NOTICE OF FUNDING OPPORTUNITY SUCCESS BY 6: EARLY CHILDHOOD FUNDING

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1 NOTICE OF FUNDING OPPORTUNITY SUCCESS BY 6: EARLY CHILDHOOD FUNDING The result we are seeking to achieve: All children enter school developmentally on track in terms of health, literacy, social, emotional and intellectual skills. FY14 Request for Proposals (RFP) United Way of Greater New Haven (UWGNH) is inviting proposals for grant funding from nonprofit organizations serving parents and/or caregivers of young children ages 0-6 in our region. The RFPs will be released on June 5, 2013 at uwgnh.org. Preliminary applications will be due on June 28, full applications will be due August 9, and funding will begin in December For FY14, UWGNH has a two-part investment strategy: Secure Start: An initiative to build children s optimal development and school readiness by supporting strong parent 1 -child attachment at the youngest ages. Secure Start will select organizations to receive training and support to implement an evidence-based curriculum focused on attachment. This funding opportunity is open to organizations that work with parents and other caregivers of young children in the UWGNH region (Bethany, Branford, East Haven, Guilford, Hamden, Madison, New Haven, North Branford, North Haven, Orange, West Haven, and Woodbridge). Up to ten organizations will be selected to receive training, support and small grants to support program implementation. Quality Matters: An initiative to enhance the quality of early care and education in communities with the highest percentage of at-risk children (New Haven, East Haven, West Haven and Hamden) through a focus on individualized professional development interventions that improve either home- or centerbased early childhood educators practice in early literacy and/or math. Up to five organizations will receive grants to work with early care providers in these communities. Background Over the last eight years, United Way of Greater New Haven s Success By 6 (SB6) initiative has invested more than $2.2 million in early childhood programs in our region. These grants have been spread across three strategies access to quality early care, quality improvements to early care, and parenting education. We have seen a steady rise in student performance on the 3 rd Grade Reading CMTs over this time which provides promising evidence that regional efforts to improve school readiness, including our SB6 work, are producing results (see Figure 1). However, with fewer than 50% of children reading at goal in New Haven and the inner ring communities, overall student achievement is still inadequate, with grave implications for the trajectories of individual children and the economic prospects of our region. 1 The use of the term parent used throughout this document is meant to be inclusive and refer to a child s primary caregiver, be that a parent, grandparent, foster parent or other guardian. UWGNH Success By 6 Notice of Funding Opportunity, FY

2 Figure 1: Percentage of children reading at goal on 3 rd grade CMT New Haven Region Inner Region Outer State According to the 2010 Census, there are approximately 23,000 children under five years old in our region. With more than 9,000 children under five, New Haven has almost three times as many young children as the next largest town. West Haven and Hamden are very close in number of young children (just over 3,000 each), with East Haven a distant fourth (under 1,500). Together, these four towns have more than 74% (17,000) of the region s young children. Poverty affects a disturbing number of children in our urban core. In New Haven, 58% of children under age six live in poor and low income 2 families, and in Hamden almost a third do. 3 Overall, 92% of poor and low income children under age six in our region live in the four towns of New Haven, East Haven, West Haven and Hamden. On average, children in the lower income towns consistently perform points lower on tests of academic achievement than their counterparts in higher income communities. Early Social, Emotional and Behavioral Health Research suggests that early attachment is one of the most important factors in children s lifelong success; children with disordered attachment have extremely high rates of school failure and the attendant consequences. Research indicates that up to 40% of infants in the US have been found to be insecurely attached (i.e. do not have a firmly established emotional bond with a parent or early caregiver). While disordered attachment can affect children at any income level, for children experiencing high levels of environmental stress such as poverty and associated risks, strong early attachment has critical protective effects. Parent nurturance and discipline strategies are most strongly linked to social and emotional outcomes such as behavior, impulse control and attention. Children with problem behaviors do less well in school (including preschool) and disrupt the learning environment for all children in their classrooms. Studies have shown as many as 20 percent of preschool-enrolled children have high levels of behavioral problems; in a typical class of 20 students, four children may have serious symptoms of sadness, withdrawal, aggression, and disruptiveness. A 2009 survey of teachers in New Haven found that 55% of second graders struggled with behavior control, 29% with task orientation and 26% with peer social skills. 2 Poor and low income means families at 200% or less of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL). 200% FPL= $39,060 for a family of three. 3 Regional data used throughout this document provided by DataHaven. UWGNH Success By 6 Notice of Funding Opportunity, FY

