Welcome to the November-December issue of Provplan’s e-newsletter. These are hard times for all of us but we choose to highlight some positive news and to remind ourselves of the very good work going on in the city. The story about three Building Futures participants is testimony to the power of the human spirit and the determination to overcome all obstacles. Our new Ready to Learn classroom at CCRI will provide high-quality early care and education services to families who have lost their child-care subsidies. And the good work on Parkis Avenue illustrates what can happen when neighbors come together to improve their street.

Finally, I encourage you to take advantage of the New Roots training in early December on the very timely topic of successful fund development. Have a safe, healthy and happy holiday season and join me in wishing our new President-elect all the best as he prepares to lead the country forward.

Thanks,
Pat McGuigan, Executive Director
pmcguigan@provplan.org

With help from Building Futures, their hard work is now paying off
Shortly before Hassan Brown’s mother died a few years ago, she asked him to make her a promise. Promise me, she said, you’ll take care of your sister. Hassan lives with his sister, who is confined to a wheelchair, and his elderly father in South Providence.

Although Hassan has always seen himself as a hard worker, the various jobs he held barely supported him, much less anyone else. “I never saw any future in those jobs,” Hassan, who is now 36, says. “The pay was poor, there were no benefits, and I knew the jobs weren’t going to last. I was working hard, but the jobs weren’t working for me.”

Hassan Brown

Just over a year ago, Hassan found himself at Building Futures, a Providence Plan initiative designed to increase the access of urban adults into the construction field through the trade apprenticeship programs. Three months later, Hassan had an apprenticeship with the laborers’ union and was part of a crew working on the J. Walter Wilson Building at Brown University. He now sees himself on track for a real career with a real future.

“And,” he adds, “I really enjoy the work I do. You never repeat exactly the same thing twice so I’m always learning something new.”

Brian Pack and Varsana Sihavong tell much the same story. Both had spent years working hard at what they call “dead-end jobs” before arriving at Building Futures. Brian, who is 48, is now with the AA Wrecking & Asbestos Abatement Company and a member of the laborers’ union. Varsana, 27, is with the carpenters’ union and is currently working on a CVS building in northern Rhode Island.

Brian Pack

[more on Building Futures...]

Two ProvPlan partners get national recognition for the dramatic transformation of a once distressed street
Two ProvPlan partners – CommunityWorks RI and the Providence Police Department – were the first-place winners this year in the national 2008 MetLife Community-Police Partnership Awards. The MetLife Foundation awarded them $25,000 for future work in the community.

The two organizations were recognized for the transformation of Parkis Avenue, a street in northern Elmwood that just five years ago was infested with drugs, prostitution and violent crime. The crime rate there has since dropped by more than 50 percent, housing units have been renovated, and an active association of residents now meets regularly to ensure the continued stability of their street.

CommunityWorks RI celebrated the MetLife award at an event on October 20th, which was attended by partners in the effort as well as many local and state officials.

CommunityWorks RI is a new Community Development Corporation formed with the merger of Greater Elmwood Neighborhood Services (GENS) and The Elmwood Foundation. It was GENS, with its offices on Parkis Avenue, that first identified Parkis as a street in need of revitalization. Working hand in hand with the police, the R.I. Department of Corrections, The Providence Plan and other partners, it spearheaded the effort to transform the neighborhood.

“We are very grateful to MetLife for recognizing the work of CommunityWorks RI and the Providence Police Department,” says Carrie M. Marsh, the new executive director of CommunityWorks RI. “This collaboration with the Department of Corrections, The Providence Plan and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation is an example of using a combination of physical regeneration and community investment strategies to solve difficult urban problems.”

Parkis Avenue is just one of many streets that has enjoyed a turnaround as a result of the work done over the years by GENS and The Elmwood Foundation. The two organizations, both about 30 years old, began with slightly different missions but increasingly found their efforts converging and sometimes overlapping. The merger, which took place in July, is expected to enhance their efficiency and extend their reach.

[more on ProvPlan Partners...]



R2LP opens preschool to serve families who have lost child-care subsidies
Eligible families are encouraged to apply
On October 27, Ready to Learn Providence opened the doors to its new preschool, a program created to help some of the families who have lost all or part of their state-funded child-care subsidies.

