Thirty-six Greater Minnesota communities will participate in a three-year, $5.9 million initiative to identify and promote early childhood care and education opportunities throughout the state and to create local strategies to fill the gaps.

The effort is being funded in part by a $3.2 million grant from The McKnight Foundation and will be directed by the six Minnesota Initiative Foundations (MIFs) -- regional foundations located in Greater Minnesota. Each MIF will seek additional community and foundation funding to match a percentage of McKnight's grant.

The effort will engage communities throughout Minnesota in creating local "road maps" to promote early childhood opportunities. The process will begin in 12 communities this year, with 12 more communities added in each of the next two years.

The scope of the challenge was reinforced in a study released in February by the Minnesota Department of Education. The first-of-its kind assessment found that almost one-fifth -- nearly 12,500 -- of Minnesota children entering kindergarten do not have the language and literacy skills needed to succeed in school. Only 44 percent regularly demonstrate the language skills expected of them while 38 percent demonstrate the skills some of the time. Similar concerns were raised around math. Thirteen percent of kindergartners lack the math skills expected of them, 42 percent regularly demonstrate the skills and 44 percent demonstrate the skills some of the time.

The MIF strategy is one part of a long-term commitment The McKnight Foundation is making to address these early childhood shortcomings across Minnesota. "The results of the Department's study remind us that early childhood care and education really are about opportunity -- about creating the opportunity for every Minnesotan to be successful," said Rip Rapson, president of The McKnight Foundation. "Giving children tools to succeed in their first years of school is giving them the chance to succeed in life. If we give them that chance, we ensure that Minnesota has a future population that's healthy, educated and productive. Children grow up and give back to our communities many times over."

The size of McKnight's $3.2 million grant is significant when compared to total Minnesota grants for early childhood care and education in recent years. The state's 101 largest grantmaking organizations gave grants totaling about $2 million in 2001 for programs and projects to benefit infants and babies (under age 5), which is a 24 percent decrease from 1999, and about $366,000 specifically for early childhood education, down 37 percent from 1999, according to the Minnesota Council on Foundations.

The early childhood effort is the first time the Minnesota Initiative Foundations have collaborated so closely on a statewide project. The MIFs serve six regions of the state outside the Twin Cities metropolitan area, and were created in 1986 as a partnership between The McKnight Foundation and the citizens of Greater Minnesota. Set up as independent nonprofit philanthropic organizations with local boards of directors, the six foundations are: the Initiative Foundation, Little Falls, which serves central Minnesota; the Northland Foundation, Duluth; the Northwest Minnesota Foundation, Bemidji; the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation, Owatonna; the Southwest Minnesota Foundation, Hutchinson; and West Central Initiative, Fergus Falls.

Another group, Ready 4 K, will assist the MIFs in organizing support and engaging local participation in the effort. Ready 4 K, an advocacy organization started in 2002, has been building broader support in Minnesota for early childhood care and education, including reaching out to businesses.

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