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Fall 2006
Giving Stories
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The Saint Paul Foundation's
Words Work! teacher and young student engaged in building blocks for reading.
Photo courtesy of The Saint Paul Foundation
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Ready 4 K
A leader in convening new and existing partners as champions for the youngest Minnesotans
Ready 4 K, a school readiness campaign working to bring about comprehensive policy change on behalf of Minnesota's children, their parents and their caretakers, started in 2001 with seed money from The McKnight Foundation. Ready 4 K advocates for policy and systems change and brings early childhood research to the forefront of public attention.
Ready 4 K's business initiative, Minnesota Business for Early Learning (MnBEL), has nearly 200 members that have embraced school readiness as a way to ensure the future prosperity of the state. This work led to the formation of the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation in 2005.
In early 2006, Ready 4 K hosted a message-framing conference to train multi-sector advocates in effective communication that moves decision makers to support public policy. Recently, the organization partnered with the Minnesota Initiative Foundations to host the "Building Connections" retreat, where statewide community partners, state officials and lawmakers established a model for better communication and collaboration between state and community partners in building an effective early childhood system.
In another initiative, Ready 4 K launched a Hmong Community Survey funded by The Sheltering Arms Foundation. The survey was an important organizing tool to bring together a coalition of Hmong community leaders to help parents work with public officials. Phase II activities will focus on training Hmong child care providers and families on how to get children ready for school and distributing information to the non-Hmong community about cultural issues for Hmong families in school readiness.
 Minnesota Early Childhood Initiative
Creating coalitions around Minnesota to advance public policy and build support for young children
In 2001, the six Minnesota Initiative Foundations (MIFs) began to collaborate on a joint public policy initiative focused on early childhood to ensure that every young child in Greater Minnesota has the best possible start toward a healthy life of learning, achieving and succeeding.
To date, the MIFs have developed 65 Early Childhood Coalitions in Greater Minnesota communities that cover more than half the state. Within these communities, there over 2,000 coalition members representing diverse sectors, including the business community. A Statewide Early Childhood Coalition has been created to link all the coalitions.
This network serves as a vehicle to advance public policy, exchange ideas, share promising practices and create a statewide groundswell of support for young children. The coalitions have conducted in-depth community profiles on the availability and accessibility of resources for young children and their families; held forums on the realities of early care and education in local communities; and created Vision Statements and Strategic Action Plans for these communities.
Some recent highlights:
- Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation — In an effort to close the achievement gap, the Austin Early Childhood Coalition created a scholarship fund providing 10 at-risk families with a preschool opportunity.
- Northland Foundation — Early childhood coalitions in northeast Minnesota collaborated on a project incorporating parent education at early childhood screenings. In 28 school districts, parents and children receive "Getting School Ready Guides" and a backpack with learning activities.
- Initiative Foundation — In order to increase the quality of childcare and ensure children enter kindergarten ready to thrive, the Kimball Area Early Childhood Coalition implemented rotating educational activity kits available to home-based child care settings in the school district. The kits are sponsored by local businesses.
- West Central Initiative — Local early childhood coordinators and diverse regional partners in west central Minnesota are collaborating to identify new ways to increase oral health education, awareness and access. The lack of dental access for young children and families was identified as a key issue.
- Northwest Minnesota Foundation — Through Marshall County's Early Childhood Initiative and Imagination Library, children will have age-appropriate, hardcover books mailed free to their homes monthly through age five. Children registered at birth will have libraries of 60 books by kindergarten.
- Southwest Initiative Foundation — Southwest Minnesota coalitions are actively engaging fathers with their youngest children through the FRED (Fathers Reading Every Day) program. More than 250 dads received books and learned how to encourage their child's early literacy.
The Minnesota Initiative Foundations fund the Early Childhood Initiative, with supporting funding from The Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation, Otto Bremer Foundation, Mardag Foundation, The Sheltering Arms Foundation, Robins, Miller Kaplan & Ceresi Foundation and Buuck Family Foundation.
Words Work!
An early literacy program that closes the achievement gap for 3- to 5-year-olds
Words Work! is an early literacy initiative designed to increase literacy skills of low-income children and enhance family involvement in literacy development. The program is a partnership of The Saint Paul Foundation and the F.R. Bigelow Foundation with two Head Start programs in Ramsey and Dakota counties.
