The Tri-Community YMCA in Southbridge is one of 10 agencies across the state selected for grant awards to support early education program facilities development and improvements that provide higher quality environment and settings for young children.
The Tri-Community YMCA will receive $800,000.
On Monday, the state Department of Early Education & Care, and the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation, announced $7.5 million in grant awards to support facilities development and improvements in large group and school-age early education and care programs. The award will allow the programs to offer higher quality settings for over 1,300 children, increased capacity to serve an additional 231 children, and the creation of 160 jobs during the grant period.
All of the programs selected to receive a grant award serve publicly subsidized families and have demonstrated financial need and have secured additional funding to pay for a portion of their project costs.
Tag: child care
Capital Funds Available for Nonprofit Child Care Providers
The Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) has released the application and guidelines for nonprofit child care providers interested in submitting applications to the newly-established Early Education and Out of School Time (EEOST) Capital Fund Program. The program will be administered through the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation (CEDAC) in conjunction with its affiliate organization, the Children’s Investment Fund. Interested organizations can access the application and information about the program at the Department of Early Education and Care’s Web site. The process for providers to receive the funds will be competitive.
“The EEOST program was established as a resource for non-profit, center-based providers in Massachusetts that want to make significant improvements to the buildings where their programs operate,” said Mav Pardee, Program Manager for the Children’s Investment Fund. “We are pleased work with EEC to support quality improvement efforts that include the physical environment.”
The Early Education and Out of School Time Capital Fund Program was established in the 2013 Housing Bond Bill passed by the legislature and signed by Governor Patrick. The legislation included capital bond financing to authorize $45 million to upgrade early childhood education (ECE) and out-of-school time (OST) facilities that serve children living in low-income communities across the Commonwealth. The state allocated $4 million for FY2014, the first year of the program and a second allocation of $4 million for FY2015. The legislation marked the first time in the nation that facilities financing for nonprofit child care providers have been included in community development legislation.
“CEDAC is pleased once again to help the nonprofit, community-based organizations who are working to help strengthen neighborhoods across Massachusetts,” said Roger Herzog, CEDAC’s Executive Director. “As with our support of affordable housing development and the workforce development community, CEDAC’s ability to provide technical assistance as well as capital funds is invaluable to child care providers as they turn their vision of a high quality facility into a reality.
Improving Child Care
Local state Rep. Jeffrey Sánchez (center) accepts an honor for his work with the Early Education and Out of School Time Capital Fund from Mav Pardee (left), Children’s Investment Fund program manager, and Roger Herzog (right), executive director of Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation, on Feb. 4 at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts in the Fenway. The new fund will provide capital to improve facilities that offer care to children from low-income families. (Courtesy Photo)
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
Loans to support new affordable housing, classroom space in Dorchester
July 17, 2013
Loans to support new affordable housing, classroom space in Dorchester
By Patrick D. Rosso, Town Correspondent
DORCHESTER – Two loans from the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation totaling $940,000 were recently awarded to area real estate development organizations to support the creation of housing and classroom space in Dorchester, according to the agency.
Viet AID, a Fields Corner non-profit, will use a $665,000 loan to acquire land and develop affordable housing in the Four Corners neighborhood. The site, which is currently home to an auto body shop and nine vacant city-owned parcels, will eventually be turned into 35 residential units and 3,000 square-feet of ground floor retail space. Nine of the project’s units will be reserved for formerly homeless families.
“Viet AID is truly working hard to provide Dorchester with the basic building blocks of a strong community,” Roger Herzog, executive director of Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation, said in a statement. “CEDAC is happy to support Viet AID as it increases housing and child care opportunities in Dorchester, and provides formerly homeless families the necessary services and support they need.”
Viet AID also received a $150,000 loan from the Children’s Investment Fund, a Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation affiliate, to convert vacant office space in the Vietnamese Community Center in Fields Corner into classroom space.
The Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corporation also received $125,000 as part of the loan. The Uphams Corner based real estate development agency will use the funds to renovate its Cottage Brook property in Dorchester’s Uphams Corner neighborhood.
Consisting of 19 buildings, renovations to the development include energy efficiency improvements.
