Advocacy

The Ohio Children's Foundation extended its advocacy efforts to statewide and national organizations seeking to increase the quality of early childhood education.

Groundwork is a broad-based, statewide collaborative out of Cleveland, established to advance a children's agenda with state policy-makers. The vision of Groundwork is that every family should have the choices and resources they need, and every child should have a fair chance to succeed in school. The initiative encompasses access to early childhood behavioral health services, an effective early care and education system for Ohio, a full-day kindergarten option for all children, and access to primary health care. The Ohio Children's Foundation joined with numerous public and private funders, child-serving organizations, and state associations to support Groundwork.

A second statewide advocacy organization that received a grant from the Foundation in 2006 was Voices for Children. Our support helped to produce and distribute What Ohio's Children Need: 2006, a comprehensive advocacy agenda for the state. This publication was developed to ensure that the needs of children and families informed and influenced the November 2006 federal, state and local elections, and that the 2007-2008 state budget protected and advanced the needs of children and families.

Partnership for America's Economic Success: Investing in Children is a national collaborative dedicated to making the successful development of all children the top priority of the United States. The Partnership uses three sequenced strategies to achieve this goal: research, communications and coalition-building, and advocacy. The Ohio Children's Foundation was one of the initial supporters of the Partnership, and the Foundation's president serves on its advisory board.

Collaboration

For the second consecutive year, the Ohio Children's Foundation joined with two other funding organizations to provide mini-grants to organizations that serve one or more of Ohio's 29 Appalachian counties. Partners in this effort are the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio and the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation of Nelsonville.

In 2006, the focus for these mini-grants was Fostering Access to Education, with the objective of improving access to educational opportunities for citizens of Appalachian Ohio. The Ohio Children's Foundation assisted with determining the grant guidelines, developing the application process and forms, and reviewing proposals. Of 95 proposals submitted, 17 projects were funded, each with a grant of up to $5,000. Each mini-grant required local, matching funds, and many were used to leverage a variety of new resources for the project.

The Foundation's participation in this collaborative reflects our interest in Appalachian Ohio's children and allows our grant money to reach many groups in the region who may not have been aware of the Ohio Children's Foundation.

To promote communication and collaboration among funding organizations around the issue of early childhood education, the Foundation also provided grants to the national affinity group, Grantmakers for Education, and to the Ohio Grantmakers Forum.