Weekly Digest: April 2, 2009

Federal Stimulus Online Resources

There is a tremendous amount of information about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), commonly known as the federal stimulus bill, and only a small window of time to respond. In response, CT Voices for Children is producing community-friendly, Connecticut-specific fact sheets on the ARRA, which will be available next week. Discovery community members are also in the preliminary stages of coordinating a peer-to-peer call, to be held next week, to discuss how the ARRA funds can support early childhood education in communities.

Now is the time to provide your input to your superintendents, especially if you want your district to use Title I funds for early childhood education. Funding from Title I of the Elementary and Secondary School Act (known as No Child Left Behind) is going directly to school districts. Superintendents have authority over how this money will be allocated. Despite the title, these funds have always been available to be used for programs serving children from birth through high school. Superintendents must submit their plans for this money by April 30, 2009!

We will follow-up with more information as soon as it becomes available.

For those of you who an appetite for learning more about ARRA, here are a few sources of compiled information: 

The Federal Stimulus page on the CT Voices for Children website links to resources that help explain the new law and how states, cities/towns, community organizations, families and others can access and use these funds.  To access this page, visit the CT Voices website at http://www.ctkidslink.org/federalstimulus.html 

The Connecticut State Department of Education has compiled resources under its American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Stimulus Package page that provide information about the ARRA funds that are coming to Connecticut, broken down by district. To access this page, visit the SDE website at http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/cwp/view.asp?a=2683&Q=322286

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) has also posted resources on its American Recovery & Reinvestment Act page including information about the ARRA early childhood education provisions, resources and state allocations and links to other resources.  To acess this page, visit the NAEYC website at http://www.naeyc.org/policy/arra/

Webinar on Expansion of Head Start

The Office of Head Start will soon issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the expansion of Early Head Start throughout the nation, using the additional funding available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. In response to the RFP, WestEd's SchoolsMovingUp website will feature a free webinar series, "Early Head Start: Providing a Quality Comprehensive Program for Infants, Toddlers and Their families." The aim of the series is to assist Head Start/Early Head Start grantees, school districts, and community based organizations in thinking about their capacity to effectively serve infants and toddlers. Part I will be presented on Tuesday, April 7, and Part II will take place on Thursday, April 9. The time of both webinars will be from 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Pacific Time (1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time).

SchoolsMovingUp is co-sponsoring this webinar series with First 5 California in partnership with WestEd Center for Child & Family Studies, the California Head Start Association, and Preschool California.

REGISTRATION
To sign up for the webinars in this series, please visit the following
web pages:

* Part I (April 7):
http://www.schoolsmovingup.net/webinars/headstart1
* Part II (April 9):
http://www.schoolsmovingup.net/webinars/headstart2

For each webinar, select "Attend this Webinar." You will then be prompted to log in or register for free on the site as needed. If you plan to participate via the live webinar option, you will need to "Run the Wizard" to test your computer's capacity to support the webinar. It is recommended that you do this at least one day before the webinar. If you would prefer to participate via the live teleconference with presentation PPT/PDF, you can instead join the conference call and download the presentation PPT/PDF, which will be available the day before the webinar. Registered participants will receive an email notification when the presentation PPT/PDF for each part of the series is posted. The message will also contain further instructions for participating.

What Nonprofits Need to Know about the Federal Recovery Act: Three Regional Forums

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 will bring close to $3 billion to Connecticut, and additional funds will be available on a competitive basis nationally. There will be opportunities for nonprofit organizations and groups of organizations to compete for this national money as well as money that will flow through the state and municipalities.

The Connecticut Council for Philanthropy is hosting What Nonprofits Need to Know About The Federal Recovery Act for grantmaking and nonprofit organizations in Hartford, Fairfield County and New Haven.  At these forums, nonprofit and philanthropic leaders will exchange information about three key issues: 

• What opportunities are there for nonprofits to access stimulus funding?
• How will state and local governments direct the funds from the Recovery Act?
• Are there areas where nonprofit organizations should advocate for policies and practices that would be needed for the stimulus package to succeed?

An overview of the Recovery Act will be followed by breakout sessions with experts focused on early childhood, education, transportation, housing, environment/energy, health, workforce/job training, and the arts.

Shelley Geballe, Distinguished Senior Fellow, Connecticut Voices for Children and Stewart J. Hudson, President, Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation will be presenting.

The forum will be offered on the following three dates in three locations. Register for the forum using the registration on the date you intend to participate.

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NEW HAVEN : Monday, April 13, 2009 8:30 am – 12:00 pm (registration begins at 8:30 am; program promptly at 9:00 am)

Hosted by the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven and the Connecticut Council for Philanthropy at the Adanti Student Center, Southern Connecticut State University , New Haven, CT

Directions can be found at http://www.southernct.edu/aboutscsu/map/ To register for the New Haven area forum, please send an email to events@cfgnh.org

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HARTFORD: Tuesday, April 14, 2009 8:30 am – 12:00 pm (registration begins at 8:30 am; program promptly at 9:00 am) 

Hosted by the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving and the Connecticut Council for Philanthropy at the Bruyette Athenaeum, Saint Joseph College, West Hartford, CT

Directions can be found at http://www.sjc.edu/content.cfm/pageid/264
To register for the Hartford area forum, visit http://www.hfpg.org/events and enter the code: ARRA414

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FAIRFIELD COUNTY: Friday, April 17, 2009 1:00 – 4:30 pm (registration begins at 1:00 pm; program promptly at 1:30 pm) 

Hosted by the Fairfield County Community Foundation and the Connecticut Council for Philanthropy at the PepsiCo Theater, Norwalk Community College, Norwalk, CT

Directions can be found at http://www.ncc.commnet.edu/directions.aspTo register for the Fairfield County forum, visit http://www.fccfoundation.org/Join/WorkshopRegistration.php

Additional presenters and information will be available at http://www.ctphilanthropy.org or by calling the Council at 860-525-5585.
Space is limited, and reservations are required.

The following foundations worked with the Connecticut Council for Philanthropy to design this program: Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund, Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, Fairfield County Community Foundation, Community Foundation for Greater New Haven and Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut.