TJX representatives from all three brands participated in a Meet & Greet event with community-based workforce development practitioners in New Bedford, MA. The Commonwealth Workforce Coalition (CWC), a
Massachusetts-based organization, coordinated the meeting and has a mission to strengthen the capacity of community-based education, training, and employment systems to produce better employment opportunities. TJX was represented by T.J.Maxx 195 and 672, Marshalls 380 and 460, and HomeGoods 124. The meeting focused on TJX’s hiring needs and challenges, best practices, and the benefits of NTWP participation. The meeting concluded with a networking exercise to teach Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) and SMs on how to best connect. TJX participants found the event instrumental for building connections with CBOs in their area
Author: Dilia Ramirez
Children’s Investment Fund secures vital resources for childhood education
The following was submitted by The Children’s Investment Fund and the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation:
The Children’s Investment Fund (CIF) and the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation (CEDAC) will join supporters to celebrate the new Early Education and Out of School Time Capital Fund, which will provide capital financing to improve the facilities of nonprofit early childhood education (ECE) and out of school time (OST) organizations serving children from low income families.
At the event, CIF—which is affiliated with CEDAC — will honor lawmakers, state officials, and community leaders who played a central role in the creation of this capital funding.
“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to honor and thank our partners who have all worked so hard to make this funding possible,” said Roger Herzog, CEDAC’s executive director. “I am especially grateful to the legislators who have taken the lead on this innovative, far-sighted legislation that will improve child care facilities, a key component of program quality.
They worked closely with advocates to ensure providers and children living in low income communities have access to high quality space for early education and out-of-school time activities.”
Honorees will include: State Senators James Eldridge (D-Acton) and Sal DiDomenico (D-Everett), Representatives Kevin Honan (D-Boston) and Jeffrey Sanchez (D-Boston), MA Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) Commissioner Tom Weber, Brenda Clement of Citizens Housing and Planning Association (CHAPA), Michael Durkin of the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley, and Kimberly Haskins of the Barr Foundation.
“The new capital financing program is truly innovative. Massachusetts is a leader in making state bond financing available to upgrade these facilities. This financing will help get children out of dreary basements and into bright, spacious classrooms with good ventilation, suitable furnishings, and other features that support program quality,” said Mav Pardee, CIF’s program manager.
“The legislators responded to providers’ accounts of the struggles they face in funding capital improvements and the impact of substandard space on children’s health and learning, and on teacher effectiveness.”
Working closely with partners at the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and the Merrimack Valley and CHAPA, CIF and CEDAC supported the effort to establish a new capital bond finance program to upgrade ECE and OST facilities throughout the state. Governor Patrick signed the legislation, which authorized $45 million over five years for these facilities, last November.
The provision was a part of the Affordable Housing Bond Bill (H 3727), which was championed by State Senator James Eldridge and State Representative Kevin Honan, co-chairs of the legislature’s Joint Housing Committee. In addition, State Senator DiDomenico and State Representative Sanchez sponsored a free-standing bill to ensure that capital funding for child care facilities would be made available.
“There are numerous studies that show the powerful correlation between children’s early environments and their health and wellbeing throughout childhood and into adulthood” said Pardee. “The physical environment is the setting where learning takes place, and it has a measurable impact on program quality. Building decent facilities will support our commitment to raising education quality and to closing the achievement gap, and should be considered a long term investment in the development of a skilled and educated workforce in Massachusetts”.
Veterans Northeast Outreach to create additional housing for veterans
Veterans Northeast Outreach is looking to create more affordable housing for military veterans and their families in the Merrimack Valley.
The organization has become a good neighbor in several areas of the city where it operates housing for veterans. Most recently, in 2012, it turned an abandoned and run-down home at 134 Cedar St. into an energy-efficient building with two apartments.
Now the organization that provides a range of services to veterans and their families is looking to develop 27 additional units of affordable rental housing in the Mount Washington neighborhood, where it is based. Construction is expected to begin as early as this fall with an opening in the fall of 2015.
