Early Childhood Education

Center for Transforming Lives

May 20, 2023 by

The Center for Transforming Lives (“CTL”) traces its origins to 1907; under various names its mission has always been to serve women in need. In the 1930s, CTL recognized that it could help most effectively by aiding both women and their children. While the following decades saw CTL’s steady development of a variety of programs and partnerships targeting poor and homeless women and their children, the need for such services increasingly outstripped the ability of the organization to provide them. By the start of the coronavirus pandemic, waiting lists for services were common, and CTL’s 1920s-era building in downtown Fort Worth was poorly located, woefully undersized, nowhere near able to accommodate all of CTL’s services and personnel, and with maintenance costs spiraling out of control.

Notwithstanding its dire facilities needs, CTL today offers a targeted and rare approach to boost poor and homeless women and their children into independence, financial security and, if necessary, psychological well-being. CTL engages with 1,500 Tarrant County families annually; its typical client is an African-American or Hispanic woman with one or two children experiencing poverty or homelessness. Household income for these clients averages only $20,000. Given the effectiveness of its approach, and in light of ever-increasing demand, scaling up became the chief imperative of the organization.

CTL’s board considered several alternatives and decided upon a wholesale relocation to a thirteen-acre site in east Fort Worth. Here, an existing commercial warehouse dating to 1959 will be repurposed into a modern, 102,000 SF facility. The combination of services offered in one location will permit single mothers to access counseling, housing assistance and resources for economic mobility all in one day, with drop-in daycare provided for their children and a robust early childhood education program also on offer.

In May of 2023, in partnership with Capital Impact Partners, People Fund, Pacesetter, McCormack Baron Salazar, and Capital One Bank, Crescent closed on a $39.5M Federal NMTC financing, to construct the Center for Transforming Lives’ planned Early Childhood Education & Economic Mobility Center (Riverside Campus) in Fort Worth, which will enable a quantum leap in capability and capacity for the 115 year-old organization, tackling Tarrant County’s entrenched debilities of high, multi-generational poverty and homelessness via a state-of-the-art facility perfectly sited for optimum accessibility and programmed to shatter the devastating cycle of poverty and homelessness experienced by so many single mothers and their children.

All programming will be organized around CTL’s potent two-generation approach, assisting both women in need as well as their children to disrupt the cycle of poverty and homelessness by arresting its otherwise likely intergenerational perpetuation. Key project elements will include an Economic Mobility Center, an Early Childhood Education Center, a Housing Connections Center, Counseling Rooms, and Play Therapy Spaces for children.

When complete, the new facility will increase childcare availability by 57%, grow by 27% the number of homeless women to be served, boost the capacity of economic mobility services by 65%, and provide to clients and the surrounding community a suite of behavioral health services currently unavailable. 52 new jobs will result, and 119 jobs will be relocated to the new campus.

Autism Community Network

April 3, 2023 by

Autism Community Network (ACN) was founded in 2008 through a consortium of healthcare funders led by Palmer Moe and the Kronkosky Charitable Foundation. The primary purpose of ACN is to improve the health and quality of life of children with autism by providing early, uniquely tailored diagnostic services to children suspected of having autism, therapies to families impacted by autism, and support through training for caregivers and providers whose interaction with autistic children is critical to their success. Additionally, ACN works diligently to educate the community about autism and to the best of their ability, the experience of the impacted family and autistic individual.

ACN serves children ages 0-7 through its clinical diagnostic program, and ages 0-9 for occupational therapy and speech language therapy. The organization currently offers the following programs (a) diagnostic services for children, (b) therapies for children and families affected by autism, (c) classes for caregivers affected by autism, (d) professional development for professionals serving children with autism, (e) continued care coordination, (f) community outreach and awareness, (g) quality of life programming (Camp AUSOME!, Family Events, Community Collaborations).

