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Fall 2006
Minnesota Grantmakers Support Early Childhood Development
The Minneapolis Foundation Advances All-Day K
 Research shows that all-day kindergarten increases achievement levels and can narrow the racial gap in education. The Minneapolis Foundation is working to make all-day kindergarten available across the state.
In Minnesota, only one-third of public school children attend all-day kindergarten because the state funding structure creates a financial disincentive for school districts to provide it. Some Minnesota districts currently offer an all-day option, but often the cost is borne by the family, restricting access to higher-income families. Other districts do not offer it at all.
During the summer and fall of 2006, the foundation is distributing information about "All-Day K" to policymakers and candidates at public forums, community groups and to the general public. Community partners plan to spread awareness to build broad support for full public funding.
Delta Dental Partners with Head Start for Oral Health
Delta Dental of Minnesota and Minnesota Head Start are partners in the Oral Health Risk Assessment program, a grassroots effort to raise awareness of the importance of oral health and oral disease prevention. Delta Dental funds the program as part of its overall oral health education, community outreach and philanthropic program, which is focused primarily on oral health education and prevention.
The program provides training for existing Head Start Home Health Visitors to identify problems at an early stage and educate families on maintaining oral health and preventing oral disease. Training includes fundamentals of tooth development, dental disease transmission, daily oral health, culturally appropriate resources to address health disparities and "The Tooth Book" guide for parents and children.
Blandin Foundation Funds Children First!
Blandin Foundation funds Children First!, a partnership that addresses the issues affecting young children and their families in Itasca County. Blandin awarded $1.5 million for the continuing support for Invest Early, a comprehensive early childhood education program designed to support at-risk families in the Grand Rapids area. The program has provided staff and classrooms for Head Start students.
Labor And My Baby (LAMB) is a collaborative program of medical providers and Itasca County Public Health. During the prenatal course, a nurse and a parent educator teach expectant parents the skills to make good parenting choices.
Baby Steps Boutique is a store that looks and operates like a retail store, but no money is exchanged. Coupons earned by attending classes are used to "purchase" new merchandise for children, ages 0-5.
Rochester Area Foundation Builds First Steps
First Steps, a kindergarten readiness initiative of the Rochester Area Foundation, launched in fall 2005. First Steps works to improve the quality of early childhood care, whether provided by family, friends and neighbors or day-care facilities.
First Steps recently awarded $48,000 in scholarships to preschoolers, allowing 27 children from low-income families to attend preschool for six months. During the next five years, the foundation will spend $4.3 million on the initiative, to ensure
children are ready for kindergarten.
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Play is an important part
of development.
Photo courtesy of The Jay and
Rose Phillips Family Foundation |
Champions for Healthy Kids Teaches Nutrition, Fitness
Champions for Healthy Kids, funded by General Mills, made $10,000 grants to nearly 20 Minnesota schools and community groups to support innovative programs that equip children with the tools they need to live healthy, balanced and active lives. A partnership of the General Mills Foundation, the American Dietetic Association Foundation and the President's Challenge, the Champions for Healthy Kids program gave a total of $500,000 nationally to 50 nonprofit groups or schools. Since 2002, the program has invested more than $8 million in youth nutrition and fitness programs that have served over 150,000 children across the country.
This year's Minnesota grant recipients serve a cross section of children. Some grantees, like the Healthy Families program in Crookston, focus on young children and will provide children ages 2 to 6 and their families take-home "fitness kits."
Minnesota Early Learning Foundation Launches
The Minnesota Early Learning Foundation was created in 2005 with a $1 million allocation from the state Education Bill and grants from foundations and corporate giving programs. Three funders, Cargill, The McKnight Foundation and United Way, donated $2.5 million collectively to support the foundation. Led by private sector and business leaders, the foundation will work to identify best practices and potential new means of improving the school readiness of low-income children.
MELF will support programs and initiatives that educate, inform and empower parents, particularly in Minnesota's fast-growing immigrant communities and other under-served communities. The foundation will also conduct research to find the most cost-effective ways to prepare at-risk children for school and the workforce.
White Earth Opens New Early Childhood Center
White Earth Reservation has a history of providing a full range of early childhood care and education services for its community. The early childhood programs were originally scattered throughout the Tribal Council administration building, and the Head Start classrooms were housed in a nearby Quonset hut.
In 2005, White Earth completed construction of an Early Childhood Center that houses all early childhood programs. The center has fostered more parent interaction and program cooperation, integration and leveraging of resources among programs.
In addition to a $50,000 Mardag Foundation grant, White Earth secured funding from the Minnesota Department of Health and Human Services, White Earth's Child Care Development Fund and West Central Initiative Foundation.
Growing Up Healthy Targets Health of Young Children
Growing Up Healthy: Kids and Communities is a statewide grantmaking initiative of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation to improve the health of Minnesota's children ages 0-5 by focusing on social and environmental determinants of health. Over the next 10 years, Blue Cross will support place-based partnerships that work at the intersection of health, early childhood development, housing and the environment.
The first round of funding was completed in September. Priority is given to projects that address the needs of children of color and children living in poverty, with a special interest in projects that originate from and work with Native American communities where significant socioeconomic and health disparities exist.
A Target Grant Goes a Long Way
Three Rivers Community Action provides Head Start programs in several southeastern Minnesota communities, including Northfield and Faribault. The Head Start centers' literacy-based program for preschoolers, "Hey, Read to Me," offers a theme-based curriculum at the centers each week. Books go home with the kids along with follow-up learning tips and story-extenders for children and parents.
Several months ago, the program had exhausted its usual resources for books. The program coordinator requested a $2,500 contribution for books from Target. Target complied, and books flowed again into the Head Start classrooms. The program held a celebration event at a local library and, instead of 40 people that usually attend such a program, 400 came. The children took home three books apiece. The many non-English-speaking preschoolers received "side-by-side" books in their native language and English.
More
Information from the
Fall 2006 Edition of Giving Forum
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Thank you to the sponsors of this issue of Giving Forum:
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| $5,000 Sponsor |
Anonymous Sponsor
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| $3,000 Partner |
Minnesota Initiative Foundations |
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© Copyright 2006 Minnesota Council on
Foundations
Reproduction in any form without the written permission of the publisher
is prohibited.
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