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.

The grant to First Steps was made possible by the PNC Foundation, which receives its principal funding from The PNC Financial Services Group, and is part of a $3 million investment in early childhood education PNC has been introducing throughout Michigan and Northwest Ohio.

The program signifies the first major investment the PNC Foundation has made in the Grand Rapids area through its signature philanthropic cause, Grow Up Great, a 10-year, $100 million bilingual initiative to improve early childhood education.

First Steps is a community partnership that works to strengthen and coordinate the system of early childhood services in Kent County, Mich. The organization’s vision is to ensure that services for preschool children are high quality and aligned for their benefit.

Speaking on behalf of the PNC Foundation, Sean Welsh, PNC’s regional president for Western Michigan said, “Research has shown that children who are ready for kindergarten are far more likely to experience greater educational achievements, strive toward higher vocational aspirations and contribute to society later in life. The investment in this First Steps program will help ensure that local children are socially, emotionally and intellectually ready for school.”

The PNC grant will expand the reach of First Steps’ “Family, Friends and Neighborhood Care” project, which will benefit hundreds of children and childcare providers in the Grand Rapids area. The program uses a two-pronged approach to improve school readiness by strengthening the skills of unlicensed child care providers and providing the children in their care with activities to support literacy and language development.

“We recognize how important it is for young children in our community to have quality early learning opportunities,” said Kate Pew Wolters, co-chair of the First Steps Commission. “In this program, coaches work one-on-one with child care providers, helping them strengthen their interactions with children and provide the early experiences that will help prepare preschoolers to be successful when they enter kindergarten.”

Today’s grant will support the coaches as well as “early learning hubs” established throughout the neighborhood that hold regular playgroups that allow the children to participate in literacy-based activities and the providers to watch coaches model best-practice instruction.

As part of today’s program, Welsh presented each child in First Steps’ pre-k programs with “Happy, Healthy, Ready for School – Learning Is Everywhere” kits. Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, created the bilingual, multimedia kits for PNC Grow Up Great as part of a continuing partnership. The kits include a magazine for parents and caregivers, a children’s activity book and cards, along with an original Sesame Street DVD.

Kate Pew Wolters accepted the gift of kits on behalf of First Steps.  Learning is Everywhere materials are available at no charge at all PNC Bank branches, pncgrowupgreat.com, and sesameworkshop.org. The video is available free of charge on Learn Along with Sesame on iTunes (www.iTunes.com) and Amazon VOD.

The PNC Foundation, which receives its principal funding from The PNC Financial Services Group (NYSE: PNC), actively supports organizations that provide services for the benefit of communities in which it has a significant presence. The foundation focuses its philanthropic mission on early childhood education and community and economic development, which includes the arts and culture.  Through its signature cause, Grow Up Great, PNC has created a 10-year, $100 million initiative to enhance early childhood education and school readiness.

The development of a highly skilled work force is a top priority for policymakers in Michigan as they seek to rebuild the state’s economy.  The early education, health and general wellbeing of our community’s youngest children are critical to our state’s future prosperity.  The Great Start Parent Coalition of Kent County is hosting a candidate forum focused on state policies impacting young children and their families.  All candidates who want to represent Kent County in the Michigan House and Senate were invited.

What:  Legislative Candidate Forum

When:  Tuesday, July 20, 7:00-8:30 p.m.

Where:  Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park

Why:  To provide parents and other interested citizens with an opportunity to talk with legislative candidates about early childhood issues.

RSVP 632-1007

The forum will be followed by a meet and greet time for candidates and their constituents.  This is a community event open to the public.

First Steps today announced that the W.K. Kellogg Foundation is making a significant investment in Kent County’s youngest children.  The Battle Creek-based foundation is committing $1.3 million over the next three years to two programs that support the health and development of children across the community:  the Children’s Healthcare Access Program and Welcome Home Baby.

“We are very grateful to the W.K. Kellogg Foundation for this tremendous investment in Kent County’s future,” said Rebekah Fennell, Executive Director, First Steps.  “These programs are critical to our efforts to ensure that every young child has the opportunity to reach his or her full potential.”

First Steps is leading a community collaboration to develop a system of support services for young children and their families in Kent County.  The Children’s Healthcare Access Program and Welcome Home Baby are important components of that system.

The Children’s Healthcare Access Program is a community-based medical home project that is connecting low-income children to quality primary healthcare.  The goal is to improve health outcomes among children on Medicaid while better utilizing existing resources and decreasing costs.  The program began in August 2008, and the early results show that it is working.  Visits to the emergency department and inpatient hospital admissions decreased significantly in the first year of the program.

