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

ALLOCATING PUBLIC REVENUES HEALTH
PLUSTIME NEW HAMPSHIRE
(NEW HAMPSHIRE)
DESCRIPTION
PlusTime New Hampshire is a private nonprofit agency
that helps communities throughout the state to start
programs and to improve existing programs for school
age children and youth.
WHEN ESTABLISHED
PlusTime New Hampshire was established in 1990.
ANNUAL AMOUNT
In FY1998–99, PlusTime’s annual budget was $300,000.
Most of these funds came from a state health care transition
grant (state general funds), a grant from the Bureau
of Substance Abuse Services and from the Child Care
and Development Fund.
A variety of other groups provided funding and in–kind
support. Two significant contributions include Providian
Financial Bank’s four–year pledge to PlusTime, for a total
of $250,000, and new investments from the Corporation
for National Service and from Americorps, which are likely
to result in an annual budget of more than $1 million for
FY2000–01.
SERVICES FUNDED
Mini–grants support new and expanding programs. The
Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) is used to
provide services for children ages 12 and under, while the
Providian funding allows mini–grants to also be offered to
programs that serve older school–age children. Technical
assistance is available, including help in forming local
coalitions, conducting needs assessment and writing
grant proposals. Quality Initiatives provide staff training.
Other efforts focus on advocacy and legislative work,
including proposals to develop staff credentialing and to
make health insurance available for child care and
after–school program staff. Social marketing is another
emphasis, which uses various methods of public
education designed to raise community awareness that
the welfare of school–age children and youth is
everyone’s responsibility, not simply a parental one.
HOW FUNDS DISTRIBUTED
Through a mini–grant program, PlusTime issues Requests
for Proposal (RFPs) twice a year, once in the summer and
once in the spring. The summer RFP focuses on creating
new spaces in the fall, while the spring RFP focuses on
summer programming. The awards range from $500 to
$5,000, and a match is not required. To date, it has been
possible to respond to all the communities that have
requested the kinds of technical assistance that PlusTime
provides.
POPULATION SERVED
PlusTime serves school–age children and youth, their
parents and communities.
STRATEGIC CONSIDERATIONS:
• PlusTime emphasizes the community development
process in its work and stresses the importance of
community ownership. PlusTime sees itself as a
facilitator, and a means by which communities can
receive information they need to develop their services
and identify their priorities.
• Many government officials in New Hampshire have
been allies of the program.
• PlusTime has been entrepreneurial in drawing down
health funding to support its mission. The original
Health Department RFP for funding listed prevention
activities for school–age children and youth as a
priority, and PlusTime was ideally suited to compete for
the funds. A second health grant has been received,
and those funds were used to connect health care
resources, including Healthy Kids New Hampshire (the
state CHIP program) and Why Not New Hampshire
(tobacco–free youth), with school–age programming.
Further evidence now exists that the use of health
funding has been a successful strategy. The Governor’s
Office released the Request for Proposals for the
FY2000–01 Health Care Transition Grant, and a
total of $1 million will be distributed in three priority
areas, one of which is after–school care. This will
result in increased funding for school–age care in
many communities.
• Some school–age programs are financially fragile.
There have been occasional instances in which
PlusTime has funded programs that were later forced
to close for economic reasons. The economy is so
strong that it is hard to offer a salary that is competitive
enough to attract and retain qualified staff.
• There are some special problems in rural areas,
including transportation. PlusTime was involved in the
process of changing state law regarding school bus
transit. Originally, school buses were permitted to
provide transportation only between home and school.
This has been modified so that after–school programs
are an acceptable drop–off point on school bus routes.
OTHER SITES WITH SIMILAR STRATEGIES
No other examples of programs that use health funding
to support after-school programming are known.
CONTACTS
Cynthia Billings
PlusTime New Hampshire
160 Dover Road, Suite 1
Chichester, NH 03234
Phone (603) 798 5850
Fax (603) 798 5861
E–mail cbillings@plustime.org
Web www.plustime.org
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