Measuring our collective impact

The goal is clear: every young child starts kindergarten with the skills needed for success in school and beyond. What hasn't always been clear is how to know if we're making progress toward that goal.

"Our community is investing in excellent programs that help families make sure that their children are healthy, ready to learn and ready to succeed when they start school," said Rebekah Fennell, Executive Director of First Steps. "As good stewards of community resources, we need to be able to measure our collective impact--not just the impact of individual programs. This data will provide the broader community with reliable, relevant information about the well-being and school readiness of young children."

First Steps and the Great Start Collaborative contracted with the Dorothy A. Johnson Center's Community Research Institute (CRI) at Grand Valley State University to develop and analyze a series of early childhood indicators. Dozens of community partners helped research and select the indicators, ultimately landing on an initial list of about 15. Those indicators measure things such as:

• Percentage of children with age-appropriate language & literacy skills at kindergarten entry.
• Percentage of low-income children receiving age-appropriate medical checkups.
• Availability and affordability of child care.

CRI still is working to analyze several of the indicators, but some of the analysis already is complete. For instance, we've learned that more than 35% of low-income 4-year-olds -- approximately 1,360 children-- who meet the qualifications for tuition-free preschool can't attend because there aren't enough spaces available in federally- and state-funded programs.

One of the mantras of this indicators project is that geography matters. Whenever possible, CRI is analyzing data at the neighborhood level, which will help the community target limited resources to areas with the greatest need and greatest opportunity to make a positive impact.

Jim Edwards, Executive Director of the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy and member of the Great Start Collaborative has been overseeing the indicators project. "When we look at county-level data, it often seems like we're doing quite well," Edwards explained. "However, that masks significant areas of concern, such as poor maternal and child health outcomes in parts of the city or limited access to preschool in rural townships."

Edwards says this approach is innovative and  unique. "A lot of communities around the country are developing city-level and county-level indicators, but very few are analyzing data for individual block groups and census tracts," Edwards said.  

The final indicators report is expected to be complete by late summer and will be posted to the First Steps website. In the meantime, you can click on the link to access maps showing some of the initial data. 

Believe 2 Become launches Baby Scholars

Every year, 1400 babies are born in Grand Rapids' central city neighborhoods. Most of the children from those neighborhoods will start kindergarten unprepared. Some will never catch up.  

Supported and led by Believe 2 Become, Baby Scholars is a collaborative effort to make sure that young children in the central city are on track for kindergarten readiness. The program was announced this month when national parenting and early childhood education expert Dr. Susan Landry shared her research with local practitioners, business and community leaders, clergy and parents. Baby Scholars largely is based on Dr. Landry's work, which focuses on helping parents master specific skills for interacting with their infants and toddlers that lead to better child outcomes. Baby Scholars is slated to begin this fall.  

Families in Kent County will be able to find diapers on the shelves of local food pantries, thanks to the generosity of the community.The Great Start Parent Coalition of Kent County is wrapping up its third annual Diaper Drive after collecting more than 75,000 diapers--far exceeding the goal of 40,000 diapers. The community response was tremendous, with businesses, churches, service organizations and individuals contributing. The Parent Coalition is distributing the diapers to food pantries and resource centers in Kent County.          

New scholarship program to prepare young children for school success   

We want to share the stories of programs and services that are improving the lives of young children and their families in Kent County.  This time we are featuring a new early education scholarship program.

A child's brain is between 80%-90% developed by age four. But less than 4% of all public investments to support that child's education and development are made by that time. A new scholarship program that begins in September is intended to provide young children with two years of high quality early education prior to the start of kindergarten, when nurturing healthy brain development is of critical importance.