“Nationally, there is no larger single demographic that has a greater need for affordable housing than veterans and their families,” said John Ratka, executive director of Veterans Northeast Outreach.
He said his organization works with veterans in their early 20s to those in their 80s who have a need for affordable housing as some are low-income and some are living on disability compensation.
On Jan. 15, the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals unanimously approved the application for a Comprehensive Permit submitted by the Veterans Northeast Outreach Center to create more housing for veterans.
Ratka said the $5.7 million project involves creating 27 affordable rental units on three sites in the Mount Washington neighborhood: vacant lots on Temple Street and Tremont Street and an underutilized parking lot on Reed Street adjacent to the VNOC Outreach Center, located in the former St. Rita’s Church at 10 Reed St.
Seven units will be fully handicap accessible, Ratka said.
Ratka said the project involves construction of three residential buildings: A two-story building with 18 studio apartments at 2 Reed St., where each apartment will have its own kitchen and bath, and is intended for single person households. The site will offer 26 parking spaces.
A three-story building is planned for 74 Temple St. and will provide six, one-bedroom units with six off-street parking spaces.
A three-unit building is planned for 17 to 19 Tremont St. and will provide one two-bedroom apartment and two three-bedroom apartments with five off-street parking spaces.
“We wanted housing that fits each neighborhood,” Ratka said. “A lot of careful planning went into the size of the project and how it would affect the neighborhood while maintaining the history of the St. Rita’s property for those who have lived in the community for a long time.”
The project is a collaboration between Veterans Northeast and the Coalition for a Better Acre (CBA), based in Lowell, Ratka said.
The non-profit community development corporation has developed 425 affordable rental units, 33 commercial units, and more than 50 units for first-time home-buyers in Lowell, Ratka said. The Haverhill initiative is CBA’s first residential development project outside of Lowell.
Madeline Nash, CBA’s director of real estate, said the CBA will be seeking funding through the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program and other state affordable housing development sources. Pre-development financing has been provided by the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation (CEDAC). The North Shore HOME Consortium committed $250,000 in federal HOME program funds in September 2013.
CEDAC is a private-public, community development finance institution that is also active in national housing preservation policy research and development and is widely recognized as a leader in the non-profit community development industry.
Funding to Upgrade Child-Care Facilities Part of New Massachusetts Bond Bill
The Massachusetts legislature recently passed a housing bond bill that includes funding for renovating child-care facilities around the state.
The bill, signed by Gov. Deval Patrick, a Democrat, on Nov. 14, is a $1.4 billion package that includes $45 million in bond financing that would be used for capital improvements to daycare centers and after-school facilities serving children from low-income families. My recent article on the measure noted that in Massachusetts and around the country, many early-childhood providers that focus on at-risk children have to make do with buildings that were not intended for the unique needs of young children. Many of those facilities lack adequate outdoor space, recommended safety measures, or accessibility for children or employees with disabilities.
The Children’s Investment Fund, based in Boston, works statewide to provide grants, loans, and technical assistance to early-childhood care providers and supported the measure. The organization released a study in 2011 that outlined some of the deficiencies of child-care facilities around the state.
“This is the first time that facilities financing for these service providers is part of community development legislation,” said Mav Pardee, the program manager of Children’s Investment Fund, in a statement. “It recognizes the vital role that education plays in children’s lives and is an investment in improving education quality, beginning early, when it is most effective.”
© 2013 Editorial Projects in Education
Williamstown Selectmen commit $2.6M to affordable housing project with unanimous vote
Williamstown Selectmen commit $2.6M to affordable housing project with unanimous vote
By Edward Damon, North Adams Transcript
POSTED: 11/13/2013 12:24:41 AM EST
WILLIAMSTOWN — Selectmen voted unanimously Tuesday night to commit $2.6 million to an affordable housing project on land pledged by Williams College.
