October 2002

Last year, Philadelphia Mayor John Street committed his administration to an ambitious goal: developing a Children's Investment Strategy (CIS) to secure $150 million for the expansion and enhancement of youth development and after-school programs to improve outcomes for the city's children.

In June 2002, CIS showed tangible results, as the mayor announced the funding and opening of the first 11 Beacons programs in Philadelphia's history. Beacons, or school-based community centers, are a strategy for rebuilding community support for children, youth and their families. The goal of these schools is to establish safe havens for community residents and support safety, education, early care, youth development, and training and employment opportunities.

The opening of these Beacons coincided with another milestone: the mayor's announcement that the CIS is more than one-third of the way to its $150 million funding goal. About half of the goal is to come from the city budget and half from federal, state and private sources. In addition, more than 100 new after-school programs have been developed and two Teen Centers recently opened due to the CIS.

The CIS is led by Philadelphia Safe and Sound, which provides training, technical assistance, financial planning, funding, program implementation support and staff support to the CIS. The CIS is the third component of a three-part effort by the City and Safe and Sound to create sustainable systems change to improve the well being of Philadelphia's children.

The CIS builds on the first two components of this effort: the annual City Report Card and the annual Children's Budget. "While both of these are analytical tools to track conditions of childhood well being, and government investments to provide services to improve those conditions, the CIS is an action plan for expanding and improving services for children," says Joanne Lawer, acting president and CEO for Safe and Sound.

The CIS has a broad-based oversight committee with leadership from the mayor, other leaders from the public sector, as well as the corporate, foundation and faith-based communities, to guide the development of the strategy to secure the $150 million. "The funding comes from multiple sources, including TANF dollars, the workforce investment board, human services, and more," says Lawer. "When the need is that great you need to be flexible with regard to sources."

That flexibility has another advantage. Different funding sources have different criteria. For example, one source may be intended for kids age 10-15, another for kids 12-18. "With multiple sources, we can serve virtually any age group, as we can triage and go from one source to another to make sure all kids are served," says Lawer.

The CIS also includes a management component. "The City has a set of principles and objectives to guide the expansion of after-school and youth development opportunities," says Lawer. "Those are that programs must be based on sound research, that they have an academic component, that they have a valid and reliable data system to measure progress, and that training and technical assistance is shared across agencies. The City needed an intermediary to facilitate these principles and objectives across separate agencies, and to make sure that new funding connects with what others are already doing. That is a role Safe and Sound plays."

Lawer says the CIS is the road map that shows the way to expand services for an additional 100,000 kids in Philadelphia. With the new Beacons and other programs, the city is well on its way.

For more information on this website on Philadelphia Safe and Sound, click here. For more information on this website about after-school programs, click here.