Early Childhood Development Grants Will Ultimately Promote High School Success

Early Childhood Investment Corporation to Promote Statewide Efforts

High school reform reaches far and wide. To help make sure Michigan’s youngest students are prepared for current reform in practice, Governor Jennifer M. Granholm and Marvin McKinney, board chair of the Early Childhood Investment Corporation (ECIC), recently announced $1.2 million in grants to fund 14 Great Start Collaboratives.

“Children learn more from birth to age three than at any other time, setting the stage for future success in school and in life,” Granholm said. “Supporting high-quality early childhood development and care is a wise investment in our children and our economy.”

The Great Start Collaborative Grants, totaling $820,000, will be distributed to schools in Charlevoix-Emmet, Dickinson-Iron, Jackson, Muskegon, St. Clair, St. Joseph, and Wayne counties.

The ECIC approved seven other community plans, for a total of $420,000 in grant funding. These grants are deemed as “capacity-building,” meaning these community collaboratives are nearly ready for designation as Great Start Collaboratives and will use the grant funding to address any remaining issues or barriers to becoming fully functioning community collaboratives.

The capacity-building grants will be distributed to schools in Branch, Ingham, Genesee, Kalamazoo, Kent, Oakland, and Saginaw counties.

In addition to collaboration readiness criteria, ECIC board members considered the number of area children in poverty, as well as geographic balance, to determine the distribution of funds.

“Children who participate in high-quality early childhood development programs are better prepared to enter elementary school, are more likely to pursue secondary education, and have lower dropout rates and higher high school graduation rates,” Department of Human Services Director Marianne Udow said. “By improving the skills of a large fraction of the workforce, these programs for poor children will reduce poverty and strengthen the state’s ability to compete in the global market.”

This is the first group of communities to receive funding through the ECIC. Intermediate School Districts will act as fiduciaries for the grants. In this round of grants, the ECIC designated seven of the community plans as Great Start Collaboratives and awarded grants to seven more communities to help them build the capacity to become Great Start Collaboratives.

“These grants will help bring together the public and private sectors, including government, business, civic, faith, education, and community groups, to develop a long-standing, sustained focus on early childhood development and learning,” said Marvin McKinney, chair of the ECIC board. “We’ve been able to award this first round of grants with the resources we currently have available, and the ECIC board is committed to funding Great Start Collaboratives throughout the state as new funding sources are identified.”

The Great Start Collaboratives receiving grants from the ECIC will conduct community assessments and develop strategic plans for the development of a comprehensive system of early childhood services and supports available to all children from birth to kindergarten and their families.

Governor Granholm’s expressed dedication to early childhood development and care as a critical investment in the economic viability of the state spurred her to launch Project Great Start in 2003. In the Governor’s 2005 State of the State message, Granholm expanded Project Great Start with the formation of the Early Childhood Investment Corporation—a non-profit public corporation charged with focusing local efforts at promoting early childhood development and learning activities and connecting those local efforts into a statewide Great Start System.

For more information about the ECIC and Project Great Start, visit www.michigan.gov/greatstart.

To read more about Michigan’s early childhood programs, visit the Spring/Summer 2004 edition of CEN’s Leading Change—Ensuring Early Childhood Literacy.

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