Families as Children’s First and Best Teachers

Located in Granby, Colorado, Grand Beginnings runs the Grand and Jackson County Early Childhood Council, a coalition of community members and leaders representing families, early childhood education, health, mental health, family and child support services, K-12 education, businesses, and local government.

Grand Beginnings is a nonprofit agency that was formally established in 2003. The organization works to leverage partnerships and resources to strengthen comprehensive early childhood services and supports within Grand and Jackson Counties to prepare children for life. The agency fosters high-quality early learning environments, supports child development, and promotes family engagement. The organization’s priorities are to strengthen:

• Comprehensive early childhood workforce and program supports
• Early childhood mental health supports
• Child health and development
• Family support and engagement

Origins and Story

In 1998, a group of concerned citizens came together to discuss and address the challenges facing families with young children and child care providers in Grand County. At its official inception in March 2000, a Board of Directors was formed and bylaws were adopted and in 2003 Grand Beginnings was granted 501(c)(3) status.

In 2007, Grand Beginnings formed a partnership with Early Childhood Options in Summit County to form the Rural Resort Region-North East (RRRNE) Early Childhood Council and provide Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) services in Grand County. Due to rule changes in 2017, Grand Beginnings was appointed to convene the Grand and Jackson Early Childhood Council. Then, in July 2022, Grand Beginnings was appointed by the State of Colorado as the Local Coordinating Agency (LCO) for Universal Preschool and other comprehensive early childhood services in Grand and Jackson Counties.

As an Early Childhood Council, LCO, and CCR&R, Grand Beginnings works to strengthen a comprehensive early childhood system that includes the three domains of early childhood: Family Support and Education, Health and Wellbeing, and Learning and Development across Grand and Jackson counties.

Grand Beginnings’ cross-sector collaborative Meeting Milestones Initiative program delivers universal and coordinated developmental, vision, oral health, and hearing screenings to local communities, resulting in 70-90% of young children receiving appropriate screenings. They also coordinate community roadmaps for referral and follow-up across community entities, disseminate messages on healthy child development, and provide advocacy on child health issues.

Grand Beginnings promotes high-quality early care and education environments and its workforce through the provision of support, technical assistance, coaching, and professional development through our Shared Service Alliance, which extends its Child Care Resource and Referral Program. In the last year, these efforts have resulted in 100% of centers participating in the statewide Colorado Shines quality rating system and nearly 60% of our early childhood professionals credentialed as high quality in Colorado’s Professional Development Information Credentialing System.

Grand Beginnings works with community partners to address issues surrounding child care access and affordability through projects such as increasing child care licensing, enrollment data collection, and promoting participation in Universal Preschool (UPK) and the Colorado Child Care Assistance Program (CCCAP). Early childhood mental health supports are ensured by Grand Beginnings increasing the use of evidence-based, early childhood social-emotional and inclusive practices in child care centers, family child care homes, and community programs through the delivery of the Pyramid Model and Early Childhood Mental Health Consulting.

Grand Beginnings promotes family engagement and education by providing families with the resources, tools, and the support they need to be their child’s best and first teacher. Grand Beginnings also facilitates the Community Tuition Assistance Program to ensure low-income families have access to high-quality early care and education that leads to both child success and family economic wellbeing. All of these programs culminate to further school readiness for all young children in Grand County by taking a cross-sector collaborative approach to work with stakeholders at the local and state level through the convening of the Grand and Jackson Early Childhood Council and Local Coordinating Organization (LCO).

Buell and Its Impact

When asked about the Buell Foundation’s impact, Katy Hale commented, “The Buell Foundation’s ongoing support is pivotal to the success of our organization. Many funders switch priorities every couple of years, which isn’t supportive for organizations working to build long-term systems and resilient community programming.”

“Buell is different,” she added, “they are committed to prioritizing early childhood in Colorado—and by making this commitment, they have become more than a funder, they are a partner in our work. They get to know our organization, our staff, our community, and we get to know them. We are ultimately building trust and social capital together, which is what we need to drive our work forward with maximal impact.”

Hale wrapped up in saying, “Buell’s unique understanding and broad support of early childhood systems building has, over time, come to resemble a collective impact model across the state. It’s not just that they fund us, they fund our partners, and then encourage networking and collaboration in a way that ensures that the overall change to the system is more than the sum of its individual funding.”