April 2004

Increased funding, better data and greater coordination are the essence of the recommendations made by the Michigan After-School Initiative (MASI).  In December 2003 MASI submitted its report and recommendations for expanding and sustaining quality after-school programs throughout Michigan.  Many of the strategies recommended in the report to the Governor and Legislature are already underway. 

The Legislature created the Michigan After-School Initiative (MASI) in 2003.  The MASI task force includes more than 70 members representing 40 organizations involved in advocating or providing after-school programs throughout Michigan.  Mayor’s Time participated in the research for and development of the report, and helped fund MASI through its Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant.  Several of MASI’s recommendations mirror the policy and fiscal strategies of Mayor’s Time. 

Below is a partial list of the report’s recommendations:

• Develop blended funding strategies to maximize available federal, state, local and private funds. 
   
• Enact enabling legislation that allows private and local public funds to be pooled and used to leverage available federal funds, which the state cannot currently draw down due to lack of general fund dollars to match. 
   
• Enact an after-school program and childcare tax credit for parents and caregivers to offset the costs of after-school care. 
   
• Direct the Michigan Department of Management and Budget to analyze expenditures for children and youth services for the purposes of establishing a youth development budget. 
   
• Require all publicly funded programs to use the state funded 21^st Century Community Learning Centers data reporting information system, and add modules to the information system that address unique community needs.  Allow privately funded programs to use the state funded data reporting information system, with reimbursement to the state.
   
• Develop and enact an enhanced county childcare fund to increase available funding for after-school programs to avert out-of-home placements.
   
• MASI will work with the administration to ensure accountability and cross-department support of after-school programs.

Mayor’s Time worked to have a number of these recommendations included in the report and is playing a leadership role in their implementation.  For example:

• With regard to “blended funding”, one such opportunity is being pursued by the Michigan Department of Community Health, the Family Independence Agency and the State Court Administrative Offices.  New policies allow counties to leverage additional Medicaid and State Childcare Funds to improve and expand community-based youth development services, including after-school programming.  Mayor’s Time assisted in developing the new policies, and is helping to train agencies within Wayne County to take advantage of them.
   
• Mayor’s Time is working with several public and private entities interested in pooling public and private dollars.  Through this approach, private funds are “donated” to a local agency; the local agency then receives reimbursement from the state for its expenditures. The bottom line is significantly more funds for services to kids who need help, twice the amount that the philanthropy would have spent on its own.  (For an article on Mayor’s Time’s Youth Development Investment Strategy, click here.)
   
• Mayor’s Time and Michigan’s 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program united their efforts to create the on-line data reporting system mentioned in MASI’s recommendations.  The data system that will track and document youth participation in after-school activities, and allow for the analysis of the relationship between participation and outcomes. (For an article on the new data system, click here.)
   
• The report recommends statewide versions of efforts Mayor’s Time has pursued locally in Detroit.  Mayor’s Time is working with City Budget Director Roger Short on an annual children’s budget.  And City departments have all submitted work plans detailing how they support after-school programming.

The full MASI report, which can be found here, notes “The evidence that after-school programs play an invaluable role in positive youth development is clear and compelling.  MASI members feel very strongly about the need for a statewide initiative to increase the quality and capacity of after-school programs throughout Michigan.  They will continue advocating for MASI and are committed to the actions outlined in this report.”