Financing Child Care in the United States - Ewing Marion Kauffman ...

FINANCING CHILD CARE IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR PHILANTHROPY
the issues. His participation has helped to engage
many others to serve on the Focus on Our Future
Commission and the Finance Commission.
• The collaboration of the United Way and York
Foundation, the local community foundation, has
produced positive results. Another effective
collaboration has occurred between Focus on Our
Future and Child Care Matters (profiled on page 124)
in several areas of mutual interest.
OTHER SITES WITH SIMILAR STRATEGIES
The Rochester/Monroe County Early Childhood
Development Initiative is similar insofar as the
participating organizations do not have a large budget for
the initiative, but instead sought to take advantage of
their working relationships to improve the financing of
child care in the community. See page 149 for a more
detailed description. Other community–based initiatives
profiled in this book include Allegheny County Early
Childhood Initiative, page 121, and Child Care Matters: A
Quality Child Care Initiative of Southeastern Pennsylvania,
page 124.
CONTACT
Gail Nourse, Director
Focus on Our Future:
A Child Care Initiative of York County
800 East King Street
York, PA 17405
Phone (717) 771 3808
Fax (717) 843 4082
E–mail nourseg@unitedway–york.org
KANSAS CITY ACCREDITATION
PLAN: ACCREDITATION PROJECT
AND CHILD CARE ACCREDITATION
INITIATIVE GRANT PROGRAM
(THE KANSAS CITY METROPOLITAN
AREA, KANSAS AND MISSOURI)
DESCRIPTION
Partners in Quality for Early Childhood Care and
Education, a consortium of child care leadership and
stakeholder groups in the Kansas City bi–state
metropolitan area, has set as a goal accrediting 100 of
the region’s 500 child care centers by the year 2002. To
achieve this goal, a multi–pronged approach to
accreditation was spearheaded by Heart of America
Family Services and Heart of America United Way, and
adopted by Partners in Quality. This approach includes 1)
the Accreditation Project, which provides ongoing
technical and professional assistance to centers seeking
accreditation, and 2) a Child Care Accreditation Initiative
Grant Program, also known as the Child Care
Accreditation Fund, which provides grants to centers for
equipment and improvements. A third prong promotes
teacher education and was developed through the Fern
Webster Professional Development Fund (profiled on
page 130). Funding is provided primarily through private
foundations, although certain aspects of the accreditation
plan have received funding from the public sector,
businesses and religious institutions.
WHEN ESTABLISHED
Separate planning undertaken by Heart of America
United Way and Heart of America Family Services in
1996 laid much of the groundwork for the Kansas City
efforts. In 1996, Heart of America Family Services began
to examine the broad issues of improved quality in child
care programs and established the Accreditation Project
to support the quality standards set by the National
Association for the Education of Young Children
(NAEYC). At the same time, Heart of America United Way
undertook a feasibility study to determine what was
needed for its own United Way–funded child care
programs to become accredited. It then decided to
financially support accreditation for these programs.
Simultaneously, Partners in Quality was developed as a
consortium of 24 local and regional organizations
committed to taking action to improve child care quality.
The planning intersected, and a variety of implementation
projects to support goals established by Heart of America
Family Services, Heart of America United Way and
Partners in Quality began in 1997.
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