Project Description

The Center for the Study of Social Policy assists states and communities in the development of financing strategies that contribute to improved results for children and families. Financial strategies are developed to align with the particular programmatic strategies being pursued; thus, the Center´s work in this area bridges the financial and programmatic aspects of children and family services reform.

The Center´s financial work is also linked to its efforts to help states and communities develop new forms of community decision-making. Most local decision-making or "governance" bodies are groups of people who come together to develop new service delivery strategies that promise to yield better results for children and families. Yet, they typically have to rely on time-limited discretionary funds or specific grant money. The Center's financing technical assistance aims to help these new decision-making structures tap into available federal funds such as Title IV-E and Title XIX so they have a base of ongoing institutionalized financing. Since this is often the first time that governance entities have dollars that do not have preassigned uses, these funds offer them an opportunity to support their own neighborhood service initiatives on an on-going basis.

For example, the Center assisted a local governance partnership in Kansas City called the Local Investment Commission (LINC) to obtain approximately $1 million per year in federal Title IV-E funds that will be used to help support neighborhood-based services for families and children. The State of Missouri agreed to pass this money on to LINC and not offset its existing budget.

A new form of fiscal technical assistance is being developed by the Center to assist cities participating in the Making Connections initiative. This assistance includes identifying a wide range of federal, state, and local, public and private resources, that can be used and implement a sustainable financial plan for Making Connections strategies.

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