The Children’s Healthcare Access Program shows encouraging results; is being replicated across the state
An independent evaluation of an innovative approach to children’s healthcare in Kent County has found the program is succeeding in significantly reducing the number of expensive emergency room visits and hospital admissions while improving kids’ health.

Grand Rapids Public Schools, First Steps and Great Start team up to get children and parents ready for kindergarten
Grand Rapids Public Schools, First Steps and the Great Start Collaborative of Kent County are launching a new program to ease the transition to kindergarten and prepare families for school success.  KinderCamp is a free, week-long [...]

$800,000 scholarship fund will provide quality early education for Kent County three year olds
Kent County has an exciting opportunity to improve the early learning experiences of young children so that they arrive at kindergarten ready to learn and succeed.  The Great Start Collaborative, in partnership with First Steps, the Heart of West Michigan United [...]

Kent County Great Start Collaborative receives $400,000 grant to provide child care/preschool scholarships
Release issued by ECIC — The Early Childhood Investment Corp. (ECIC) announced that 31 Great Start Collaboratives across the state have been awarded a total of $3 million in grants to stimulate private investment in local early childhood efforts and to pay for [...]

Welcome Home Baby provides free home visit; connects families to community resources
As the organization recognized for its work to integrate and coordinate Kent County’s system of care and education for early childhood, First Steps worked with its community partners to build a gateway for entry into that system.  By providing education and support [...]

Local parent wins statewide advocacy award from Early Childhood Investment Corporation

More than 4,000 parents, children and advocates are expected at the Capitol Thursday, May 19, to thank state lawmakers for their ongoing support of early childhood programs and to remind them how important those investments are to local communities.  Among them will be more [...]

First Steps, Grand Rapids Public Schools, and the Great Start Collaborative are teaming up to make sure that young children enter kindergarten ready to be successful in school.  They’ve launched a new program called Early Learning Communities, funded in large part by recent grants from the Early Childhood Investment Corporation and PNC Grow Up Great.

New report emphasizes the need to strengthen all systems that support children
A commitment to education must recognize that learning begins at birth and does not happen in a vacuum.  More and more children in Kent County and around the state are living in or near poverty.  At the same time, many of the support systems [...]

ReImagine Early Years supports early partnership among First Steps, Grand Rapids Public Schools, and the Great Start Collaborative
The Grand Rapids Public Schools received a $100,000 grant from the Early Childhood Investment Corporation as part of a project called ReImagine Early Years.  The money is being used to strengthen the early learning experiences of young children [...]

Grant helps expand “Family, Friends and Neighbor Care” project for preschoolers and care providers
The PNC Foundation announced today a $300,000, three-year grant to First Steps to enhance literacy education, language development and child care quality for Grand Rapids’ preschoolers in preparation for their first years of elementary school.