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As kids head back to school it is important to remember they spend most of their waking hours outside the classroom. Ensuring that children and youth have the supports and services they need before and after school, over weekends and on breaks, even before they reach school age, sets kids up for success inside the classroom.
Research shows that quality out-of-school time programs and care improve academic performance and overall well-being. Yet, these programs are often underfunded beginning in early childhood. For communities looking to foster better scholastic outcomes and support the growth and development of children and youth, the question becomes how to fund the services that kids and families need. That is when strategic public financing becomes a powerful tool for local leaders and advocates to fund the community-based programs that help children thrive inside and outside of school.
Fiscal maps are an increasingly impactful resource for cities, counties, states, and Native nations to understand existing funding structures through a child-centered lens. Data uncovered by fiscal mapping can align existing financial resources with a community’s goals for kids. Meanwhile, cost analysis and modeling helps advocates and local leaders put a price tag on those goals, update those costs over time as conditions change, and explore cost scenarios based on the emerging needs of children and youth. Pursuing additional funding can include dedicated funding at the state level and voter-approved children’s funds at the local level (more on these funding sources this fall as election season approaches). Communities can also explore policy changes or sources of primarily nontax funding for public projects that, traditionally, communities have not directed toward child and youth programs and services.
Finally, as schools and districts across the nation continue navigating a quickly evolving technological landscape with students, our Fund IRL coalition remains vigilant in monitoring litigation against social media companies and advocating for benefits to kids that could result from payouts from these lawsuits. Once familiar with the website, follow Fund IRL on LinkedIn to stay current with what advocates are doing to steer these monumental sources of revenue for children and youth.
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