The Ready to Learn Providence Preschool, located on the Liston Campus of the Community College of Rhode Island in South Providence, can accommodate as many as 16 three- to five-year olds. Open five days a week from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., the program is free to families who meet certain criteria. Spaces are currently available and eligible families are encouraged to apply.

Desiree Manley talks with two of her students in the preschool’s dramatic play center.

The program is being funded through R2LP’s U.S. Department of Education Early Reading First (ERF) Grant. Since 2004, R2LP has received two ERF grants to create centers of educational excellence at eight existing preschool centers in Providence. With the child-care subsidy cuts that began in September 2007, many of these centers have seen dramatic drops in their enrollment.

“The cuts had a serious effect on the number of children we were serving through Early Reading First,” explains Christine Chiacu-Forsythe, ERF director at R2LP. “The R2LP preschool is one step we can take to meet the commitment we made to the Department of Education while also addressing the needs of some of the families.

[more on R2LP Preschool...]

R2LP uncovers some positive trends in the well-being of our city’s children
Childhood injuries are down and immunization rates are up, according to data analyses conducted by Ready to Learn Providence.

These are two of eight indicators R2LP recently updated from its How Ready Is Providence?, a report released in 2004 addressing 24 indicators of child and family well-being in the city of Providence.

Fewer children, both in Providence and statewide, required hospitalization as a result of unintentional injuries in 2005 than in 2002. In Providence, these injuries dropped from a rate of 3.74 per 1,000 children to 2.89 per 1,000. The largest number of these hospitalizations (36 percent) were a result of accidental falls, followed by poisonings (24 percent).

Rates of immunization appear to have increased in Providence. An analysis of immunization data for children enrolled in the Providence public schools (PreK through Grade 2) in the 2007-2008 academic year found that of those whose data were available and valid, 87 percent received the third dose of the Diphtheria, Tetanus and Pertussis (DTaP) vaccination on time and 79 percent received the fourth dose on time. With very few exceptions, nearly every Providence neighborhood experienced an increase in rates of immunization since 2004.

The data in other updated indicators also revealed some positive trends:

• Childhood lead poisoning in Providence decreased 4 percentage points between 2003 and 2007, and an impressive 14 points since 2000. In 2000, 17 percent of all children in Providence who were screened tested positive for elevated blood lead levels; in 2007, that figure fell to 5 percent.

• The citywide percentage of births to mothers with 12 or more years of education increased slightly – from 66 percent in the years between 1998 and 2002 to 68 percent between 2003 and 2007. With few exceptions, the relationship between parent education and child poverty is evident in the city’s neighborhoods, with child poverty tending to fall as education levels rise.

Analysis on other indicators, however, found some continuing challenges:

[more on R2LP Indicators...]

Learn how to strengthen your organization’s financial future
In this economic climate, what nonprofit or faith-based program isn’t concerned about its long-term funding?

Explore the ingredients needed for successful fund development at a free New Roots training session to be offered in December. Trainer Simone P. Joyaux, ACFRE, who has worked with all types and sizes of organizations, will help you identify prospects, cultivate relationships, select appropriate solicitation strategies, engage your board, build your organization’s development operation and develop a fundraising plan that produces results.

This training will be held twice – Wednesday, Dec. 3, and Saturday, Dec. 6, from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. It is open to all community- and faith-based organizations working in Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls, Cranston, Warwick or West Warwick, but space is limited so register soon. Go to www.newrootsprovidence.org for more information on this and future trainings.

Call (401) 455-8880 x216 or email nrptraining@provplan.org if you have questions or want to be added to the New Roots mailing list.

Building Futures , cont.
Varsana says the support Building Futures gave him through tutoring and other forms of training was instrumental in his acceptance into a trade apprenticeship and in turning his life around. “It’s been a great opportunity,” says Varsana, who lives in the Smith Hill neighborhood of Providence. “There just aren’t many programs out there that target my age group. There are programs for teens, but very few for adults. I still drop by the Building Futures offices just to stay in touch. It’s like home.”

