Background Information
The Navy’s Child and Youth Programs are an essential part of the nation’s child and youth development aimed to promote quality, availability, and affordability of the care under the Department of Defense (DoD). The DoD currently offers support to children either directly or via third parties. The department oversees the CDCs, FCC, SACs, and R & R systems, Military one source, and NACCRRA that operates child care subsidies (Zellman, Gates, Cho, & Shaw, 2008). Furthermore, the DoD assistance is rendered as a family support service that is availed on a “first come, first served” basis; thus, many families may miss out. The installation commander gives a go-ahead command for the construction of any CDC.
Zellman et al. (2008) report that the CDCs are available for children of active-duty military members, civilians employed by the DoD, and military retirees. Under this provision, low-income families pay $43 a week for up to 50 hours of childcare, while those with high income pay $126 a week. However, parents with children under five years pay twice as much as others. Moreover, although the DoD provides funds to the CDCs, the commander has the mandate to determine the extent to which the resources will be used to support the care program. Therefore, the priority should be directed to such family types as single-parent and dual military families, who have a higher demand for childcare (Bushatz, 2017). Under this provision, several types of families and child care processes are available to ensure that people serving in the military have appropriate care for their families and children. Bushatz (2017) states that the Department of Defense child centers are distributed in different parts of the world and are 800 in number. Child care facilities are available for children aged from six weeks to twelve years.
The centers are typically available for access from Monday to Friday from 6:00 a.m. to 6: 30 p.m. However, in the event that parents’ work schedule is tight, the provision allows extra hours. Besides, fees paid for these services depend on the total family income, the type of center, and the nature of services that are available (Bushatz, 2017). Some of the possible kinds of care include:
- In-home child care providers: The plan allows for home-based infant care, both on-base and off-base, for those that are certified through the service. Home care accepts a smaller number of children as compared to other available childcare facilities.
- Off-base child care: The program is managed by Child Care Aware. It provides help to active-duty service members and activates Guard and Reservists (Trautmann & Gross, 2015). The program is also designed for those who do not live near an installation. It is applicable if the available military child care center is full and cannot take any extra number of children.
The economic status and other background disadvantages of families support the need for having appropriate family care. Cozza and Lerner (2013) state that reasonable care for children in a military family improves the quality of life of the family. For instance, military spouses face a range of economic and financial problems as compared to their civilian counterparts. Their wages are relatively lower because of their work schedules, and their constant movement makes it hard for them to acquire an extra job to boost their income. Military families have different demographic capacities. For instance, in 2011, the force had 726,500 spouses with more than 1.2 million children that lived in the household. In addition to this, 743,736 children were part of Guard and Reserve families. Out of the values mentioned above, the demographics breakdown is: 30.4% of white, 47.3% of black, and 37.4% of Hispanic military people have children and the need for better care (Cozza & Lerner, 2013).
Rationale and How the Funds Will Be Used
A large number of children in the Navy and military forces shows that there is a need for better systems of taking care of these children and their families. This provision includes an outdoor natural learning environment for children. The program helps every child develop self-regulation and concentration. Kemple, Oh, Kenney, and Smith-Bonahue, (2016) strongly suggest that outdoor games may improve the self-control and attention of the child, contrary to the commonly seen inappropriate behaviors. Trautmann and Gross (2015) state that over 40% of children in military families are less than six years old, which is a valuable time when they need physical and emotionally available parents. However, continuous deployment results in increased parent stress, child maltreatment, and child behavior problems (Trautmann & Gross, 2015), which has augmented the demand for outdoor programs to improve the behavior of children of all ages.
Also, children who have lost their parents in military actions have low motivational spirits. An outdoor learning environment improves one’s motivation and increased enthusiasm as compared to an indoor learning program since the child is helped to have a better attitude to the surrounding environment (Trautmann & Gross, 2015). Outdoor learning environments have been found to improve the communication skills of children who are enrolled in the program as the child is encouraged to lead a discussion, give contributions to the debate, resolve conflicts, and speak out. Although indoor activities can do the same, outdoor practices have proved to be more significant. The research conducted by James and Countryman (2012) shows that children in families that have a deployed parent have behavioral problems (the number has increased by 11% during the recent years), while 18% of the children have stress-related issues. It is thus a serious concern that requires an appropriate measure to resolve the issue. The main reasons for the increasing need for a child care program include;
- Frequent Permanent Change of station makes it hard for parents to have any likelihood of extending childcare to extended family members.
- Long working hours beyond those of a typical workday makes it challenging to obtain needed care. Therefore, there appears a need for a non-standard child care program for such personnel.
- Unmet requirements for child care present another problem. In research by RAND, 9% of military families said there was a dire need to satisfy their requirements. However, such requirements are not easily met as most CDCS have a long waiting list (Zellman et al., 2008).
For these reasons, the program needs grant funding to achieve success and to provide for all the children and families that require these services the most. The current funding sources (namely, federal funding, state funding, and foundation provision) are not sufficient to cover all the needs (Trautmann & Gross, 2015). Thus, grant funding will go a long way to ameliorate the present situation. For example, the federal funding sources are under the Child’s Bureau, which is a branch of the administration of children and families in the Department of Health and Human Services. The source mainly funds child welfare in accordance with the requirements of the federal government (Child Welfare, 2013). The second source of funding is the Alliance of Children’s trust and prevention under State funding. Hence, it is only designed to provide support to community prevention programs through a set of policies, funds, and invocations, which cannot efficiently cater to all the vital services. Besides, the foundations and organizations involved in child care provisions are not consistent with their funding as well as service provision.
Evaluating the Sources of Grant Funding
The Navy’s Early Childhood Management Program’s success is ascribed to many factors, including qualified and skilled Early Childhood experts, standardized guidelines and processes, operative and competent management organizations, and a high-quality assurance team (CNIC, 2015). The Navy Early Childhood Management Program cannot accomplish its objectives without backup and prized donations of significant partnerships and grants they provide. Part 2 of this report presents a precise description of some of the potential grants and resources, which are associated with the Early Childhood Management Program (Bushatz, 2017). Its implementation ought to create extra affiliations at the community level concerning the demands of the implementation exercise.
Potential Grant Fund Supporters and Resource Centers (Organizations, Programs, and Government Partnerships)
4-H is the US’s biggest child empowerment establishment, serving over seven million 4-H children in urban, suburban, and rural inhabitants (Captain Planet Foundation, 2014). Stimulated by the university-based syllabus, 4-H members participate in hands-on learning events in science, healthy staying, and food security. Every Navy Youth Program (YP) is associated with 4-H, and due to the Commander, Navy Installations Command’s (CNIC) partnership and prescribed contract with 4-H, every YP has access to all the 4-H program curriculum, workforce development exercise, technical support, and grant funding.
Boys and Girls Program of America (BGCA) is another organization offering connections and YP with grants and programs associated with healthy and harmless undertakings and mentoring for children (Sargent, 2016). The emphasized fields are health, physical fitness and recreation, education and professional development. Each Navy Youth Program is linked with BGCA, CNIC’s association, and contract arrangement with BGCA, which permits every YP member to enjoy numerous BGCA program courses, workforce development training, technical support, and grant support.
Child Care Aware: This establishment provides broad information for guardians and child care workers. The Navy CYP allies with CCA on many initiatives, including Military Kid Care and Operation Military Kid Care.
Military Child Education Coalition (MCEC): Its role is to facilitate the transition and other learning activities connected with military kids (The School Funding Center, 2014).
Zero to Three: It offers services in the child-family field, in the sector of kid health, child development, and strategy creation for infants. Some of the Zero to Three common resources are:
- Free Parent Brochures & Guides: These are free documents given to guardians.
- Zero to Three Journal: It is published twice a month for early childhood teachers, childcare experts, and early intervention personnel.
- Public Policy: The standard policy subjects covered include but are not limited to infant policy topics, creating early childhood organizations, Federal Rules, and State Policies (Child Care Lounge, 2010).
Family Readiness & Fleet & Family Support Centers: This organization backs personal and family willingness via a complete array of plans and grants like relocation help to families shuffling from one place to another, kin employment activities, family occupation readiness, psychotherapy services, individual finance management, social skills, and advocacy services (Captain Planet Foundation, 2014).
Military Family Life Consultant Program (MFLC): This program resorts to services of licensed physicians for carrying out social duties, providing counseling services, and performing other related clinical duties to offer both short and long-term services to Navy members (FMCD, 2013). Likewise, consultants are also skilled in military-based disciplines, common alignment with the disposition cycle, military culture, and reporting necessities in line with the Navy Family Advocacy Program.
Loyal Kids Grant: Project Outline
Describe your “what if…” opportunity and how your school’s Creative Leadership Team will meet your school’s creative professional development needs (100-200 words or less)
The team’s “what if..” is to work with an open budget through accountability and transparency with the assistance of multifaceted team members to etablish a fully engaging and practical formula that can produce the anticipated results. The aim of this is to ensure that the budget is not fully committed to an initiative that will not produce the desired outcome (FMCD, 2013). Particularly, the team will look at the prevailing situation, funding sources, and available funds to determine the most appropriate and result-oriented actions to partake in. The team will also review the opportunities and challenges in the initial phase of the program to assess its efficacy and align it with the best actions that can be taken with regard to the program’s goals.
