St. Louis Five-Year Consolidated Plan Strategy

St. Louis Five Year Consolidated Plan Strategy

Chapter 3

YOUTH PROGRAMS

It seems that St. Louis is not suffering from a lack of commitment to youth services but instead is dealing with a variety of problems that are associated with inner-city youth. There are approximately 89,900 to 118,000 people under the age of 18 residing within the city limits, or about 25.5% of the total city population. Children and youth in the City of

St. Louis are struggling against several challenges that threaten their well-being and positive development. From birth through young adulthood, inner-city young people especially face numerous obstacles. Some areas in St. Louis City still carry infant mortality rates (IMR) that mirror the current rates found in less-developed countries. Lead remains present in significant portions of the city housing stock, subjecting young children to lead-poisoning-related disorders that stem from flaking paint and dust in homes needing renovation.

Data from the 1995-96 school year indicated an astonishing one in four (24.9%) high school students in the city of St. Louis drop out of school. The comparative national average was a 5.3% dropout rate. Numbers show only 39% of young people succeeded in graduating high school within four years for the same 1995-96 school year. Low levels of education for our youth contribute to lessened social and economic opportunities as adults. Nationwide, the number of children living in impoverished families remains at approximately one in every five. In St. Louis City, this number is even more concentrated according to Missouri State Census Data, with approximately 25% of all households (with and without children) living below the poverty standard. Children living in poverty are more likely to engage in delinquent behavior, drop out of school, become a teen parent, or experience other difficulties in social and educational development.

The news is not entirely negative. There is a significant commitment to youth services in this region. Many of the current services described below target the particular needs of inner-city youth and youth at-risk. Several of these providers are steering towards a more comprehensive or holistic method of addressing problems that take into account that children and youth live within the context of a family, a school, and a neighborhood. Thus, many of the services are targeted toward supporting development at each of these levels. In addition, more services are being geared toward prevention in terms of health, delinquency, and violence. Overall, there has been increasing dialogue and interest on the part of providers in thinking and acting strategically for the welfare of City children. A sample of several representative initiatives that have been enacted in the City during the past five years include the following:

