1. Introduction to Space Census


1. What is a Space Census?

 

The Space Census is one of the CYSS Productivity, Cost Management, and Accountability tools. It is conducted Army-wide each year in order to obtain a correct count of all Army Child, Youth and School spaces delivered by installation programs, including all facility-based, home-based, outreach, and instructional program spaces. The information obtained from using this tool is one factor used to determine your level of appropriated funding.

 

2. Why Take the Journey?

 

The CYS Space Census initiative, along with the other Productivity, Cost Management, and Accountability tools, is probably the most important development in CYS since the Child Development Center (CDC) Financial Turn-Around Plan, which eliminated an annual 22 million dollar deficit to “break even” status. This is critical because the outcome of the census impacts both funding and staffing:

Impact on funding — Funding will be based on Child, Youth and School spaces; therefore, counting and validating all spaces is critical.

Impact on staffing — The CYSS Space Census provides the framework for the installation CYSS Staffing Template.

In fact, the information you gather is so important that the results of your census will
be validated during annual program reviews.

Validation and Inspection — Installation child space counts will be validated by the Region during Region Child, Youth and School Evaluation Team (RCYET) inspections and revisited annually as part of the Installation Child, Youth and School Operations Plan (ICOP).

 

3. Space Census Scope and Elements

 

The CYS Space Census has four parts plus a summary:

  1. Child Development Center (CDC)
  2. Family Child Care (FCC)
  3. School Age/Middle School/Teen (SA/MS/T)
  4. Outreach Services Coordinator/CYS Summary

Each program’s Space Census is conducted separately and then rolled up to comprise the total CYS Space Census picture.

Since the CYS Coordinator’s role is to combine the information from each program level to obtain the overall installation CYS Space Census, he/she must complete the entire odyssey. Program Directors only need to complete the portion related to their program.

 

4. Space Census Terms

 

Before you take off on your Odyssey, it’s a good idea to see if you can speak “census-ese.” Although each CYS program has its own dialect, with its own terms, some language is used throughout CYS. You may already know a little of the language, or even speak it fluently, but just in case, here are some of the terms you will need as you venture along.

  • Productivity, Cost, Management, and Accountability (PCMA) Tools — A set of electronic tools with established guidance used to manage CYS programs. The CYS Space Census is one of these tools.
  • Funding by Space — The unit cost of caring for/supervising one child or youth. Total number of actual child/youth spaces X funding by space figure = available funding provided by higher headquarters.
  • A-76 — Requires government to rely on commercially available sources if the products and services can be procured more economically from, and performed at a higher level by, a commercial source.
  • Unit Cost — The cost to deliver services per unit.

 

5. Space Census Forms

 

In order to arrive at your proper destination, you will need to use specific tools during your journey. These “tools” are actually a variety of forms used when completing a Space Census to calculate actual, current, and potential capacities and spaces provided for different situations (rooms, programs, facilities, events).

Different forms are used for each census:

  • CDC Space Census Forms
  • FCC Space Census Forms
  • SA/MS/T Space Census Forms
  • Outreach Services Space Census Forms
  • CYS (Coordinator) Space Census Forms

A complete collection of the forms is available in the Library
(https://www.imcomacademy.com/ima/?page_id=9093).

 

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