Every Child / Every Promise Update
TO: Dubuque City Council and City Manager
FROM: Eric Dregne, CFGD Vice President of Programs
SUBJECT: Every Child | Every Promise Update
DATE: 8/1/2010
Honorable Mayor and City Council and Mr. Van Milligen,
On behalf of the Every Child | Every Promise Board of Directors, I am submitting this
memo to update you on the efforts of ECEP in recent months.
Staff Changes: Nancy Keedy has resigned from her position as Executive Director. I
have been hired at the Community Foundation as Vice President of Programs, overseeing
programs including ECEP and will take on staff responsibilities for the organization
along with the support of Americorps or other PT staff.
Work in Progress: In our efforts to create systemic change to improve the lives of youth
0-20 in our community, we have the following to report in the areas of our 3 priorities
chosen by the board:
Data Committee- our data committee made up of a strong group of business, IT
and education leaders, has been meeting consistently throughout the first half of
this year. The goals of this committee have been to review what data is needed in
the community and to develop a community-wide data system accessible for the
community to better understand issues and opportunities our youth are facing.
We are reviewing our current community data as well as systems in place (best
practices) across the country.
Out of School Time Committee- This committee’s focus is to ensure high quality,
affordable, accessible programming when children are out of school; that is before
school starts, after school ends and during holiday breaks and summer.
Transportation Committee- This committee is focused on expanding our
community transportation system to provide access to schools, activities, and
places like libraries, clubs, etc. This committee will work with ECIA and other
transportation experts to identify solutions to our youth transportation needs.
Recent Outcomes: Every Child | Every Promise has the following recent outcomes to
report;
100 Best Communities Application has been submitted with a September award
announcement data.
Partnering in Communities Program was implemented thru a grant ECEP
attracted. Needs were identified by community members who were brought
together to discuss opportunities in their neighborhoods. This resulted in three
$3,333 grants that will be distributed to the community:
Walking School Bus- will be implemented by ECIA who will convene a
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community meeting to establish this program to/from school on a
supervised, safe route. ECIA has asked ECEP to convene neighborhood
meetings to introduce the Walking School bus and to hope with media
promotion.
Comiskey Park Festival- will be held by Americorps to bring the
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community into the park and re-establish the park in the community as a
safe, free and accessible place for recreation.
Food preparation and nutrition program- will be implemented by the VNA
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to teach young parents how to shop for and prepare affordable, nutritional
meals.
Improved ECEP partnership with Empowerment through a First Years First Grant
we applied for and received together. This grant was aimed at teaching children
in the very early stages of life (First Years 0-5) by offering resources and support
in key areas of focus;
Resources to Parents- this portion of the grant was implemented by
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Empowerment and makes available learning tools for parents of very
young children to use in daily activities- for example, shopping lists with
educational activities on them for use while grocery shopping. We also
leveraged a DRA grant to support signing at Riverview Park and Bergfeld
Pond that offers learning activities along trails at these locations.
Business Engagement- implemented by ECEP and the Community
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Foundation, introduces the Children’s Trust which convenes Business
around early childhood issues that employees face by bringing together
representatives from local businesses to identify issues employers can
affect. This initiative has leveraged approx. $60.0 in private support and
has strengthened local child care facilities by leveraging a grant from IBM
for Young Explorer Units (pre-school PC’s).
Sustainability- The Children’s Trust, a giving circle set up by the
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Community will serve as a vehicle for sustaining early-childhood efforts
in our community in the future. The Children’s Trust has raised over
$80,000 in the last four months for early childhood and received
commitments from 30 community leaders to work on this issue. We also
secured an IBM grant for 20 Young Explorer computer desks that house
state of the art early childhood software. These will be distributed to 20
early childhood centers that serve our lower income children.
While these outcomes are significant, they only represent a fraction of the needs in our
community and potential impact that ECEP will have in the community in the future. I
am confident that our new structure, partnering more closely with the Community
Foundation, will result in improved outcomes and traction in the community.
City support of ECEP as an organization that works with providers and funders in our
community to create long term systemic change to improve the lives of our youth is
critical to our future growth and success. We thank you for your partnership and ask that
you continue your strong level of support going forward.