ACN is currently one of two agencies serving the Medicaid populations in Bexar, and surrounding counties, with clinical diagnostic services. ACN’s current waitlist is 6 months for their Earliest Connection Clinic (0-29 months of age) and 18 months for their Diagnostic Clinic (30 months to 6 years of age).

Since its inception in 2008, ACN has served over 27,000 individuals – an estimated 75% of whom are Medicaid eligible. In 2021 alone, ACN served 2,150 children, caregivers and other professionals through its unique programming options, 85% of whom are below the poverty line.

In March of 2023, in partnership with Broadstreet Impact Services (formerly Local Initiatives Support Corporation), Crescent closed on a $5.5M Federal NMTC financing to purchase, renovate and expand an existing facility into the new home of the Autism Community Network (“ACN”). The new 10,346 sf ACN headquarters facility will provide the organization with adequate clinical space to serve a growing referral base, as well as a large sensory gym, a playground and a community center.

The new facility will decrease ACN’s diagnostic waitlist by 3-6 months, increase the amount of therapy offerings, expand education and training for autism service providers and caregivers and improve upon quality-of-life offerings by including appropriate play areas, both indoor and outdoor, for the autistic community, all in a safe, sensory-friendly and warm facility.

The NMTC net benefit will provide ACN with the ability to reduce its fundraising target by nearly $650K and facilitate ACN’s expansion of its existing programming by 63% over the next five years. The project is expected to create at least 10 FTE’s over the next 7 years.

Audubon Gentilly Charter School

July 1, 2020 by

Public education in New Orleans is today wholly entrusted to non-profit charter schools. Multiple networks of independent charter schools are supervised by the elected school board, which functions as the disinterested enforcer of academic standards, provider of resources best offered in a centralized fashion, and owner of school buildings. The resulting highly entrepreneurial environment has transformed educational outcomes throughout the city and afforded to successful charter school operators the opportunity to take over operation of additional schools.

Audubon Schools began as a traditionally-administered public elementary school in the city’s Uptown neighborhood. Almost fifty years ago, four teachers attending Montessori training at Tulane University resolved to find a public school home for this unique pedagogical approach, then and now mostly present in private Montessori schools. The teachers successfully petitioned the Orleans Parish School Board, which authorized “Audubon Montessori” in 1981. Five years later, the school started a French immersion track, which was formally sponsored by the French government in 1990 (The French Ministry of Education supports the program to this day). In the years leading up to Hurricane Katrina (2005), Audubon Montessori became widely referred to as a “public dream school” beloved by its parents (who affixed to their cars bumper stickers sporting this slogan). In the wake of Katrina, Audubon reopened as an independent charter school.

Under the leadership of Superintendent Henderson Lewis (2015-2022), the OPSB adopted a policy of encouraging successful charter school operators to grow by being awarded additional schools to administer. In Gentilly Terrace, an historic neighborhood of the city platted in 1909, the closure of the neighborhood’s charter elementary school was announced in 2016, a consequence of unimpressive academic results and dwindling enrollment. An unprecedented alliance of the Gentilly Terrace & Gardens Improvement Association, the leadership of Audubon Schools and the OPSB was formed to argue for the selection of Audubon as the new operator for Gentilly Terrace’s neighborhood elementary school. In the fall of 2018, Audubon Gentilly began operations, immediately ranking among the most sought-after public schools in the city.

Crescent Growth Capital was hired by Audubon Schools to provide contingent fee-based historic preservation consulting and historic tax credit monetization services, to subsidize the $2.7 million cost of readying the school building for its new operator. Gentilly Terrace School was constructed in 1914, to a design by architect E.A. Christy, and expanded in 1924. The wood-frame Craftsman style building boasts numerous flourishes which typify the Arts-and-Crafts movement, including scalloped rafter tails, decorative friezes and elaborate knee-brace brackets at the gable ends, A contributing element to the Gentilly Terrace National Register Historic District, the school received a rehabilitated ground floor and dramatically re-landscaped side yard play areas incorporating best practices in stormwater management.