“This is a necessary source of funds to assemble our total finance packaging, to show support by the community to the state as we request other funds for completion of the project, and would help us move forward on a 2016 completion date,” Mollye Wolahan, deputy director of the Women’s Institute for Housing and Economic Development, told Selectmen.
The funds for the project, 40 units of housing on a four-acre parcel next to Proprietor’s Field on Church Street, will come from the $6.13 million Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Hazard Mitigation Grant. The grant was awarded to the town and Spruces owner Morgan Management after the mobile home park on Main Street was devastated during Tropical Storm Irene in August 2011.
In June, Williams College announced it would donate the land for a coordinated effort to create affordable housing. The project is an effort involving the Berkshire Housing Development Corporation, local nonprofit Higher Ground, the Williamstown Elderly Housing Corporation and the Women’s Institute for Housing and Economic Development.
Wolahan, who attended Tuesday’s meeting with Berkshire Housing President Elton Ogden, said the project would meet the needs of the Spruces residents as well as Williamstown’s growing senior population.
“Our goal is to be in the ground in early 2015, and to be done and have housing ready for occupancy in early 2016, which would coincide with the timeframe of the Spruces closing,” she said.
The project has already received a $400,000 “pre-development” loan from the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation (CEDAC), she said, to assist with initial plans, zoning and applications for state funding.
Town Manager Peter Fohlin noted that under the grant, Morgan Management would keep $600,000 of the grant money, and the town would have $4.1 million after residents were compensated for their losses.
“I’m comfortable with the size of the request,” he said. “It doesn’t cause me to warn the Board of Selectmen that this might be a little to ambitious.”
In related business, Selectmen discussed three warrant articles for an upcoming special town meeting tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 10. If approved, the articles would ultimately authorize the town to take over park operation until it is closed, create a revolving fund for operation and closure expenses, and acquire the entire 114-acre Spruces property.
Allen encouraged residents to educate themselves on the warrant articles and to attend future Selectmen meetings to have their questions answered in her opening statement.
“It is now time for us to take an important step to complete the work we began on Aug. 28, 2011,” she said. “The future of the Spruces and quality of life for its residents are very important to this community.”
To reach Edward Damon, email edamon@thetranscript.com.
Copyright © 2013 North Adams Transcript
Mass. Enterprise Targets Inadequate Preschool Facilities
Published Online: October 15, 2013
Published in Print: October 16, 2013, as Mass. Enterprise Targets Inadequate Preschool Facilities
Mass. Enterprise Targets Inadequate Preschool Facilities
Focus is centers serving low-income families
By Christina A. Samuels
For years, Community Action Inc., in Haverhill, Mass., ran a Head Start program for more than 200 children in a building that once was a turkey coop.
The facility, located on land once owned by a religious order, came with low rent and pastoral surroundings, said John Cuneo, the executive director of Community Action. But the kitchen didn’t meet local code, the walls lacked insulation, and in the winter, frozen pipes in an outbuilding used as classroom space regularly required Mr. Cuneo to run a hose from the main facility so the children and staff members could have water.
Many preschools that serve low-income and rural communities are managing programs in makeshift spaces that were never built with the needs of young children in mind. But thanks to a nonprofit in Boston called the Children’s Investment Fund, Mr. Cuneo and other preschool providers in the state are getting training and money to renovate old facilities or build new ones.
A bill that is expected to win approval in the Massachusetts legislature would set the stage for a constant source of money for the work of the Children’s Investment Fund.
At a time when early education is getting attention from leaders at the federal, state, and local levels, the approach to funding and technical assistance that Massachusetts and some other states are pursuing is seen by advocates as a model for expanding high-quality preschool options.
“What we’ve seen in the last four or five years, when the economy has been bad, is that borrowing for improving facilities has really leveled off and virtually disappeared,” said Mav Pardee, the program manager for the Children’s Investment Fund. “Programs have been very concerned about mere survival.”