Current Services

Vision for Children at Risk (VCR) sponsored a regional conference of youth service providers in October 1998. The St. Louis Metropolitan Agenda for Children and Youth, presented at this summit, was developed by six task forces working in the areas of family support, critical development needs, maternal and child health, quality education, safe neighborhoods and strong communities, and economic opportunity. The conference was co-sponsored by America's Promise: The Alliance for Youth. Thirty priority strategies developed by the six task forces comprise the Agenda, which is based on the collaborative work of over 300 individuals, businesses, agencies, and community organizations with an active interest in the well-being of St. Louis young people. Thirty implementation work groups are pursuing implementation of this Agenda. Each is charged with bringing about one of the priority strategies in the Agenda. The mission of VCR is to promote the well-being of children and youth in the St. Louis metropolitan area, targeting particularly those young people who face serious socioeconomic risk. The goal of VCR is to ensure that the St. Louis community makes more effective, systematic provision for meeting the fundamental needs of all area children.
St. Louis City Office of Youth Development (OYD) improves the quality of life for children and youth through advocacy and leadership development. It serves as a technical advising and clearinghouse for information, posts job alerts for youth related job opportunities, and is a site for the Missouri Mentoring Partnership. OYD operates the Mayor's Youth Advisory Board and publishes the Side By Side directory of organizations and programs serving youth in the City of St. Louis. It also administers SafeFutures federal grant funds obtained from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency, described in more detail below.
SafeFutures is in its fourth year as a collaboration of approximately 20 organizational partners providing services to at-risk and delinquent youth and their families. The City Office of Youth Development administers this partnership. Funding from the United States Department of Justice ($7.2 million for the multiyear project) was secured through its collaborative mechanisms to operate this crime prevention and intervention program. Included among the SafeFutures partners are two Community Education Centers.
The St. Louis Public Schools, through its 16 Community Education Centers (CECs), provide after-school programs that increase academic achievement, provide cultural enrichment, and promote risk-education for children and youth in identified high-risk areas of the city. Each CEC houses a Family Resource Center therapist and a community outreach worker. Five CECs-including Carver, Columbia, Clay, Sigel, and Williams-began implementing the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program in October 1998. CECs continued to partner with Neighborhood Stabilization Officers (NSOs), St. Louis Metropolitan Police Officers, AmeriCorps (American Youth Foundation), and other private and public service providers. CECs not only provide programs and services to children, but also extend opportunities to families and the greater local community.
The St. Louis City Recreation Division implements several programs serving children ages 7 through 12 during summer and throughout the year, including an Expanded League sports program, Recreation Arts program, Outpost Recreation program in public schools, and a new Outreach Program in faith communities. The Expanded League sports program operates year-round, supporting over 90 leagues and approximately 2000 youth in basketball, baseball, golf, track, T-ball, softball, and indoor soccer. The Junior Football League includes ten teams of children ages 7-14, and there are 10 cheerleading squads with 10 participants in each. The Division furnishes all transportation, uniforms, and membership fees. The Recreation Division gears its services universally towards all city residents, yet its activities are most important for the young people of low- to moderate-income families who may not be able to afford private recreation programs. In areas that do not have any of the nine city recreation centers, the Recreation Outpost program, located on the site of neighborhood schools, provides young people available access to regular recreational opportunities during after-school hours. The number of Outposts has decreased since the inception of the program, mostly because of the demand for security and need for more positive cooperation on the part of individual school principals.
The St. Louis City Department of Human Services, Youth and Family Services Division has continued to provide support to community, church, and other recreational youth programs through its nutritional food-service program. Over 240 sites, including 88 public school summer programs, were served this past summer, with a delivery of 20,000 daily meals during peak summer weeks. The year-round Child and Adult Care Food program feeds children in homeless shelters and day-care programs across the city.
Mentorship, Instruction, Nutrition and Esteem (MINE), currently serving 3,000 youth annually, was established in 1996 to provide life-skills instruction and positive contact with caring adults and teens for inner-city youth. This summer, the new Recreation, Education, Nutrition, and Tutoring (RENT) program initiated by local churches and City Recreation centers, provided early evening meals and structured activities in high-risk juvenile crime areas. RENT continues throughout the school year through two churches and two Recreation Centers. Since 1997, Curfew Centers have provided social service and follow-up for youth deemed at-risk. Truancy Centers operated by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Juvenile Division at Fanning and Northwest Middle Schools initiate social services and in-home follow-up with juveniles brought to the Centers.
Youth Seeking Opportunities for Success, established in 1998 in targeted neighborhoods with high reported concentrations of gun activity, serves as an outreach to divert youth from gang activity. This department also serves as the lead agency for the Safe Start Initiative, a five-year grant with the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention to reduce the effect of violence on young children. The new Juvenile Accountability Incentive Block Grant (JAIBG) programs are developing for literacy, tutoring and mentoring, multisystemic therapy and in-home follow-up services, job readiness, and job placement.
A City Health Department Youth Division was created in 1999 to address the specific needs of adolescent health. It is paying special attention to youths' accessibility to health information-such as that concerning tobacco and other substance use, teen pregnancy prevention, sexually transmitted diseases, and physical injuries-because of adolescents' sense of invulnerability and risk-taking behaviors. The division also seeks to increase the capacity of parents, professionals, and other care givers to instruct and guide young people concerning health-related issues.
A Blueprint for Recreation study examined "best practices" across the country and in its 1997 report recommended a series of initiatives. Safe Places for Kids is a major initiative resulting from these recommendations. St. Louis 2004 was selected to address this top regional priority. Safe Places for Kids' volunteer task force developed a preliminary document, Guidelines for Creating Safe Places for Kids, which is a planning guide available to the community working with children's priorities. Financial resources of $2.5 million will be available to Safe Places over a three-year implementation period. The Regional Violence Prevention Initiative was selected as an implementing agent and a search is underway for a leading national authority to be director of Safe Places by the beginning of 2000.
The Safe Places Agenda is fourfold. It seeks to:
- Create a regional Institute for Youth development that would offer, at minimal costs, an ongoing source for training to youth practitioners and volunteers at all levels.
- Attract entirely new sources of funding into the St. Louis area from state, federal, and philanthropic sources not currently used.
- Invite existing providers to access these funds and technical assistance and to deliver them strategically to underserved groups within city neighborhoods.
- Become identified as a leading advocate in public policy and public education in aligning the macro-level agents to respond to children's needs.
TeensCare Community Service Program is a youth service-learning program that started in 1996 as an effort to stimulate philanthropy among young people. Teens develop proposals for community service projects, complete with a budget up to $500, and submit their proposals to a competitive grant process. The TeensCare review panel is a group of teens ages 14-21 who apply to serve on the panel that meets, reviews proposals, and decides the grant awards. This program has received support from the St. Louis Community Foundation and the Enterprise Community (EC).
The Ounce of Prevention Program was established to achieve measurable reductions in the incidence of crime and violence in the Enterprise Community. Staff accomplished this objective by coordinating and enhancing existing community efforts directed at youth crime and violence prevention, and providing the means to integrate these efforts into a comprehensive strategy for the Enterprise Community. Summits were sponsored throughout 1997 and 1998 to provide a forum for youth services providers to collaborate, promote dialog, and professionally network. Training programs provided professional development on topics of targeted interest to the youth providers, including strategic planning, collaboration building, outcome-based evaluating, effective communication, conflict resolution, and strategies for working with adolescent youth. Youth organization staff were also provided with Internet access and training to facilitate continued collaboration and communication through computer-based technology.

