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The Children’s Defense Fund’s Southern Regional Office (CDF/SRO) is the SRBWI grantee, regional program administrator, and state lead in Mississippi. The Federation of Community Controlled Child Care Centers (FOCAL) is the SRBWI state lead in Alabama. And the Southwest Georgia Project for Community Education is the SRBWI state lead in Georgia.

CHILDREN’S DEFENSE FUND’S SOUTHERN REGIONAL OFFICE

The CDF/SRO opened in Jackson, MS in January of 1995 and works in the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

CDF/SRO has been actively engaged in building a network of religious and community organizations, children’s advocates, youth leaders and public officials across the South. In January, 1997 as southern states were beginning to adopt proposals for implementing new federal welfare legislation, CDF/SRO worked with key leaders in southern states to arm them with information and technical assistance they needed to raise the lever of awareness among the public and to work for the best possible implementation of state-based welfare reform policies. CDF southern staff continued to build on this work, by assisting these networks as other issues related to welfare reform began to emerge – access to child care, health care, transportation, education and job training.

In 1998, CDF/SRO worked with several organizations in Mississippi to form a network of child care providers who served low income, mostly poor, working families. This group, the MS Low Income Child Care Initiative, is actively involved in work to make better quality child care more accessible to the children of women trying to move from welfare to work. Following passage of the federal Children’s Health Insurance Program, CDF/SRO worked with its state partners to develop state based Children’s Health Insurance Programs. Massive, intensive campaigns were engaged in each state to inform the design and implementation of companion state Children’s Health Insurance policies.

In 1999, the CDF Southern Regional Office was chosen by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation to serve as the lead state organization for the Mississippi Devolution Initiative. The Mississippi Devolution Partnership was formed to examine how well the state was implementing revolutionary policies related to child care, health care and job training and placement. CDF/SRO also currently serves as the state grantee for the W. K. Kellogg Foundation’s Supporting Partnership to Assure Ready Kids (SPARK) Initiative.

Other SRBWI state leads are the Federation of Community Controlled Child Care Centers (FOCAL) in Alabama, and the Southwest Georgia Project for Community Education in Georgia.

FOCAL is a 501 (c) (3) statewide nonprofit membership organization, comprised of child care providers, parents and individuals interested in child care issues throughout Alabama.
In 1972 FOCAL was organized to protect the interest of poor and black communities threatened by the passage of a new Alabama law regulating child day care. Its mission is to train, educate, support, and enable poor and minority individuals to organize, unify, mobilize resources, and build effective programs in the areas of child care, public policy, and economic development.

During its 30 year history, FOCAL has been a vehicle and structure for child care providers to support each other and combine their voices to affect public policy in order to survive financially and to improve the quality of care available to children in their communities. FOCAL represents over 300 community-based child day care providers, including center directors, staff, home providers, as well as parents and community leaders. Our members directly touch the lives of over 5,500 poor and minority children and their parents every day. They impact their broader community by serving as grassroots leaders.

FOCAL’s More is Caught than Taught Program builds on its thirty years of pioneering work. Through out our history we have been led by African-American women who have cared for their communities and come together to accomplish extraordinary work. Hundreds of women and men have developed positions of leadership in FOCAL, in local communities and in the state. In addition to providing technical assistance and partnering with numerous agencies and groups in the United States, FOCAL has worked closely with children’s organizations in Australia and England for the past seven years, sharing its model of mobilizing disenfranchised individuals to take responsibility for caring for children. FOCAL is recognized locally, nationally and internationally, by the Alabama Legislature, numerous state and local organizations, the Ford, Rockefeller, MacArthur, New World and the Netherlands based, Bernard van Leer Foundations.

Additionally, FOCAL’s work has been sighted in publications that range from national magazines to college textbooks.

SOUTHWEST GEORGIA PROJECT FOR COMMUNITY EDUCATION, INC.

The Southwest Georgia Project was organized as a non-profit community service organization in 1968. It was formed for the specific purpose of organizing communities to address problems of social, economic, health, education and racial disparities in African American communities.

For more than 30 years, the organization has provided support to the development of various community programs including the establishment of minority business enterprises, youth leadership development, education and training programs, and consults for the study of public policy. The Southwest Georgia Project began operating programs to serve low income minority youth as early as 1968 with the establishment of summer enrichment and tutorial programs in Baker, Dougherty, Calhoun and Lee Counties. Volunteers were recruited from these communities and trained to work with the more disadvantaged youth to increase reading and math skills and to provide a place for youth to gather for arts and cultural awareness activities. These early years of operation served hundreds of children and interacted with many families and representatives of the business community. The program was probably the first organized self-help program in these counties coming out of the big anti-poverty programs of the early sixties and seventies.

The first economic development project was a print shop that also served as an employment training program for some of the youth in the communities begin served. The business flourished and became a major center of operations for nearly a decade.
One of the most important initiatives of the Southwest Georgia Project was the organization of New Communities, Inc., a land trust. By January 1970, the group had purchased nearly 6000 acres of land in Lee County Georgia, which made it the largest single land mass owned by Blacks in the United States. The purpose of the project was to upgrade the quality of life of rural, poor, and mostly Black communities by offering meaningful employment, creating economic leverages to ensure and improve the income of small farmers, and ownership opportunities for its settlers.

Since 1969, the Southwest Georgia Project has worked almost exclusively in African American communities and poor neighborhoods. Since around 1974, the composition of the organizational board has remained purely African American. The Governing Board of Directors consists of 24 members. The organization reflects individuals from all walks of life. The programs and services are primarily developed by African Americans and designed for individuals and families who are in need.