Makeover strategies
States are taking a variety of approaches to support the construction and renovation of preschool centers.
Direct Grants The Pennsylvania departments of community and economic development and public welfare collaborated in making “Child Care Challenge Grants” totaling $10 million per year. The program resulted in the construction or renovation of 55 centers licensed to serve 3,365 children.
Access to Public Debt North Carolina partnered with Self-Help Inc., a nonprofit community-development-finance institution, to guarantee loans to small center-based and home-based child-care businesses, using the federal Child Care and Development Fund.
Direct Loans Maryland’s business and economic development department has made child-care facility loans and loan guarantees to nonprofit and for-profit center-based programs. The state seeks private bank participation in the financing, charges market or slightly below-market rates, and writes the loans for 15 to 20 years.
Subsidized Loans The Connecticut Health and Educational Facilities Authority partially guarantees private-sector child-care loans to improve the creditworthiness of loan applicants who would not otherwise qualify.
Rate Enhancements In Maine, providers who have earned a “quality certificate” are eligible for a variety of state financing incentives as well as a 10 percent to 15 percent bonus over the state child-care-subsidy fee.
Technical Assistance The state contracts with the nonprofit Vermont Community Loan Fund to provide facilities-development assistance to centers. The nonprofit also administers a capital grant program that funds an annual state appropriation and sales of a special “Building Brighter Futures” child-care license plate.
Sources: Local Initiatives Support Corp.; Community Investment Collaborative for Kids
But the current national conversation has provided a boost, and an opportunity to think, once again, about the facilities where children may spend hours each day. Facilities “are another dimension of quality,” Ms. Pardee said.
Poor Climate Control
James Eldridge, a Massachusetts state senator who chairs the legislature’s joint committee on housing, said he expected the Massachusetts measure—part of a $1.4 billion housing-bond bill—to become law by the end of this month. The legislation would provide a $45 million bond for improving child-care facilities.
In 2011, the Children’s Investment Fund conducted a survey of 182 child-care centers across the state that target a low-income population, and found many of them to be lacking.
Several programs were housed in facilities that did not meet building code. Seventy percent of the centers did not have classroom sinks. Forty percent lacked restrooms directly accessible from the classroom, considered a best practice for programs serving young children. Only one space was fully accessible for children with disabilities.
Also, one-third of the centers said they were not able to maintain comfortable indoor temperatures in the winter and summer.
While those findings are specific to Massachusetts, they are not unusual in other parts of the country for preschool providers who serve a low-income population, said Amy Gillman, the senior program director for the Community Investment Collaborative for Kids, a program of the New York City-based Local Initiatives Support Corp. The collaborative works nationwide to provide technical assistance and funding to preschool providers.
“There’s a misconception that there’s enough of an operating stream that you can set some of that aside to pay for improved facilities,” Ms. Gillman said.
In reality, the margins are thin. “We tell providers to never take from a program,” she said. “You don’t want to build a building for a poor-quality program.”
Convincing lawmakers of the importance of high-quality facilities is not difficult, according to Ms. Gillman. “Mostly we hear that, ‘Yes, we do acknowledge that facilities are an issue.’ But what it comes down to is resources and where is the funding going to come from,” she said.
Permanent Funding
States have taken several different tacks to meet the facilities needs of child-care providers. Some have provided direct grants, as Pennsylvania did from 2002 to 2004. During that time, the state awarded $30 million to 55 centers, which used the money to build or renovate their spaces.
Other states have chosen to establish permanent funding streams, such as what Massachusetts is attempting to do. Connecticut, through its Child Care Facilities Loan Fund, provides bond financing for nonprofits, guarantees loans to induce private lenders to work with providers, and offers direct loans to small centers and home-based providers.
An additional challenge for providers is developing the expertise to plan a renovation or building project and see it through to completion. Preschool directors may know how to hire a good teacher, but usually have no experience hiring a qualified architect, Ms. Gillman said.
