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The Child Care Partnership Project Joining Forces: Caring Communities for Children |
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Description What do you have when you combine three foundations, nine communities, and
a commitment to improving child care for low-income kids? In Michigan, the answer
is, Joining Forces: Caring Communities for Children, a collaborative venture
by three Michigan foundations that is helping communities to expand and improve
their child care resources. The goal of Joining Forces is to increase the availability of high-quality
child care to low-income families in Michigan through local capacity-building.
The initiative is funding nine community teams composed of stakeholders from
the public and private sectors to work together to create locally driven child
care solutions. Partners The Joining Forces project focuses on partnership at multiple levels. The project originated with a partnership between the W. K. Kellogg Foundation,
the Skillman Foundation, and The Frey Foundation. Nine local communities received funding to bring together stakeholders from
the public and private sectors to assess and address child care needs. While
the specific partners involved vary from community to community, they typically
include: local government officials, public agency administrators/staff, business
leaders, child care providers, parents, local community organizations, community
leaders, public schools, and other local stakeholders. History and Development In 1993, a group of foundations came together in Michigan to talk about child
care. They were concerned about the quality and accessibility of child care,
particularly for low-income families. Three of the foundations-the Frey, Skillman,
and W. K. Kellogg Foundations-"joined forces" to do something about
these concerns. They felt that by pooling their expertise and resources, they
could create a bigger impact among policymakers, parents, providers, and the
public. They created an initiative that has partnership at its core. Instead of starting at the state level, the grantmakers concluded that they
could most effectively foster child care solutions responsive to local needs
and resources by helping communities join forces with the appropriate public
and private officials in their areas. The goal was to create a shared sense
of responsibility and commitment for child care that extends beyond the individuals,
families, and children needing these services. In 1994, Joining Forces held an initial technical assistance conference to
raise awareness about the importance of child care and attract the attention
of communities across the state. Through subsequent follow-up and planning,
Joining Forces issued a request for proposals for plans from community teams
in 1996. Nine sites, representing cities, towns, and rural areas, received funding
for five years to increase their local capacity for child care. The nine Michigan
communities chosen were: Detroit-Wayne Country, Downriver Guidance Clinic, Charlevoix-Emmet,
Muskegon, Allegan, Saginaw, Grand Rapids, Oakland County, and Newaygo. Grantees
were chosen for their creative approaches to reforming child care, the organization
of community partners, their desire for continuous improvement, and the potential
of staff to accomplish their objectives. Current Activities Currently in their fourth year, each of the Joining Forces community teams
has developed and implemented collaborative plans to increase child care capacity.
The process is constantly evolving, with teams expanding and refining their
plans as they encounter challenges and opportunities with implementation. While
each of the community plans is unique, they are all focusing on one or more
of the following three issues: increasing the number of licensed child care
providers; improving child care quality; and encouraging public awareness of
the importance of child care and public policies that support quality child
care. Three examples illustrate their diverse efforts. In order to increase the number of licensed providers, the Michigan State University-Saginaw
Joining Forces project team combines community development and child care capacity-building.
Their vision is to purchase homes, renovate them to provide space for family
child care homes as well as living space, and sell them to neighborhood residents.
In this way they are increasing homeownership, locally owned small businesses,
and child care capacity in the area. In an effort to increase the quality of child care provided in Newaygo County,
the Joining Forces team developed, publicized, and trained providers in local
quality standards based on national recommendations of the WestEd Laboratory
program for infant and toddler caregivers and the University of North Carolina's
Child Care Quality Criteria. They also developed a lending library to increase
providers' access to age-appropriate toys and educational materials. In Kent County, the Joining Forces team focused on increasing the capacity
of school-age care for low-income children. In addition to starting new programs,
they sponsored a community-wide public education campaign to help parents, policymakers,
and the community understand the benefits of school-age care. To support the Joining Forces initiative, each of the foundations carved out
areas of specialization. The Frey Foundation focuses on policy and political
advocacy. The W. K. Kellogg Foundation concentrates on technical assistance,
communication, and building public will, and the Skillman Foundation is in charge
of assessment. Resources The five-year Joining Forces Initiative is supported by a combined $5 million
from the three collaborating foundations. Each of the sites received up to $100,000
for the first year of planning and implementation, and the amount provided in
subsequent years depended on planned activities. The foundations' investment
has helped each of the nine community teams to leverage additional resources
from both public and private sources. These leveraged funds will help sustain
the local teams when the $5 million runs out. Results The Skillman Foundation contracted with Abt Associates to conduct a multi-year
outcome-based evaluation of Joining Forces. Data from the first year of implementation
focused on increased collaboration and capacity for local decision-making created
in each of the Joining Forces communities. Each of the nine communities created
and implemented a unique plan to increase local child care capacity with broad
involvement and resources from the community. Data from the second through the
fifth years will focus on measuring the increase in the supply and quality of
child care in each of the communities as a result of the initiative. Sustaining and Replicating Leaders of the Joining Forces initiative see the effort as not only building
local child care capacity, but also building the capacity of local communities
to plan for and implement solutions to address their child care needs. Although
funding from the three foundations for Joining Forces ends in 2001, each of
the local teams will continue to operate with funding from a variety of local,
state, and federal sources. In addition, by forming a broad coalition of community
efforts, Joining Forces has enhanced advocacy for all of the state's children.
This collective voice is what leaders of the initiative hope will live on and
inform state and local government decisions about child care long after Joining
Forces ends. Lessons Learned Build in substantial planning time. Developing collaborative,
community-driven solutions based on the input of a broad cross-section of stakeholders
is extremely time-consuming. While the planning stages of the local teams took
longer than originally expected, initiative leaders now view that time as well
spent. It allowed for relationship-building and a thorough assessment of community
resources and needs. Be flexible. In order to effectively foster local planning and
capacity-building, it is essential to allow communities the flexibility to assess
their needs and set their priorities. If the funders put strict requirements
around what community teams could do to improve child care, they would not have
had the range of creative solutions initiated through Joining Forces. Nor would
the communities achieve the local ownership necessary to sustain their efforts
after the funding period ends. Include public-sector partners. Community teams learned
that engaging public-sector partners, particularly those who influence the regulations
and resources affecting child care, was critical to their success. Having these
partners at the table made it easier to address barriers that regulations may
pose to implementation of new solutions, and led to new investments in child
care. Contact Information Dr. Marvin McKinney |
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