“In Dorchester Bay EDC, we see an experienced community development corporation that is capable of managing complex housing development projects,” Herzog said. “The availability of affordable housing options in this area is vital to the community’s growth and development. I am confident that through the efforts to improve and preserve the Cottage Brook property, DBEDC’s continued efforts will benefit the Dorchester community.
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© 2013 NY Times Co.
URL: http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/dorchester/2013/07/hold_loans_to_support_new_affordable_housing_and_classroom_s.html
YWCA wins $100K loan for child-care program
June 28, 2012
YWCA wins $100K loan for child-care program
Newburyport Daily News
NEWBURYPORT — The Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation has approved a $100,000 loan to help expand the YWCA Greater Newburyport’s child care offerings.
The money will be used to renovate a 9,000-square-foot facility currently operating as early care and education space in Newburyport.
Ellie Davis, director of programs and community relations for the YWCA Greater Newburyport, said her agency will be opening a new branch at 131/2 Pond St. in Newburyport this fall. The signature program at the new facility will be its YWCA Children’s Center, which will provide quality, affordable care for toddlers and preschoolers age 15 months to 5 years old.
The renovation will help the YWCA meet one of its strategic goals, which is to expand its existing child care programming. The YWCA intends to initially operate three classrooms and expand to four classrooms in a year. In the program’s first year, officials expect to serve 59 children, toddlers and preschoolers and provide a before- and after-school program for kindergartners and a half-day preschool program.
“We are very excited about this new project as it allows us to build on our strong reputation that is based on our years of providing quality after-school care,” Davis said in an email.
Nicole Brennan will be the director of the new center.
The Children’s Investment Fund, which is affiliated with CEDAC, provides technical assistance and financing to nonprofit child care centers that serve low-income populations. It approved the permanent construction loan to the YWCA.
For more, contact the YWCA, 13 Market St., 978-465-9922.
URL: http://www.siteencore.com/cnhi/newburyportnews/shop_local/TABBQ_launch/index.html
© 2012 Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc.
YWCA wins $100K loan for child-care program
June 28, 2012
YWCA wins $100K loan for child-care program
Newburyport Daily News
NEWBURYPORT — The Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation has approved a $100,000 loan to help expand the YWCA Greater Newburyport’s child care offerings.
The money will be used to renovate a 9,000-square-foot facility currently operating as early care and education space in Newburyport.
Ellie Davis, director of programs and community relations for the YWCA Greater Newburyport, said her agency will be opening a new branch at 131/2 Pond St. in Newburyport this fall. The signature program at the new facility will be its YWCA Children’s Center, which will provide quality, affordable care for toddlers and preschoolers age 15 months to 5 years old.
The renovation will help the YWCA meet one of its strategic goals, which is to expand its existing child care programming. The YWCA intends to initially operate three classrooms and expand to four classrooms in a year. In the program’s first year, officials expect to serve 59 children, toddlers and preschoolers and provide a before- and after-school program for kindergartners and a half-day preschool program.
“We are very excited about this new project as it allows us to build on our strong reputation that is based on our years of providing quality after-school care,” Davis said in an email.
Nicole Brennan will be the director of the new center.
The Children’s Investment Fund, which is affiliated with CEDAC, provides technical assistance and financing to nonprofit child care centers that serve low-income populations. It approved the permanent construction loan to the YWCA.
For more, contact the YWCA, 13 Market St., 978-465-9922.
URL: http://www.siteencore.com/cnhi/newburyportnews/shop_local/TABBQ_launch/index.html
© 2012 Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc.
Poor Physical Space Compromises Quality
May 10, 2012
Poor Physical Space Compromises Quality
by Irene Sege
The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston publishes a quarterly journal, Communities & Banking, which focuses on issues of concern to low- and moderate-income communities. We are pleased that early childhood is on the magazine’s radar screen. The Winter 2012 edition featured a story on the importance of third grade reading and Springfield’s citywide Read! Campaign to improve early literacy in the Western Massachusetts city. Now the Spring 2012 issue features a story – “Infrastructure Investment Begins with Children” – about efforts by the Children’s Investment Fund to improve the physical condition of early education and care facilities in Massachusetts.