Needs and Challenges

Several critical areas in youth needs are expected to persist during the next five years. The Vision for Children at Risk (VCR) critical-issues task forces have identified six areas of need for children in metropolitan St. Louis and have formulated a series of work groups to address each strategy. These include:

Family Support
Critical Development Needs (childcare, mentoring, special needs)
Maternal and Child Health
Quality Education
Safe Neighborhoods and Strong Communities
Economic Opportunity

A seventh strategy entitled "Capacity Building' focuses upon the need for a region-wide public information campaign to establish well-being of children as a primary civic action priority. The strategy also explores the use of funding mechanisms in the metropolitan area, paying particular attention to the large resource disparities among jurisdictions in the region. St. Louis SafeFutures' strategic plan for its particular targeted-area project offers additional insight into the greater regional focus of Vision for Children at Risk. It is through this combined framework that the complex needs of this city's children are discussed, a few of which are highlighted below.

One particularly interesting development in youth services in St. Louis is the ever-increasing immigrant and refugee population in St. Louis. St. Louis has the second-largest-and still-growing-Bosnian refugee population in the United States. The City has also recently resettled nearly 2000 Kosovars. In prior years there has been an influx of Vietnamese and Mexican immigrants as well. The MINE nutrition program served approximately 2500 Kosher meals each day during a recent summer, demonstrating the new blend of the city population. Young immigrants and refugees create unique situations for providers. Drug use tends to be high, as well as risk for domestic violence. Many of these children are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and language barriers. Immunizations are still a problem all over the city, but newly settled groups carry an additional high risk for Hepatitis A and Tuberculosis.

Missouri legislation instated in 1998 its child health insurance plan, which is occurring in each state nationwide. Missouri offers relatively generous healthcare coverage through its Medicaid expansion (MC+) to children living in families who earn up to 300% of the poverty level and who have been uninsured for at least six months. If eligible families are able to learn of the plan and enroll, this expansion should greatly enhance the medical health of children who are not insured through a parent's work benefits or who could not previously qualify for Medicaid.

Children around the city also remain in great need of having a healthy start to their lives. In all but three City ZIP codes, 20.1% or greater of births have been to women with late or no prenatal care. The remaining three ZIP codes also carried rates clearly above the national 4.8%. Failure to obtain medical attention and guidance during pregnancy frequently leads to a variety of infant health problems and even death. Preventative health services have been expanding, including a new focus on sexual health and substance abuse issues. Violence and gang activity are being viewed and treated as health problems.

Juvenile delinquency has taken much more of a forefront in youth services in recent years. More money has been made available from the justice department for youth in St. Louis City. A Juvenile Drug Court was created within the 22nd Judicial Circuit Court in 1999. Over the past few years more comprehensive services have become available for delinquent youth and youth at risk of such behavior. SafeFutures research has identified several gaps that continue to exist, including services that deal with youth inside the juvenile system or habilitation needs of those exiting the system and reentering the community. These include a lack of services for imprisoned youth with their own children. There is a demand for a wider continuum of justice services and graduated sanctions, including community restitution-based programs. Negative media portrayals of violence demonstrate little alternative to real violence and provide a negative image as well of the city's communities. Pervasive messages continue to promote alcohol and tobacco use through advertising in at-risk communities, with little or no forces to counteract these health-debilitating choices. Recreational services, an activity that also serves to deter delinquency, are currently not distributed evenly and available to all St. Louis children. This issue of availability includes both distribution by region of the city as well as continued demand for expanded recreation opportunities for girls.

