Ingham Great Start Collaborative, Birth to Five Vision Statement:
Every Ingham County child ready to succeed in school and life"

 Ingham Great Start Collaborative, Birth to Five

Present: Lori Brasic - OYC, LaClaire Bouknight - Eaglevision Ministry, Natasha Davidson - ICHD, Malcolm Echols - Parent, Beatrice Echols - Parent, Suzanne Eman-Jaehnig - CAUW, Shera Emmons - Parent, Mary Ferranti - Ingham Circuit Court, Rona Harris - Parent, Pat Lamison - MSU Extension, Lucy McClintic - CACS Head Start, Michelle Nicholson - IISD, Yvonne Phillips - Lansing Mayor’s Office of Community and Faith-Based Initiatives, Sharlina Pye-Mack - Parent, Holly Roderick - Ingham DHS, Marcia Rysztak - LCC, Ken Sperber - Community Rep, Diana Torres-Hrit - CAYA, Diane Weinberger - CEI-CMH, and Cherie Barber - ECIC

Chairing the meeting, Michelle called the meeting to order and began introductions.  A welcome was extended to new member LaClaire Bouknight from Eaglevision Ministry, and Suzanne Eman-Jaehnig the guest speaker from Capital Area United Way.

 ECIC updates

ECIC has expressed concern that the GSC funds appear to be being spent down at lower than anticipated rates.  Michelle has responded that the Ingham GSC anticipates to spend all of the allotted funds although line-item transfers may be necessary later in the fiscal year.

Michelle shared that ECIC has announced a special event on May 29, 2007 called “Star Power: Celebrating Our Rising Stars”.  They are asking that parents, teachers, advocates, and kids from around the State join the ECIC in Lansing to encourage State legislators to invest in early childhood programs.  More information and online registration will soon be available at the ECIC website: http://www.ecic4kids.org/

ECIC has also revised this website to include many more links to other resources. The talk given by James Heckman, Nobel Prize Laureate, in Detroit earlier this year and other research links are now available on the ECIC website.

Michelle also asked members to mark their calendars for May 17, 2007.  Rob Grunewald from the MN Federal Reserve Bank will be in Lansing to speak about the economic return on early childhood investments.

Diane added another save the date announcement: May 6-8, 2007 the MI-AIMH statewide conference focusing on social-emotional development and attachment will be held in Ann Arbor. For more information visit the website: http://mi-aimh.msu.edu/events/index.htm.  Michelle reminded parent liaisons that there is money in the GSC budget to help parents to attend this and similar conferences.  Parents interested in attending were encouraged to contact Michelle.

Michelle outlined the proposed planning process including review of identified Key Issues, Root Cause Systems Change Matrix Chart, Data Indicators, and the ECIC template for local GSCs.  At this meeting the GSC reviewed the Key Issues document from December 2004 and Michelle reviewed how the list was developed.  It was clarified that the number order on the Key Issues handout did not represent sequential priorities.  There was discussion whether we should be looking at developing short term no- expense or long-term funding-dependent issues.  The general consensus was to develop both types, low hanging fruit that could easily be reached and more long issues/strategies that would need to be grown over time.

Lucy suggested including dental care into the key category “access to health care”.  Lucy explained that 38% of Ingham County Head Start 3-4 yr olds need dental treatment.  CACS Head Start is currently working with 186 dentists to see 1,300 children.  The Healthy Smiles ICHD clinic sees 225 children, but most dentists will only see a few Head Start children at a time.  Lucy stated that dental care and treatment is a real problem in Ingham County, the needs are much higher when compared to the State, region and federal rates.  The kinds of treatments the children need are multiple cavity fillings and extractions (not just routine cleanings).  Pediatric dental procedures (like extractions) require sedation, and is considered high risk, so there are too few professionals available.  Preventative dental care is very important.  Head Start is sponsoring MILES FOR SMILES, a fund-raising walk on April 14^th to help cover these costs not paid by children’s insurance.  They are trying to raise $25,000 and awareness about dental issues.  More information about walking or making pledges to this fundraiser is at the website: www.cacsheadstart.org

Also Lucy said that Head Start has 180 preschoolers that are overweight, and many with lead, hearing, and/or vision problems.  There are significant preschool health problems and limited resources available.  In addition there are access issues, problems with transportation - getting the preschoolers to the doctors, and difficulties meeting the required co-payments.

            Others area were also suggested by members. Diane stated Melissa just returned from maternity leave, and her Parent Young Child caseload is already full.  These very young children in the home-based program (PYC) are scoring on intake screenings at most severe levels, and this is really problematic.  Lucy added that Head Start is using the DECA and 200 children scored in “high risk” areas, and another 500 in “concern” areas.  Lucy agreed with Diane that mental health problems are also a key issue in our area.

            It was also mentioned that Michigan has one of highest incarceration rates, which brings on other issues.  There was discussion about the ECIC 5 point star component areas: Early Childhood Education and Care, Basic Needs, Physical Health, Social-Emotional Health, and Parent & Family Support.  There was consensus that we should be keeping in mind all of these areas, and developing priorities for each of the 5 areas. 

Michelle suggest at the next Birth to Five meeting we will continue the discussion, and in reference to the data we have reviewed over the last several months, see if we want to add other items to the Key Issues list.  Members who want to bring additional items forward were encouraged to bring information to share with the Collaborative at the next meeting.

Michelle talked about the Birth to Five Retreat in June 2005 where the group did a lot of work on root causes and potential actions.  To pursue funding we also need to identify measurable outcomes.  In the past we have looked at outcomes at the child, family and community levels.  Over the next few months will be reviewing these items. 

