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Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE)

Robins ECE Grantees Oct 2022-2

Robins Foundation ECE Grant Announcement- Cycle Two

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Investments in Early Childhood Education (ECE) have the power to change the trajectory of individual lives and entire families, as well as  deliver significant returns for the community. Access to high-quality early childhood experiences sets children and their families up for long-term success by:

  • Preparing children for school and lifelong learning
  • Providing support of child development and general well-being
  • Equipping parents to be their children’s best first teachers

 

These investments are all the more important as young children recover from pandemic impacts and the Richmond region contends with a widespread lack of affordable, accessible child care. To that end, we are pleased to announce the following grantee partners for our second ECE-focused grant cycle which totaled $780,000:

 

City of Richmond Public Library Foundation – $60,000 for RVA Reads in Nontraditional Childcare: Boosting Skills, Engaging Parents and Caregivers

Down Syndrome Association of Greater Richmond – $50,000 for Interactions Across Abilities

Family Lifeline – $75,000 for Early Childhood Intensive Home Visiting

Friends Association for Children – $75,000 for Raising the Bar on Early Childhood Education

Greater Richmond SCAN – Stop Child Abuse Now – $50,000 for Circle Preschool Program

Henrico Education Foundation – $100,000 for Virginia Early Learning Partners: An Initiative of the Henrico Education Foundation

Reach Out and Read – $75,000 for Reach Out and Read- Greater Richmond Initiative

Richmond Behavioral Health Foundation – $50,000 for Supporting Children Exposed to Substance Use

Richmond Performing Arts Alliance – $20,000 for Baby Artsplay!™

Urban Baby Beginnings – $75,000 for Richmond Resource Mothers Program

VPM Media  – $50,000 for VPM Early Childhood Education program

 

“From preschool programs to home visiting to parenting support and education, these organizations work tirelessly to ensure our region’s youngest children get the best start,” shares Robins Foundation President & CEO, Chris Chin. “We’re grateful for their efforts and delighted to support them.”

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Robins Foundation ECE Grant Announcement- Cycle One

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For children to have the opportunity to thrive, they require access to high-quality early care and educational experiences, as well as supportive families. These factors can deeply influence children’s cognitive and social-emotional development, school readiness, and long-term wellbeing. 

Toward the end of last year we shared that Robins Foundation would be investing deeply, and more narrowly, in early childhood education (ECE). Since then we have launched our initial ECE-focused grant cycle, had numerous conversations with our nonprofit partners, and reviewed dozens of proposals aligned with our new strategic framework. We are pleased to announce the following grantee partners for our first ECE-focused grant cycle which totaled almost $900,000:

 

Virginia Commonwealth University Foundation

Virginia Literacy Foundation

Families Forward VA

Sacred Heart Center

Healthy Heart Plus II , Inc.

Young Men’s Christian Association Of Greater Richmond

Fulton Montessori School

Children’s Museum of Richmond

Soar 365

Thrive Birth to Five

Voices For Virginia’s Children

Nurture

Coal Pit Ministry Inc

CommUnity Yoga Preschool

Wild Fern Montessori School

 

“All of these organizations have demonstrated a strong commitment to and have an impressive track record in early childhood education,” shares Robins Foundation President & CEO, Chris Chin. “We’re delighted to invest in their efforts to make a significant impact for Richmond families.”

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Why Robins Foundation is Committed to Supporting Early Childhood Education

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As I explained in a recent Washington Post piece:

“One fundamental that predates the pandemic and its ripple effects is the cost of doing business in a highly constrained industry. In most states, for instance, one teacher is permitted under the law to care for a maximum of six to eight toddlers. Personnel eats up 70 percent or more of program budgets. So even though parents are paying through the nose, the true cost of care — the cost where programs are operating comfortably and compensating their staff well — is so high that programs would take a loss on each kid. As it stands, programs already have to cut wages to the bone just to keep the lights on. To keep pace with other industries, their only option (other than public funding or closure) is massively raising prices — hence, [child care may become] a luxury good. The U.S. Treasury Department has called the child-care business model “unworkable.”

