What's New
Three Sites Plan to Grow on Their Own
Staff Members Alisha Jordan and Courtney
Ivy of Youth Connections in Nashville
Now, like the very young people the foundation serves, some Initiative sites are preparing to "age out" of the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative and keep going on their own. That was always the intent. From the start, the plan was that the Initiative would fund pilot projects with the understanding that those projects would develop their own plans to continue after Initiative funding ended. For all sites, the Initiative funding is reduced after the third year, with some continued funding for up to six years. In the foundation world, the term is sustainability. Three of the most developed sites – Atlanta, Nashville and Michigan – have been immersed in developing "sustainability plans."
"I think sites need to look at sustainability in the broader definition, not just finding funding to keep the work going," says Tyronda Minter, program officer at the Metropolitan Atlanta Youth Opportunities Initiative. "Sites need to think of it as growing community leadership to keep the work going."
Each of those three sites is very different. The lead agency in Atlanta is a foundation – namely, the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta. In Nashville, it's a university — the Child and Family Policy Center at Vanderbilt University. Michigan is the only site in which the grantee is the public child welfare agency – the state Department of Human Services. To develop their sustainability plans, each site goes through an extensive process. An overview of the plan for each site follows.
Michigan
In December 2002, the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative funded the Michigan Department of Human Services to begin this strategy to better support foster youth as they transition into successful adulthood. In 2003, the work began in Wayne County, home of Detroit, and in a 10-county region in northwest Michigan. Based on early success, DHS expanded the program to six additional counties around Detroit, which were also Family to Family sites. Now, with strong support from state and community partners, DHS plans to expand the program to all 83 counties, serving 2,600 youths by 2009.
Full grant funding ends in November 2006. Over the next three years, Initiative funding will be phased out.
The Michigan team began developing its sustainability plan in June 2005. The team, made up of key DHS leadership, local site coordinators, and youth, met monthly for seven months. DHS estimates that by 2009 it will need almost $2.5 million in federal, state, and local funds, and $1.3 million of in-kind resources and staff. Financing strategies include:
- Making better use of existing resources by looking for overlaps in services and inefficiencies and redirecting resources to achieve better results.
- Maximizing federal and state revenue, including Youth in Transition (Chafee), Child Care Fund, Homeless and Runaway initiative, Juvenile Justice (Title V prevention), Title IV-E Waiver, Block Grants, existing IDA funding, as well as funds administered through other state departments.
- Creating public-private partnerships at the state level with private foundations and service organizations, and at the local level with private businesses and financial institutions.
"The primary thing is to look at existing state and federal money and redirect it to focus on the Jim Casey model," says Shannon Brower, who has been working on the plan with DHS. "It's a significant commitment to go statewide so quickly."
Atlanta
The Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative invited the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta to offer a pilot project to better serve youth in foster care, and in 2002, the project began in Fulton and DeKalb counties.
In August 2005, the Metropolitan Atlanta Youth Opportunities Initiative convened a small group of participants, including foster youth, to meet over several months to glean lessons and analyze successes. "It is important to look at the work in pieces – what has been successful and what hasn't been," says program officer Minter. "Creating a sustainability plan means more than just trying to find funding to continue the work. It means how you will create the community leadership to sustain it over time."
Atlanta's three-year sustainability plan involves deliberately and strategically engaging state agencies and the community to institutionalize components of the pilot statewide. In addition to identifying financial resources, the plan will address building long-term community support, lasting community leadership, and organizational capacity. Among the highlights:
Financing strategies include maximizing available sources of federal and state revenue; creating greater flexibility in existing funding so that funds can be used effectively; creating public-private partnerships with local banks; seeking additional support from local and national foundations; and continued, but reduced, support from the Initiative.
By 2009, MAYOI no longer will exist as separate program, but its components will continue through other entities, particularly community-based organizations with a statewide focus. The goal is to gradually expand the project to the entire state beyond 2009.
Atlanta's plan also includes piloting two special initiatives. One focuses on youth employment by forging partnerships between the state Department of Human Resources and the Department of Labor. MAYOI also plans a housing initiative that will provide strong self-sufficiency counseling, service coordination, and subsidized housing for two years.
Nashville
The Jim Casey Initiative began in Nashville in 2002. Now, it is ending its pilot phase but has developed a unique community collaborative to support the work. The work and services of the Nashville Youth Opportunities Initiative will be embedded into existing services. Major partners – known as the "Dream Team" in Nashville – include Monroe Harding Children's Home, Tennessee Department of Children's Services, Oasis Center, United Way of Metro Nashville, and the Vanderbilt University Child & Family Policy Center. "We saw this as a pilot project that we wanted to nurture and get into the community," says Kim Crane, project director. "We wanted to partner with agencies where this work could fit within their services and mission."
The Oasis Center has been involved in youth leadership since the 1960s and that nonprofit is the partner for the youth council. Monroe Harding is a nonprofit that has a variety of independent and transitional living services. It has done a lot of work with youth in care, opening up a one-stop shop for kids aging out of care, called Youth Connections, in which they teach life skills and GED classes. United Way will become the leader on the Nashville community board.
Vanderbilt plans to stay involved to keep all the pieces connected, especially the evaluation, strategic planning, and oversight. Crane is confident about finding ways to continue funding the work. The Nashville "Dream Team" is working with a local nonprofit consulting organization about a coordinated fundraising plan.
The plan calls for expanding the work to other regions. That's one of the many ways where the Department of Children's Services fits in. Crane says the hope is to expand to one new region this year and another region next year. "The state is an important partner because they have direct access to young people," Crane says. "They understand the needs and gaps and strengths of each community."
