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What would you do if you had $250 million to spend on early childhood services?
Linda Gleason, founding director of The Childrenโs Movement of Fresno, said that question turned out to be a stumper, at least initially, for officials focused on improving the education, health, and well-being of youngsters. But it ultimately helped lead to the organizationโs latest report, โPreconception โ Age 5 Blueprint for Funding and Advocacy,โ which was presented Thursday morning at the eighth annual State of Our Children Breakfast.
The Liberty Ballroom at the Clovis Veterans Memorial District building in Clovis was filled with many of Fresno Countyโs political, education, health and other leaders as well as representatives of the agencies and nonprofits that provide services for children. About 650 attended the event.
The event serves as The Childrenโs Movement Fresnoโs annual fundraiser, but itโs also the only time that everyone connected with efforts to help make children successful are all in the same room at the same time, Gleason told GV Wire earlier this week.
The keynote speaker was David Lawrence Jr., former publisher of the Miami Herald and founder of The Childrenโs Movement of Florida, which inspired TCM in Fresno.
Hearing The Call
Gleason noted that Lawrence was the speaker at TCM Fresnoโs first breakfast, where the theme was โA Call to Action.โ
โI think we can say with certainty that we heard that call,โ she told the breakfast attendees. โWe have had unwavering dedication, commitment, all so that we can improve the lives of our children in our community.โ
Money is better spent on babies, toddlers, and preschoolers, whose brains are rapidly developing until the age of 3, he said.
He referenced a book by Harvard professor Clayton Christiansen, โDisrupting Class,โ who wrote that research shows that starting reforms at kindergarten, let alone elementary, middle or high schools, is too late. โBy some estimates, 98% of education spending occurs after the basic intellectual capacities of children have been mostly determined,โ Lawrence said.
Almost a third of American schoolchildren start school behind their peers, and some never do catch up, he said. Policymakers also need to consider the impact and challenges of poverty, which affects early childhood development in a number of ways.
Lawrence noted that 40% of Fresnoโs kids live in poverty, compared to about 25% for Miami. โIf we lose these children, and we are in peril of that, weโll lose what they might invent or research or discover or give,โ he said.
Targeting Younger Kids for Services
Thereโs been a huge shift in the past 15 years to focus funding for healthcare, education, and other services on children at younger and younger ages โ even prenatally โ because the impact is greater, Gleason told GV Wire earlier this week.
In Fresno County, $1.3 billion is spent annually on early childhood services, of which a large portion is Medi-Cal, Gleason said.
But even though a lot of time, effort and funding has been devoted, it wasnโt clear which programs are the most successful, and whatโs missing, she said. The report identifies home visits, the unavailability of preschool seats in different regions, and quality child care at the hours needed by parents as among the โgapโ areas.
Getting Parents Involved
Six hundred parents and service providers in metro and rural areas were surveyed for the report. It turned out that what the providers thought the parents needed or wanted wasnโt always what the parents said they needed, Gleason said.
โThat was a really big illumination for all of us,โ she said. โWe have to be really careful that weโre talking directly to the parents.โ
The top request by parents: quality child care, at the hours when parents need it.
The Childrenโs Movement of Fresno was launched in 2011 to build a network across the agencies that provide services to children and their families, but which had operated independently and separately from each other. Gleason said the network was composed of people she calls the โmiddlesโ โ the ones responsible for implementing programs, and for making sure they have the desired effect.
But TCM organizers realized after a few years that without also having the leaders on board, the ones with connections to policymakers, โwe wonโt go anywhere,โ she said.
New Network Needed
Former Fresno State President John Welty learned about the national StriveTogether Network, which is focused on helping every child everywhere be successful from birth through schooling and beyond, and he introduced it in Fresno, Gleason said. The result was the founding of Cradle to Career of Fresno County, which provides a forum for leaders in K-12 and post-secondary education, early childhood, local government, health, business, nonprofits, justice, and philanthropy. Gleason is the organizationโs executive director.
โItโs essential in facilitating the conversation about supporting all children from birth to career,โ he said. โThose around the C2C table include a variety of organizations representing prenatal care through post-secondary education and employment. Our discussions are not just about our individual goals, but how we can all contribute to the success of children in every stage of life.โ
Fresno State President Joseph Castro told GV Wire that the organization has helped tighten the education connections among K-12, community college, and university systems, which he says is โcrucialโ to student success.
โWhen our children succeed in life, so does our entire Valley,โ he said.
Are Improvements Happening?
Measuring success is also part of the mandate of The Childrenโs Movement, Gleason said. At a childrenโs summit in 2013, the decision was made to select one indicator โ students reading at grade level โ and then measure progress. After five years, schools across Fresno County reported an average 15% improvement in the number of third graders reading at grade level, with some schools reporting a 20% increase, Gleason said.
The data collected and analyzed for TCMโs blueprint report comes at a perfect time. Developers of the DRIVE (Developing the Regionโs Inclusive and Vibrant Economy) investment plan for Fresno were the ones who posed the question about how to spend the hypothetical $250 million to help children become successful. Projects are being submitted for consideration in the investment plan, which will be unveiled in November at the California Economic Summit, โRegions Rise Together,โ in Fresno.
Creating the networks as well as conditions that enable improvement โhas made all the difference in the world,โ Gleason said. โThat really is reflected in what continues to be referred to as civic infrastructure โ and thatโs where Fresno really is different.
โWeโve always been able to plan, but can we get it done? Thatโs where the civic infrastructure is going to be the difference.โ
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