Imperative 3
Providing High Quality Programs and Professionals
Early childhood education is vital to early development. We strive to achieve wage and compensation equality, in order to recruit and retain skilled professionals.
Detroit must hire these educators to help children get the education they deserve.
67% of early childhood professionals cite low wages as their biggest staffing issue.
State of Michigan is investing a historic $1.4 billion to strengthen the childcare system.
Led by the Early Childhood Investment Corporation and Black Family Development, our work is focused on greater access to high-quality professionals during a child’s first eight years of life.
We are creating simple tools families, parents, and caregivers can use in their daily life to prepare their children for school. Plus, we are informing and guiding parents on how to enroll their children in childcare and education programs that will help their kids excel.
Access, quality, and affordability are key for Detroit families to give their children a head start in life.
While our work overlaps with each focus area, quality in early childhood education programs is where our work is centered.
We promote teacher preparedness, compensation, and retention to ensure Detroiters have access high-quality early childhood programs.
Our integrated network helps the children and early childhood providers have the same opportunities as others, ensuring sufficiency, health, well-being, safety, and preparedness to thrive.
Lead Organizations
Why Now?
The COVID pandemic has only heightened the need for formal, high-quality early childhood education opportunities. Failure to make this a priority means many of Detroit’s children will be underprepared or parents may not even have them enrolled. We must seek new ways to attract and retain quality educators.
The Latest
Michigan Learning Channel Literacy Program
The Michigan Learning Channel piloted a six-week literacy program providing high-quality reading instruction and practical ideas for engaging with your kids to support at-home education.
The program guides parents in developing their child’s literacy and bridges the gap between at-home learning and kindergarten readiness. To date, feedback has been very positive.
Job Alert! - One Stop Shop Navigator
One Stop Shop Navigators serves as the point of contact for potential entrepreneurs pursuing the goal of opening their own licensed child care. The One Stop Shop section will work with a contracted grantee with the goal of increasing the number of child care providers by 500 each year over the next two years. The Navigator will guide people through the One Stop Shop resources, technical assistance, trainings and will provide support. Navigators will connect potential child care providers with state and community-based resources that can help them navigate through the process of starting and maintaining a licensed child care business. Throughout their work, navigators build partnerships with local, regional, and state partners to ensure connections are made and maintained to help build and sustain child care business and workforce across the state.
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What You Can Do to Help
Talk to your school district
Ask your educators school leaders to share curriculum and help identify home-based strategies to support math and reading competencies.
Talk to your child's educator
Ask your child’s educator in preschool to describe the skills, knowledge and abilities needed for them to be kindergarten ready.
Contact your state and local policymakers
Contact their offices and explain how childcare is essential to your work and livelihood as a parent. Forward them this Fact Sheet and ask them to advocate for increased child care education wages.
Push for temporary COVID assistance to be made permanent
Contact your state and local policymakers to help ensure increased investment in early childhood education due to COVID are made permanent.
Dig Deeper
Early childhood education is just that—education. Child care professionals are not babysitters, they are educators. Expectations and requirements for early childhood educators must be addressed and equality in pay and talent must be paramount.
Black Family Development
Early Childhood Investment Co.
LENA Start BFDI