Crescent Growth Capital’s in-house historic preservation specialist prepared a three-element Historic Preservation Certification Application over seventeen months. Part 3 approval was received on December 19, 2019, with credit monetization accomplished by Crescent and tax credit sale proceeds delivered to Audubon Schools in July of 2020.

Healy Murphy Child Development Center

December 6, 2018 by

Healy-Murphy Center (HMC) has been serving the educational and social needs of San Antonio’s underserved populations for over 125 years. Mother Margaret Mary Healy Murphy and the Sisters of the Holy Spirit opened what was then known as St. Peter Claver Academy in 1888, and was the first Catholic school and church for African-Americans in the state of Texas. In 1970, the Sisters of the Holy Spirit revised Healy-Murphy’s mission to focus on educating youth in crisis who were not being served by traditional school and community organizations. Today, Healy-Murphy continues to educate young people living in dire circumstances. Many have been the victims of violence and abuse; most are caught in a cycle of poverty and poor health. HMC helps students lift themselves out of generational poverty and low academic achievement through an accredited high school and GED diploma program, healthcare and wellness education, career and college readiness training, and on-campus childcare.

The Child Development Center is one of the many successful programs administered by Healy-Murphy Center. A longtime Texas Rising Star provider, a designation which recognizes centers that continually exceed basic childcare standards, the Healy-Murphy Child Development Center provides quality daycare and early childhood education to 200 low income children ages 6 weeks to 5 years old. Approximately half of these infants and toddlers are the children of teen parents attending Healy-Murphy’s high school program, which provides the added benefit of allowing parents to complete their high school education, while giving their children a meaningful head start in their educational life. The remaining 50% are the children of low-income families who qualify for the City of San Antonio’s Child Care Services reimbursement program. 80% of all children come from households with incomes of less than $15,000. On average, 73% of children served are Hispanic, 21% are African-American, and 6% are Anglo. The infant and toddler program has three key components:

Early Childhood Education: The Child Development Center infant and toddler program utilizes the best-practices in early childhood education to promote sensory, motor, perceptual and language skills. Teachers and caregivers introduce these skills through materials and activities that are both child-centered and teacher-directed. By regularly observing each child’s development, teachers and caregivers plan interactions and lessons that build on children’s strengths and individual interests.

Parent Involvement and Support: Healy-Murphy values the active involvement of parents in the infant and toddler program, both through committee and classroom participation. Parent Days help the children to see their parents as important and concerned members of the center’s environment, while providing parents with opportunities to view the child with teachers and other children.

Health Services and Wellness Education: Understanding the importance of healthy physical development in the earliest years, Healy-Murphy provides free weekly well-checks for all infants and toddlers. Through a partnership with the University of Texas Health Science Center, a nurse practitioner examines each child who may be presenting signs of illness and provides consultations to their parents. Additionally, she provides regular, broad-ranging health assessments, screenings and preventive care for all infants and toddlers.

The existing Child Development Center is located at a high-traffic intersection across from the main campus and consists of buildings that are inadequate to safely meet the needs of educating and caring for nearly 200 infants and toddlers served annually. The three main CDC buildings include a retrofitted historic limestone rock home built ca. 1850, a cinderblock building built in 1987, and a two-room portable structure that is over 25 years old. Each building is in need of extensive infrastructure repairs.

In 2016, the Healy-Murphy Center engaged LPA Architects and Malitz Construction to provide an estimate for upgrading the current facilities and an estimate for building a new facility. Because the construction estimates came in at nearly $4 million, HMC decided that it would be in the best interest of its clients and their families to build a new facility, utilizing the best practices for early childhood education facility design, and safely located on Healy-Murphy Center’s main campus. The site for the new Child Development Center has already been purchased by the Sisters of the Holy Spirit and Mary Immaculate, the founders of the school and the property owners for the entirety of the main school and daycare campuses. The Sisters of the Holy Spirit purchased the land with the intent of allowing Healy-Murphy Center to construct the Child Development Center on the site upon completion of the capital campaign.

