The vision of Grand Beginnings is that Grand County is a community that values the health and development of young children, their families, and the professionals who work in early childhood.
Health Care
Infants/Young Children (birth - 3 years)
Children (3 -12 years)
Parents
Teachers
Grand Beginnings promotes child health and development by building systems that coordinate universal developmental and preventive (including oral health, vision, and hearing) health screenings, community roadmaps for screening/referral/follow-up, messages on child health/development, and advocacy focusing on child health issues. This program continues to see success with 70% - 90% of children aged 5 and under being reached through a universal and comprehensive screening, referral, and follow up program, Meeting Milestones Initiative (MMI).
Mental Health, Substance Abuse
Families
Infants/Young Children (birth - 3 years)
Children (3 -12 years)
Parents
Teachers
Early Childhood Mental Health focuses on opportunities to support families and their early learning environments to promote social-emotional competence through evidence-based models including Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation and the Pyramid Model. Grand Beginnings is excited to be going into the fifth year with an Early Childhood Mental Health Consultant on staff who has provided clinical support to early childhood programs, individual families, and specific children to improve early childhood mental health outcomes.
Education
Adults
Teachers
This program supports the early care and education professionals and their programs, which ensures young children in our communities have high quality early care and education environments with well-prepared professionals supporting their early learning, which in turn ensures they are ready for school!
To date, these scholarships have supported over 100 early childhood professionals and provided nearly 1000 hours of ongoing training. This funding has also resulted in early-childhood professionals receiving their director qualifications as well as opening a new child care center to increase the number of slots available for children.
Education
Families
Female Infants/Babies (under age 5)
Male Infants/Babies (under age 5)
Poor/Economically Disadvantaged/Indigent
Provide tuition scholarships to early care and education programs to support families meeting self sufficiency levels and ensure all children have access to quality, licensed child care or preschool.
Increased demand, children enter kindergarten prepared to learn
Human Services
Children and Youth (infants - 19 years.)
Children birth to age 3
Families
Providing support, technical assistance to child care providers and referral information to families, including providing support for providers with the new Colorado Shines Quality Rating and Improvement System.
Increased number of licensed slots between FY 14 and FY 15 by 34 slots.
Education
Families
Infants/Young Children (birth - 3 years)
Children (3 -12 years)
Parents
Family engagement includes parenting classes aligned with the Pyramid Plus Approach, Incredible Years, the Ready! for Kindergarten curriculum, and Pop-Up/Drive thru Playgroups. The Community Tuition Assistance Program also supports family success and early learning by ensuring equitable access to early care and education programs for all children, especially children in low-wage earning, working families. In addition, we work with other community partners and families to address issues of child care access and affordability and inform the community on child care licensing and the Colorado Child Care Assistance Program.