Among community-based facilities the fund surveyed for its recent report, 34% had inadequate heating and cooling, 54% lacked indoor active play space, 20% had one or more classrooms without windows, 22% had indoor air with elevated levels of carbon dioxide, 70% had no classroom sinks, 22% lacked workspace for teachers, and 65% lacked technology for teachers.
“Massachusetts, like other states, has invested significant private and public resources in quality improvement for early care and education and out-of-school-time services, particularly for low-income children,” the Fed story notes. “But quality — and the physical infrastructure to support it — is critical to fulfilling the state’s aspirations for these children, and clearly, the resources to fix problems cannot be found in program operating budgets. Children’s Investment Fund has therefore begun to pursue options for improving facility quality, some near term, some longer term. It is working with the business community, public officials, community development organizations, and funders to ensure that early care and education and out-of-school-time programs can make improvements.”
The article, written by Children’s Investment Fund Director Mav Pardee, outlines some of the strategies being pursued to address the problem:
• Ensure that repairs and hazardous conditions are addressed by making small grants available to nonprofit providers.
• Encourage green environments by working with utility companies to address energy efficiency that can generate operating savings and create healthier indoor spaces.
• Work with community development resources to identify capital for ensuring that community infrastructure includes early care and education and out-of-school-time facilities.
• Work with public officials, researchers, and advocates to expand the definition of quality to include the physical plant as the foundation of other quality initiatives related to children’s health, development, and education.
“The issue is so urgent and the potential benefits so high,” Pardee concludes, “that we need to find the public will to create affordable and sustainable financing to improve the buildings where the most vulnerable Massachusetts children spend their childhoods.”
URL: http://eyeonearlyeducation.org/2012/05/10/poor-physical-space-compromises-quality/
“The Environment Reflects Our Attitude Toward Them”
Thursday, October 13, 2011
“The Environment Reflects Our Attitude Toward Them”
by Irene Sege
More than 90% of children attending Square One’s network of early education and care programs in Springfield and Holyoke live below the poverty line. More than 10% are homeless, 20% have asthma, and 30% are obese or at risk of obesity. The recent renovations of one of Square One’s centers was about more than cosmetics, President and CEO Joan Kagan told the audience at a Boston event yesterday. It was about delivering high-quality service to a high-needs population of young children.
“They’re coming from a chaotic environment,” Kagan said. “To have an environment that’s calming, relaxing and consistent shows they’re respected, and their parents are respected. They’re deserving of respect. The environment reflects our attitude toward them.”
The event was the release of the Children’s Investment Fund’s new report, “Building an Infrastructure for Quality: An Inventory of Early Childhood Education and Out-of-School Time Facilities in Massachusetts,” which found shortcomings in safety, air quality, indoor space for physical activity and other measures. Kagan’s comments on a panel underscored the report’s message that the quality of the physical space of early learning programs has a direct impact on the quality of the experience for children.
Too often, the report notes, the physical environment of early education settings creates barriers to delivering the high-quality programs that research consistently shows produce positive results, particularly for children from low-income families.
“The noted Italian educator Loris Malaguzzi,” the report states, “emphasized that a well-designed environment acts as ‘the third teacher’ because it promotes exploratory learning and physical activity, facilitates positive interactions, and keeps children safer and healthier.”
CIF commissioned the study from the Wellesley Centers for Women and On-Site Insight, which has expertise in capital needs assessments. Researchers visited 130 randomly selected licensed sites in low-income communities across the commonwealth. Of these, 73 were early childhood education centers, and 57 were out-of-school time sites. Researchers also examined 97 licensed sites in Boston — 45 from the statewide sample plus an additional 52 sites. The samples did not include programs in public schools, which have access to financing through the Massachusetts School Building Authority, and employer-sponsored worksite programs, because they also have access to the capital needed to create appropriate physical infrastructure. Statewide, approximately 85% of early childhood programs that the researchers visited operate in space designed for other uses.
