Smart Start Grant Application Guidelines
Partnership for Children of Cumberland County, Inc., administers Smart Start – a comprehensive public-private initiative to help all Cumberland County children enter school healthy and ready to succeed. PFC's approach to grant making is focused and strategic. PFC make grants in five program areas quality child care, accessible quality child care, affordable quality child care, health and family support for children birth to age 5.
- Vision Statement: We envision a community committed to the health, safety, happiness, and education of all of our children and their families.
- Mission Statement: To build partnerships with families and the community so that all children have the opportunity to succeed in school and be prepared to contribute to our social and economic future.
PFC's Strategic Priorities
PFC is committed to ensuring that the funds allocated to us are spent in the ways that provide the best outcomes for young children and families. To address these critical issues with limited resources, PFC adopted a strategic, high-impact approach. PFC must allocate
- 30% of our budget for childcare subsidy;
- an additional 40% (totaling 70%) for child care related activities;
- and the remaining 30% to family support, health and system support.
PFC teams up with the community using powerful strategies of impact, influence & leverage (vision for results, family engagement, broad alliance, data & learning, transforming systems and capacity to sustain) to create sizeable, lasting and positive change. We achieve these strategies by developing core capacities towards PFC 4 Goals resulting in transformation of individual, organization, & system. By bringing to scale results in Ready System of ECE. Ready Schools, Ready Families, and Ready Communities which results in Ready Children.
| Critical Early Childhood Issues |
Strategic Priorities |
Outcomes |
| Access to Affordable Quality Child Care |
|
- PLA20: 97% of subsidized children are in regulated programs
- PLA30: 75% of children whose families earn less than 75% of state median income are served by one of these programs: Head Start, Pre-K or subsidized child care.
- PLA50: 3.25 average star rating of subsidized placement AND 60% of children in 4 & 5 star facilities
- PLA60: 4.0 average star rating of subsidized placement AND 75% of children with special/developmental needs in 4 & 5 star facilities
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| Availability of High Quality Child Care |
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- PLA40: 3.25 average star rating of placement AND 50% of children in 4 & 5 star facilities
- PLA70: 20% of children in regulated child care facilities that have national accreditation
|
| Education Level of Early Care and Education Professionals |
|
- EDU10:
35% of children enrolled in 1- 5-star rated child care centers have 7 lead teacher education points
- EDU20: 35% of children enrolled in 1- 5-star rated child care centers have 7 administrator education points
- EDU30: 35% of children enrolled in 1- 5-star rated child care homes have 7education points
|
| Compensation, Benefits and Turnover of Early Care and Education Professionals |
|
- COMP10: 2 year degree Teacher - Median Salary + Supplement of $10.25 AND 4-year degree Teacher - Median Salary + Supplement of $13.27
- BE10: Health Insurance - 75% of regulated child care centers provide full or partially paid health insurance
- BE20: Sick Leave- 80% of regulated child care centers offer at least 6 days of paid sick leave
- S10: Less thant 20% turnover
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| Unfunded MAF mandate |
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- Transition activities for all More at Four sites
|
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- All children entering a More at Four Program should be screened within ninety (90) days of the first
day of attendance in the program.
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Parenting skills in child social/ behavior skills
Parent nurturing skills
Parent Stress/Social Isolation
Linkages to community resources |
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- FS10: 95% of families report feeling confident and competent in applying new skills as a result of Smart Start funded family support activities
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| Improve children’s pre-reading skills |
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- FS20: Of the families who reported engaging in literacy activities with their children less than 4 times a week before participating in a Smart Start funded literacy activity, 75% report that they increased the number of times they engaged in literacy activities to 4 or more times a week.
|
| Multiple entry portals create redundancy and stress for families |
|
- A hub for services to strengthen families through parenting support, information and referral, child care, child development activities, and other programs
- An innovative, professional, and collaborative work environment at below market rent for charitable, non-profit organizations of various sizes and purposes
|
Lack of communication between agencies
Capacity to assess and evaluate
Community collaboration of funding sources is stymied when funding activities is at stake
Every funding stream has its own priorities and requirements which may or may not overlap or align |
|
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Managing and coordinating stakeholder information |
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- Technology infrastructure to support effective coordinated service delivery
- A central data repository instead of having fragmentary information of limited value.
- A series of mechanisms designed to communicate with the diverse customers
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To be selected, programs needed to: (1) be innovative, (2) produce clearly defined child or family outcomes, and (3) have the potential to become a statewide model. This model allows PFC to provide support PFC strategic priorities and NCPC constraints in funding. All Smart Start activities are approved at three levels - a local committee, the local PFC Board, and the NC Partnership for children.
How to Apply
- It is our hope that our RFP process will enable would-be applicants whose projects fall outside our funding priorities to direct their efforts toward more promising funding prospects.
- To find out whether your program qualifies for consideration for a Smart Start Grant, please review the Eligibility Criteria.
- If all of the eligibility criteria are met, contact Pam Howser at 910-826-3064 to discuss the proposed project.
- If PFC Staff informs you that the project may be eligible for funding, you will be INVITED to a MANDATORY BIDDERS' CONFERENCE.
Information about the 2010-12 Smart Start Grant application will be provided at the conference. The conference is aimed at providing participants with information on how to become funded and how to create proposals. Conference facilitators will be available to answer any questions conference participants may have.
Thank you again for your interest in Smart Start!
For more information, please contact
Linda Blanton
Planning, Development & Communications Director
867-9700 ext 2230
lblanton@ccpfc.org
Revised 8/25/09
