Early Childhood Initiative
 |
| |
 |
 |
| Can you help me be ready to love, learn and thrive? |
|
|
The Southwest Initiative Foundation is engaged in an initiative to ensure that all of our youngest children thrive, and have a healthy life of learning, achieving, and succeeding. The statewide program – the Minnesota Early Childhood Initiative – is a network of coalitions focused on quality care and educational opportunities for children ages birth to five.
The Southwest Initiative Foundation, along with the other five Minnesota Initiative Foundations, The McKnight Foundation and Ready 4 K, have pledged to bring vitally important early childhood care and education to the forefront of public discussion.
The Guiding Principles
- Every child must have the opportunity to learn, be safe, and be loved.
- Parents have the most important role to play, but need and deserve the support of the broader community to be successful.
- All children must enter school ready to learn.
- Investment in our youngest children leads to valuable economic impact in our communities.
- The best interests of our youngest children must be a priority for local leaders and all policy-makers.
The Project and Goals
- Recruit diverse stakeholders to engage in coalitions.
- Raise awareness about the importance of quality early childhood experiences.
- Stimulate leaders to create responses to local needs.
- Create a unified voice to influence public and private policy.
The Foundation accomplishes these goals by working with selected coalition communities located throughout the 18 counties of southwest Minnesota. In addition, limited grants funds are available to pursue partnerships on early care and education projects that have a region-wide scope.
Funding Partners
The Southwest Initiative Foundation gratefully acknowledges the following Minnesota Early Childhood Initiative funding partners:
Statewide:
Buuck Family Foundation
Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation
Mardag Foundation
The McKnight Foundation
Otto Bremer Foundation
Robins, Kaplan, Miller and Ciresi L.L.P. Foundation for Education, Public Health and Social Justice
Sheltering Arms Foundation
Regionally:
Remick Charitable Trust
The Schwan Food Company
Thrive Funders:
Bush Foundation
Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation
Mardag Foundation
Medica Foundation
Robins, Kaplan, Miller and Ciresi L.L.P. Foundation for Education, Public Health and Social Justice
Sheltering Arms Foundation
"Building Nurturing Communities of Thriving Children"
The Minnesota Initiative Foundations (MIFs) have released a new report that examines strategies and outcomes of the Minnesota Early Childhood Initiative and links them with existing research on early care and education. The report, “Building Nurturing Communities of Thriving Children” was produced by Wilder Research on behalf of the MIFs. In it, 18 of the nearly 400 projects and programs implemented thus far by the 64 Early Childhood Coalitions were assessed. The featured programs represent model or exemplary strategies in their respective regions, including southwest Minnesota.
Click here to view a PDF version of the complete report, "Building Nurturing Communities of Thriving Children."
 Adobe Acrobat Reader is needed to open pdf documents. If you don't have
Adobe Reader you can click here to download Acrobat Reader free.
| For More Information: |
|
Additional Resources: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