Welcome Home Baby is a family support program that will become a primary gateway to Kent County’s Early Childhood System by connecting with parents in the earliest days of their baby’s life.  All first-time parents and parents younger than 25 will be offered a visit in their home from a maternal child nurse.  The nurse will be able to answer questions about everything from how to feed a baby to where to look for quality child care.  He or she will educate parents about early childhood development and the importance of talking, reading, and playing with their child from infancy.  Families will be offered a menu of community services, and the nurse will help them access the resources that best meet their needs.  A phased implementation of Welcome Home Baby is scheduled to begin this summer.

This investment in Kent County’s children and families is part of a larger commitment that the W.K. Kellogg Foundation is making to the Grand Rapids community.

“The W.K. Kellogg Foundation is committed to creating the conditions that ensure vulnerable children are propelled forward.  We understand the importance of quality health care and access in reaching our mission,” said Nadia Brigham, Program Officer with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.  “First Steps offers promising practices that will not only meet the individual child and family needs but also influence systemic change for the care for vulnerable children.  We are particularly interested in seeing how the work of First Steps impacts the county as well as core neighborhoods in Grand Rapids.”

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation joins the Heart of West Michigan United Way, Steelcase Foundation, Frey Foundation, Douglas & Maria DeVos Foundation, Mike & Sue Jandernoa, and the Early Childhood Investment Corporation in supporting the development of Kent County’s early childhood system.

Compelling research documents that an investment in early childhood development has a profound impact on both the individual and the community.  It leads to higher graduation rates, lower special education costs, a better-trained workforce, a reduction in crime, and a reduced dependency on welfare.

“The investment return on early childhood is higher than the return on any other investment in human capital development that we can make,” Brooks told a sold-out crowd of 650 people at the Economic Club of Grand Rapids luncheon on February 8.

The New York Times columnist spoke about the development of the unconscious mind and how early relationships and experiences impact a child’s long-term success.

David Brooks speaks to the Economic Club of Grand Rapids

“If you’re going to teach this part of the mind, earlier is better,” Brooks said.

Citing a study from the University of Minnesota, Brooks said by age 4, researchers have a 3-in-4 chance of accurately predicting whether a child will graduate from high school.  He lauded programs that are changing those odds, such as preschool and programs in which nurses visit young mothers.

“We’re beginning to see progress in program after program because we’re finally able to use all of this research,” Brooks said.

Brooks is hopeful that will help the country regain the “35-year advantage in education” that he argued has been squandered over the last three decades, jeopardizing the U.S.’s status as the “richest nation.”

He argued that effective programs should be brought to scale and said the public needs to be willing to pay for quality professionals in the early childhood field.  In a line that drew applause from the crowd, Brooks said teaching college physics is neither more difficult nor more important than teaching preschool.

Brooks, based in the nation’s capital, pointed to two barriers that keep elected officials from paying more attention to early childhood development:  a political cycle more focused on the next election than on long-term benefits and Washington D.C.’s “machismo culture.”  Despite the compelling research, politicians would rather “talk about guns and banks” he said.

Sold out crowd at the Economic Club

When asked what supporters can do to make investments in children a higher priority for elected officials, Brooks encouraged the crowd to keep talking about the issue and said social movements can be incredibly powerful.

“In politics right now, we’re not fighting arguments; we’re fighting inattention.”

First Steps partnered with the Washington, D.C.-based Committee for Economic Development to sponsor Brooks’ speech.   Amway President Doug DeVos, Co-chair of the First Steps Commission, introduced Brooks.  CED President Charles Kolb also spoke, and told the crowd, “We’ve been at this for 40 years, and we’re going to stay at it until it’s a national priority.”

The economic problems of the last decade are taking a toll on young children across Michigan and in Kent County.  Child poverty has increased 40 percent over the last 10 years.  In Kent County, more than 20% of children age 5 and younger are in poverty, with another 20% in low-income households struggling to pay for basic needs.  

The percentage of children insured by Medicaid and receiving free/reduced school lunches increases every year.  This comes at a time when public funding for pre-school, child care and other early childhood support services is declining.

The annual Kids Count in Michigan report was released on Tuesday, January 12 by the Michigan League for Human Services.  The report provides detailed profiles for Michigan and each of its 83 counties.  Counties are ranked on 15 measures of child well-being.

While the Kids Count report documents the significant needs of young children, its release is an opportunity to highlight the community’s response to those needs.  First Steps and the Great Start Collaborative are working with other community partners to develop a coordinated network of support services for young children and their families in Kent County.

