Since its inception in 2016, Hope Starts Here, Detroit’s Early Childhood Partnership, has engaged families, businesses, child education and health experts, and the larger community in creating a vision to ensure that children are born healthy, prepared for kindergarten, and on track for success by third grade and beyond. Hope Starts Here aims to, at last, make a Detroit a city that puts children first.

On Nov. 22, 2019, hundreds of Detroiters – parents, teachers, early childhood providers, administrators and activists alike – gathered on the campus of Marygrove College for the third annual Hope Starts Here Summit. For the wide community engaged in refashioning the system that supports early childhood in Detroit, this was an opportunity to network, measure progress and map next steps for the Hope Starts Here framework and an introduction to Hope Starts Here’s first implementation director, Denise Smith.