by Charles Royer

Many municipalities are scrambling to allocate resources to vital services, including those that impact children and youth.

Pick up any newspaper and you get the feeling that the phrase ?cash strapped? is a permanent adjective for cities.

The five cities that comprise the Urban Health Initiative (UHI) ? Baltimore, Detroit, Oakland, Richmond and Philadelphia ? fit the cash-strapped description.

They have been striving to leave no stone unturned in the search for resources to fund expanded afterschool opportunities, home visitation services by nurses for families, juvenile justice improvements and other valuable programs.

No one would declare victory yet, but a significant amount of funding, approaching $200 million in new and redirected funding, has been generated for children and youth services.

Compact for Sound Government

This compact is an innovative and fiscally prudent state and local partnership between Maryland and Baltimore that is a new way of doing business to achieve important goals and to generate resources for effective programs.

The private sector invests in effective strategies that improve lives ? strategies like drug treatment, case management and jobs.

These investments in effective and successful interventions reduce the need for last resort public programs such as juvenile detention and foster care ? and save government money as a result.

As such savings are realized, they are shared between the effort that created them and the state, further expanding opportunity and improving the lives of more Marylanders.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation, the UHI?s Safe and Sound Campaign and other partners are working with Gov. Robert Ehrlich on compact agreements in two areas right now.

The first seeks to reduce children?s length of stay in foster care through provision of substance abuse treatment and case management to their parents, modeled on an effort in San Diego County that reduced foster care stays by 65 to 80 percent.

The second seeks to remove adjudicated youth from private group homes to community settings that are both more effective in improving youth outcomes and less expensive.

Maximizing Federal Revenue

Another way to fund local programs is to draw down the maximum amount of state and federal funding. Occasionally cities leave some of this money on the table.

One way to draw down these dollars is to use private funds as the local government?s match. In theory, if private money that is already being spent on programming is passed through the city or county, those dollars are matched by the state. The bottom line is significantly more funds are available for services to kids who need help ? twice the amount that the philanthropy would have spent on its own.

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick?s Mayor?s Time initiative, another UHI campaign, is leveraging money using Robert Wood Johnson Foundation dollars. Mayor?s Time and its partners in Detroit and Wayne County are taking advantage of a Michigan law that allows the use of private funds as a local government?s match.

In an example of how this is envisioned to work, the Wayne County Family Court has the authority to expend childcare funds to purchase out-of-school time programming for at-risk kids, but no money to do so. Meanwhile, a foundation traditionally provides money for out-of-school programming.

With this new strategy, the foundation ? instead of directly funding out-of-school services ? would donate money to the County Child Care Fund within the Family Court. The Family Court would then purchase out-of-school time and other youth development services for eligible minors and, under existing state laws, request reimbursement from the State?s Family Independence Agency. That reimbursement, plus the initial investment from the foundation, means more money for youth services.

There are several issues that have to be worked out for the strategy to work, and the strategy might involve a written agreement between the private and public agency.

Pooling Funds

Philadelphia?s strategy includes the pooling of funds. For example, the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) is a program that, like welfare, has been devolved from federal to state administration in recent years.

When the State Department of Education asked for proposals for funding from 21st CCLC, the city government and the school district, with the help of Safe and Sound, worked on a united proposal for 24 schools to stretch the available dollars.

The school district operated extended day programming focused on academics at those schools. But, the criteria for 21st CCLC funding included a broader array of enrichment activities than academics alone.

Safe and Sound helped to bridge the use of both city and school district funds by connecting the school district to its existing network of afterschool providers. The school district didn?t have to go through the step of selecting 24 different providers to offer the enrichment programming.

That worked, but the 21st CCLC dollars still didn?t fully fund programs at all 24 schools. The city agreed to help pay for the enrichment activities, and the school district paid for the academic extended-day programming.

The city, the School District and Safe and Sound banded together to convince the State Education Department to pool the 21st CCLC money with the city and school district money, and as a result, all 24 schools were funded. The spirit of the 21st CCLC criteria was met, and the 24 programs were funded seamlessly.

Charles Royer is director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation?s Urban Health Initiative. He was mayor of Seattle from 1979-1991 and NLC president in 1983.

Other City Examples of Financing Strategies

Little Rock, Ark.: Little Rock has had a .5 percent sales tax for more than 10 years. The proceeds fund youth-focused programs and adult substance abuse programs, in addition to community development projects such as housing. The main focus is prevention, intervention and treatment.

College Park, Ga.: With one of the nation?s busiest airports located nearby, College Park has been able to utilize the car rental industry to support its community. The city uses car rental taxes and Community Development Block Grants to fund large projects related to children and youth. In 2002-2003, car rental tax money helped fund a community pool, and the city is presently working on building another pool this year.

Kent, Wash.: By ordinance, 1 percent of the city?s general fund is allocated to non-profits to provide for human services, as the city does not give any direct services. This initiative began around 1988 and continues to thrive. Agencies supported through the general fund can vary from year to year depending on the needs of the city at that time.

Aspen, Colo.: Revenues from the .45 percent Affordable Housing/Day Care Sales Tax are used for a financial aid program to help defray the costs of child care to eligible families.

Plano, Texas: Sales and property taxes in Plano are added each year to the city?s general fund. The city?s Youth Advisory Commission has been funded through these taxes for almost seven years. Other departments such as fire and police benefit from the taxes and are a sustainable method for financing.