“Brain research clearly demonstrates that the earliest years of a child’s life have a profound impact on his or her long-term success, and we know that there are tremendous economic benefits associated with investing in quality early childhood services,” said Rebekah Fennell, executive director of First Steps.  “Given the challenging economy, it is critical that we work more collaboratively, more creatively and more efficiently to support children and families in our community.”

You can read the full report on the Michigan League for Human Services website.  Click on Kids Count, then MI Data Book 2009, under the “Our Work” tab on the left side of the page.

Grand Rapids, Mich.—As the nation debates healthcare reform, a community partnership in Kent County is ensuring more children have access to quality healthcare by shifting resources to focus on prevention and early intervention. 

The Children’s Healthcare Access Program, an initiative of First Steps, began as a one-year pilot project in August 2008.  Thanks to positive preliminary results, Priority Health, the Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital, Cherry Street Health Services and other partners have all signed on for a second year of the program.

The continued support of the program comes on the heels of statewide recognition for innovation and collaboration in serving the community.  Healthy Kent 2010 recently awarded it the Douglas A. Mack Award for Community Collaboration.  The Michigan Association of Health Plans also honored the Children’s Healthcare Access Program with its statewide Pinnacle Award for Community Collaborative Health Initiative.

The program involves 15,000 Kent County children, birth through 17, who are enrolled in Priority Health Medicaid.  There are two primary goals:  to improve the health of our community’s children by connecting them to a quality medical home and, ultimately, to reduce costs by lowering emergency room usage and hospitalization rates.

The early results show it is working.  Visits to the emergency department have decreased approximately six percent among children at the clinics and pediatric offices participating in the program.  Hospital admissions are also down six percent.

“We’re very encouraged by the first year of the program,” said program manager Maureen Kirkwood.  “There’s still a lot of work to do, but we’re beginning to show that by redirecting our existing healthcare dollars to emphasize prevention, we can get better outcomes for children.”

The Children’s Healthcare Access Program takes a comprehensive approach to improving access to quality healthcare.  In the first year of the project:

• Thousands of families received support services such as intensive asthma education, home-based health education from a nurse or community health worker, free transportation, and connections to community resources.
• 1000 new openings were created in private practices for children with Medicaid.
• Clinics expanded their evening hours and offered more same-day appointments for sick children.

To create the additional openings, Priority Health, the largest Medicaid managed care provider in Kent County, increased the Medicaid reimbursement for sick child office visits. In exchange the physicians agreed to accept additional Medicaid patients.  Priority Health is continuing this commitment even as the state decreases its payments to Medicaid providers.

“The Children’s Healthcare Access Program is an example of the power of partnerships,” said Tom Peterson, M.D., medical director of the Children’s Healthcare Access Program and Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital pediatrician.  “This program brings healthcare providers together and enables our community to focus on the health and well-being of children in a coordinated, efficient and business wise model.  Everybody wins.”

A guiding principle of The Children’s Healthcare Access Program is that all children should have a consistent medical home—a doctor’s office or clinic where they can always go for regular checkups, immunizations and treatment when they are sick.  The medical home concept is based on family-centered, coordinated care, with a strong emphasis on prevention.  It is gaining momentum nationally as an effective approach to deliver better healthcare at a lower cost.

“Priority Health collaborates with and supports primary care physicians statewide in their efforts to develop medical homes for their patients,” said Jim Byrne, M.D., chief medical officer, Priority Health. “We believe that primary care is the backbone of our delivery systems; a strong, effective primary care base is critical to achieving our goals of improving health, improving patient experience and controlling costs. Priority Health is honored to be a part of this important community initiative.  The first year results are very impressive and a testimony to the hard work of many talented professionals.”

The Children’s Healthcare Access Program comes in response to significant community needs.  Approximately 35 percent of children in Kent County are currently enrolled in Medicaid—a number that grows every year.  A study commissioned by First Steps found children with Medicaid have poorer health outcomes than children with private insurance and are nearly twice as likely to be hospitalized.

All of the 15,000 children in the program are clients at one of the participating primary care providers:  Cherry Street Health Services, Helen DeVos General Pediatrics Clinic, ABC Pediatrics, Alger Pediatrics, Forest Hills Pediatrics, and Kent Pediatrics.  An additional clinic, the Grand Valley State University Family Health Center, has joined for the second year of the program.  Based on the promising results of the first year, First Steps and its community partners hope to expand the Children’s Healthcare Access Program to include additional health plans, primary care providers and children.