2009 Annual Report

Invest in Children brings parents, families and the entire community together to make sure that all children reach their full potential. We are making a big difference by building a stronger future for our community. Invest early. Invest in our future. Invest in Children.

Office of Early Childhood310 W. Lakeside AvenueSuite 565Cleveland, OH 44113216.698.2215www.investinchildren.cuyahogacounty.us

Ty’Rianna Universal Pre-Kindergarten Graduate

In January 2009 I was thrilled to become Director of Invest in Children (IIC).

Despite my earlier involvement with IIC as a service provider and

funder, sitting in the Director’s chair has given me an even greater

appreciation for the unique early childhood system that we have built

together and the wonderful reputation that it deservedly enjoys at

the local, state and national levels.

Make no mistake, 2009 was a tough year. Invest in Children was

affected by significant state and local funding reductions and a

tougher private funding environment. However, we made the

commitment to preserve our core services and with continued

strong support from our funding partners we were able to meet

that commitment; most notably, maintaining the Newborn

Home Visiting Program despite elimination of all state funding

for it. Thus, I am pleased to report that our early childhood

system remained strong and intact.

Invest in Children truly represents our community at its best,

demonstrating what a public private partnership can accomplish with

a shared vision of a community committed to children. I feel privileged

to work with all of you, as together, we make a big difference in the lives

of children, families and our community.

Rebekah L. Dorman, Ph.D.

our mission To mobilize resources and

energy to ensure the

well-being of all young

children in Cuyahoga County,

provide supportive services

to parents and caregivers,

and build awareness,

momentum, and advocacy

in the community around

children and family issues.

our visionAll children in Cuyahoga

County will reach their full

potential, nurtured by

families sensitive to their

needs and supported by a

community committed to

their success.

Message from the Director

Message from the Co-Chairs of Invest in Children

A t the beginning of this financially challenging year, we set three goals for Invest in Children (IIC): (1) to safeguard the early childhood system that we have constructed; (2) to preserve our core services; and (3) to continue to serve those

most at risk. We believe that — through the diligence of and the collaboration between the staff of the County Office of Early Childhood and our many partner agencies and funders — we have succeeded in achieving these objectives.

IIC has remained a singular, nationally recognized public/private partnership that continues to make a BIG difference in the lives of our youngest children and their families. Although funding of the agency decreased overall by almost one-third in 2009, continued support from both public and private funders has allowed us to maintain our basic services. In those programs where the required cuts were the greatest, e.g., the Newborn Home Visit Program, we have focused our efforts on the most vulnerable families.

A hallmark of IIC from its inception has been its accountability, as evidenced by a high quality independent evaluation that Case Western Reserve University conducts. Funded via private dollars, this assessment has been key to improving our programs and demonstrating their impact. Last year we received — relative to our Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK) Program — arguably, our most significant findings to date. Evaluation results indicated that the UPK initiative has clearly succeeded in raising the quality level among participating early education settings and in improving the school readiness of those enrolled in them. Most notably, those children entering the program with the lowest baseline scores made the most dramatic gains. Unique in the state, UPK is a model for efforts focused on ensuring a child’s successful future in school and beyond.

We greatly appreciate your ongoing commitment of “time and treasure” to Invest in Children. We look forward to a sustained partnership in our joint efforts to make a big difference in our community, and especially in the lives of Cuyahoga County’s most valuable asset — our children.

Rebekah L. Dorman, Ph.D. Director

Anju Abdullah Program Officer

Detreisha “Tracy” Butler Administrative Assistant

Magda Gomez Communications Manager

Helen McCoy Fiscal Manager

Nakiaa Robinson Program Manager

Jill Smialek Program Officer

Robert O. Staib Associate Director

Office of Early Childhood

Staff

Partnership CommitteeCommissioner Peter Lawson Jones, Co-Chair

Leslie D. Dunn, Co-Chair, The Mt. Sinai Health Care Foundation

Rabbi Richard Block, The Temple-Tifereth Israel

Darnell Brown, Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities

Geraldine Burns, St. Luke’s Foundation

Patti DePompei, Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital

Barry Doggett, Eaton Corporation

Mark Freeman, Ph.D., Shaker Heights City School District

Mareyjoyce Green, Ph.D., Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland

Mayor Frank G. Jackson, City of Cleveland

Catherine M. Kilbane, United Way of Greater Cleveland

Cathy Lewis, The George Gund Foundation

J. Thomas Mullen, Catholic Charities Services Corporation

Shannon Phillips, M.D., The Cleveland Clinic Foundation

Maria Pujana, M.D., The Cleveland Foundation

Ilana Horowitz Ratner, Integrated Visions

Ron Rice, RPM International Inc.

