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- Strategy and Guidelines
Early Childhood Development Strategy and Guidelines
Vision and Mission | Background | Strategy/Goals/Funding Areas | General Guidelines | Application Procedure
Mission:
- To encourage the formation of public/private collaborations in San Francisco, Marin, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties that will systematically focus on parents’ ability to cope with stress and with their children’s emotional and social development.
- To ensure healthy social/emotional development in children prenatal-3 by funding programs that serve parents, family caregivers, and professional caregivers (in that order of priority) who have difficulty coping with stress and who can not be served or are being insufficiently served by public agencies.
Strong attachment between caregiver and child increases the likelihood of a child’s healthy social and emotional development regardless of the temperament with which the child is born. Attachment and continued nurturing can often be impeded if the parent or caregiver has difficulty coping with stress. Parenting is demanding, but it is particularly challenging for families whose lives are already full of stress. There has been relatively little attention given to parents’ and caregivers’ ability to cope with the challenges they face (versus trying to reduce the stress for them). Bella Vista Foundation (BVF) has chosen to focus on increasing parents’ and caregivers’ ability to cope with stress as early as possible in the child’s life.
Both the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) and Zero to Three (Z-3) have asserted that the most significant barriers to quality parenting are physical abuse, substance abuse, maternal depression, and the parents own experience of being poorly parented. However, we are learning from service providers that parental difficulties in coping with stress also grow out of anxiety, anger, isolation, and grief—all of which may be exhibited by mothers, fathers, or other caregivers. It is probable that there is a lot of overlap of these conditions, but for Bella Vista Foundation, the central linkage is parents’ or caregivers’ difficulty in coping with stress.
Both NCCP and Z-3 cite the Department of Health and Human Services study of Early Head Start (EHS) in which—compared to a prevalence of 8-12% among all mothers—48% of EHS parents (mostly mothers and 1/3 still pregnant) exhibit substantial signs of depression. Since EHS nationally serves 3% of eligible low-income children at least that many mother and child dyads are getting some help. However, the other 97% of low-income families are unlikely to be getting systematic help. BVF will focus its efforts on helping low and moderate income parents improve their ability to cope with stress.
Significant public resources are directed (and more could be directed) at increasing parents’ and caregivers’ ability to cope with stress through mental health, substance abuse, anger management, homeless and other service programs. In a growing number of places there are explicit programs, standing alone or addressing co-occurring issues. The scale of the need is so great that it can only be met by significant publicly-funded programs maintained over at least two generations. In the four West Bay counties where BVF works, we will encourage the counties, other foundations and service providers to systematically assess and help parents, caregivers and children with their emotional challenges.
Publicly-funded programs do provide, and most likely need to increase, services to low-income parents and their children with diagnosed mental health disorders. Whether such programs can be extended to parents and children who are likely to have a need before it is diagnosed and to moderate income families who need some level of help is not clear. BVF grants will go to service providers who are willing to push the boundaries of public funding and reimbursement to encompass as many parents as possible who have a need for less intensive services than individual therapy and medication. BVF hopes to complement public funding by reaching as many mothers (and fathers and caregivers) as possible, as early as possible, who might benefit from learning techniques to successfully cope with stress both currently and in the future. Techniques we have supported include mindfulness training during pregnancy; home visiting; substance abuse parenting programs; nurturing parenting programs; infant massage; exercise; and parent support groups, especially for parents who are isolated because of geography or language. There are many other methods of coping with stress—we hope agencies will come forward with some innovative and potentially effective ideas.
Strategy, Goals, and Funding Areas:
To achieve our vision we are employing a two-pronged strategy that (1) supports and promotes collaboration among county groups of public and private agencies that seek to develop and implement county-wide strategies and objectives, and (2) provides grants to community based organizations in each county. This two-pronged approach has an overall long-term societal objective of reducing the number of children coming to kindergarten not emotionally ready to be there from approximately 25% overall today to less than 10% in all ethnic and income groups within a generation.
Our two-pronged approach addresses both county-wide and program-specific funding goals:
- County-Wide Strategy: Public
and private agencies, foundations and corporations will collaborate
to build a comprehensive network of services for parents and their young
children in which data collection and measurable objectives lead to
the creation and system-wide delivery of the highest quality services
to a series of targeted populations in each county.
a) Goal:
Specific strategic goals will be posted after they are developed in each county. Please continue to visit the website for updates.
b) Funding Strategy:
The Foundation wants to better understand what and where the needs are around alleviating parental depression (and other similar maladies) and increasing parents’ abilities to cope with stress and positively promote their child’s emotional health in each of the four counties in which we fund: Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara. We have begun by supporting planning efforts in Marin and San Francisco. BVF wants to continue to be involved by participating in different meetings and convenings that seek to create county-wide and cross-systems collaborations in each of the four counties, and the foundation is willing to fund such convenings. BVF is willing to help inform public and private decision makers of the importance of funding programs offering relevant and effective services. - Service Provider
Strategy: Programs will provide services that prevent or
alleviate emotional difficulties for parents and caregivers and support
the healthy social/emotional development of their children by increasing
parents’/caregivers’ ability to cope with stress, depression
and/or other similar maladies.
a) Goal:
Serve distinct sub-groups within the county target population with demonstrably or theoretically effective programs, services, or therapy, and help parents, caregivers, and their children to be successful as measured by county-wide agreed upon tools/methods when available.
