Over the last several months, our partner organizations have been busy in their efforts to make Detroit a city that puts young children first. Read on for some of the recent highlights of their efforts.
Healthy, Thriving Children and Families
Henry Ford Health and Black Mothers’ Breastfeeding Association received a $4.8 million grant over four years to improve equity in pregnant and postpartum people’s health outcomes and reduce racial and ethnic disparities in health outcomes for black women and infants in Detroit. This initiative involves numerous partners, including the Detroit Health Department collaborating to improve access to community-based maternal support services. The grant is from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Office of Minority Health.
Henry Ford Health and the Detroit Health Department focus on strengthening a coordinated system of care and resource navigation for women and pregnant people and provide wraparound support and care throughout pregnancy and into the child’s early years.
Parent and Family Leadership
Detroit Champions for H.O.P.E (Helping Our Parents Empower) rolled out the community developed 6-A-Days across the City of Detroit while also testing a seven-week curriculum to be introduced across all Brilliant Detroit sites. Check it out.
Detroit Champions for H.O.P.E leverages its multitude of partners to work together to support both families and caregivers to learn about early childhood development practices and to access basic needs, public benefits, and federal and state resources, such as the child care subsidy and more, that ensure their children have what they need to grow up healthy. Detroit Champions for Hope continues to uplift families and caregivers as advocates to drive long-term policy change.
Quality Programs and Professionals
Awarded a five-year Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA) grant for Project LAUNCH which promotes the wellness of young children from birth to age eight by addressing social, emotional, cognitive, physical, and behavioral aspects of their development and to prepare them to thrive in school and beyond. To learn more, click here.
The Early Childhood Investment Corporation and Black Family Development support early childhood providers with access to technical assistance resources to improve program quality, strengthen its campaign for wage parity to ensure educators receive equitable compensation, and facilitates partnerships to expand the early childhood workforce and streamline kindergarten transitions.
Safe and Inspiring Environments
IFF has supported 71 new and expanding providers in the City of Detroit with access to over $4.8 million in funding through the Caring for MI Future Facilities Improvement Fund, continuing the mission of ensuring access to safe and inspiring learning environments for all of Detroit’s children. Read more.
IFF focuses on improving the quality of Detroit’s early childhood facilities by providing technical assistance, funding, and targeted support to early childhood providers seeking to expand and enhance healthy, bright, active early learning spaces.
Better System Alignments
United Way of Southeastern Michigan created guidelines and rules for managing information and ensuring data accuracy in the context of developmental and health screenings.
United Way of Southeastern Michigan works to strengthen and improve data systems coordination, which includes expanding the Community Information Exchange (CIE) to provide one-stop access to early childhood eligibility, enrollment supports, access to prenatal care, and emergency food and housing services for families.
Increased and Aligned Funding
Southeast Michigan Early Childhood Funders Collaborative is building alignment with Southeast Michigan foundations that invest in early childhood education and care by bridging the knowledge gap between government and philanthropic investments.
The Southeast Michigan Early Childhood Funders Collaborative works to create a solid foundation of sustainable public and private funding to meet the needs of families and child care providers today and into the future.
A huge thank you to our partners for your great work.