In 2003, Mr. Cuneo went through a program sponsored by the Children’s Investment Fund called Building Stronger Centers, where he and other providers learned the nuts and bolts of managing a construction project.
The fund also helped connect him with MassDevelopment, the state’s financing authority, which underwrote the $1.5 million renovation project, completed in 2007. The program is now housed in a former elementary school that had been mothballed by the local school district.
“The most important thing is having quality classrooms,” Mr. Cuneo said. “They’re nicely laid out, they are colorful, they are decorated appropriately, there are sinks in each classroom, and toilet facilities. And we were able to upgrade the playground area.”
Donna M. Denette, the executive director of Children First Enterprises in rural Granby, Mass., also went through the Building Stronger Centers program. Before renovations, her center was operating out of a vacant hair salon, a church basement, and the corner of a school cafeteria.
After $1.7 million in renovations, completed in 2010, the center now has appropriate classroom space for the preschool and school-age population it serves.
“We had this great philosophy, great staff, great curriculum, but the facility just didn’t support staff,” Ms. Denette said. “There was no place to have a kid who was sick waiting to be picked up, no place to have a private meeting with a parent.”
“I never could have done it without” the Children’s Investment Fund, she said.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/10/16/08facilities.h33.html?r=782168067
Cambridge Is A Model For Affordable Housing Initiatives
Sunday, October 6, 2013, 3:00am
Taking Stock
Cambridge Is A Model For Affordable Housing Initiatives
Putnam Square Apartment Plan Latest In Preserving Affordability
By Roger Herzog and Bill Brauner
Special To Banker & Tradesman
The city of Cambridge is setting the standard in Massachusetts in utilizing innovative resources to help preserve affordable housing units. Four years after the passage of Chapter 40T (An Act to Preserve Publicly Assisted Affordable Housing), Massachusetts is seeing tangible success in maintaining affordable homes. And Cambridge has become a model in how city, state, and nonprofit actors can work together to ensure that these units remain available to low income families and individuals.
Chapter 40T put in place some important tools, safeguards, and an early warning system that have been instrumental in helping to preserve affordable housing across the commonwealth. Since its passage, no project has lost affordability as a result of a sale, though some units have been lost when their owners converted their buildings into market-rate developments. Additionally, the state has preserved affordability on more than 8,600 units since Chapter 40T became law in 2009. Not all of those can be directly attributed directly to the law – Massachusetts has multiple ways to help owners maintain their affordability – but Chapter 40T has become a critically important piece of maintaining units from Boston to Brewster.
Chapter 40T was passed because Massachusetts took advantage of federal housing programs and built hundreds of large scale affordable housing projects in the 1960s and 1970s. Many of these projects were created by for-profit developers through federally backed mortgages, many of which are coming to maturity in the next decade. Once those mortgages expire, developers are free to convert those buildings into market-rate units, sell them to another developer, or maintain them as affordable housing developments. Among the tools provided by Chapter 40T to address the possibility that Massachusetts could shed affordable units is an innovative policy that gives that state’s Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) the “right of first refusal” if the owner decides to sell it. DHCD is then able to designate a new nonprofit or for-profit housing developer to acts as its purchasing agent to facilitate preservation.
Continuing Preservation
No city has taken better advantage of 40T, along with funding from the Massachusetts Preservation Loan Fund, than Cambridge. Recently, Cambridge witnessed the preservation of Putnam Square Apartments through the cooperation of DHCD; Harvard University; the city of Cambridge; the nonprofit developer Homeowner’s Rehab Inc. (HRI); and the building’s tenants. Putnam Square consists of 94 apartments that will now remain affordable for area seniors. Built in 1974, the building was owned by Harvard University, which agreed to sell the property to HRI, a well-respected nonprofit acting on DHCD’s behalf. HRI will continue to maintain the building, and indeed, plans to upgrade and renovate the property. The Community Economic Development Assistance Corp. (CEDAC), the Massachusetts Housing Investment Corporation (MHIC) and the Cambridge Affordable Housing Trust all made significant loans to ensure that these units remain affordable. CEDAC and MHIC manage the Massachusetts Preservation Loan Fund, which was created to provide loans to preservation buyers with support from the MacArthur Foundation.