- b) Funding Strategy:
- i) BVF is interested in reaching as many mothers (and fathers and caregivers) as possible who have less severe challenges (and therefore do not qualify for public services) and who might benefit from strategies such as mindfulness training (a BVF-funded pilot program for pregnant women with a history of depression has shown great promise); home visiting; nurturing parenting programs; infant massage; exercise; and mom/parent support groups, especially for parents who are isolated because of geography or language. These strategies can be part of programs aimed at other co-occurring conditions. There are many other methods of coping with stress—we hope agencies will come to us with some innovative and potentially effective ideas. We hope to reach parents during pregnancy or when they have children 0 to 3 years old, because the earlier in a child’s life that a mother, in particular, is able to cope with the stress in her life, the stronger the attachment between mother and child and the healthier the child’s social/emotional development is likely to be.
- To see a list of indicators for quality programs, click here.
- IMPORTANT: Bella Vista Foundation will NOT fund Raising A Reader for individual programs or child care centers. Childcare programs and pre-schools that are interested in Raising A Reader and would like more information (including the cost of the program) should contact the Raising A Reader coordinator in their county. For contact information, click here.
ii) In addition to the initiatives addressing parental stress, Bella Vista Foundation will continue to fund the Raising A Reader program for infants and toddlers (www.raisingareader.org), a book lending program that encourages attachment by having parents and caregivers lap-read with young children, thereby both nurturing the children and introducing them to the fun of reading. It is significant that this program goes beyond getting books into the home. It encourages parents to lap read via a video for parents, coaches providers who will be administering the program, and sparks enthusiasm in parents and children through the weekly exchange of books.
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The Foundation supports public charities located in San Francisco, Marin, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties.
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Grants will not be made to or for the arts, sectarian religious purposes, individuals, or benefit events, and will only be made for medical research, health care, publications, or video production under special circumstances.
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The foundation does not make multi-year grants but is prepared to stay with an organization for a length of time--as long as the organization improves and adapts the program relating to its hypothesis about promoting healthy social/emotional development in children prenatal-3, and as long as we perceive it to be among the best strategies for achieving the foundation’s goals.
Proposals must be received in the office no later than 5 P.M. on January 15 or June 16, 2008, and the Foundation meets twice a year, April and October.
If you are reapplying for a subsequent grant please click here.
Application Procedure for First-time Applicants:
The board and staff of Bella Vista Foundation are committed to learning as much as possible through the process of grantmaking. We have tried to design our application and progress report so that they can teach us a lot without being too much of a burden for you. The application is structured so that once the proposal has been written you will have the framework needed to complete a progress report. As partners in this process, we hope you will feel free to ask for help or clarification when needed, and we welcome your comments. To see the Early Childhood Development Progress Report Form, click here. Please see below for the appropriate contact depending on the county your agency serves.
If your agency serves Marin or Santa Clara County, please address your questions/proposal to:
Mary L. Gregory, Executive Director
Bella Vista Foundation
1660 Bush Street, Suite 300
San Francisco, CA 94109
mgregory@pfs-llc.net
Questions? Call Mary at (415) 561-6540 x 204
If your agency serves San Francisco or San Mateo County, please address your questions/proposal to:
Hector Melendez, Program Officer
Bella Vista Foundation
1660 Bush Street, Suite 300
San Francisco, CA 94109
hmelendez@pfs-llc.net
Questions? Call Hector at (415) 561-6540 x 206
Submit by U.S. mail:
A cover letter on your organization’s letterhead that briefly summarizes the request for funding, tells why you think your program is a good fit for the Bella Vista Foundation’s priorities, and lists the other pieces of the proposal that you will submit by email.
Submit by email (as much as possible):
Please send us a letter with the following information in a reasonable font size, which when printed out is no longer than 5 pages. Also, remember to put a header on each page which identifies your organization. (The financial documents and tax determination letter requested below are NOT part of the 5 page maximum.)
- About your organization: a concise description of the organization including history, mission and type(s) of programs and/or services provided.
- About the project or
program for which you are seeking funding:
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A clear statement of the hypothesis behind the strategy you are using to promote healthy social/emotional development in children ages 0-3. (For example, “If our agency provides mindfulness training for low-income prospective parents, then we will increase the likelihood that these young parents will be able to effectively connect with their newborn baby.”) This hypothesis will be used in evaluating your progress in 9 months time.
- Objectives,
also called "outputs" in some evaluation models, answer
the following questions:
- Who? (or, How many clients will you serve, and what ages are they?)
- What? (Services? Workshops? Home Visits? Clinic Visits?, etc.)
- When? (or, How Often?)
- Where?
- How? (Nurse-administered screening? Peer support group?, etc. Please be specific about methods, tools, and materials your program uses.)
- Why? - Outcomes, tell us what impact you hope to have on the clients served as a result of the services you provide (as described in your objectives). Outcomes are a measurable ways to test your hypothesis.
- Data Collection, please
also tell us how and what data you will collect to measure the objectives
and outcomes and to assess the effectiveness of the specific services
and program.
To access a glossary of terms (i.e., Hypothesis, Objectives, Outcomes, etc.), click here.
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- Financial statement showing actual revenue and expenses for the agency's most recently completed fiscal year. In addition, please list the other foundations which funded your agency during that year.
- Project budget (if applicable) detailing all proposed expenditures, and projected sources of funding. In addition, please list the other foundations which have funded the project or which are being approached for funding, and identify committed and pending funders.
- A copy of the tax-exemption letter(s) specifying that the organization is a non-profit agency (It is not necessary to submit this letter if you have received a grant from Bella Vista Foundation within the past three years and are reapplying, and there have been no changes in your 501(c)(3) status.)
For environmental and economic reasons, please do not use binders, folders or other binding for proposals, audits or supporting attachments, and please do not send audio-visual materials unless requested. Thank you.