Marina Mendoza, Children’s Funding Project: Your fund supports children from the time they are babies until they become young adults. That means you support a wide range of services. How do you all decide what to fund and how to fill in areas where you can’t?

Cindy Arenberg Seltzer, Children’s Services Council of Broward County: It’s been a really interesting and amazing process, and I have had the good fortune to be the CEO since [the Children’s Services Council] was created. When we began 25 years ago, we convened the community and looked at the biggest issues facing us. And the reason the Children’s Services Council was created was because of a crisis in our foster care system. There were nearly 4,000 children in out-of-home care. A crisis in our juvenile justice system: over 12,000 children were being arrested over 14,000 times. Teen pregnancy was at the 20% rate. So, the community said, “Oh my God, we have to do something for prevention.” And none of the state or county dollars were really going into prevention, because they needed to treat those that had already gone too deep.

The beginning investments were quite simple. We looked at the Search Institute work and Communities That Care, and those 19 risk factors and the protective factors, and determined the most cross-cutting things that could be done; interventions that could be put in place. So, the very first request for proposals [RFP] that we did, the very first day we had funding, was for family strengthening programs. At that time, 25 years ago, we put about $3.5 million into that.

We then worked with the state attorney’s office and the police to understand what would make them trust diversion programs. And our second RFP was for new diversion alternatives for youth, known as New Day, locally. And then after-school programs—keeping children safe and engaged in activities that both connect them to their school and community and also giving them an opportunity to get homework assistance and improve their school performance.

Those were the initial investments, but we knew we would be growing from there. The key is to keep listening. Where are the gaps? We don’t want to supplant funding; we have a mandate not to supplant. But part of our mission is to provide leadership—it’s leadership, advocacy and resources. What we continually do is build on that strategic plan. We bring partners together to understand where the issues are. We’re very data driven. We’re looking at community-level data; more localized data coming down to the census tract. Who’s funding what? Where are the gaps? What does the research show are the most effective interventions that can be offered? That’s what we put into our request for proposal. And then rinse and repeat. Every year, we’re looking at how those outcomes were. What are the new trends that we’re seeing, and what else can be done?

“If there are other governments or nonprofits or foundations in your community that are working on children’s issues, look at how you can collaborate and cooperate.” —Cindy Arenberg Seltzer

Marina Mendoza: That’s amazing, to not only fulfill the mandate of what you set out to do very effectively, but to continue to use the data to feed back into what you’re doing next and how you’re going to continue creating those really transformative outcomes for the children in your community.

Cindy Arenberg Seltzer: When you talk about transformative outcomes … I told you we had nearly 4,000 children in out-of-home care 25 years ago. Now it’s about 1,200. There were 12,000 children being arrested over 14,000 times. Now it’s about 2,500 to 2,800 children being arrested. We still haven’t reached nirvana. It’s not perfect yet. And I can’t take all the credit. But we just had external evaluators looking at our data, looking at our community, and they validated that the work of the Children’s Services Council is largely responsible for those decreases.

Marina Mendoza: I’ll be happy to read that report when it comes out! And it’s not surprising, because you really intentionally took that data, worked with it, and improved the outcomes for children. The experience of living in your county has actually changed lives. It’s not just some pretty numbers. I imagine that there are real children and families who really benefited from your work.

Cindy Arenberg Seltzer: Absolutely. And I meet them every day when I’m out in the community. We actually just started a podcast where I’m interviewing some of them. One young man, who I just had the opportunity to interview, I’ve known since he was 8. He’s now 33, and he’s been an elected official. He is continually giving back to his community, an amazing young man, and it’s just been remarkable to see the transformation.

Marina Mendoza: Let’s move into the way that you communicate outward: these outcomes, the storytelling of people’s lives, and how they’ve changed due to the council’s work. We’ve seen some really great publications come out from you all, telling that story. What is your secret for translating your impact to a broad audience and really, ultimately, demystifying the work that you do?

Cindy Arenberg Seltzer: I think it comes down to a couple of things. Early on, we embraced results-based accountability. It’s not just “How much did we do?” but “How well did we do it?” And, most importantly, “Is anyone better off?” We have to communicate those three things.