3 Quality Early Learning Experiences There is only one measure of school readiness that is used across all school districts in our region, the Kindergarten Entrance Inventory (KEI), which is administered by classroom teachers in the fall of kindergarten. Although the KEI has been critiqued for subjectivity, it has the virtue of looking at six developmental domains, including numeracy and personal/social skills, and it does provide comparable baseline information about school readiness statewide. Since the inventory was first administered in 2008, there has been overall improvement in the percentage of children receiving the highest rating in all parts of our region. However, even with the recent gains, more than 70% of children in New Haven and the inner ring communities are scoring below the highest rating. As seen in Figure 2 below, the results on the Literacy domain of the kindergarten inventory clearly indicate that children from New Haven and the inner ring towns start kindergarten already lagging behind their peers in early reading skills. Similar gaps exist in other domains. Figure 2: Percentage of children receiving highest rating on literacy portion of kindergarten inventory New Haven Region Inner Region-Outer State * Statewide data not available for Of course, literacy begins long before children enter school, starting in early infancy, the period of most rapid brain development. Children learn to talk, read, and write through social experiences with adults or older children, interacting with them using language, books, markers, paper and other literacy materials. Unfortunately, young children living in poverty are likely to hear fewer spoken words and are read to less than children living above the poverty line. Emerging research indicates that math skills acquired during early childhood predict higher levels of achievement in both math and reading in later elementary school, and children who maintain math skills are more likely to graduate from high school and attend college. Unfortunately, most preschool teachers place the lowest priority on teaching math skills. Numerous studies have documented the value of high quality preschool in preparing young children to succeed in school. While increases in program accreditation in our region provide evidence that quality of early care is improving, the gap in readiness highlighted by the KEI scores indicates more must be done to ensure that young children arrive at school prepared to succeed. Developmentally-appropriate, intentional, early literacy and math exposure and education are part of what makes a program high quality. Coaching and other on-site, individualized professional development strategies (consultation, mentoring, and technical assistance) have emerged in numerous studies as promising strategies to support changes in practice and overall quality improvement among practitioners in early care and education settings. UWGNH Success By 6 Notice of Funding Opportunity, FY

4 FY14 SB6 Approach: Strengthen Early Attachment and Early Care Quality Secure Start: Given the importance of early social, emotional and behavioral health on children s optimal development and school success, UWGNH has decided to invest in developing regional capacity to help parents gain the tools to understand and create strong early bonds with their children that put them on a bright path for life. SB6 will offer Circle of Security-Parenting (COS-P) training and program support to area providers to promote strong early attachment between young children and their primary caregivers. COS-P is an evidence-based program that applies decades of attachment research in an accessible, non-judgmental, 8-10 week, step-by-step program to give parents and caregivers help changing their caregiving patterns. Several organizations in the UWGNH region have used this program with great success. For more information see Organizations currently working with parents in any part of the UWGNH region who are committed to using the COS-P curriculum in their parenting education programs are eligible to apply for Secure Start funding. Up to ten agencies will be selected to be part of the Secure Start cohort, which will enable them to have two staff trained in COS-P at no charge; each agency will commit to providing the COS-P training to a minimum of 50 parents during the grant year. Depending on available funding, UWGNH plans to offer additional support to Cohort 1 organizations for up to two more years to continue to implement COS-P. Quality Matters: Given the importance of early literacy and math skills in school readiness and school success, and the lagging performance even at the earliest stages of some of our region s most at-risk children, UWGNH seeks to make targeted investments to enhance early literacy and math teaching skills of early care providers. Quality Matters grant funding will be available to 3-5 organizations that are prepared to provide individualized on-site coaching of early care and education providers in home- or center-based settings on early literacy or early math techniques and strategies. This funding will be available to programs working with providers serving children from New Haven, East Haven, West Haven and Hamden and preference will be given to those programs that serve providers caring for infants and toddlers (0-3). Up to five organizations will receive funding of $20,000-$35,000 per year for up to three years, depending on the type and scope of services they propose to provide. Performance Measurement UWGNH seeks to fund organizations that are committed to providing high quality services and have a datadriven approach to the development and improvement of their programs. All SB6 grantees will be asked to track and report on core performance measures for the duration of the grant using the Results Based Accountability methodology. Applicants should demonstrate experience and strong systems for collecting, reporting and using data to monitor program performance and measure results. UWGNH will provide grantees with the tools for measuring Difference Made and will also provide support and technical assistance in helping grantees collect and report the data. Selection Criteria United Way volunteers and staff will evaluate the design and capacities of proposed programs using the following criteria: Track record of effective engagement of parents or other primary caregivers (Secure Start) OR experience coaching early literacy or math teaching skills in early childhood care settings (Quality Matters). Strong program design for delivering a high quality program and reaching the target audience. Utilization of evidence-based best practices. UWGNH Success By 6 Notice of Funding Opportunity, FY

