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OVER -ARCHING OUTCOMES <br />■ Improve the capacity of children in Indian River County to succeed to adulthood in a safe, <br />healthy and productive manner. <br />■ Support caregivers — a child's most important resource — to be and do what is needed <br />to shepherd children into adulthood in a safe, healthy and productive manner. <br />CHILDREN'S SERVICES PRIORITY OF FUNDING <br />BACKGROUND <br />A comprehensive, community -wide Needs Assessment provides valuable information to help <br />guide the Children Services Advisory Committee (CSAC) in identifying essential children's <br />services. The Indian River County (IRC) Community Needs Assessment is performed every 3-5 <br />years and its data re-evaluated annually. Grant requests will be considered based on the criteria <br />outlined below to address both the unmet and undermet needs of children. <br />LARGER PICTURE <br />The community must start taking a long-term view focusing 15-25 years out. We have a cycle of <br />poverty in IRC that needs to be broken. <br />Interventions should start as early as possible in a child's life in order to have the greatest impact. <br />IRC agencies should use best practices. <br />a. Evidence based with measurable outcomes over time <br />b. Cost effective/efficient with adequate staffing and regard to child safety <br />c. Skilled executive, program management, and board leadership <br />d. Strong governance and fiscal management <br />e. Opportunity for broad impact (replicable, scalable, leverageable) <br />Quantitative and qualitative measures should be provided for all funded programs. For example, <br />PreK, VPK, after school, tutoring and extended year programs must provide documented pre and <br />post relevant measurable outcomes (e.g. attendance records, developmental assessments, <br />vocabulary, mathematical, reading and writing assessments, and social emotional assessments). <br />Focus should be on the pockets of poverty. Given that IRC poverty is in geographically disbursed <br />pockets and that we have unique transportation problems, we must always keep in mind that <br />services need to be available where and when people need and can access them. We must <br />utilize the best mediums to clearly communicate what, when and where these services are <br />available. Collaboration in the community is essential and can help optimize human and financial <br />resources, expose and eliminate overlap and duplication. <br />The considerations highlighted above have precedence over the actual CSAC Focus Areas. <br />RFP Instructions - 2 53 <br />