The Massachusetts Special Commission on After School and Out of School Time Announces First Public Hearing, Tuesday, April 10, 5 PM - 8 PM

We are pleased to announce that the first public hearing for the Massachusetts Special Commission on After School and Out of School Time will be held on Tuesday, April 10, 2007 from 5 PM - 8 PM in Western Massachusetts at Springfield Technical Community College's Auditorium. Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) is located at One Armory Square in Springfield.

We look forward to your thoughtful participation at this hearing as the Special Commission works to define how best to support children and youth in and out of school. Commission members are interested in hearing from a broad spectrum of people including parents, youth, schools, community-based providers, faith-based organizations, police, libraries, municipalities, business, and other interested parties at this hearing.

If you cannot attend this public hearing, we invite you to post comments on http://www.massafterschoolcomm.blogspot.com. We will be holding a second public hearing in Western Massachusetts in the Berkshires but that date and time has yet to be confirmed.

Thanks again and we look forward to working with you to ensure that our first public hearing is a success.

Sincerely,

Senator Thomas McGee
Representative Marie St. Fleur
Co-Chairs

The Massachusetts Special Commission on After School and Out of School Time has been created by the Massachusetts Legislature to help define what is needed to support the healthy development of children and youth in and out of school.

Especially for Rural Programs

Hi all,

HHS is putting out what they call "mini-grants" -- up to $50,000 for capacity building for CBOs that serve distressed communities. The New England region consistently has overrepresentation in applications from urban programs, yet they have a special set-aside for rural programs.

What does this mean to you? If you're a rural program, the odds are in your favor.

If you serve a community where the poverty rate is higher than state and national averages, consider this grant opportunity to expand your federal funding base.

Best,
Liz



Department of Health & Human ServicesAdministration for Children and Families
Office of Community Services

Compassion Capital Fund Targeted Capacity Building Program
HHS-2007-ACF-OCS-IJ-0036

Due 04/10/2007

Executive Summary

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Community Services (OCS), announces that applications will be accepted for new grants pursuant to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary's Compassion Capital Fund (CCF) authorized under Title XI Section 1110 of the Social Security Act governing Social Services Research and Demonstration activities and the Department of Labor, HHS, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006, Public Law (P.L.) 109-149.

Pursuant to this announcement, OCS will award funds to help build the capacity of faith-based and community organizations that address the needs of distressed communities. A distressed community is defined as a neighborhood or geographic community with an unemployment rate and/or poverty rate equal to or greater than the State or national rate. The Targeted Capacity Building Program will focus on capacity building among organizations addressing the following programmatic service areas: help for at-risk youth; help for the homeless; marriage education and preparation services to help couples who choose marriage for themselves develop the skills and knowledge to form and sustain healthy marriages; or social services to those living in rural communities.

Resources Courtesy of Khari Milner

Hi All -

Khari wanted to make sure and pass these two items of interest for your reading and fundraising enjoyment as he was experiencing some technical glitches trying to post these resources. They are:

1) The Executive Summary of the Tough Choices or Tough Times article.


2) Grant Opportunity -- Quality Improvement Request for Responses (License Plate Funds).
The purpose of the Quality Improvement Grant is to promote school readiness, school success, and positive outcomes for children by supporting and enhancing the quality of services being delivered to children in early education and out of school time settings across the Commonwealth.

(Note: The above funding resource has also been included in the latest edition of the MA 21st CCLC Sustainability Newsletter which you all should be receiving shortly.)

Thanks.

Deb

Working with the Media

As we learned last week from working with Jane and Allison, you all have the opportunity to be great spokespeople for your children, youth and families. While it is the ultimate goal to have the issue of afterschool covered in your local media markets, it can even be more critical to reach those stakeholders who can actually do something to support your worthwhile endeavors such as school committee members, city council members, Mayors, selectmen, school superintendents among others.

Of course, it can help when approaching them to share your success stories that have appeared in your local newspapers even if they are part of a packet you hand them during a meeting or presentation.

To that end, the Afterschool Alliance has put together a great section on their website about how to work with the media. This includes a variety of tools including a searchable database on all the media markets in the country. Just type in your zip code and all the newspapers, TV, radio and magazine outlets pop up in your local area. This combined with writing guides and other tip sheets can help you craft your message.

Using Jane's powerful framing tools and information, you should have all the basics to make an effective pitch about why afterschool is important.

Make sure you tell us your success stories!

Deb

Afterschool Toolkit: Business to Business

Inspired by the superb media and data clinic that Jane and Allison ran last week, I wanted to share a great resource that will help you talk to the business community about the importance of afterschool. Created by Corporate Voices Working Families, the Afterschool Toolkit: Business to Business provides practical ways that you can make the case for afterschool to your business partners. Corporate Voices Working Families is a non-partisan organization based in Washington, DC that works with 50 of the leading national businesses on issues that affect families such as early care and education, afterschool, older youth among other issues. Their website has a wealth of information - check them out.

Do keep us posted about what you learn when you talk to your business partners.

Deb

Engaging Community Leaders

There's no magic to this sustainability method. It's a process that never stops and can make the difference for your programs long term success (and success includes being in operation to serve new children). Community leaders (elected, appointed or opinion leaders) need to know you exist, how many families are served, what the outcomes are, and success stories with students. Project coordinators will need to orchestrate this communication and engagement. School principals and others in the neighborhood can be a part of your communication effort. Do this early in the program's life and do it often. Community leaders have a lot of problems they are asked to solve, so they need to be reminded that afterschool programs are a valuable community resource that should not be allowed to languish. You may have to piece together 5 different funding streams, where you used to have just one big grant. However, in the end, you'll still be operating and serving children.

Do you know the following people? superintendent of schools, president of the school board, head of the city parks and recreation Department, programs manager for United Way or equivalent, neighborhood leader liaison from your mayor's office, your city council person, your state legislator and your state senator. Who else may be important to know? Who do you know that knows them? Enlist the help of others in order for the communication and engagement to take root. Set up a face to face meeting. Sending them your newsletter or a letter will not be sufficient. You want them to think of your program, every time they think about afterschool programs. See tools for sustainability on www.afterschoolalliance.org website. Look for sustainability tools on the left side of the homepage.

C.S. I. - Prospecting and Fundraising

If as Liz said, grantwriting is like dating, then prospecting is like an episode of C.S.I. It is just as important to know the anatomy of a funder as it is writing a well-crafted grant application. Clues abound that can help you answer key questions such as:

1) What is the grantmaker's funding philosophy?
2) What have they funded in the past?
3) What will their funding priorities be in the future?
4) Who are their senior executives and board members?

Fortunately, there are an array of organizations who collect this information that can help you. While they offer enhanced services for a fee, they offer basic services free of charge. Check them out to see if they will help you hone your funder investigative skills.

They are:

1) The Foundation Center's Foundation Finder.
This is a free service where you can type in a foundation's name to find out more about them. I would suggest searching by geography first just to see what might be in your area.

2) The Foundation Center's 990 Finder.
This is a free service that will provide access to a non-profit's 990 tax forms that provides information such as assets of the organization, pay for senior executives and board members, and expenses among other items. If you want a helpful guide on how to read the IRS 990 form - check out the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York's How to Read the 990 Form and Understand What It Means.

3) Guidestar.
Guidestar provides a wealth of information about how non-profits work in order to promote accountability and transparency. Their free service provides access to 990 forms as well as the mission and programs of non-profit foundations and organizations. With their enhanced membership (which costs a fee), you can find out who is on their Board of Directors among other information.

I've provided a link to The Hyams Foundation's page so you can see how it is configured.

Let us know how your detective work pans out.

~ Deb