The report gives relatively good marks to early childhood programs in creating learning environments with adequate space per child and with appropriate room arrangements, displays and furnishing – with more than 90% of early education sites meeting these critieria.
However, on many other measures of the physical environment, a significant proportion of early education and out-of-school-time centers fell short. CIF’s statewide findings include:
• Indoor air quality. More than one-fifth (22%) of centers had carbon dioxide levels above 700 parts per million, an indication of inadequate outdoor area circulating in the space. More than a third (36%) had no mechanical ventilation over diapering areas and toilets.
• Safety. One-third of early education sites had playgrounds with equipment that presented entrapment hazards. One quarter of all sites had at least one classroom with windows that lacked screens in good repair.
• Physical activity. More than half (54%) of early education programs did not have indoor space and equipment for gross motor activities.
• Sinks and toilets. Almost 70% of programs did not have classroom sinks, which makes hand washing, a key element of good hygiene, more difficult. And 38% of early childhood settings did not have bathroom areas directly accessible from the classroom, which means teachers must escort children to hallway bathrooms, interrupting classroom routines and interactions.
• Temperature. In 34% of sites, temperatures fell outside thermal comfort standards established by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Ari-Conditioning Engineers. Research shows that children’s attention suffers when heat and humidity rise above comfort levels.
• Acoustics. More than a quarter (26%) of centers had no acoustical tile or ceiling treatment, a problem because “chronic exposure to ambient noise is associated reading difficulties, poor long-term memory, and poor attention.”
The report makes several recommendations:
• Address hazardous conditions.
• Build partnerships with utility companies… to subsidize the cost of energy saving improvements.
• Leverage community-development resources to build or improve sites.
• Leverage the focus on high quality early childhood education through the Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge competition and draw attention to the state of infrastructure.
• Develop a public funding mechanism for major repairs, renovation or new construction.
In addition to Kagan, the panel included David McGrath, deputy commissioner for field operations at the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care, and Steven Kenney, president of N.B. Kenney Co., Inc., and a CIF board member. Kenney noted that investing in the physical infrastructure of early education and out-of-school time programs produces benefits that extend beyond those children reap from improved environments. It would create jobs. A $100 million road project, he said, produces 100-200 jobs for construction workers. A $100 million vertical construction project creates 500-600 construction jobs. “Imagine the possibilities,” he said.
URL: http://eyeonearlyeducation.org/2011/10/13/%E2%80%9Cthe-environment-reflects-our-attitude-toward-them%E2%80%9D/
Study: Many Mass. Day Care Centers Deficient
Study: Many Mass. Day Care Centers Deficient
The Associated Press
BOSTON — A study has found that about one-third of the state’s child care centers that serve low-income communities have serious deficiencies.
The survey of 182 day care centers by the Children’s Investment Fund found unsafe play equipment, lack space for active indoor play and poor ventilation that can make children drowsy.
Other problems include poor acoustics that make conversation between teachers and children difficult and facilities that are too hot in summer and too cold in winter.
Mav Pardee, program director for the organization, tells The Boston Globe that day care centers in low-income areas must improve significantly to give children the kind of early development and learning that pays dividends as they mature.
It’s especially important since many low-income children spend most of their time at a care center.
This story also ran in the following: WCVB-TV; MassLive.com; WBUR; Worcester Telegram & Gazette; Boston Herald; MyFoxBoston.com; Washington Examiner; The Republic; WSHM-TV; and ABC 6.
MassLive.com URL: http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/10/study_finds_many_day_care_cent.html
WBUR URL: http://www.wbur.org/2011/10/12/day-care-study
Worcester Telegram & Gazette URL: http://www.telegram.com/article/20111012/NEWS/111019891
Boston Herald URL: http://bostonherlad.com/news/regional/view/20111012study_many_mass_day_care_centers_deficient/srvc=news&position=recent_bullet
My Fox Boston URL: http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/local/study-many-massachusetts-day-care-centers-deficient-25-apx-20111012
Washington Examiner URL: http://washingtonexaminer.com/news/2011/10/study-many-mass-day-care-centers-deficient
The Republic URL: http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/066c9c2d634b46cbb4642006b59db511/MA–Day-Care-Report/