In Virginia, the median wage of a child care worker is $10.96 an hour. That rate is far below a living wage for Virginia, and drives significant turnover among child care workers. Teacher to child ratios – which ensure safety and quality — are 1:4 for infants (i.e., 1 teacher for every 4 infants), 1:5 for kids between sixteen months and two years, 1:8 for two-year-olds, and 1:10 for three- and four-year-olds. When you consider the diminishing number of child care workers compared to the number of children who need care, you begin to see the problem. This is why most of metro Richmond is considered to be a “child care desert.”

The staffing shortages are making an already difficult-to-locate resource close to impossible. This summer, I helped Smart Beginnings-Greater Richmond and a coalition of other early childhood partners put out a survey to local child care providers. As reported in the Virginia Mercury in June, the survey “found that — of the 26 child care programs they’ve reached so far — 85 percent reported staffing shortages. In total, there were 114 open teaching positions across all of the facilities.” This represents only a sliver of the programs in the region, and by all reports, shortages have only grown worse since then.

Help may be on the way in the form of the federal government’s Build Back Better package, which contains considerable levels of permanent funding for child care and pre-K. However, even if that legislation passes, there will be a tremendous amount of work to do in order to implement the new system well. Staff will need to be recruited, facilities upgraded, and an administrative infrastructure put into place that allows parents to easily access choices which meet their needs and preferences. None of these elements will be swift or simple. And if the legislation does not pass, there will be all the more need for local and state governments to step up.

Robins Foundation stands ready to support these efforts. Our priorities include directly supporting high-quality child care programs and the nonprofits that work to generate that local infrastructure, supporting the advocacy and policy work to ensure that the laws impacting the Richmond region are strong and fair, and supporting parents of young children in accessing the services that are available to them to be the best possible ‘first teacher’ for their children.

This is a moment of both uncertainty and possibility for Richmond’s young children and their families. We must meet the moment with conviction and clear-eyed vision for both the short- and long-term. If we succeed, we can positively change the trajectory of our region’s future and the lives of its children.

 

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Fostering Understanding and Acceptance Through Diverse Perspectives

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Robins Foundation is committed to ensuring every student has a fair shot at a successful and empowering education, career and life. So we partner with organizations who support year-round education like Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities (VCIC) who provide workshops for educators and summer retreats for students designed to help eliminate disparities in academic achievement that arise along racial, national origin and socioeconomic lines.

VCIC’s Education Equity Initiative helps train Richmond-area educators and school faculty to provide inclusive and encouraging learning environments for students. Through workshops and retreats, teachers and administrators gain deeper insight into the effects of bias on student performance and opportunities. The VCIC helps them then design curriculum and action plans to close the achievement gap. VCIC’s programs are based on the philosophy that changes in schools must start within the teachers and administrators themselves.

The VCIC also coordinates assemblies, workshops and retreats for middle and high school students to combat prejudice and break down barriers in their own schools. The Harold M. Marsh, Sr. Connections Institute encourages students who have been recognized as leaders among their peers to reflect on their own experiences. Intimate discussions with diverse perspectives foster understanding and acceptance.

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School is out. Learning is still in.

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Summer break is here, but learning shouldn’t end after the last school bell of the year. This is why Robins Foundations partners with organizations like Higher Achievement in supporting middle schoolers from underserved communities after the school day and during the summer – so they can excel in top-ranked high schools and beyond.

Higher Education recognizes that talent doesn’t always go hand in hand with opportunity. They engage educators, community partners and citizens in mentoring and supporting children with resources during the most critical developmental years. During the summer, Higher Achievement not only continues to tutor students in core areas so they can shine during the next school year, they also enable learning outside of the classroom with weekly field trips and a college visit.

Backed by 40 years of experience and a list of impressive stats and awards, Higher Achievement has a track record of developing engaged, well-prepared students who succeed in school, despite all odds.