Words Work! combines a literacy-rich preschool environment and special training for teachers to create a unique and effective program that addresses the lack of preschool teacher training and preschool curriculum, respects the diverse cultures of children in the program by offering "side-by-side" books in Hmong/English, Somali/English and other languages, and shares evaluation data with teachers to help them understand how their students are progressing and adapt their approach to meet individual needs.
Words Work! children outpace their other Head Start counterparts in knowledge of the ABCs, an excellent predictor of primary school reading comprehension. Over one-third know all 26 letters, and 48 percent know at least 21. By contrast, most Head Start children nationally know nine letters after a year in Head Start.
Words Work! teachers say the program transformed their attitudes about assessment and planning, teaching methods and perceptions of children's abilities. In addition to monitoring children's progress during a year in Head Start, there is a longitudinal evaluation of children from the first three cohorts of Words Work! who have now completed fifth, fourth and third grades in the Saint Paul Public Schools. External research suggests that Words Work! not only prepares children to be successful learners, it may help narrow the achievement gap for students at risk of academic failure.
Healthy Families Network
Helping formerly homeless children achieve health and appropriate support for development
In response to the dramatic increase in the number of homeless children in Minnesota over the past 15 years and the reality that homelessness has a devastating effect on a child's health, development and school performance, the Healthy Families Network was launched in 2005. The network is an innovative, collective effort to promote mental and chemical health of supportive housing residents, strengthen the capacity of resident parents to care for their children and provide comprehensive services to children themselves.
In designing and implementing the program, the network works closely with the Supportive Housing Group, a professional network of 17 family supportive housing providers in the Twin Cities, in addition to consultants Hart-Shegos & Associates and the University of Minnesota Psychology Department faculty.
The program offers activities to enhance the development of children and youth in supportive housing, improve access to high-quality and culturally competent child care and support a broad community awareness and response to the needs of homeless children through public education, trainings and outreach efforts.
Funders include the F.R. Bigelow Foundation, Otto Bremer Foundation, Bush Foundation, Patrick and Aimee Butler Family Foundation, Carolyn Foundation, Frey Foundation, Mardag Foundation, The McKnight Foundation, The Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation, The Sheltering Arms Foundation, St. Paul Travelers Foundation and Sundance Foundation.
Foundations for Success
Addressing the social and emotional problems of young children in Ramsey County through a continuum of mental health screening and intervention
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Jim Scheibel, Community Action; Polly Talen, Knight Foundation; Catherine Wright, Foundations for Success; Harold Higgins, St. Paul Community Advisory Committee, Knight Foundation; and mother Tania and son Ju-Bril celebrate the Foundations for Success launch.
Photo courtesy of the Knight Foundation
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Without intervention, children with mental health problems are often at risk of being expelled from their early childhood settings for behavior difficulties or can experience developmental problems and, eventually, significant mental health disorders.
In 2005, a collaborative of more than 100 community partners established a network to develop a comprehensive continuum of mental health care for young Ramsey County children, prenatal through age five. Foundations for Success will screen more than 10,000 Ramsey County children each year during the five-year project, and children will receive early intervention where needed.
Project partners include early childhood and mental health professionals, state and county administrators, parents, school district administrators, special education program staff, health professionals, state and local elected officials, child care providers and members of cultural organizations.
After funding two earlier pilot projects, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation launched the program with a five-year, $2.6 million grant.
A Wilder Research survey conducted after the first year indicated that all respondents felt Foundations for Success had already improved mental health services for young children. Respondents cited improved availability of a continuum of services, increased collaboration among professionals and greater awareness of early childhood mental health.
Other successes include pioneering work with the authors of the mental health screening tool to standardize it in Hmong and Somali and to administer it in pediatricians' offices. In addition, four partner agencies have already obtained certification in Children's Therapeutic Services and Supports (CTSS) Medical Assistance. This new benefit allows mental health professionals and practitioners to be reimbursed for providing a flexible package of children's mental health services. CTSS is considered critical to future sustainability of many of the services established with Knight funding.
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
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