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21 <br /> Parent supports: <br /> • Individual financial counseling, financial education workshops, individual career <br /> counseling, career preparedness workshops <br /> • Summer internship opportunities for youth <br /> • Parenting education programs <br /> • Family Literacy Program, basic literacy, GED preparation, digital literacy and English, <br /> language instruction <br /> The assumption of a 10% increase in funding is fairly modest, compared with the number of <br /> families we will be expanding to serve in the coming years. As a collaborative, we will be <br /> working with our partners to do collective budgeting. <br /> PLAN FOR EXPANDING & IMPROVING ACCESS TO HIGH-QUALITY CHILDCARE <br /> As Dr. Bridger mentioned in her recent presentation, the AC has adopted a 2-year <br /> strategic plan for FSA. The plan includes several assessments that will lead to <br /> recommendations made to the AC about how to fill gaps in pipeline. <br /> For example, the goal 1 area includes an inventory of existing supports in early <br /> childhood and recommendations for strengthening those supports. As you know, our cohort <br /> model currently starts with K Readiness, and we know that ideally we will start working with <br /> parents in the prenatal period and connect with children at birth. <br /> I am also including here some other examples SP elements, including actions related to <br /> improving access to quality childcare, assessing the need for school-based mental health <br /> programming, supporting parent needs and providing parenting supports, and launching a <br /> college savings program. <br /> ASSESS THE NEED FOR, POTENTIAL STRUCTURE OF, AND RESOURCES NEEDED FOR <br /> SCHOOL-BASED MENTAL HEALTH PROGRAMMING <br /> PARENT NEEDS ASSESSMENT & RECOMMENDATIONS <br /> INCREASE NUMBER AND ARRAY OF PARENTING SUPPORTS <br /> Launch College Savings Program <br /> This is an example costing out a college savings account program that is linked with our <br /> navigator program scaled up to have a 50% reach. It assumes an initial deposit and then <br /> matching funds for family contributions and incentive funds for parents who complete certain <br /> goals, like participation in financial literacy classes. <br /> Our hope is that a program like this would be ideal for individual giving & soliciting <br /> private funding. <br /> Another way in which the AC has decided to support the Strategic Plan is by creating a <br /> competitive opportunity for schools to identify ways in which they can support the plan's <br /> implementation. We just closed the first round of applications, and 4 out of 6 eligible schools <br /> applied. Their interventions range from engaging parents with specific outreach and materials <br /> for those children who do poorly on standardized tests to working on behavioral health issues. <br /> The overwhelming interest we saw in this opportunity suggests to us that it is a meaningful way <br /> to get the schools taking ownership over SP implementation. <br /> We know that to support this level of programming, we will need additional backbone <br /> support. We have mapped out some hypothetical ideas about what that growth might look like, <br /> phasing it in over time. We will walk through the specific details of what this looks like during <br /> the actual budget review process so that you have a chance to thoroughly vet everything and <br /> help shape the direction and the role of the county in it. <br />