As we work toward improving the lives of children and families in Richmond, we’ll continue to work with organizations like Higher Achievement to close the opportunity gap.

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Spotty Programs Constrain the Potential of Youth Aging Out of Foster Care, National Survey Finds

Virginia Has One of Highest Percentages of Youth Leaving Foster Care Due to Emancipation; The Possibilities Project Forming Task Force to Address Issue

CONTACT: Sean Ryan
The Hodges Partnership
804.344.3212

RICHMOND, Va. (Nov. 14, 2017) – A new survey of U.S. states’ supports for foster youth transitioning to independence finds pockets of innovation, but mainly reveals a patchwork of programs that often fail to reach vulnerable young people as they age out of foster care.

As America’s foster care population grows, in no small part because of their parents’ opioid addiction, the nation has a choice: face a crisis of young adults without housing, education or employment, or capture the potential of these young people and reap the rewards of ensuring they have a safe and stable adulthood.

Two Virginia-based organizations, Children’s Home Society of Virginia and the Better Housing Coalition, commissioned Child Trends, one of the nation’s leading nonprofit research organizations, to conduct a nationwide survey of extended foster care services to see what Virginia and other states could learn from each other as the number of youth aging out of foster care trends upward. The organizations also examined Virginia-specific services for foster care youth and compiled the results in a separate Virginia report. Thanks to generous support from the Robins and Brookfield Foundations, these reports will help point the way forward in better supporting youth transitioning out of foster care.

Released today, Supporting Young People Transitioning from Foster Care found bright spots of innovation and positive impact, but the report also reveals that states more commonly fall short in supporting young adults in six key areas: housing, education, employment and career development, financial capability, physical and mental health, and permanent relationships. Furthermore, states’ programs lack proven records of effectiveness. As Congress considers legislation to update and strengthen policies and programs for youth transitioning out of foster care, the report can serve as a resource pointing toward effective and innovative practices serving these youth.

The Virginia-specific report found that although the Commonwealth is one of the two states in the survey that provided supports across all six areas, these services are not available to all youth across the state – nearly half of the services are only available in certain areas of the state. And Virginia has one of the highest percentage of youth exiting foster care due to emancipation, meaning they don’t have a permanent, legal, familiar relationship in place, according to 2014 data.

Opioid epidemic sends more children into foster care

Five years ago, the number of children in foster care was on the decline. Today, with adults’ drug addiction compounding abuse and neglect, there are 30,000 more children in foster care (in 2015, the latest year for which data is available) than there were in 2011.

Over time, and without concerted improvement in how aged-out youth are supported, this increase in the number of children in foster care will translate into an increase in young adults who struggle to live on their own. Currently, about 23,000 youth in America age-out annually, never having found their forever families and facing significant challenges. Within two years, 25% of these young people are incarcerated, 20% are homeless, 42% drop out of high school, and 71% are pregnant or parents.

In response, Children’s Home Society of Virginia and the Richmond-based Better Housing Coalition are reimagining how transitioning youth are supported with The Possibilities Project (TPP), an initiative the two organizations jointly launched in 2015. TPP is a best-practices-based service model providing youth transitioning out of foster care (ages 18-25) with stable housing and trauma-informed wraparound services. TPP is informed by research and developed to be replicable in communities across Virginia and the country.

“The Possibilities Project is having an early impact,” said Nadine Marsh-Carter, president and CEO of Children’s Home Society of Virginia. “All our participants have housing, nearly all have jobs, three-quarters are enrolled in post-secondary education or have completed career training, and they all have access to mentors and health care services. No single support makes the difference for aged-out foster youth. It’s the combination of consistent, quality services that move these young people toward independence.”

As they age out, foster youth aren’t taking full advantage of extended services

Child Trends’ report notes that although nearly every state reported that foster care services are available to young people up to age 21, more than three-quarters of respondents stated that most young people leave foster care before the maximum age permitted. Research shows that young people who remain in care until age 21 are more likely to be employed and attend college, and are less likely to be homeless, compared with those who leave care at age 18.

