Northland Foundation Helps Young Children Get Ready for School The Northland Foundation, Duluth, recently provided 27 school districts in northeastern Minnesota with materials and resources to help young children and their families get ready for school. "Early Childhood Screening: Parent Education Component" is a regional school readiness project that is a part of the Initiative Foundations' Early Childhood Initiative. "The Early Childhood Screening project is an outgrowth of a discussion among our local coalition coordinators during a regional alliance meeting last year," said Lynn Haglin, the foundation's vice president/KIDS PLUS director. "The coordinators identified early childhood screening as the optimal time to provide families with information and materials to help their child get ready for school." Two of the key components of the projects are the Getting School Ready in Minnesota Guide and the Learning Toolkit Backpack, which includes a book, math and language tip cards, paper, crayons, a pair of scissors, a ruler, and a toothbrush and toothpaste. 60,000 copies of the guides are being disseminated throughout the state. In addition to the financial resources provided by the Northland Foundation, the project received funding support from the Blandin Foundation, the Buuck Family Foundation, and the Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi LLP Foundation for Education, Public Health and Social Justice, a supporting organization of the Minneapolis Foundation, while product donations were provided by Delta Dental Plan of Minnesota and Sam's Club. The Minnesota Early Childhood Initiative's goal is to ensure young children thrive and have a healthy life of learning, achieving and succeeding. The Minnesota Initiative Foundations provide technical assistance and support to help participating communities build a coalition of diverse community sectors; engage in community dialogue about early care and education issues and opportunities; and create an early childhood vision and action plan to strengthen local resources for young children, ages 0-5, and their families. Since 2003, the MIFs have established 51 grassroots early childhood coalitions in Greater Minnesota. The Northland Foundation has donated $50,000 worth of materials and financial resources for the project. > More headlines

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