NACo

1
NACo Early Childhood Development/ Family
Economic Success
2
Early Childhood Development/Family Economic
Success

• NACo Works with Counties to Improve the Lives of
  Children Families

3
Goals and Origin

• Increase awareness of benefits to counties of
  early childhood development efforts
• Provide tools and information on how to serve
  children and families better
• Recognize outstanding county programs
• Provide technical assistance (including
  mini-grants) to counties
• Initiated by President Ken Mayfield

4
Why is this important to counties?

• Counties Care for Kids
• Counties are involved with child care, health
  care, schools, criminal justice, public
  assistance, etc.
• Strong families make strong counties
• Investing early pays off later - for every 1
  invested in quality early childhood programs,
  there is a long term benefit of 8.

5
NACo the Annie E. Casey Foundation

• Casey supports NACos technical assistance
  efforts
• The Casey philosophy
• Kids do well when their families do well
• Families do better when they live in supportive
  communities

6
Casey Philosophy continued

• Family Economic Success
• Earn It working families are earning enough to
  thrive (education, job training, jobs, EITC)
• Keep It working families can access a full
  range of financial services (job advancement,
  home ownership)
• Grow It working families are accumulating and
  maintaining assets (quality of life, young people
  remaining in the community)

7
What has NACo been doing ?

• Publications
• Grants to Counties
• Counties Care for Kids Awards
• Workshops
• RuFES (Rural Family Economic Success) Institute

8
Publications

• Early Childhood Development Tool Kit
• Financing Early Care and Education A Primer for
  County Leaders
• Proactive Funding Strategies for Home Visitation
• Monthly e-newsletter with resources and news

9
Small Grants to Counties

• To assist counties with new initiatives in early
  childhood development and family strengthening.
• In 2004, grants were made to
• Dakota County, MN Hill County, MT
• El Paso County, TX Latah County, ID
• Deschutes County, OR Santa Barbara County, CA
• In 2005, grants will go to
• Ashe County, NC Culpeper County, VA
• Deschutes County, OR Gloucester County, VA
• Greene County, MO Houston County, MN
• Bryan County, OK

10
Counties Care for Kids Awards

• NACo recognizes great county efforts each April
  during County Government Week
• In 2005, Napa County, CA and Butler County, OH
  will be honored
• Past county winners include Linn County, IA, El
  Paso County, CO, Fairfax County, VA, Dakota
  County, MN and Hillsborough County, FL

11
Workshops

• Wilson County, WA and the EITC
• Counties Working to Leverage Early Childhood
  Partnerships
• Counties Save Money and Prevent Child Abuse
  Through Home Visitation
• Strategies for Sustaining Early Childhood
  Programs

12
Rural Family Economic Success (RuFES) Learning
Institute

• Six county teams of at least three people (Mesa,
  Deschutes, Hill, Fulton, Columbus and Morrow) met
  prior to the Health, Human Services and Workforce
  Conference
• Two days of hard work
• Expert resources from Casey, Aspen Institute and
  county experts
• Each team created an action plan to take home.
• Plan to repeat it in 2005 in conjunction with a
  state association of counties

13
For more information

• Gary Gortenburg
• 202 942-4287
• ggortenb_at_naco.org