care as a "benefit," but considered the service to be simply a resource made available to hotel employees, as well as other members of the community. The tax-exempt status provides shelter from financial liability and allowed CAHCI to construct the center with some tax-exempt bonds and potentially raise scholarship funds from the philanthropic community. Unable to secure a bank loan to finance construction of the center, CAHCI used its tax-exempt status to solicit the Atlanta Development Authority to sell bonds to finance the construction. Marriott International also provided a bridge loan of approximately $970,000 for the partnership to purchase land for the center. AmeriCare, a local service provider for child care, took charge of operating Atlanta's Inn for Children and opened July 27, 1997, with a special summer program. The fall school sessions began on August 25 of that year. One-hundred-and-thirty children enrolled within the first two months of the program. In July 1998, the Sunshine House, a larger child care provider based in South Carolina, bought the AmeriCare centers and took over the operations of Atlanta's Inn for Children. The center is now close to capacity, with 247 children attending, and there is normally a waiting list, particularly for infants. While the Inn was originally designed to remain open 24 hours every day, the demand for Sunday and overnight care did not turn out to be strong enough to support the costs of extended service. Current Activities Atlanta's Inn for Children is open Monday through Friday from 5:30 a.m. to midnight and Saturday from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. The Inn also provides family services such as: parenting education workshops; a resource center linking families with community resources; a "get-well" facility for children with mild illnesses; nutrition counseling; health fairs; and dental screenings. Approximately one-third of the 247 children enrolled have parents who are hotel employees, and the rest are from families working in neighboring businesses. IRS requirements for non-profit status of the partnership mandate that the Inn enroll a minimum of 50 children from the general public, but preference is permitted for families employed by the five founding hotels in the event of a waiting list. The Inn is operated by the Sunshine House, which has over 25 years of experience in operating child care facilities. Tuition is set at a flat rate, but 50 percent of the children attending receive either state child care subsidies or are awarded scholarships that are based on a sliding scale according to family income and size. The scholarships are available due in large part to significant fundraising efforts of CAHCI. Resources Eaton Vance Management, Inc., a Boston-based private-investor group, provided permanent financing for the Inn's construction through the purchase of tax-exempt revenue bonds. Taxable revenue bonds were also purchased by Atlanta-based PHN Capital Group, Inc., an affiliate of Capital Funding, Inc., which structured the financing and sold the bonds. Tuition payments are the sole revenue source for the Inn. In the last two years, the Inn has applied for and received supplemental grants from Georgia's CCDF block grant for tuition assistance for working families who do not qualify for state child care subsidies. The Inn also has the opportunity to compete for human services funding from the county, but there is no guaranteed financial commitment from the state or county. The Board has raised over $250,000 from 30 private corporations and foundations ranging from Coca Cola and UPS to the Rosie O'Donnell Foundation and the American Hotel/Motel Association Foundation. The Board dedicates $70,000 of these funds for scholarships every six months. Tuition guarantees from each of the five "sponsor" hotels under contract with the Inn are an additional source of revenue. Each sponsor must guarantee usage of a specified number of slots by their employees for the duration of the contract, or pay the difference if slots go unused. The hotels are under a rolling five-year contract with the Inn to guarantee these slots, with the exception of the Omni, whose two-year contract has recently ended. Lower employee participation rates prompted the Omni to decline renewal of its contract with the Inn. However, those employees who wish to enroll or continue participation in the program will still have the opportunity to do so as community members. Results Atlanta's Inn for Children conducted a survey of those parents using its child care services in July 1999. The results of the survey indicate that 97 percent of parents had zero absences due to child care needs, and 92 percent had zero absences due to child illness. None of the hotels has conducted employee surveys on use of the center, but general feedback from those using Atlanta's Inn for Children from the Hyatt Regency Atlanta and the Marriott hotels has been very positive. Sustaining and Replicating The challenge to sustaining Atlanta's Inn for Children lies in transitioning ownership from the founding hotels to the community. CAHCI is focusing on changing the Inn's image as a hotel-industry initiative to a community resource for all local businesses and organizations. Currently, close to 65 percent of the Inn's attendees are from families living or working in the community, and CAHCI is marketing Atlanta's Inn for Children to local businesses and families residing in the area in the hopes of strengthening their perception that the Inn is a resource for the whole community. CAHCI has recently formed a subcommittee to identify and recruit future Board members from the community. The subcommittee is targeting individuals with experience in community leadership and financial institutions. Fundamental aspects of the Inn for Children model are already being replicated in other parts of the country. The new initiative between Marriott and the Government Services Agency in the District of Columbia stems from the Atlanta program and is applying the lessons learned from construction challenges and providing non-traditional hours of care to ensure a successful program from the start (see the Penn Quarter Partnership profile). The partnership has established precedence for IRS approval of non-profit status for a collaborative entity established through private-sector businesses. This will enable future such partnerships to secure non-profit status more quickly. Lessons Learned Extending the day is more than just adding hours. Extending hours of care requires careful management of logistical details such as meal provision and employee absence. Typical operational issues get magnified with longer hours. Seek existing space whenever possible. The capital expense of construction can be extremely high. Seek existing space and cooperative arrangements with other organizations, businesses, and agencies for alternative lease or purchase arrangements, funding strategies, etc. Engage parents from the start. Evaluate
need for overnight and Sunday care before offering it. Many parents prefer to
leave their children in their home neighborhood for child care, rather than
bringing them downtown to a center during non-traditional hours. Contact Information Nancy Boxill, Executive Director Donna Klein, Vice President |
||
|
||