And then, people absorb information in different ways. Some like pictures, some like words. How can we keep translating the information into easier ways for people to absorb it? It’s a continuous quality improvement. We show it to different people [and ask], “Do you understand what it says?” Can we bring out all the different aspects of the impact that we’re having, whether you care about the finances, or you care about the impact on children, or you care about the numbers of children? Some people are really moved by stories. Some people are really moved by numbers. So, we try to incorporate all those different aspects in the publications we put out. And there’s a variety of publications for the different audiences, depending on what drives them.

Marina Mendoza: Making sure that it reaches all the different types of people, in the ways that they like to receive information, makes good sense.

Cindy Arenberg Seltzer: From the beginning, it was one of the council’s charges and one of my personal commitments that we are accountable and transparent. And you can’t have transparency if people don’t understand what you’re putting out there. There was a very, very conscious effort from the beginning to be as transparent as possible—and perhaps overcommunicate, but I’d rather be accused of that than hiding the ball.

Marina Mendoza: Over the last five years, we have had 22 new voter-approved children’s funds created across the nation. Thinking back to [the council’s] first days, what advice do you have for other voter-approved children’s funds that are in their early days of implementation, or maybe even one that’s gearing up for a reauthorization campaign to make the case that their voter-approved children’s fund is a worthy cause in their community?

Cindy Arenberg Seltzer: While it has been 25 years, it feels like yesterday that I was standing it up and we were building the plane while we were flying it. I had the advantage of working at Broward County just prior to the creation of the Children’s Services Council, and I had started the Children’s Strategic Plan, which is now known as Broward Partnerships for Kids. I used that framework, which again goes back to Communities That Care. I’m also a lawyer with a master’s in public administration, so having the opportunity to set up a government from the ground up was really an extraordinary opportunity.

What I would say to those who have that extraordinary opportunity: Philosophically, we looked at accountability and transparency. Be really clear. You want those voters to feel really good about what they’ve done. Use data to inform the decision-making. Whatever drove your citizenry to create this voter-approved fund, make sure you’re listening to what was driving them. As I pointed out, in our case, it was the crisis in the foster care system and what was going on in the juvenile justice system. So those were the very first things that we did.

“Be humble. Really pay attention to how you’re showing up in the community, because you want to build allies. That’s more important than ego.”
—Cindy Arenberg Seltzer

Now obviously, having an impact, to bring those numbers down like we’ve done, doesn’t happen overnight. You also want to look for some quick wins. What are some really big pain points in your community right now? Is it subsidized child care, that there just isn’t enough child care? Is it the opportunity to draw down some additional federal funding that may exist that no one’s been able to tap into? In our case, there happened to have been, at that time, a grant opportunity that paid 9-to-1 on the investment that we had. It was right after the CHIP [Children’s Health Insurance Program] act was passed, and we looked for a way to use TANF [Temporary Assistance for Needy Families] recipients to go into their community and help find families who had children, who could get signed up for the children’s health insurance program in Florida, which is known as KidCare.

Be creative. Look at the partnerships. Bring your allies together. If there are other governments or nonprofits or foundations in your community that are working on children’s issues, look at how you can collaborate and cooperate so that you’re showing your community that you’re not just throwing money at a problem, but looking for ways to fill holes and to work together. All those things really help. And then keep track of what you’re doing.

One other tip: I was very conscious at the beginning that, as the voter-approved children’s fund, we would have way more money than anybody else in the field. And it would be very easy for us to bigfoot our way around. And I was very conscious that, however much money anyone put into a project or however much effort they put in, everyone got credit. It was not “The Children’s Services Council and then everybody else,” or “It’s just us and no one else gets credit.” It was sharing the credit, always, always, always. And when the time came in 2014 when we needed to be reauthorized, everyone was saying, “Cindy, you need to take credit now. We want to highlight you. How can we help you succeed? Because we recognize that your success is our success.” I would say: Be humble. Really pay attention to how you’re showing up in the community, because you want to build allies. And that’s more important than ego. Leave your ego at the door. Focus on the children.

Marina Mendoza: Really sound advice. And I think many leaders might agree that, whether they intend it or not, the work tends to be humbling. Just recognizing the amount of responsibility and privilege that having a voter-approved children’s fund gives you and your community.

Thank you, Cindy, for joining me today. It’s clear that you and your team’s leadership make a real difference for children and youth living in Broward County, FL. I appreciate you taking the time to share your wisdom and expertise with me.

To learn more about Children’s Services Council of Broward County visit https://www.cscbroward.org/.