In September of 2017, HMC hired Crescent to pursue NMTCs in conjunction with its overall financing plan for the new Child Development Center. Crescent worked to secure an investor commitment along with Federal NMTC allocation. In December of 2018, Crescent and HMC closed on $6.0M of Federal NMTCs provided by Capital Impact Partners, leveraging a NMTC equity investment made by Capital One Bank. The NMTC subsidy will allow HMC to complete the Child Development Center project and retain the existing 28 employees.

Omaha Early Learning Center – Gateway Project

May 6, 2015 by

Inspired by the Educare Learning Network, the Omaha Early Learning Centers (“OELC”) provide early childhood education programming to the most needy children in Omaha – a population that has grown significantly over the past decade. In the ten years ending in 2011, the Midwest saw a 40% increase in childhood poverty, the greatest such increase in the US. Studies have shown that children living in poverty start school 2-3 years behind their peers in terms a educational development, and are seven times less likely to graduate high school. Furthermore, a November, 2009 study concluded that every dollar spent on early childhood education equates to a 7-10% rate of return: poverty-stricken children that enroll in early childhood development programs are better prepared when they enter the school, more likely to graduate from high school, more likely to earn a higher wage, and are less likely to resort to public aid, or turn to crime.

In January 2014, Congress appropriated $500M to expand the number and quality of early learning opportunities for infants and toddlers through the Early Head Start – Child Care Partnerships grant program. OELC, in partnership with the Buffett Early Childhood Fund, found itself in a unique position to combat Omaha’s alarming rise in poverty by leveraging these Federal dollars into new early childhood programming. That program needed a home, though, so in mid-2014, OELC engaged Crescent Growth Capital to facilitate the NMTC-financing for two new early childhood development facilities in Omaha.

In May 2015, OELC, the Buffett Early Childhood Fund and CGC closed on a stacked $10.26M State/$3M Federal NMTC financing to construct the Gateway ELC, utilizing NMTC allocation provided by Enhanced Capital. The new 16-classroom facility will include a full kitchen and multi-purpose room, that will serve up to 96 infants and toddlers, and 68 pre-kindergarten students. The project is anticipated to create 38 full time jobs, and an additional 10 jobs for contracted service providers. Using the Educare model as its inspiration, the Gateway center will focus enrollment on the most impoverished children first, thereby maximizing its impact on those most in need of help.

Educare of Lincoln

October 21, 2014 by

Educare is a research-based program that prepares young, at risk children for school; a specially-designed place that nurtures early learning and sends a bold message about the value of investing in the first five years; an innovative partnership between the public and private sectors to create a more efficient, more effective early learning program; and a compelling platform to drive change among policymakers, business leaders and early childhood providers by showing what quality early learning looks like.

Educare of Lincoln opened in February of 2013 with 100 students and 35 staff. Educare of Lincoln represents a unique public-private collaboration among several community partners, including: Lincoln Public Schools, Community Action Partnership of Lancaster and Saunders Counties, the University of Nebraska, the University of Nebraska Foundation, and the Buffett Early Childhood Fund. In the typical Educare model, private funds build the facility and public funds are braided to support operations.

As with every Educare Early Childhood Learning Center, Educare of Lincoln specifically targets the most impoverished children first. By providing crucial early childhood development to the most needy children, and developing a culture of parental involvement, Educare’s model is set up to affect lasting change in the lives of Lincoln’s most at-risk children.

In October, 2014, Educare of Lincoln, Buffett Early Childhood Fund and Crescent Growth Capital closed on a $10MM State QEI. Using Nebraska NMTC allocations provided by Enhanced Capital Partners and Stonehenge Capital, the financing will provide nearly $1MM of net NMTC subsidy to the existing operations. This subsidy will allow Educare to double its capacity to 191 students and increase employment to 50-60 full-time staff, putting the program in position to positively impact the lives of Lincoln’s poorest families for years to come.

Early Childhood Education

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