Ken shared a brief report from the Feb 16^th, Power of We meeting.  There was a presentation by DHS on Foster Care outreach, information about Community Gardening Projects, and a feedback that just over 80 applications were received by deadline for the Capacity Building Grants.  It was suggested that we invite the DHS staff leading the “Family to Family “ project on foster care outreach to make a presentation at a future Birth to Five meeting.

Sharlina reported that next Thursday the parent members of the Ingham GSC will be attending the third of three parent leadership workshops.  She shared that they had learned a lot about brain development, were oriented to the GSC initiative, reviewed the GSC and other websites, and had the opportunity to get together and share common goals. They also talked about how to recruit to other committed parents, advocate for children, and link with other groups.  Wendy N, Sharlina and Michelle developed a brochure about Birth to Five and the Ingham Great Start Collaborative.  Copies of the first draft of the brochure were passed around for members to review.  This Saturday 3/17 is the Family Fun Fair from 10am - 2pm at Hill Voc Tech Ctr.  The Birth to Five will have a booth next to the IISD table.  Diana also passed around flyers about the Fun Fair describing participating community resource agencies, and activities for the children.  PHP and ICHD will be doing lead screening, and Sparrow will be offering blood pressure and screening for diabetes.

            Michelle reported that there was a joint Press Conference with the Bishop Maxwell, Mayor’s Office on Faith-Based and Community Initiatives and Stan Kogut, Superintendent of Ingham ISD to announce their commitments to work together to support Birth to Five and GSC efforts.  Video clips of the press conference and the news stories from WLNS and WILX were shown to the group.

            The Operations Committee recommended approval of the proposal by OYC to support the business outreach efforts of Birth to Five.  The group voted to approve the proposal.  The Operations Committee also recommended approval of an agreement to extend the Communication and Web Services contract with Ken Sperber continuing services through 9/30/07.  The group voted to approve the continuation agreement. 

Suzanne gave an update about the new Central Michigan 2-1-1 call center which is kicking off on March 27, 2007 with an event in the Capitol from 8:30-10am.  The 2-1-1 call center will be in operation 24/7 and can take calls from the greater Lansing area by dialing the three digits 2-1-1 from any landline phone (not cell phone).  Due to technology limitations, the referral line can be reached from cell phones only by dialing 866-561-2500.  Community Referral Specialists at the 2-1-1 Call Center will help callers using the In Touch database. The In Touch database is also searchable on-line at http://referweb.net/lansing or through links at the Birth to Five website (in the Resources section).  There is a group of Birth to Five members working to update all the parenting resources in the In Touch database to ensure 2-1-1 callers and In Touch website visitors are able to access accurate up-to-date information.

Literacy Coalition - No meeting in February, next meeting Tuesday March 20^th.

Quality Initiatives - Has been looking at mission and updating committee goals

Kindergarten Transition - Has revised the transition summary to include a new section about referrals.  Early childhood programs are encouraged to fill out the child summaries for “graduating” five year olds in the Spring, to pass on to LSD and other school district Kindergarten teachers. The Committee wants to urge other childcare programs (besides HS and MSRP) to use the same summary format so that the kindergarten teachers will get used to receiving the same information on children. Both preschool teachers and parents fill out the transition summary forms.  For copies of the forms contact Lucy McClintic at Head Start.

Parent Education -Talked about progress in updating agencies providing parent training, parent support groups and other parenting services in the In Touch database which will be used by 2-1-1 call center                                         

Operations Committee - Michelle welcomed Lori Brasic as a new member of the Operations Committee, and invited anyone else who was interested in joining the Committee to please let her know.  They regularly meet on the 1^st Thursday of each month at 2:30pm (but due to Spring breaks the April meeting will be on 3/29/07).

Michelle - Since the National Smart Start Conference will be held May 8-11 and Michelle, Sharlina, Ken and Cherie will be there, it was suggested that the date for the May 2007 Birth to Five meeting be changed.  After consulting calendars the members agreed to reschedule that Birth to Five GSC meeting to 5/23/07 at Bethlehem Lutheran Church from 1:30-3:30pm.

Diana - CAYA still has no director, the Board and staff are meeting to decide next steps.

Michelle - Galileo Early Childhood Center will be offering a training workshop on "An Introduction to the Reggio Emilia Approach" on 4/20/07 from 9am - 1pm.  A registration fee $50 includes lunch.  Call Tina at 244-1242 for more information.

Shera - The Williamston Kindergarten Round-ups will be on April 18 & 20, 2007, and an evening session will be offered on April 10^th.

Cherie – ECIC has formed groups to serve as external advisory committees (in each of 5 star areas) to revise the Great Start blueprint.  They will be meeting together on 3/21 for a planning meeting, Marcia Rysztak will be serving on the early care & education advisory group

Marcia - State Rep. Barb Byrum has invited Marcia to join a Community Forum, a cablecast show around early childhood issues

The next Birth to Five GSC meeting will be on April 11, 2007, 1:30-3:30 at the Bethlehem Lutheran Church, 549 E. Mt. Hope in Lansing (1 block East of Cedar).  At that meeting the “Agency Spotlight” will be on Natasha Davidson from ICHD, who will be speaking about of Ingham Community Health Centers and sharing a new informational video.  Child Care will be available by Reservation Only - Call 371-1347.

Ingham Great Start Collaborative, Birth to Five 

Workgroups Summary Reports February 2007