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The Child Care Partnership Project CICK–Community Investment Collaborative for Kids |
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Description
High-quality child care for young children requires safe spaces that provide opportunities for learning and exploring. Yet, the time and resources needed to plan and implement a renovation or construction project are a luxury few providers can afford. Community Investment Collaborative for Kids (CICK) is a national initiative that seeks to improve and expand child care facilities through the development of innovative financing strategies for facility construction and renovation. A program of Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), the nation’s largest nonprofit community development organization, CICK’s goal is to increase the supply of quality child care where it is most needed – in low-income communities facing increasing demands for child care as a result of welfare reform. CICK staff engage diverse stakeholders in states and localities to examine child care needs, combining technical expertise in real estate development and finance with specialized knowledge of the child care industry. CICK’s construction projects include 28 child care facilities with the capacity to serve over 1800 children. Partners Partners involved in CICK projects vary from site to site. They typically include government agencies and public officials, child care providers, community organizations, the business community, foundations, and others. Examples of partners involved in CICK projects include:
History and Development Through years of work on community development, LISC came to see child care as critical to community revitalization. LISC leaders realized that affordable child care is necessary for parents to find and maintain employment. In 1995, LISC created the National Child Care Initiative, a pilot project that would ultimately become CICK. Initially, the National Child Care Initiative focused on supporting community development corporations working to improve the quality and supply of child care. It quickly became evident, however, that increasing the supply of child care requires a particular set of skills and knowledge, and a different group of partners than traditional community development projects. Therefore, the focus of the National Child Care Initiative was broadened to include diverse groups such as child care providers and policy makers. The initial pilot program officially became CICK in 1998. CICK creates state and local collaborations that secure funds for and provide technical assistance to child care providers to build and renovate child care facilities. Through public policy development and advocacy, CICK works to develop new sources of capital subsidy for facilities. Once a dedicated funding stream is available, CICK works to enable child care providers to use these funds. Current Activities CICK’s current activities involve financing center, and family-based child care facilities, training providers on how to access capital resources, and providing technical assistance to organizations seeking to develop new child care facilities. CICK works closely with providers through all phases of construction. Financing. CICK works to develop new sources of capital for child care facilities through innovative strategies that bring together public- and private-sector resources. Training. CICK has offered more than a dozen training sessions around the country to teach providers and community developers how to take advantage of new capital resources. CICK also convened a national conference to explore strategies for using housing and economic development programs to strengthen family child care. Technical Assistance. CICK provides technical assistance to community development corporations, child care providers, and Head Start grantees. This technical assistance addresses barriers to securing financing, such as assembling a development team, fundraising, and negotiating the obstacle course of regulatory approvals needed to complete a new facility. CICK’s work in Connecticut is an example of its financing and technical assistance activities. CICK joined forces with the state government to help design Connecticut’s School Readiness Facilities Financing Program. This program provides bond revenue for new child care facilities in Connecticut’s most distressed communities. The Connecticut Health and Education Facilities Authority will issue over $30 million in bond funds for construction or renovation of up to 30 new child care, Head Start, and Family Resource Centers. CICK is also working on two local child care facility development projects in Connecticut. In New Haven, CICK is working with a local CDC and Head Start grantee on the development of a Head Start /child care center for 175 children, ages from birth to 5. In Bridgeport, CICK partnered with the Center for Women and Families to complete an early childhood center for 63 children in a low-income neighborhood with a shortage of adequate child care. Through its Rural Collaborative Initiative, CICK is also involved in efforts to provide child care to children in rural areas. CICK has partnered with HHS and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to provide almost $3 million in grants, loans, guarantees, and technical support to 8 CDC-sponsored child care facilities (including Head Start programs) in Marked Tree, Arkansas; Holton, Kansas; Oakland, Maryland; Steven’s Point, Wisconsin; Bayfield, Wisconsin; Coleville, Washington; and Bozeman, Montana. In addition to its rural programs, CICK currently has project sites operating in the Bay Area of California; Connecticut; Richmond, Virginia; Phoenix, Arizona; Trenton, New Jersey; and St. Paul, Minnesota. Resources Since 1994, CICK has secured over $5.3 million from foundations and the public sector to fund both project development and technical assistance activities. In addition, each community and state where CICK operates has local funders who are involved in the projects. Individual programs also receive in-kind support, such as space or materials, from the communities in which they operate. Results The primary indicator of CICK’s success over the past few years is the increased child care capacity the project has supported. Since its inception, CICK has played an instrumental role in the financing and development of 28 child care facility projects, representing almost $22 million in development value. These projects have generated over 194,000 square feet of new child care facilities space, and have a capacity to serve almost 1,900 children. CICK’s current projects in 16 states across the country promise to add significantly to these numbers. Sustaining and Replicating CICK’s status as a program of LISC, a well-established national organization, contributes to its sustainability. LISC has a 20-year history of partnership with communities, government agencies, and private philanthropies, and an established funding base. Through the years, LISC has developed considerable expertise on how to effectively collaborate to develop community projects, as well as extensive contacts within communities and the government. Lessons Learned As an outgrowth of a pilot program, CICK has been able to build on successful practices and eliminate those that were less useful in its pilot phase. Based on the experiences of its predecessor, the National Child Care Initiative, as well as LISC, CICK has the following lessons to share. Break down barriers. CICK immediately learned that compliance with all the rules and regulations of various local and federal financial institutions can be quite cumbersome and time-consuming. Few providers had the knowledge, patience, or time needed to negotiate all of the rules and regulations. Providing the needed know-how and resources can make the difference between success and failure. Pooling resources requires expertise. Pooling resources is a necessary strategy for generating the capital necessary to build child care facilities. Building on its experience working with community development organizations, CICK staff is well prepared to navigate through the many obstacles to pooling resources. Utilizing this expertise allows child care providers access to a variety of funding sources that help keep the costs of borrowing money down. Collaborative efforts may be slow. Managing a collaborative effort requires patience. Getting all the players to the table takes a great deal of time. Collaborating with different corporate cultures and negotiating competing agendas, schedules, and priorities is hard work. This effort will not be quick and easy, but the results are worth it. Contact Information Amy Gillman
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