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This article originally appeared in the November-December 2004 issue of the Children's Advocate, published by Action Alliance for Children. Family Support WorksFamily resource centers: "The money is out there!"Sustaining family support programs in a time of budget cutsBy Melia Franklin"It's a bad time to be a family resource center," laments
the director of a southern Bay Area family resource center (FRC) whose
funding was recently slashed by the county. Core funding sources that
have initiated and supported FRCs in the past-such as Healthy Start, Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and Office of Child Abuse Prevention
(OCAP) funds-have withered away. Mean-while traditional FRC partners-school
districts, cities, and counties-have their own budget woes and are also
cutting funding to FRCs. Private foundations are narrowing their focus
and tightening their belts. "Before, you could write 10 grants and be assured of some,"
says Mary Jo Buettner, director of the Chula Vista Coordinating Coun-cil,
which operates six FRCs in San Diego County. "Now, you can write
10 or more and not get any." But family resource centers can grow and sustain their programs even
in tough times, say experts and seasoned FRC directors. "The money
is out there," says finance consultant Hansine Fisher. "It's
just not where it used to be. You've got to go find it." Show how your programs save money"It costs $60,000 per year to keep a child in a group home and
$4,000 to provide a family with prevention services through a home-visiting
program for three or four months," says Fisher. FRCs "need to
quantify outcomes in terms of money saved-and some of these savings should
come back into prevention." Adds Sid Gardner, president of Children and Family Futures in Irvine:
"FRCs have got to think more like entrepreneurs than grant-chasers
and more strategically than the next $50,000 (grant). They need to do
so based on their own strengths." For example, if you can demonstrate
to CalWORKS or Title I (federally funded education program) that "you
can help families stay out of that system longer," you're more likely
to receive ongoing prevention dollars from the public sector. Build a broad base"As an FRC, our very nature makes us broad," says Buettner,
who takes in a dozen different funding sources for the collaborative's
after-school and FRC programs. "It's hard to channel ourselves"
to one funding source, she says. The key is "being willing to take
little bits from lots of people. All of the players in the community need
to give us support." Schools, city, and county agencies are major
funders, but Buettner's programs also receive private foundation and state
money as well. "We need to engage our community more broadly," agrees Terry
Shearman, director of the South Orange County Family Resource Center.
She helped parents organize a community fundraiser in May. Parents with
small businesses sold their items-from jewelry to purses to gourmet food-and
donated a portion of the profits to the FRC. Ask partners to share"Whenever you can, try to get your partners to take up some of
the overhead-space, equipment, resources, training. Sharing funding sources,
people learn that everybody's got something different (to offer),"
says Fisher. "We're tapping into every grant-writer for each of our agencies,"
agrees Shearman. "Everyone is finding new talents." One of South Orange's partners, Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center,
as part of its community benefit program, sets aside a portion of its
budget to pay the FRC's rent and utilities and some staff salaries. Since
"nobody is funding core support," adds Shearman, "if an
FRC doesn't have a partner with resources, they're just whittling away."
Buettner also taps the members of the coordinating council for resources.
"So many of our partners are writing grants. They'll write us in
for small amounts to do a piece of the work." Stick to your missionIn its early years, South Orange FRC received funding through Families
and Com-munities Together (FaCT), a collaborative administered by the
county social service agency. Since the community has always been "the
driving force behind the FRC," it was important that "there
was a lot of latitude given for how you met the needs of the community."
So when FaCT funds were limited to serving only families in the child
welfare system, South Orange FRC turned the money down. Although the decision resulted in some staffing cuts, it ultimately
was "a relief," says Shearman. "We will serve those families
(in CPS)...but we don't want this to be all of what we are about."
Still, she's worried about a trend in which FRCs "are less about
what the community is asking for and more about what (the funder) is driving."
Tap into bigger systemsFRCs can enhance the work they do to support families by linking families
to the "larger pools of resources available to institutionalized
systems"-such as Medi-Cal, Earned Income Tax Credit, TANF, and Title
I funds. That's "real money that is already flowing to the community,"
says Gardner. Making it your FRC's business to help families access these
programs, he adds, not only builds families' self-sufficiency, but also
increases the credibility and effectiveness of the FRC-thus making it
more fundable (see Support Systems, Children's
Advocate, September-October, 2004). In some cases, these funds can directly support FRC core programs. For
example, school-based FRCs that provide nursing or psychological services
to students receiving Medi-Cal can bill Medi-Cal for certain administrative
expenses. Follow new opportunitiesAccording to Gardner, two new opportunities offer viable funding strategies for FRCs that have been working successfully in early childhood development and child abuse prevention. First Five commissions in many counties are actively funding-and in some cases creating-FRCs to implement early childhood and school readiness programs (see Starting strong). In addition, the recent statewide child welfare redesign offers opportunities for FRCs to contract with child welfare agencies to provide early intervention services to families who are at risk of becoming involved in the child welfare system. Each of these strategies limits the population served. And county funding
is subject to expanding and contracting with budget cuts. But according
to Fisher, these institutional ties mean that "FRCs that are well-positioned"-with
a strong community base and relationships with local policy makers-"won't
be abandoned." Document your outcomesRegardless of the funding source, cautions Gardner, the key to sustainability is evidence of outcomes (see "Measuring Success," Children's Advocate, July-August 2004). "If FRCs don't have the outcomes, then these (opportunities) probably won't work as sustainability strategies. It turns into last-minute grant-chasing."
Family Support Works! is a six-part series supported by the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund and the S.H. Cowell Foundation. For more information contact Jean Tepperman, 510-444-7136, aacjean@4children.org
Effective prevention programs save money and save lives
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| Family resource centers: "The money is out there!" |
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| Effective prevention programs save money and save lives |
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