Services to older youth have increased as well, yet teenage and young adult needs still demand greater attention. Males age 18-20 produce particular service needs especially related to gang activity and employment issues. The St. Louis Housing Authority directly addresses this at-risk population partly through expanded services to youth in public housing. Alternative housing is often required for these youth. Another indicator of risk for children is the percentage of out-of-home or alternative care placements, such as in foster care, residential treatment centers, shelters, or homes of relatives. According to The Children of Metropolitan St. Louis 1997 report, 10 of the 18 City ZIP codes of youth residence prior to placement show 25.1 or more per 1,000 children live out-of-home. The comparative national rate is 6.8 per 1,000 children. This is an indicator of the frequency with which children are exposed to risk or dysfunction in their family homes. An additional and related problem that persists is the increase of homelessness among youth.

Economic opportunities benefit the family in which children live as well as the youth themselves. SafeFutures research asserts that many young people in disadvantaged areas, whether they have graduated from high school, need intensive job readiness, job skills, and employment training that leads to genuine opportunities to secure long-tern, productive employment. Youth employment clearly adds protection against delinquent or criminal behavior, as well as providing additional financial support to members of low-income households.

Funding for youth programming is always an issue and seems to be ever changing. Individual giving seems to be growing, and thus foundations have more money to give away. More federal and state money is being set aside for specific services or problems, particularly prevention services. Often the money is set-aside after a high profile incident, such as the Columbine, Colorado shootings, with no longer-term financial commitment. Overall formula allocations have been decreasing each year, resulting in less money directed for youth services.

Recommendations

a) Identify a "champion" for children and youth within City civic leadership to be the voice that effectively articulates the need for positive attention and investment in the young people of St. Louis.

This recommendation is particularly important for the seeking and securing of private funding resources. Having an identified spokesperson for children would also allow service providers to know who to approach to speak to decision-making bodies and to the public on behalf of children. Such an identified person would also ensure that children's issues remain a top priority on the agenda.

b) Expand recreational programming so that all youth, especially those in areas that currently have limited or no facilities or programs, will have a safe, supervised, and developmentally stimulating environment in which to be after school and during summer and holidays.

It is critical for youth energies to be occupied in productive and positive activities. Research has shown that the "critical hours" when youth are most likely to be involved in trouble occur after school from about two to three P.M. to six or seven P.M. Supervision from working parents, other relatives, or neighbors frequently may not be present during these time periods. Access to a caring adult or mentor provides a child or youth with crucial guidance he or she may not otherwise encounter. Community recreation programming during these hours needs to be in place and available to youth in every area of the city. These programs include the Recreation Outposts that use neighborhood schools.

c) Foster expanded interest and resources among public schools to engage in a greater cooperative relationship with youth service providers.

Public schools provide the best primary access to a majority of the city's children because schools are where children spend most of their time most days. There is some reluctance on the part of schools to participate holistically to reach needs of children beyond the academic. There is also widespread criticism of the effectiveness of St. Louis public schools, as evidenced in part by dramatic dropout levels, as well as in the nearly one-quarter of City children attending private or parochial schools-among the highest percentages in U.S. cities. Educational Excellence has been echoed as one of the Mayor's "Vital Few" priorities. An enhanced relationship between the City and neighborhood schools would provide an excellent mechanism by which to reach the kids in greatest need.

d) Attend to specific programming needs of at-risk teen-aged and young adult people.

Adolescents ages 13 through 17 are underserved relative to the younger members of their generation. They can be among the most challenging to work with and yet can the among the most rewarding because of their tremendous energy and emerging critical viewpoints about the world in which they live. Teenagers and young adults of working age are in need of mentoring and individualized attention. This recommendation follows along the same lines as expanded recreational opportunities, but focuses particularly on the further needs of this age range in terms of higher education and workforce preparation.

e) Encourage continued cooperation and collaboration between youth service providers, particularly through the implementation of shared strategic efforts, to secure funding and to enhance their abilities to adapt to the identified needs and assets of today's young people.

As needs change and particular gaps emerge, service providers and their resources must be able to respond to the call. Efforts to foster effective communication among providers and access to coordinated services are in the best interests of children and youth. This effort may include a central clearinghouse, such as for grant applications; an accessible information directory accessed electronically; and forums for continued dialogue over best practices. This collaboration needs to be done in such a way as to pay attention to smaller, neighborhood based groups that have responded to the organic needs of the children who live there.