5 Stable, trained and experienced staff. System for obtaining, reporting and using data to achieve program impact and continuous program improvement. Organizations that serve very young children (0-3) and families below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level will be given preference. Funding FY2014 Success By 6 funding will start in December 2013 and end in November Secure Start: Up to 10 grants will be awarded through Secure Start. Grants will cover the cost of COS-P training for two staff (valued at $2,000), DVDs, training materials and licenses for each agency, technical assistance with data collection and other programmatic support, as well as agency grants of $5,000 to support program implementation. Quality Matters: Up to 5 grants ranging from $20,000-$35,000 will be awarded to Quality Matters grantees to provide coaching to early care and education providers in New Haven, East Haven, West Haven and Hamden. Grantees will be provided with an opportunity for renewal of funding for an additional two years (for a total of three years of funding) based on the demonstration of successful work, fulfillment of United Way s terms and conditions, and continued alignment with United Way results and strategies. Funding amounts in Years 2 and 3 will be dependent on available resources from United Way s Community Investment Fund. RFP Process There is a three-part process to apply for funding for Secure Start or Quality Matters. 1. Any organization interested in applying must send a representative to attend a mandatory training on June 13, 2013 to learn detailed information about this funding opportunity. To sign up for the training, send an to cpavasaris@uwgnh.org. 2. All interested programs must submit a Preliminary Application no later than June 28, All applicants who are approved to submit a full application must submit the Full Proposal no later than August 9, Timeline May 22, 2013 June 5, 2013 June 13, 2013 June 28, 2013 July 12, 2013 August 9, 2103 September 13 - October 18 November 25, 2013 December 1, 2013 December 9-12, 2013 January-November 2014 Announcement of Success By 6 funding opportunity RFP Applications available for download at uwgnh.org RFP Training: mandatory attendance for all applying organizations Preliminary applications due Notification of invitation to submit full application Full applications due Site visits to programs under consideration Notification of grant awards Funding starts COS-P training for Secure Start grantees Implementation of Secure Start and Quality Matters programming UWGNH Success By 6 Notice of Funding Opportunity, FY

6 Questions? The full RFPs will be available on United Way s website, uwgnh.org, on June 5, If after reviewing this document, the Frequently Asked Questions (following) and the RFP application(s) you still have questions, please contact Jennifer Heath, Executive Vice President at jheath@uwgnh.org or Frequently Asked Questions We do not currently receive funding from UWGNH. Can we apply? Yes. Secure Start funding is open to any nonprofit organization that serves individuals in the UWGNH region (Bethany, Branford, East Haven, Guilford, Hamden, Madison, New Haven, North Branford, North Haven, Orange, West Haven, and Woodbridge). Quality Matters funding is open to any nonprofit organization that serves programs in the four towns with the highest rates of children living in poverty: New Haven, East Haven, West Haven, and Hamden. (These four towns account for 92% of children in the region living below 200% FPL.) Applicants may include organizations that currently receive UWGNH funding, that have never received United Way funding, or those who have received funding in the past but no longer do so. To be eligible for UWGNH funding an organization must either be a public or nonprofit agency (or have a nonprofit fiscal agent) and practice non-discrimination in the provision of services and in employment practices consistent with applicable Connecticut statutes, including, but not limited to Connecticut General Statutes Section 46a-60. Our organization is located outside your funding area. Can we apply? UWGNH resources must be used to serve people residing in our region (with the restrictions described above), but the mailing address or physical address of the agency or the program does not have to be in one of these towns. How much can we apply for? Secure Start awards will be $5,000 per grantee agency plus COS-P training and support. Quality Matters awards will range from $20,000 to $35,000. All grant requests will be evaluated based on selection criteria as described by UWGNH, other possible sources of funding, and plans for sustainability. We re a small/new agency. Can we apply? UWGNH seeks to invest in organizations that have the capacity to deliver effective services. We use certain indicators, such as incorporation as a 501(c)3 entity, plan for sustainability, and a clean annual audit, as a measure of organizational capacity. New and emerging organizations that do not have a 501(c)3 designation or a robust Board structure but that feel they are well positioned to be successful in this work may apply for funding, but must do so in partnership with a more established organization that can serve as a fiscal agent. If we applied for and didn t receive funding in the past, can we apply again? Yes, you can. If you are interested in making a similar proposal, we encourage you to review carefully any feedback you received and to consult with UWGNH staff for additional guidance. May we apply for both a Secure Start and Quality Matters grant? Yes, organizations may apply for both kinds of funding. Proposals will be evaluated separately and on their merits against the established criteria. UWGNH Success By 6 Notice of Funding Opportunity, FY