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FUNDING FOCUS AREAS OF NEED 2016-17 <br />Introduction• <br />The 2014-15 IRC Children's Needs Assessment has provided valuable information to <br />help guide the Child Services Advisory Committee (CSAC). The following outlines what <br />will be considered for all grant requests. <br />Lamer Picture <br />The community must start taking a long-term view focusing 15-25 years out. We have a <br />cycle of poverty in IRC that has been increasing and needs to be broken. <br />Interventions should start as early as possible in a child's life in order to have the greatest <br />impact. <br />IRC agencies should use best practices. <br />a. Evidence based with measurable outcomes over time <br />b. Cost effective/efficient <br />c. Skilled executive, program, and board leadership <br />d. Strong fiscal management <br />e. Opportunity for broad impact (replicable, scalable, leveragable) <br />Focus should be on the pockets of poverty. Given that IRC poverty is in geographically <br />disbursed pockets and that we have unique transportation problems, we must always keep <br />in mind that services need to be available where and when people need and can access <br />them. We must utilize the best mediums to clearly communicate what, when and where <br />these services are available <br />Collaboration in the community is essential and can help optimize human and financial <br />resources, expose and eliminate overlap. <br />The considerations highlighted above have precedence over the actual CSAC Focus <br />Areas listed below. <br />2016 CSAC Focus Areas (ranked in order by the Advisory Team at the completion of <br />the Needs Assessment process.) <br />1. Early Childhood Development <br />This encompasses birth to age 5. For the younger children this would mean improving the <br />interactions they have beginning at birth with their caregivers. It would include <br />improving the quality (and transparency of relative quality) at childcare, PreK and <br />Voluntary PreK providers as well as improving financial accessibility to by leveraging <br />available federal and state funds. <br />Why: Research shows that the period 0-5 is the most important time for brain <br />development and cognitive and emotional skills can be significantly impacted. <br />VI <br />76 <br />