Varsana Sihavong

Brian came to Building Futures with a lead license and experience in home construction. “But I had no luck getting into the union,” the South Providence resident says. “Building Futures served as my advocate.”

Among Brian’s many past jobs were several in the customer service field. “Those jobs gave me a lot of interpersonal skills that I use in my current work,” he says. “I know how to work with employers and the others in my crew. That’s important.

“Before Building Futures recommends you for an apprenticeship, they make sure you’re tried, true and tested,” Brian continues. “They look to see if you’re reliable and if you work well others.”

“If people really want to do something for themselves, Building Futures opens doors for you,” adds Hassan. “But you have to take it the rest of the way.”

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ProvPlan Partners, cont.
ProvPlan, with its warehouse of data and expertise in mapping, helps CommunityWorks RI identify areas in need of redevelopment and/or pockets of crime. CommunityWorks RI then targets its efforts to revitalize urban neighborhoods by purchasing and rehabilitating distressed properties so that they can be sold or rented as affordable housing.

Cynthia Langlykke, who prior to the merger served as director of GENS and is now associate director of CommunityWorks RI, walks with mounted police officers to the October 20th celebration of the MetLife award.

The organization also works with residents to create neighborhood, street and tenant associations that address strengths and weaknesses, and to help build investment in the neighborhood. It frequently works with residents to perform various neighborhood projects, such as the recent Peace and Plenty Playground on Peace Street. And CommunityWorks RI offers workshops on home ownership, helping potential homeowners fully understand the financing, maintenance and budgeting issues involved in owning a house.

CommunityWorks RI works directly with the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, a national organization that helps fund many of its rehabilitation projects.

CommunityWorks RI is located at 693 Broad Street in Providence and can be reached at (401) 273-2330. For more information, go to www.communityworksri.org.

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R2LP Preschool , cont.
“I had to pull my kids out of child care and quit my job when I lost my subsidy,” says Taina Lee, whose daughter, Tatiana, is now enrolled in the R2LP preschool. “This is a wonderful program.”

To enroll their children in the R2LP preschool, families must be able to document a recent loss of the child-care subsidy administered by the Department of Human Services. Children must be Providence residents and/or former students at an Early Reading First center. (They cannot, however, be currently enrolled in a child-care program in Providence.) Priority is given to the children of CCRI students, staff or faculty who meet all of these criteria.

Staff at the preschool include Teacher/Director Desiree Manley, Head Teacher Samantha McCormack, and a trained R2LP AmeriCorps member, Ana Vargas. With the many years of experience Manley and McCormack bring to their work, the center will become a model of “best practices” that can serve as a demonstration space for those in the field of early care and education.

Instruction in the classroom will revolve around the same programs and curricula used in all ERF centers, with early literacy playing a central role throughout the environment and in the many activities.

A study conducted by R2LP last spring found that the child-care subsidy cuts had a profoundly negative effect on the city’s early-care settings and on the many families that relied on the subsidies. To see a preliminary analysis of that study, please go to www.r2lp.org.

For more information on the preschool and the eligibility requirements, call Samantha McCormack at (401) 490-9960.

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R2LP Indicators, cont.

• Children in Providence are the most likely in Rhode Island to have a parent in prison. Between 2004 and 2007, the total number of children in Providence with a parent serving a sentence increased by 24 percent, rising to 1,300 by April 2007. This is an increase of 255 children since 2004 and represents a rate increase of 5.6 per 1,000 children. It means that an estimated 1 in every 35 children in the city has a parent currently serving a sentence.

• While local wages for child-care professionals have increased slightly since 2003, the disparity between their earnings and those of public school teachers has grown significantly. The mean wage for a child-care professional in 2007 in the Providence metropolitan area was $21,050-$27,893, while the mean wage for a public school kindergarten teacher was $60,680. Research consistently finds a strong correlation between staff wages and program quality in early child-care settings. Also inextricably linked with low wages is the challenge of employee turnover and the resulting lack of stability that pre-school children too often experience in these settings.

You can download a full analysis of the updated indicators in PDF format at www.r2lp.org.

Among the many sources of data used in these analyses were: the R.I. Department of Health, the R.I. Department of Labor and Training, the Providence Public School Department, and Rhode Island Kids Count.

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