The Power of Local Action

“Funding the Next Generation allows a cross-sector of leaders from our County to work together for funding that prioritizes children. This project provides the opportunity to change outcomes for children and youth and improve lives.”
– Kay Ruhstaller, San Joaquin County

What local dedicated funding streams for children, youth & families can accomplish

• Provide flexible, sustainable funding for high priority needs of children, youth and families – such as preschool, after-school, health, family support, youth development, and career preparation.
• Promote the equitable distribution of resources so that young people who have been disadvantaged have expanded opportunities.
• Create opportunities for innovation, leveraging resources, greater community engagement in policy making, and improved coordination and planning by local governments.
• Create a public infrastructure for planning, civic engagement, accountability and transparency.
• Build strong local diverse constituencies for children, which then support ongoing resource expansion for prevention and the reallocation of resources from “downstream” to “upstream” investments.

About the San Francisco Children and Youth Fund

San Francisco’s Children and Youth Fund, the national model for dedicated funding, is now over $120 million each year, serving over 47,000 children and transitional age youth. It has transformed the service delivery system and has led to the creation of a local Department of Children, Youth and Their Families. As of the election of November, 2014, the Children’s Fund will be in place for 25 more years, and it will serve youth up to age 24.  The San Francisco Fund, as well as the years of coalition-building, parent and youth leadership development, and budget advocacy that preceded it, has been the inspiration for Funding the Next Generation.

Children and Youth Fund Fact Sheet

2014 San Francisco Children and Youth Fund charter amendment – latest reauthorization, section on Children and Youth Fund

2014 San Francisco charter amendment for Public Education Enrichment, including preschool for all

History of San Francisco’s first Children’s Fund legislation “Sandboxes to Ballot Boxes” by Margaret Brodkin

Why work at the local level is so important

“We are all getting a better understanding of the growing number of local efforts.  You could feel that things are happening.”
– Linda Gleason, Cradle to Career, Fresno County – commenting on a Funding the Next Generation statewide meeting

The local level provides a bright hope for new resources as federal policies stall and the public is particularly supportive of expanding resources over which they have local control.

• Local funding is required to complement state and federal resources, which are not sufficient to address community needs.
• Realignment and devolution of policy from the federal and state level require that many needs now be met through actions at the local level.
• Local funding streams offer greater flexibility, creativity and targeting of priority needs for children, youth and families that have been disadvantaged.
• Diverse sectors of local communities are often willing to come together to invest in their children when support for other policies may be more polarized. For instance, there have been many successes in all areas of the state in passing measures that support education.
• Increasingly, members of the public want local control over their resources, and are more likely to support measures where they can see how funds will be spent.
• The local level is where most policy effecting children and youth is implemented, where young people and parents can best become engaged in the policy making process, and where the building blocks of a state and national movement are created.