Resources

When discussing resources as they pertain to youth needs and services, it is important to include not only financial capacities but human resources and innovation as well. Currently, the city spends the following approximate figures from the General Fund towards services that include youth (Fiscal Year 2000):

SLATE/Office of Youth Development:          $  171,000
Human Services/Youth & Family Services      $   73,000
Recreation (entire budget)                  $2,403,000

Recent (1998) DBG grants were used for recreation expansion within the Department of Parks, Recreation, and Forestry (about $400,000 expended); an after-school youth services program (about $30,000 expended); and a summer recreation program for youth ages 7 to 13 (about $20,000 expended). Other sources of funding include state and federal grants for particular programs. Both the Department of Human Services (Youth & Family Services) and SLATE/OYD utilize such funds. Numerous not-for-profit organizations that serve youth also receive funds from foundations for use in programming.

CHILD CARE NEEDS AND SERVICES

When discussing the provision of child care, it is important to note that "looking after" children-from infancy to kindergarten-means more than simply babysitting. The environments and interactions young children experience need to address their developmental needs and prepare them for later learning capabilities and school success. Nutrition, sensory stimulation, language development and other communication development are critical pieces of an enriching early childhood daily experience.

Advocates of children will voice that the time for awareness and the directing of funds has finally ripened for early childhood-development issues-and is also long overdue. Recent legislative measures involving young children have come into action during 1998 and 1999. Information provided by Citizens for Missouri's Children and the United Way Legislative Office identifies several recent Missouri state and federal legislation measures that affect children in St. Louis City:

Medicaid expansion beginning in 1998 has increased the eligibility of health care coverage to children of uninsured low and middle-income families with incomes up to 300% of the poverty level. The Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP) is occurring nationwide with each state enacting its own program. Missouri has one of the most generous coverage limits.
Passage of HB 1519 in 1999 created an early childhood development, education, and care fund with proceeds from the Gaming Commission. These are to be used for establishing preschool programs, funding of child-care subsidies for parents with incomes below 185% of the federal poverty level, raising reimbursement rates for accredited child-care providers, and for developing awareness and outreach pertaining to early childhood development needs. Preference is given to those programs that serve special needs or low income children and those that offer after-hours care.

Other measures (HB 490/308) have passed in 1999 that require state-subsidized child-care providers to meet basic safety requirements and to pass child abuse and neglect (criminal background check) screenings for every adult within child-care homes. License-exempt facilities (such as programs within churches) became eligible for the adult and child day-care food program. Such facilities were also required to inform their parent consumers that their employees had been screened with background checks.