Reverend Stephen Rowan, Bethany Baptist Church

Elaine E. Schulte, M.D. MPH, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation

Art Treuhaft, The Treu-Mart Fund

Jane Wiechel, Ohio Department of Education1 2

Goal Effective Parents & Families Goal Safe & Healthy Children1 2

Michael and Casey Atkinson with daughter, Victoria “Tori,” age 2

Dimaris Melendez and son, Luis, age 2

Help Me Grow has been there from the beginning; literally hours after our daughter was born, a Help Me Grow representative visited us in the hospital to

help us understand the resourcesavailable for children with Down syndrome. Three

years later we’re proud to say our daughter is thriving and, thanks to Help Me Grow, so are we.

• 2,358 families received a Newborn Home Visit from a registered nurse

•Nurses identified and addressed medical concerns in either the mother or

infant at 39% of the newborn home visits they made.

•Very high-risk mothers in the City of Cleveland who participated in the

MomsFirst Program had a significantly lower rate of infant mortality than the

general population of mothers in Cleveland, 9.62 vs. 15.53.

•2,596 children with a confirmed or suspected delay or disability received

developmental services

•2,503 families with young children at risk received home visiting services

• 404 children with social emotional concerns received Early Childhood Mental

Health services

Goal 1 Lead Agency Partners

• 171 families received support and assistance in completing their well child visits

through the Medical Home Pilot

• For those families participating in the Invest in Children’s Medical Home Pilot, 86% of the babies had received all recommended well-child visits by their first birthday.

This is more than double the proportion for the general Medicaid population.

• Our Medical Home communications campaign continued with posters displayed

in donated kiosk spaces around the City of Cleveland.

• Our outreach campaign helped ensure that 61,435 children under age six

received health coverage (Healthy Start/Medicaid)

• 156 families received a low-cost lead hazard reduction intervention as part

of the Primary Lead Poisoning Prevention Pilot, which removes lead hazards

before the child is exposed

Goal 2 Lead Agency Partners

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I like everything about the Medical Home Program. My patient advocate is everything a person can ask for. She calls me to see how my son and I are doing, and reminds me about his appointments. She also helps me

in the exam room with my son.

Goal Children Prepared for School Goal Community Committed to Children3 4

Curtis G. Robinson and son, Curtis, age 4 Attends Lakewood Beginnings Childhood Center, a Universal Pre-Kindergarten site.

Invest in Children Partners with Cleveland Leadership Center

As a single parent, I feel the need to recognize quality preschool programs. The UPK program enhanced my child’s social interaction with other children, and provided a safe learning environment. This is important because I want my child to have the tools to compete at every level of life and have the advantages he deserves.

• 1,050 pre-school children were enrolled in our Universal Pre-Kindergarten Program

(UPK) at 24 sites across the county.

• Through our Center Quality Enhancement Program, 295 child care centers received

training, technical assistance, and other support including the 185 centers who have

received a star rating from Step Up To Quality, the State’s quality rating system.

• Through Care for Kids, our Family Child Care Enhancement Program, 2,178 Family Child Care Home providers received technical assistance and training to improve

the care they provide.

• 1,236 children with special needs enjoyed greater stability in child care because of

our Special Needs Child Care Program.

• Children who participated in our UPK Program and entered kindergarten in the Cleveland

Metropolitan School District scored an average three points higher (18.1 vs. 15.8) on the

Kindergarten Readiness Assessment for Literacy (KRA-L) than the average for the district.

• Children enrolled in UPK who were most at-risk at baseline on measures of pre-literacy

showed the largest gains of all children enrolled. The magnitude of these gains exceeds

what would be expected from having a typical preschool experience.

Goal 3 Lead Agency Partner

Invest in Children convened a group of Cleveland Leadership alumni to brainstorm ideas on

how to make Northeast Ohio, “a community that cares about children.” Participants met for 4 sessions

to discuss and prioritize opportunities for engagement and support of early childhood in the areas

of Business, the Arts, and Public Spaces. The ideas will be included as part of the Invest in Children

Strategic Plan.

At Parade the Circle on June 13th, parents and

caregivers received information about Invest in Children’s

programs and services, and in observance of Ohio

Lead Awareness Week, learned about resources in the

community to help prevent lead poisoning in young

children. Over 1,000 children and adults had their faces

painted by MyCOM youth volunteers at the

Invest in Children tent.

The strategic work we did for Invest in Children will make a difference in our community for decades to come. This was

extremely rewarding work because it brings helping children and economic development together as one.

Rob Soroka, Senior Vice PresidentHuntington National BankLeadership Cleveland Class of 2007

Parade the Circle

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Tzofit and Selina

2009 Annual Report

On the National SceneIIC Presentation at Zero to Three National Conference

Dr. Rebekah L. Dorman, Director of Invest in Children, presented at Zero to Three’s National

Training Institute in Dallas, Texas in December. Her presentation focused on how to build a

sustainable community early childhood system and was attended by community

representatives from across the country.

