UNITED WAY AWARDED GRANT FOR INNOVATIVE CHILDREN'S PROGRAM

United Way of Eastern Fairfield has been awarded a $600,000 grant to administer the innovative child care program “Child Care for the 21st Century: A Kith and Kin Model.” The three-year program addresses the need for quality childcare for young children in the greater Bridgeport region. It will also address the need to build the community’s capacity to give children in poverty access to better childcare. The program is designed to reach out to approximately 150 unlicensed “kith and kin” child-care providers. Kith and kin refers to relatives and friends who provide informal child care in their homes only to other friends and family members. The program will provide training, technical assistance and other supports to improve the quality of care for an estimated 600 low income children from birth to five years. It will assist providers to become licensed and connected to the community’s child-care network.

“We recognize that quality child care is vital to an able workforce,” stated Merle Berke-Schlessel, Esq., president and CPO of United Way of Eastern Fairfield County. “Not only do parents need to have confidence in their children’s care providers, but the services delivered to these children need to be top notch, to help prepare them for school. We are confident that this program will move the community toward achieving these goals.”

United Way designed the program and will administer the grant, distributing funds to direct service agencies. “We’ve pursued this grant since 1999,” Berke-Schlessel noted. “Under the staff direction of Dr. James Crispino we partnered with a number of local experts and we will rely on those same experts to deliver quality programming.” Collaborating organizations include:

• Bridgeport Child Advocacy Coalition        
• Bank Street College of Education
• The Greater Bridgeport Area Foundation        
• Connecticut State Department of Social Services
• Connecticut State Department of Children and Families
• Fairfield County Foundation
• Action for Bridgeport Community Development
• InfoLine/United Way of Connecticut
• Family Resource Centers
• Hall Neighborhood House

United Way of Eastern Fairfield County funds 95 programs in six Vision Areas: Strengthening Families; Nurturing Children and Youth; Supporting Older People; Promoting Health, Wellness and Safety; Increasing Self-Sufficiency; Providing Basic Human Needs. All United Way funded programs are expected to achieve certain outcome objectives. “Part of United Way’s promise to the community is ‘Results you can see’ and we hold all of our funded programs to very high standards,” she said. “We expect to deliver regular report cards to the community on how well the program is reaching its objectives.” Program objectives include:

• Assuring that one hundred and fifty unregulated kith and kin providers will have an increased ability to deliver quality child care to 300-600 young children;
• Connecting the newly trained and licensed providers with mainstream child care professionals and resources;
• Developing fifty new licensed child care providers available to families in low-income neighborhoods;
• Creating a new community child care network that includes licensed and unlicensed child care providers;
• Providing the area’s largest child-serving agencies with tools and techniques to work with unregulated child care providers;
• Demonstrating an effective 21st Century child-care model for other communities to achieve similar outcomes.

Berke-Schlessel admitted that the program’s objectives were no small undertaking but added, “This is what United Way does, what we have been doing in this community since 1921. We are constantly thinking forward to identify both emerging and long-term needs and devise innovative solutions and partnerships to address those needs.” She noted that it was through the Community Care Fund that United Way was able to accomplish community-building objectives across all six Vision Areas. “When donors entrust their gifts to us, they are counting on us to seek out and fund programs that are necessary and that deliver measurable results.”

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