This marks the second major development that Cambridge has preserved through the Chapter 40T process. In December 2011, most of the same actors – DHCD, Harvard University, HRI, and agencies who focus on the financing of affordable housing – were involved in the preservation of 25 affordable housing units in the Chapman Arms building. Also in Harvard Square, Chapman Arms was the first development to be preserved through Chapter 40T. Both cases demonstrate that Chapter 40T allows the state and nonprofit actors to move swiftly to preserve buildings with substantial affordability.
In addition to Putnam Square and Chapman Arms, Cambridge has also managed to successfully preserve two other affordable housing developments that were close to maturity. In 2012, Just-A-Start Corp. (JAS), a nonprofit community development corporation in Cambridge, purchased Bishop Allen Apartments, which helped to maintain 32 affordable housing units in Central Square. Additionally, HRI purchased the 116-unit Inman Square Apartments in 2011. It should be noted that some owners are negotiating their own preservation transactions with a new buyer – if DHCD determines that the proposed sale achieves the preservation goals of 40T, then DHCD need not exercise its right of first refusal. This is the case with both of these purchases and another mark of the law’s success.
It isn’t only Cambridge that has utilized Chapter 40T. Housing developers throughout the state are also utilizing the right of first refusal to make sure that large scale developments stay affordable. But the city of Cambridge has demonstrated that public agencies, nonprofit institutions and a municipality working together can act in the best interests of low-income residents. We expect we’ll see cities and towns following Cambridge’s lead at ever larger numbers.
Roger Herzog is executive director of the Community Economic Development Assistance Corp. (CEDAC). Bill Brauner is CEDAC’s housing preservation program manager.
Http://www.bankerandtradesman.com/news156836.html
Dorchester child care services receive financial boost
October 2, 2013
Dorchester
Dorchester child care services receive financial boost
By Patrick D. Rosso, Town Correspondent
DORCHESTER – Affordable child care services and housing in and around Boston got a financial boost this week after the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation announced a new round of funding.
The Family Nurturing Center in Dorchester was awarded $375,000, which will help the non-profit organization acquire and renovate a Bowdoin Street space previously owned by the Bowdoin Street Health Center, said a release from the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation.
The funds will support the center’s plan to add a second-floor addition to the Bowdoin Street property, which will help it expand its family support services specifically targeted at low income families.
“Each of the projects to which we are providing capital resources will meet unique needs within communities across the state. It is encouraging to see so many projects moving forward,” Roger Herzog, executive director of the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation, said in a statement.
A private-public organization, the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation provides technical assistance, pre-development lending, and consulting services to non-profit organizations involved in housing development, improvements to childcare facilities, and neighborhood economic development.
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Email Patrick D. Rosso, patrick.d.rosso@gmail.com. Follow him @PDRosso, or friend him on Facebook.
© 2013 Boston Globe Media Partners, LLC
URL: http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/dorchester/2013/10/hold_dorchester_child_care_services_receive_finical_boost.htm
CEDAC Grants $7M For Affordable Housing and Child Care Facilities
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
CEDAC Grants $7M For Affordable Housing and Child Care Facilities
Community Economic Development Assistance Corp. (CEDAC) has awarded $7.2 million in funding to various organizations across Massachusetts to develop and preserve affordable housing projects and child care facilities.
Nine projects in eight communities- Northampton, Framingham, Springfield, Boston (Dorchester and Jamaica Plain neighborhoods), Stow, Somerville, the Williamsburg/Chesterfield region in Western Massachusetts and Great Barrington-received loans. Of the $7.2 million total, organizations in Greater Boston received $525,000, while the MetroWest region was granted loans of $2.85 million and Western Massachusetts $3.8 million.