Invest in Children and Starting Point Win National Award for Encouraging Strong Male Role Models

Invest in Children and Goal Three lead agency, Starting Point,

were awarded the 2009 National Network of Partnership Schools at

Johns Hopkins University (NNPS) Partnership Award for their work to

support engagement of male role models in the lives of preschool

children enrolled in Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK) in Cuyahoga

County. Getting more fathers and father figures involved in their

young children’s education was the focus of the UPK Initiative in

24 sites throughout Cuyahoga County. The project, administered

by Starting Point, moved quickly from a list of tips for creating a

father-friendly environment to the development of a resource

manual and a November workshop on the topic. The County’s

Fatherhood Initiative also played a significant role in helping to

make this happen.

Around the StateInvest in Children Hosts Public Forum on State Planning for the Center for Early Childhood DevelopmentA public meeting was held on December 18th at the Center for Families and Children to discuss the proposed implementation plan for the creation of the Center for Early Childhood Development within the Ohio Department of Education. Over 130 participants from the early childhood community assembled to learn more about the plan, raise questions and offer their input.

In our CommunityForging CollaborationsIn partnership with the Cuyahoga County Board of Health Nursing Division, a new Newborn Home Visiting Program is underway. When state funding for the program was eliminated, Federal Stimulus dollars through the Council for Economic Opportunities (CEOGC), as well as county funding and private funding from The Mt. Sinai Health Care Foundation was secured for the continued implementation of a Newborn Home Visiting Program. The program provides an in-home visit by a registered nurse to low-income new parents at participating hospitals in Cuyahoga County.

Dr. Craig Ramey Speaks at IIC Annual MeetingInvest in Children was honored to have Dr. Craig T. Ramey, Distinguished Professor of Health Studies & Psychiatry, and Director for the Center on Health & Education at Georgetown University as keynote speaker at our annual meeting on November 20th. Dr. Ramey is the founding director of several well-known early childhood programs that have improved the development and life accomplishments of disadvantaged children, most notably The Abecedarian Project. His presentation focused on the importance of public and private investments in early childhood as an economic development strategy.

making a difference

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Catherine Thomas, Aldonis Grimes, Constance Walker, Billie Osborne Fears, Rebekah L. Dorman

January 17, 2010 The Plain Dealer’s Brent Larkindescribes our UPK Program results.

Programs and Services

Effective Parents & Families

Safe & Healthy Children

Children Prepared for School

Evaluation & Communication

Operations

Total Expenditures

% of Total Expenditures

**Unaudited

2009 Annual Report

Total Expenditures

$8,526,917

$636,720

$8,517,717

$929,646

$870,749

$19,481,749**

Total Government Dollars

$8,311,189

$626,612

$8,461,863

$0

$870,749

$18,270,413

94%

Total Philanthropic Dollars

$215,728

$10,108

$55,854

$929,646

$0

$1,211,336

6%

Invest in Children’s (IIC) actual expenditures at the end of 2009 totaled slightly less than $19.5

million as presented in the following chart. Of this total, 94 percent was financed by a number

of county, state and federal funding streams. The revenue sources that paid for the majority of

IIC’s expenditures came from the Ohio Department of Health, the Ohio Department of Job &

Family Services, the U.S. Department of Education and Cuyahoga County’s Health & Human

Services Levy Funds. In addition, contributions from 10 private and philanthropic funders

helped to finance key programs and services totaling $1.2 million or the remaining six (6) percent

of IIC’s total expenditures as shown below.

January 1, 2009 through December 31, 2009 - In Dollars Actual Expenditures and Revenue

Executive CommitteeTerry AllanCuyahoga County Board of Health

Lisa Bottoms The Cleveland Foundation

Matthew Carroll City of Cleveland Department of Public Health

Rebekah L. Dorman, Ph.D. Cuyahoga County Office of Early Childhood

Marcia Egbert The George Gund Foundation

Robert Fischer, Ph.D. Case Western Reserve University

Christine Fox Cuyahoga County Employment & Family Services

Deborah Forkas Cuyahoga County Department of Children & Family Services

Joseph Gauntner Cuyahoga County Employment & Family Services

Valeria Harper Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board

Jacqueline Kasprisin Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities

Melissa Manos Help Me Grow

Robin Martin Family & Children First Council

Lisa Matthews City of Cleveland Department of Public Health

Billie Osborne Fears Starting Point

Richard Werner Cuyahoga County Office of Health & Human Services

2009 Funders of Invest in Children

United States Department of Education

State of Ohio, Governor Ted Strickland

Board of Cuyahoga County Commissioners

The Cleveland Foundation

Early Childhood Endowment Fund

Eaton Corporation

The George Gund Foundation

Griswold Family Fund

Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Ohio

The Mt. Sinai Health Care Foundation

The William J. and Dorothy K. O’Neill Foundation

RPM International Inc.

Saint Luke’s Foundation

The Treu-Mart Fund

United Way of Greater Cleveland

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