The Children's Trust - Part 2

TOUGH STANDARDS

The evaluation process is notoriously stringent, demanding strict accounting and forcing marginal programs to improve or lose their funding.

A few years ago, a visitor to Urgent ''would have seen kids running around, playing kickball,'' said Saliha Nelson, the program's vice president. ``Now we have a fitness program that includes team-building, flexibility and endurance.''

Other activities include the karate self-defense lessons, homework help from certified teachers and the African drumming. A circle of 15 children pound out thunderous, intricate rhythms on those drums, singing a mixture of Swahili and English.

''Am I my people's keeper?'' they shout, some of them shorter than the djembé and juju drums they pound. ``Tell the world: Yes, I am!''

At least once, funding a Trust program may have saved a life.

It spends $11.4 million a year to put health teams -- including nurses and social workers -- in 100 Miami-Dade public schools, with another 64 being added this summer. Those positions had largely disappeared a generation earlier.

LIFE-SAVING ACT

When a girl fell on a playground slide at Paul Dunbar Elementary in Overtown, slamming her groin onto the metal steps, she would not let anyone see the injury.

The nurse, realizing it could be serious, coaxed her into an exam -- and discovered a blood clot the size of an egg.

''She could have died from that,'' said the nurse, Ann Nagy, who visited the girl during her weeklong hospital stay after emergency surgery.

The next major Trust-funded program will be a rating system to help parents evaluate hundreds of child-care centers. The first batch of ratings will be released publicly in early 2009.

Emily Gunter, the site coordinator for Urgent, said the Trust's record is the result of meticulous oversight.

Trust specialists helped Urgent win national certifications and make literacy education a deeper part of its programs.

''They set a standard that has become our standard,'' Gunter said. ``They're making sure the money is going right to the kids.''