Current Services

The Child Day Care Association is a central planning, training, and coordinating agency for day care services. It provides on-site training, consultation, and support to member centers; promotes day care services and standards; provides child care resources and referral services; helps companies, individuals, and groups plan day care center or home programs; and manages the USDA child-care food program for licensed family day-care providers. Its services are regional; as such, they are provided to St. Louis City, St. Louis County, St. Charles County, Warren County and, to a less frequent extent, to Jefferson and Franklin Counties. The association has been providing its referral service since the late 1970s by directly assisting parents in finding child care appropriate for that family's needs.
During the past year, the Child Day Care Association funded an outstation worker to be accessible by phone or walk-in to parents through the Department of Family Services. This "stop gap" effort focuses particularly on special needs and also intends to provide parents with the know-how regarding child care service, keeping them from depending upon others to access services for them.
The Missouri Child Care Resource and Referral Network is involved in the initiative to support parents in being informed decision-makers regarding their families and the use of child care resources. They are undergoing a public awareness campaign to educate parents on the importance of providing quality early childhood environments.
The United Way of Greater St. Louis-Success By Six is an initiative sponsored within the Community Building Division. Its ABC model (Access, Building Awareness, Collaboration) works to connect people with programs and services, to promote the value and importance of early childhood development and education, and to encourage and participate in partnerships that improve the lives of children and families. Success By Six functions with and through existing programs and services, sharing information through information and materials, including a parent's resource guide and tip cards; a Speaker's Bureau that offers presentations to schools, businesses, churches, healthcare, and social service providers; a toll-free Parent Help Line linking callers with answers and support; and regular participation in family events such as Celebration of the Week of the Young Child and the Missouri Black Expo. Success by Six also provides a platform for ongoing community dialogue surrounding parenting issues.
In 1999 the Bank of America (formerly NationsBank in the St. Louis region) targeted St. Louis as a high-risk region and committed to five-year, $50 million support of the nationwide Success By Six initiative. St. Louis received a boost of $350,000 this year from the foundation. The grant will be used throughout the 11 counties of Missouri and Illinois to expand parent education and involvement in early childhood development through home visits, parenting classes, support groups, developmental screenings and immunizations, and special awareness programs. The initiative also serves to increase training and support for early child-care professionals and workers.
Families and Learning Initiative is a St. Louis 2004 project involving the resources of multiple regional players. As part of the initiative, an "environmental scan" of various regional planners is being conducted to eventually construct a database by which transportation-accessible care sites may be located. Components of this initiative include the aforementioned Data and Information System, a Public Information and Outreach program, Facilities Development and Improvement, Staff Training and Program Quality, and Employer Support. This initiative is in the planning process stage and expects to begin implementation in summer 2000.
Area Resources for Community and Human Services (ARCHS) incorporated as a nonprofit in 1998. It was previously known as the St. Louis Community Partnership. It is Missouri's, and the nation's, largest community governance partnership. It aims to create a bridge between neighborhoods, the broader community, and the state government. ARCHS sponsors an Early Childhood Development committee that seeks to promote quality care, training, and professional development education for child care providers, as well as the ability of providers to establish and maintain child-care service sites. It is currently involved with the United Way in a pilot study examining child care employee retention when workers are provided with enhanced pay and administrative services. The study is also evaluating if these enhancements are a valuable means of increasing quality of child-care services.
Other committees sponsored by ARCHS, besides Early Childhood Development, include Sustainable Neighborhoods, Welfare to Work, Health, and Data. The ARCHS board consists of citizen members advised by both a neighborhood cabinet and a professional cabinet. The partners of Sustainable Neighborhoods include St. Louis 2004, Regional Housing and Community Development, and eight St. Louis neighborhoods. Additionally, ARCHS is the governance organization for St. Louis Caring Communities and is partnered with seven Missouri Departments: Corrections, Economic Development, Elementary and Secondary Education, Health, Labor and Industrial Relations, Mental Health, and Social Services.
St. Louis Public School District Preschools serve three- to five-year olds in making the transition from home to school a successful one for approximately 2300 children in the city of St. Louis each year. They are funded through a combination of four ways: special education dollars per federal and state screening and guidelines; magnet funds by the state desegregation decree; district dollars for half-day provisions; and Title I federal to state block dollars in accordance with screening and income guidelines. HB 1519 Gaming Commission funds expect to contribute to the expansion of the number of "seats" offered in preschools. Additional funding has been available through the Danforth (St. Louis 2004) Childcare Community Partnership, which supports center-based care through a Missouri Preschool Project grant and home-based care through a Smart Start grant. The first stage of the project focused on professional development enhancement for staff of child care facilities. Stages two and three give particular focus to four or five centers in an effort to expand services and to allow them accreditation or recertification.
The Head Start Program, operated in St. Louis City by the Human Development Corporation (HDC) and the Archdiocese (and in the County by the YWCA) offers both full- and part-day care for economically disadvantaged preschool children ages three to five. Approximately 30 Head Start programs operate in the city, providing meals, snacks, education, transportation, and social services at no charge based upon federal poverty line income guidelines eligibility.
