Blandin Foundation Launches Early Childhood Initiative

The Blandin Foundation, Grand Rapids, has invited ten Itasca County groups to submit proposals for the foundation's new early childhood initiative, the foundation has announced. The "Invest Early" initiative is designed to stimulate local, community-based efforts for high quality, intense and accountable early childhood development services for children and families in Itasca County.

The initiative's primary goal is to prepare at-risk children for kindergarten with the skills, competencies and characteristics to achieve high academic and behavioral outcomes. The desired results are long-term benefits to the local community by lowering crime rates, producing a higher-skilled workforce and yielding higher earnings due to improved productivity.

"'Invest Early' is part of the Foundation's Community Economic Advantage strategy," said Mary Kosak, who is coordinating the initiative as part of the foundation's Children First! program. "'Invest Early' aligns our interests in vulnerable children and the economic health of the community. Blandin Foundation believes that healthy children and healthy families lead to healthy communities in which the benefits are widely shared."

The "Invest Early" initiative was reviewed in March by the foundation's board of trustees, which authorized the Request for Proposals (RFPs) for the initiative. Proposals will be reviewed in June and approved proposals may begin in September.

The foundation has sent RFPs to Itasca County's four Independent School Districts, Head Start, KOOTASCA Community Action, Itasca Community College, Bemidji State University, Itasca County Family YMCA and the Family Service Collaborative. Other organizations that are interested in submitting proposals can download the RFP from the foundation's Web site, or can contact Kosak at 218/327-8734.

Proposals will focus on:

• Quality: Access to high-quality learning environments to promote healthy child development.
• Intensity: Access to full-day, weeklong, year-round programming for families and children in need.
• Accountability: Programs must be accountable for meaningful results.

The highest consideration will be given to proposals demonstrating a cooperative, collaborative approach, with a governance system in place to finance, sustain and improve the program or one(s) that work in that direction, Kosak said.

The foundation's long-term concern about early childhood development emerged in 1998 when it began Children First! The emphasis on early development became more focused in 2003, when the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis issued a report definitively linking economic development with early childhood development. In August 2003, the foundation issued its report, "Taking Care of Children Is Taking Care of Business,'' which concluded: "Working together to take care of our children is the right thing to do in both human and economic terms. That is how we create healthy, educated, skilled and committed citizens who build successful businesses and thriving communities."

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