Tag Archives: Great Start Collaborative of Kent County

Great Start Collaborative of Kent County giving away free child development goodie bags on Aug. 12

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(Courtesy, www.pxhere.com)

By WKTV Staff

deborah@wktv.org

Family resource organization Great Start Collaborative of Kent County is hosting a free in-person event to help parents learn more about the importance of play and developmental screening in children.

Taking place Saturday, Aug. 12 at Alger Head Start in Grand Rapids, the 4th annual “Books, Blocks and Balls” event will offer fun activities for the entire family from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m..

Participants will receive a goodie bag filled with items proven to help with child development. Every child that attends, regardless of age, will receive a free book.

Families will also have the opportunity to complete a developmental screening onsite, which can help parents know what to look for at certain ages and stages in their children.

(Courtesy, www.pxhere.com)

There will be a variety of activities, food options and family fun onsite, including: raffles for free prizes every 30 minutes, food trucks offering free food to participants, games and movement activities with The Zumba Lady, face painting and balloon twisting, interactive activities at each vendor table, and more.

Participating alongside Great Start Collaborative will be dozens of community organizations providing additional giveaways and resources to families in attendance.

One such organization is First Steps Kent, an independent non-profit that works to strengthen and coordinate the system of early childhood services through research and innovation.

First Steps Kent is leading a community-wide effort to develop a system of support for children ages 0-5 (and their families) that ensures every young child in Kent County will enter kindergarten ready to succeed in school and in life.

This event was made possible because of the generosity of Kent County taxpayers and the voter-approved Ready by Five Early Childhood Millage that provides dedicated and sustainable funding for programs that improve the health, school readiness, and well-being of children under age five in Kent County.

Local organization partners with Woodland Mall to encourage reading

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By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

This year’s One Book, One County featured book is “The Caring Me I Want to Be!” (WKTV)

A local organization and Woodland Mall have partnered to promote reading through the One Book, One County initiative.

“Meeting families where they are has always been important to us,” said Family Futures Partnership Coordinator Susi Alonso. “Our partnership with the Woodland Mall is allowing us to better serve our Kent County families by being present somewhere they can easily access us.”

The nonprofit Family Futures will be distributing the book “The Caring Me I Want to Be” by Mary DiPalermo on select Fridays and Saturdays in June. There is a limited supply of the books.

The One County, One Book initiative was kicked off by the Great Start Parent Coalition’s Nurturing Parent Power Workshop at the end of March. The goal of the initiative is to distribute 9,000 books to families.

Along with the book, the campaign provided a calendar of activities parents could use to engage their children based on the book such as writing a letter to a friend telling them why you like them or going outside and counting all the different signs of spring. The calendar will be available during the book distributions at Woodland Mall.

More than 20 local organizations participated in the program to help distribute the books, which includes Family Futures, a nonprofit that works to create communities in which all children are supported to achieve their full potential. The organization does this by supporting families with children ages 0-5. Family Futures works with parents to understand their children’s development, supporting them every step of the way and connecting them to resources when needed.

Members of the One Book, One County campaign hold up this year’s selection. (WKTV)

Family Futures and Woodland Mall have been working together since April. Family Futures has been tabling at different locations throughout the mall and handing out sensory bottles, toys, and connecting families to Connections and Healthy Families Kent County, it’s two main programs. Family Futures was also the recipient of a $1,000 donation from the Woodland Mall from a social media fundraising effort.

“We are fortunate to have an ongoing partnership with Family Futures, an organization that provides great programming for families,” said Woodland Mall/PREIT Interim Senior Marketing Director Mike Ross. “We are thankful that they are able to provide experiences for our shoppers and we love hearing the laughter and seeing the smiles from the children in the mall when they are engaging with the families.”

Reading program designed to get parents and children reading

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Video by WKTV volunteer Von Duff.

By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

Recognizing that reading needs to be a focus year around, the Great Start Parent Coalition’s Nurturing Parent Power Workshop announced its One Book, One County initiative on the last day of the national March is Reading Month campaign.

“One County, One Book will distribute 9,000 books to families, particular families that are living in neighborhoods that are book desserts,” said Chana Edmond-Verley, the chief executive officer for Vibrant Futures and who also the co-chair of the Nurturing Parent Power Workshop.

“In addition, it is more than a book distribution,” Edmond-Verley said. “We have reading strategy kits so parents will know the strategies that they need to deliver this powerful book to their child.”

Started in 2016, the Nurturing Parent Power Workshop is part of the Great Start Collaborative of Kent County, which works to ensure that all children, from birth to age eight, especially those in highest need areas, have access to high-quality early learning and development programs and enter kindergarten prepared for success.

Members of the One Book, One County campaign hold up this year’s selection. (WKTV)

The Nurturing Parent Power Workshop is a group of parent leaders, systems influencers, and decision makers who work to cultivate the power of parents in helping their children succeed.

“Our goal is to provide early reading strategies in Kent County to get all families reading to their children and all children reading by the end of second grade,” Edmond-Verley said.

From the group came the Success Starts Early Basics which provides tips and information on how parents advocate for their children’s success. Edmond-Verley said it was the Nurturing Parent Power Workshop who came up with the idea for the One book, One County campaign.

The book selection for the campaign is Mary DiPalermo’s “The Caring Me I Want to Be!” because it offers engaging story illustrations, easy connections to real life, allows for problem solving, rhyming, and promotes brainstorming emotions, according to literature that was handed out.

Along with the book, the campaign will provide a calendar of activities parents can use to engage their child based on the book such as writing a letter to a friend telling them why you like them or going outside and counting all the different signs of spring.

A third component will be up to 7,000 licenses for a digital parent coach that will send daily activities straight to a parent’s phone.

“The digital parent coach has been a great tool,” said Nicole Notraio-Risk, who is a co-chair of the Nurturing Parent Power Workgroup. “You can customize the program based on your child’s age and mental ability and the program provides you with a daily routine of fun games and activities that you could do with your child.”

Research shows that children who are read to 20 minutes a day and are repeatedly exposed to books from birth exhibit strong reading abilities. Edmond-Verley said parents are key in helping students achieve.


“We are responding by equipping parents with the tools that they can use to assure that their children are successful,” she said.

More than 20 local organizations such as the Early Learning Neighborhood Collobatibes, Bright Beginnings, Head Start, Kent ISD, Vibrant Futures, and the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum, are participating in the program. Those interested in learning more about the One Book, One County program can reach out to those organizations or visit www.successstartsearly.org.