Bridges to Work is a federal program funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that operates in five U.S. cities and addresses the "spatial mismatch" between the residents of city inner cores and more abundant employment opportunities in parts of the counties. The East-West Gateway Coordinating Council (EWGCC) manages the program for the St. Louis region. It seeks to connect up to 400 workers with good jobs, particularly those moving into employment from public assistance. The program includes provisions of child care assistance as well as transportation and career counseling.
Needs and Challenges
It is estimated that in the city of St. Louis, there will be approximately 25,200 children under the age of six needing child care in the year 2000. This represents a 30% increase (or about 5,800 children) since 1995.
Affordable and Accessible. There is increasing demand for low-cost and accessible child-care services because of the increase in working mothers-including women moving from welfare to work, as directed by recent welfare reform legislation. ARCHS Community Plan research estimates there are approximately 25,900 children under the age of five in St. Louis City. The licensed capacity for the City equals about 14,100 slots, demonstrating an enormous gap between demand and supply of quality services. In the year 2000, it is estimated that an additional 8,000 children under the age of six will need child-care services as a result of welfare reform implementation. St Louis is seeing one of the region's largest percent increases from 1995 to 2000 of children needing care-an increase of about 30%.
Child care is frequently the second-largest item in the budgets of low-income families. The Human Development Corporation reports that the average cost of child care is $4000 per year for each child. The cost is often even higher for families living in metropolitan areas.
ARCHS and other agencies assert that parents require early child-care and education services to: (1) be conveniently located near home or work, or along the route between work and home; (2) be offered at hours that coincide with work shifts, which may include evenings, nights, or weekends; (3) be appropriately tailored to the ages and developmental needs of the children; (4) take place in a full spectrum of informal to formal settings; and (5) demonstrate quality based upon reliable standards.
The full range of types of child care providers includes:
- Informal relative or neighbor care
- Unregulated "vendor homes"
- License-exempt centers
- Licensed homes
- Licensed centers
- Accredited and licensed centers
The Child Day Care Association reports that in the City of St. Louis we currently have 96 licensed child-care centers, 33 license-exempt centers, 142 licensed family child-care homes, and 2946 unregulated "vendor" home providers who have contracts with the Department of Family Services (DFS) to receive child-care subsidies. Unregulated "vendor" homes can provide care for four or fewer unrelated children. License-exempt centers include church-based and school-based sites. As the numbers of unregulated child-care providers have increased in a reflection of this preference, the numbers of regulated child-care providers have dropped.
Trends among low-income consumers of child care indicate a growing preference for unregulated informal child-care providers. ARCHS research estimates Temporary Assistance customers are likely to choose to have their children cared for by a family member 43% of the time, by a neighbor or non-family member 21% of the time, and by a formal family child-care center or program 36% of the time.
An emerging "gap group" of families moving off public assistance and needing child care has formed as working parents become ineligible for state child-care subsidies because of employment within the work force. Child Day Care Association data asserts that as working parents' incomes rise above approximately 133% of the poverty level, they become ineligible and must begin to pay for child care out-of-pocket.
Quality Services and Professional Development for Providers. One solid way to assure the quality of child care services is to have trained, educated, and qualified providers working with young children. A goal of strategies seeking to ensure quality care is to put providers on a path towards licensure and eventual accreditation.
Building Community and Consumer Awareness. The Human Development Corporation reports that as many as 80 to 90% of family child-care homes neither are regulated nor have contact with supportive agencies. Quality of care within these settings is inconsistent. South Side Day Nursery outreaches to family care providers in neighborhood and community organizing efforts around protection and development of children. Such agency involvement may serve as a model for creating ties of trust and mutual respect between what could be isolated family care providers and the parent and child supporting resources available through the organization.
Parents As Teachers is a program that currently provides an early education program for all children from birth through five years of age through each school district and several partnering social service agencies. Families receive home visits, group meetings with other parents, developmental and health screenings, and connections with other community agencies. This link through schools as well as social service agents is one established means through which information may universally reach parents of young children.
Funding. The time is finally ripe for leveraging dollars and resources from multiple sources-public, nonprofit, employer, and community-to make early childhood care and education a priority. No longer can families rely upon funds "left over" from some other purpose. Money for parenting education has become available through several departments of the state.
Recommendations
a) Increase parental awareness of the importance of including early childhood development and education as an essential component of child care.
b) Provide professional training and incentives to child care providers as part of the effort to ameliorate the quality of services to young children.
c) Enhance the full range of child-care options by increasing supports for informal family/relative and neighbor providers.
d) Increase access to quality child-care options for working low-income parents through the offering of nontraditional hours of child care.
Resources
The City spent the following in 1998 on Child Day Care Programs in five different sites:

Each of these sites served low- to moderate-income families, the majority of which were headed solely by women.
To finance the Families and Learning Initiative, proponents estimate the cost to be roughly $11,100,000 over the next five years, as follows:
```
Public Awareness and Outreach       $   500,000
Facilities Development, Expansion   $ 3,000,000
Training                            $ 7,000,000
Employer Support                    $   300,000
Data and Information Systems        $   300,000
Total                               $11,100,000
```
It is anticipated that a significant portion of the cost of Facilities Development, Expansion, and Training will be supported through public funds.
United Way reported that $3.5 million is in place from the Danforth Foundation with another $500,000 from an unnamed foundation. The United Way-Success By Six initiative has also received $350,000 as part of a five-year grant from Bank of America.