The ABCD Initiative
As of December 31, 2004, ABCD has provided $9.5
million in grants and loans to support 3,500 child
care spaces, and ABCD's community developer partners
have nearly 1,500 spaces under construction.
Launched in 2003, LIIF's ABCD Initiative is a California-wide collaborative
of existing organizations dedicated to building a comprehensive
and sustainable financing and support system for child care facility
development. Linking people and resources in innovative new ways,
ABCD is expected to support 15,000 child care spaces in California
by 2010.
Four Strategies That Work Together
The ABCD Initiative employs four key strategies to build this support
system for quality child care facility development in California.
These are:
- ABCD Fund
This is the financing component of the ABCD Initiative. The
Fund offers child care providers in California grants and loans
for child care facility development including planning grants,
predevelopment loans, flexible loans for acquisition and construction
costs.
- ABCD Development Assistance
This strategy increases quality child care spaces in low income
communities by building partnerships with community developers
to support the inclusion of child care facilities within health,
faith-based, education and housing developments. The Development
Assistance Program offers direct financing, education, structured
networking and advocacy to support these partnerships between
agencies.
- ABCD Constructing Connections
Constructing Connections provides funds to lead agencies in
ten California counties to form effective collaboratives of
child care providers, community developers, small business corporations,
educators and advocates. These groups work to identify and eliminate
regional barriers to child care facility construction, create
processes to better facilitate construction projects and provide
essential resources for understanding the nuts and bolts of
these types of projects.
- ABCD Campaign to Sustain Child Care
To best support its efforts to finance and support child care
facility construction, LIIF works with child care advocates
to educate policy makers about the need for increased child
care operating subsidies from all levels of government. LIIF
brings together experts in financing, community development,
local planning, affordable housing, and child care to advocate
for public policies that will result in greater availability
of quality child care, especially for low income families.