“Our non-profit community partners are actively working on projects for the preservation and development of affordable housing in Massachusetts, which is a good sign for families and individuals in need of quality housing,” Roger Herzog, CEDAC’s executive director, said in statement.
“The need to preserve quality affordable housing remains a statewide issue,” Herzog continued. “Over the past 18 months, we have seen several nonprofit organizations come forward to help preserve hundreds of affordable housing units across the Commonwealth. We are encouraged by that activity, and expect to see even more of it going forward.”
Projects include:
• $2.8 million to purchase the Tribune Apartments on Irving Street in Framingham, preserving 53 affordable units
• $2.4 million for preserve 34 units of affordable housing in Springfield at the Kenyon College Estates
• $1.1 million to develop 60 units of affordable housing on 1.23 acres of land at a former lumber yard Northampton
Banker & Tradesman ©2013 All Rights Reserved
URL: http://www.bankerandtradesman.com/news156778.html
Bond Funding from the Legislature to Build Better Spaces for Children
September 10, 2013
Bond Funding from the Legislature to Build Better Spaces for Children
by Alyssa Haywoode
The Children’s Investment Fund has been shepherding proposed legislation through the State House that would create bond funding to build or improve early childhood education (ECE) and out-of-school time (OST) spaces.
“The MA Legislature recently passed a bill authorizing bond financing for capital improvements,” the Fund said in a recent email. This is money that will go to nonprofit early childhood and afterschool centers. “While we continue working with a coalition of supporters to get the bill through the conference committee, signed and eventually funded, we want to help get projects ready for funding.”
A substantial need
As the Fund says on its website, “space matters: there is substantial research on the importance of the physical environment on children’s social, emotional and cognitive development.”
The need is considerable, as the Fund found in a survey of ECE and OST programs located across the state. A report of this work – “Building an Infrastructure for Quality: An Inventory of Early Childhood Education and Out-of-School Time Facilities in Massachusetts” — sheds light on a host of problems, including ceiling holes, poor air quality, inadequate heating and cooling systems, and inadequate play spaces. An executive summary is available here. To download the full report register here.
We wrote about the Fund’s efforts last year and again this summer in June.
Information sessions coming soon
To get the word out about the bond funding, the Children’s Investment Fund is sponsoring information sessions that will also cover Building Stronger Centers, “a unique training program on capital planning for ECE and OST facilities.”
According to the Fund, “The information sessions will cover the selection criteria for the training, describe the program and answer your questions.” Three sessions will be held on:
– Thursday, September 19, 1:00 – 3:00 pm, at the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley in Boston
– Tuesday, September 24, 10:00 am – noon, at the United Way of Pioneer Valley in Springfield
– Wednesday, September 25, 10:00 am – noon, at the United Way of Central Massachusetts in Worcester
The Fund then plans to select up to 20 providers to participate in the three-and-a-half day “Building Strong Centers” training program, which covers “how to design, finance and manage a major capital project.” The program is designed for organizations that plan to make physical plant improvements in the next two to three years. Selection is based on project readiness. (Not ready this year? Don’t worry. Next year, the Fund will pick another group of participants.)
The Fund runs the training program and brings in experts. So participants will hear from a project manager, an architect, and from organizations that have successfully completed their own projects.
The training program will take place October 15 and November 13-15, 2013, followed by “twelve months of technical assistance, a peer learning network, and access to financing as your project develops.”
Physical spaces can be a “third teacher” for children, Mav Pardee the Fund’s program manager says in this video.
Pardee adds, “Our notions of quality are just too narrow.” She’s right. Instead of making do with mediocre spaces, our children deserve high-quality learning environments.
URL: http://eyeonearlyeducation.com/2013/09/10/bond-funding-from-the-legislature-to-build-better-spaces-for-children/