Community Building Chronicles
March 2005
OST: Community Foundations Invest in Policy
According to the Afterschool Alliance, youth today are in great need of safe, stimulating places to go after-school.
The parents of more than 28 million school-age children work outside the home.
(U.S. Department of Labor)In communities today, 14.3 million school-age children take care of themselves after the school day ends.
(America After 3 PM, May 2004)Ninety-six percent of working parents pay the full costs of child care. Low-income families who pay for child care spend 35 percent of their income on it.
(National Catholic Reporter, 2003)On school days, the hours between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. are peak hours for juvenile crime and experimentation with drugs, alcohol, cigarettes and sex.
(Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, 2002)
Responding to this need in neighborhoods across the country, community foundations have been investing in increasingly sophisticated strategies to assure quality out-of-school time (OST) opportunities for all youth. While all community foundations fund programs, a growing number have been active partners in local initiatives to create the infrastructure needed in their communities to build and sustain OST. They have invested in training staff, building leadership, improving facilities, demonstrating and disseminating best practices, and creating networks of providers. They have connected local communities to national-level thinking and resources. For more information about the work of community foundations on OST issues, go to www.ccfy.org/toolbox/out_of_school_time.htm to access Out of School Time Matters: What Community Foundations Can Do.
Despite good results from program investments, communities still lack the resources and policies needed to support all youth with quality programs, particularly low-income youth. Thus, community foundations are leveraging and protecting their program investments by engaging in the policy work needed to build and sustain a system of OST programs. Using their credibility, knowledge of the communities they serve, and ready access to policy makers, they have changed and are changing the way government does business. For a recent CCFY publication that tells about the policy work of community foundations in a variety of program areas including fathers and families, see Policy Matters to Fathers and Families: A Tool for Community Foundations at www.ccfy.org/toolbox/policy_matters.htm.
Community Foundation Policy Strategies
The stories in this issue showcase two of the many community foundations whose policy work is resulting in more and better supports for children and youth. They are using common strategies including:
- talking with, learning from and convening public officials and public agency staff as part of broad community partnerships
- taking time for staff and leadership of the foundation to serve on public commissions and advisory groups
- supporting the collection and dissemination of good data and research to leaders in the public and nonprofit sectors who make policies that impact on youth
- opening doors and using their influence to help groups doing good work gain access to policy makers
- working directly with local and state policy makers and/or retaining a lobbyist to advocate for policy changes and legislation
- connecting policy makers with national and regional resource groups and experts who bring information about the latest research, best practices and policy opportunities
- connecting policy makers and practitioners so they learn from and influence each other's work
- building the local infrastructure, networks and intermediaries, who have capacity and credibility with public officials
Getting Results
The experience of community foundations confirms that policy work takes a significant commitment of staff and time. But, they are seeing huge benefits ranging from changes in state policies, increased public funding, more effective coordination and use of public and private funds, increased local capacity to work with and influence policy makers, and more accurate data with which to advocate for effective policies. The impact on youth has been and can be significant – dollars for out-of-school programs targeted to the two-thirds of youth in a community who were not being served; better policies and additional public funds for a child welfare system; and the possibility of adequate and stable funds for school reform and after-school programs.