In 2016, Virginia joined 23 other states in formalized extended foster care plans using federal Title IV‐E funding. Virginia’s “Fostering Futures” program will provide supports for youth from the foster care system age 21. The Possibilities Project will work with the state to monitor who is participating, identify barriers to youth remaining in extended foster care, and track outcomes.

The report also stresses the importance of using evidence to inform policies and practices, and it emphasizes the role that safe and stable housing plays as a platform for supporting success in the other five areas.

“Housing is fundamental to the short- and long-term success of young adults who lacked that stability during their childhood,” Better Housing Coalition President & CEO Greta J. Harris said. “The other pieces of success more easily fall into place once a person has a safe and stable place to live.”

Ensuring this vulnerable population is well-positioned to overcome life’s challenges would reap tremendous benefits for these young adults and their communities. One study referenced in the Child Trends report found that if youth transitioning out of foster care graduated from high school at the same rate as the general population of young people, those 7,000 additional graduates would earn more than $1.8 billion more over their working lifetimes, and contribute $430 million in additional taxes.

“While many states offer supports for youth aging out of foster care, this study shows that there is much room for improvement,” said Elizabeth Jordan, director of policy communications and outreach at Child Trends.

Task force will use report to inform policy recommendations

The report’s findings on the need to provide supports to transitioning youth, the importance of using research-informed programming, and the benefits of focusing on housing align with The Possibilities Project’s model thus far. To further this work in Virginia, TPP is launching The Task Force on Transitioning Youth to make policy recommendations for improving access and services provided to youth aging out of foster care. The task force is comprised of experts from across the six key support areas, in addition to aged-out foster youth:

  • Senator Barbara Favola
  • Pam Kestner, Deputy Director of Housing at Department of Housing and Community Development
  • Allison Gilbreath, Policy Analyst for Foster Care and Juvenile Justice, Voices for Virginia’s Children
  • Michael Farley, CEO of Elk Hill
  • Chris Saxman, political coach and member of Virginia’s House of Delegates from 2002-2010.
  • Jon Barrett, VP of Property Management, Better Housing Coalition
  • Nadine Marsh-Carter, CEO of Children’s Home Society of Virginia
  • Greta Harris, President & CEO of Better Housing Coalition
  • Dietra Trent, Virginia Secretary of Education
  • Sarah Mendoza, Peer Network Coordinator, Piedmont Virginia Community College
  • Jenny Pokempner, Child Welfare Policy Director at the Juvenile Law Center

The task force aims to complete its work in mid-2018 and expects that its recommendations could be implemented in states facing the same challenges as Virginia.

Please visit www.thepossibilitiesproject.org to read the Child Trends report, learn more, stay informed, and support The Possibilities Project and The Task Force on Transitioning Youth.
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About the Children’s Home Society of Virginia

Children’s Home Society of Virginia is a 117-year-old full-service, private, nonprofit, non-sectarian licensed child-placing agency. CHS offers a continuum of care – finding permanent adoptive homes for children of all ages throughout the commonwealth; providing critical support services to birth families, adoptive families, and past and present adoptees; and supporting youth who have aged out of the foster care system. Please visit www.chsva.org for additional information.

About The Better Housing Coalition

The Better Housing Coalition is the Richmond region’s largest nonprofit community development corporation. BHC works to ensure that every citizen in the Richmond region, regardless of their economic status, has good choices in where they live, and opportunities to reach their fullest potential. Please visit
www.betterhousingcoaltion.org for additional information.

About Child Trends

Child Trends is the nation’s leading nonprofit research organization focused exclusively on improving the lives and prospects of children, youth, and their families. For 37 years, decision makers have relied on Child Trends’ rigorous research and unbiased analyses to improve public policies and interventions that serve children and families. Please visit www.childtrends.org for additional information.

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$1 Million in Robins Foundation Grants Focused on Improving Local Education

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