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WHAT IS SPARKING CONNECTIONS? It is a three-phased, four year national initiative to demonstrate and evaluate strategies to support family, friend and neighbor caregivers through partnerships with retailers and other non traditional partners. Sparking Connections is a demonstration and evaluation project of Families and Work Institute (FWI), a nonprofit center for research founded in 1989 that provides data to inform decision-making on the changing workforce, changing family and changing community (www.familiesandwork.org). The project is exploring non-traditional partnerships (with retailers, senior programs, libraries, museums and others) and other strategies for bringing child development information and resources to the family, friend and neighbor caregivers who care for the majority of our nation's children while their parents work. The major focus of efforts to improve the quality of child care children receive has been on licensed child care centers, preschools, or licensed family child care homes. Yet the majority of children in the United States are cared for by family, friends, or neighbors in settings that are, for the most part, not regulated. In addition, more children living in poverty and more of the youngest children are in this type of care than other forms of care. In late 2000, the National Retail Federation (NRF) Retailers’ Work-Life Forum (RWLF)— a group of retail employers working to find solutions to issues of concern for their workforce —asked Families and Work Institute for assistance. Based on their experience, internal research and informal conversations with employees, these employers knew their employees, who typically rely on family, friend and neighbor care, are often absent or preoccupied because child care is not available or because their child care plan breaks down or worries them. Families and Work Institute responded with Phase I of Sparking Connections, completing initial research and releasing a report in April 2003 summarizing the research findings, which provided recommendations for how diverse community stakeholders can help family, friend and neighbor caregivers, and providing a menu of ideas, examples and ways that diverse and often unexpected community partners can effectively connect with each other, with retailers and other employers and with family, friend and neighbor caregivers. Funding for Phase I was provided by Providian Financial, with additional support for printing the report from the A.L. Mailman Family Foundation. The report is being widely disseminated to employers, policy makers, funders, community organizations and others interested in improving community-based supports to family, friend and neighbor caregivers. The Sparking Connections National Consortium—a two-year evaluation and demonstration project (Phase II) began in December 2003 following the publication of FWI's Sparking Connections report. Pilot sites, which are participating in this national evaluation effort, include; Henry County/ Martinsville, Virginia (United Way Success By 6); Minneapolis/ St. Paul/ Minnesota (Resources for Child Caring funded by The McKnight Foundation); Oklahoma (state child care resource and referral network and tribal child care association); and Seattle/King County, Washington (Child Care Resources and partners with funding from The Seattle Foundation’s Project Lift-Off Funders Collaborative). In addition, learning community partners are participating in all project activities except the national evaluation and include Atlanta, Georgia (Smart Start Georgia); Brownsville, Texas (United Way Success By 6 and partners)Greenville, South Carolina (United Way Success By 6); and Hawaii (Good Beginnings Alliance and partners with funding from the Samuel N. and Mary Castle Foundation). All sites were selected to participate because they have been leaders in addressing the needs of family, friend and neighbor caregivers. Both pilot sites and learning community partners will participate in a variety of learning community and technical assistance activities, including conference calls, individualized consultation, a national technical assistance meeting and brokering linkages with retailers and other national experts, funders and organizations. The consortium includes national organizations with relevant resources, such as United Way of America, National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Child Care Bureau, the National Association of Children's Museums, National Library Association, Food Action Research Council and others. The sites will function as a learning community, and pilots will evaluate their work with local evaluators and the national leadership of Moncrieff Cochran of Cornell University. Project sites will also receive technical assistance on all aspects of their work, including linkages with retailers and other non-traditional partners. National partners and sites will meet three times over the two-year demonstration phase. The first meeting took place on March 2-4, 2004 and was hosted by The Home Depot, a lead project partner in Atlanta, Georgia. At this meeting, teams from all sites worked with the Cornell University team and FWI staff to design evaluation plans for the coming year’s work. A second national technical assistance meeting, co-sponsored by the BUILD Initiative, is scheduled for October 2004 in Seattle, hosted by the Project Soar Funders Collaborative. A third national meeting will be held the following summer (June or July, 2005) to assess what has been learned and design the best ways to disseminate these lessons. Families and Work Institute is currently seeking support to complete Phase II funding. For more information, please contact Nina Sazer O’Donnell, Vice President, and Director, Child, Families and Community Programs, at (919) 477-7137 or via email at: nsazerodonnell@familiesandwork.org.