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Fact Sheet |
Leadership |
| Impact Summary »
Please note: this Investment Summary represents
VPP's perspective at the time of the investment agreement, September,
2003.
In September, 2003, VPP entered into an investment partnership with the Child and Family Network Centers (CFNC). Through this partnership, VPP will provide $300,000 and strategic assistance to CFNC over a two-year period to support specific components of its strategic plan designed to strengthen the organization and expand their services to reach more children and families. This investment brings VPP’s financial commitment to CFNC to over $600,000, including approximately $300,000 already provided to 1) facilitate a planning process through which CFNC brought resolution to its growth objectives and direction, and 2) support CFNC’s senior management team expansion, fund development resources, organizational and executive coaching, and senior talent recruitment. VPP’s strategic assistance has supported CFNC’s leadership in strengthening their organization, securing support from the Philip L. Graham Fund as a co-investor with VPP, and in engaging Patton Boggs to explore public funding opportunities.
OPPORTUNITY
The Child and Family Network Centers seeks to be recognized
as an organization that provides the best community-based
preschool and comprehensive family services in the country.
With a VPP investment, CFNC envisions expanding the organization
to increase the number of at-risk children receiving high-quality,
free preschool education and to demonstrate its program
as a regional and national model for community-based family
service. Research has shown that preschool preparation for
at-risk children results in powerful positive outcomes for
those individuals throughout their lives. One study by the
High/Scope Educational Research Foundation found that at
age 27 individuals who had attended a high-quality preschool
had higher incomes and educational levels and lower rates
of school dropout, arrest, and welfare dependency than a
comparison group who did not attend preschool. The CFNC
model of locating preschools and related services in the
neighborhoods where at-risk children and their families
live enables it to reach children and families in a non-threatening
environment.
The planning process that VPP supported helped CFNC management and their Board define a clear direction and a scale of growth they feel is achievable. The projected growth and expansion for the organization was more constrained than originally envisioned when the initial VPP planning investment was made. Therefore, the scope of funding and support is scaled appropriately to their refined vision and expansion plans. We respect the planning process CFNC went through and continue to value and support the high quality of services CFNC provides to children of low-income families in Alexandria.
CFNC’s aspirations and long-term goals are to:
- Expand from eight classrooms serving 140 families in Alexandria to seventeen classrooms serving 270 families through expansion to the West End of Alexandria and South Arlington;
- Improve the current organization structure, particularly in the areas of development, communications, outcomes, technology, and human resources;
- Enhance programmatic initiatives including converting to full-day preschool education, expand support services through partnering or direct service (i.e. before/after care, health care, legal/immigration, mental health, financial/banking advice, etc.).
INVESTMENT RATIONALE
Key factors that underpin the thinking behind VPP's investment
in CFNC include:
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Social impact:
CFNC provides preschool and social services to needy families
that are not able to obtain these services through traditional,
preschool, and social service programs. Affordable preschool
slots for low-income children are woefully inadequate
in Alexandria and the surrounding area, elevating the
need for CFNC’s services in these communities. While
CFNC is focused on providing a quality preschool experience
for children, its programs extend to the needs of the
family as a unit. This community-based, integrated model
is the key to the success and impact that CFNC has been
able to attain with the children and families it serves.
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Positioned for growth:
CFNC has recently relocated and consolidated its operations
into a newly renovated facility attached to the Birchmere
Music Hall in Alexandria. This change has allowed it to
begin functioning more efficiently as an organization
and deliver its services more effectively. In addition,
CFNC has begun to build upon its existing management capacity,
an essential change to prepare the organization for future
growth and development. The board of CFNC is engaged and
extremely committed to the work of CFNC, and has provided
substantial resources in support of development initiatives.
Recognizing that these changes have not fully “matured,”
CFNC is taking formidable steps to position itself to
further address the unmet needs of Alexandria and its
adjacent communities.
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Demonstrated performance:
CFNC’s growth since inception has been deliberate
and managed. Over the past 18 years the organization has
expanded from a two-hour preschool serving six children
to providing preschool services to 140 children, while
expanding its impact on children by providing a variety
of support services to the family. This integrated model
is offered in four separate sites, with the Birchmere
acting as the operational “hub”.
SUCCESS FACTORS
An investment in CFNC is likely to be successful in light
of the following:
-
Leadership/management:
CFNC is led by a strong, tenacious, and coachable executive
director, Barbara Fox Mason. Mason started as the teacher
for this program in 1984, providing preschool to six children
for two hours a day. She has essentially built the agency
up from infancy, serving the needs of approximately 140
children and families in Alexandria. A committed, energetic
board of directors supports Mason, providing solid leadership
and strategic guidance to the organization.
-
Catalytic event/change trigger:
CFNC has acquired headquarters and classroom space in
the Birchmere in Alexandria. Gaining this space has been
a catalytic event for the organization, as it provides
an excellent base of operations that would allow for refining
and demonstrating its model and training others to apply
it elsewhere. In addition, growing beyond the organization’s
current size and taking on this new headquarters facility
will force the executive director and the organization
to look at CFNC somewhat differently and to consider the
types of changes they need in order to serve a greater
number of children and adults.
-
Community support/external
stakeholders: CFNC has great community support
and committed stakeholders. Because CFNC locates its sites
where its clients live, it is accepted as a part of these
communities. In addition, many of the staff of CFNC live
in the communities where CFNC operates. Over the years,
CFNC has attracted a diverse cast of valuable stakeholders,
including local, state, and federal government, foundations,
CapitalOne, Easter Seals, Alexandria Recreation Department,
SCAN, local churches, etc. These stakeholders are attracted
to CFNC because of its track record of excellent work.
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Quality programs:
All CFNC preschools are fully accredited by the National
Association for the Education of Young Children, demonstrating
the commitment and capacity of the organization to provide
high-quality programs to a population that has relatively
few choices. NAEYC accreditation is a credential that
symbolizes that an organization has been assessed against
national standards of quality developed by the field and
has demonstrated its excellence under those standards.
It is a much sought after proxy of quality within the
field.
-
Holistic approach: CFNC’s
approach is a comprehensive one that includes a wide range
of family social services that work together with the
preschool experience to build not just each child’s
capacity for success, but also each family’s capacity
to support the child long term.
USE OF FUNDS
CFNC, with the support of the VPP partnership, will work to
strengthen its organizational capacity and improve its effectiveness
by:
- Hiring, developing, and retaining key staff;
- Institutionalizing high-quality professional development
opportunities for staff and volunteers;
- Recruiting, training, monitoring, and providing technical
assistance to women living in poverty who wish to become
family childcare providers and help these women maintain
quality childcare in their homes;
- Enhancing management information and communications
systems to better facilitate the effective management
of the organization and help it achieve better outcomes;
- Increasing internal fund development capacity, and refining
the CFNC model of providing high-quality, free preschool
education and comprehensive family services to at-risk
youth and their families in the neighborhoods in which
they reside.
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