Outline goals and objectives of your Creative Leadership Team’s proposal
The team’s proposal goals and objectives are to:
- set up permanent stations with the help of organizations, policy-makers, and government agencies to support and extend childcare to all families;
- initiate and model partnership approaches for childcare service provision;
- carry out research regarding the need for childcare support in order to develop rewarding care options that can fulfill the wishes of families;
- avail information about training and support initiatives designed to enhance childcare quality.
Define what success would look like and how you will measure progress. Be sure to describe any ongoing assessment
A successful program will guarantee that at least more than half of the parents in need of childcare programs have the provisions available for their children. It will also ensure that all the children in the program have a chance of experiencing outdoor learning activities (Zellman et al., 2008).
One of the ongoing assessments is measuring the number of favorable child care provisions within a time frame of six months. The assessment aims to monitor if the communication skills and interaction capacity of the children are improved, to determine any behavioral changes, and most importantly, to conclude whether the program is effective (Kemple et al., 2016).
How will you identify and share Creative Leadership capacity building “promising practices” so other schools can benefit from your experiences?
Joint programs with the care providers from the different schools, in which they are allowed to experience ways of appropriate outdoor learning, will be used to share the idea. Such programs will include seminars and visits to other schools that can benefit once the program is up and running (Zellman et al., 2008).
Why is your Creative Leadership proposal innovative?:
The program takes into consideration the availability of a natural learning environment for the children. The children will also be given a chance to lead group discussions for them to express their emotions and thoughts adequately (Kemple et al., 2016).
Describe the collaboration planned for your Creative Leadership program. How will you foster school-wide partnership and collaborate with others beyond your school?:
Continued meetings and seminars to lure other schools to enroll in the program will be an imperative strategy. In a bid to facilitate this, collaborations and agreements with different institutions will be made available for those willing to join, practice, or be part of the program.
Describe the sustainability of your proposal and how you will implement aspects of it beyond the grant funding
Apart from the grant funding, the program will also depend on the payments made by the parents. What is more, the outdoor environment will limit the expenses, thereby guaranteeing that the program will run for a longer time (Child Welfare, 2013). The success of the program will also attract more organizations that will be willing to take it to the next level as the numbers of military families are on the rise (Cozza & Lerner, 2013).
List critical contacts and the role each leader of this project will play (e.g., superintendent, principal, art teachers, other teachers, budget coordinator, public relations manager, parent liaison, and community partners’ roles
- The commander has the mandate to determine the extent to which the resources will be used to support the care program.
- The budget coordinator will be responsible for assessing the needed resources and their costs to start and run the program.
- Parents will have to indicate the possible period in which they would like to have the services provided for their children and the potential payments they find convenient.
- Caregivers (teachers) will provide education and care to children.
Project timeline (indicate key milestones) and describe work plan spanning October 2017 – May 2018:
- Obtaining funding from the grand funding institution – at least one month.
- Structuring of the leading team and the program milestones, including licensing policies from the military and state departments – almost three months.
- Initialization of the program in the schools, including registrations and enrolling children as well as teaching staff – about two months.
- Coordination and scheduling of the program’s working periods through the week. It will include holding meetings with the parents and families enrolled in the program. After the joint approval, it is estimated that successful implementation of the plan will take at least one month.
Table 1. Project Timeline.
Outline budget, including how $2,500 will be used. List other resources/in-kind contributions that are being applied to this program, provided by your school/district or community
Other resources provided by the community/school:
- training/coaching materials from schools;
- teaching and coaching volunteers from schools/community;
- community campaigns/advocacy to create awareness about the program;
- community kitty to help in fundraising.
References
Bushatz, A. (2017). SGLI coverage: What you need to know. Web.
Captain Planet Foundation. (2014). Captain Planet foundation grant guidelines. Web.
Child Care Lounge. (2010). Grants for early childhood education. Web.
Child Welfare. (2013). Child welfare financing in the United States. Web.
CNIC. (2015). Introduction to navy CYP. Web.
Cozza, C. S. J., & Lerner, R. M. (2013). Military children and families: Introducing the issue. The Future of Children, 23(2), 3-11.
FMCD. (2013). FY 2012 Financial management code directory. Web.
James, T. & Countryman, J. (2012). Psychiatric effects of military deployment on children and families. Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience, 9(2), 16-20. Web.
Kemple, K. M., Oh, J., Kenney, E., & Smith-Bonahue, T. (2016). The power of outdoor play and play in natural environments. Childhood Education, 92(6), 446-454.
Sargent Jr, J. (2016). Department of defense research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT and E): Appropriations structure. Congressional Research Service Washington United States. Web.
The School Funding Center. (2014). School grant search and grant alerts. Retrieved from www.schoolfundingcenter.com
Trautmann, J. & Gross, D. (2015). Impact of deployment on military families with young children: A systematic review, Mosby, Inc., 63(6), 656-679.
Zellman, G. L., Gates, S. M., Cho, M., & Shaw, R. (2008). Options for improving the military Child Care System. Web.