Ohio to receive funding for early childhood education collaborative

by Jen Strawn

Ohio’s early childhood education system will receive a facelift as a part of the Build Initiative launched by the Early Childhood Funders’ Collaborative last month.

The national initiative will provide four states— Ohio, New Jersey, Illinois and Minnesota—with $350,000 to improve early childhood education for children up to age five. The goal of the initiative is to clear the paths of communication and cut through the red tape between government and private early childhood programs, said Melissa Saladonis, executive director for the Coalition for Greater Cleveland Children.

Each of the four states arranged statewide partnerships between public and private organizations, which will receive the money and use it to create a strategic plan for organizing early learning and education, Saladonis said.

The partnership built in Ohio through this initiative is unique compared to past initiatives, because state officials have brought high-level representatives to the table, Saladonis said. Bureau chiefs from the Ohio departments of Health, Education and Jobs and Family Services are involved with the project, in addition to private organizations such as the United Way and the Coalition for Greater Cleveland Children.   

“Whenever you can bring them all to the same table it’s a good thing,” Saladonis said.

Early childhood education is disjointed, both nationally and at a state level, she said. Some programs work together while others work independently, the new members of the partnership will strive for unity among early child-care providers.

Ohio officials already support programs such as Help Me Grow and Head Start, both of which have their own ways of operating already in place, but this new initiative will expand communication and help combine resources between these government programs and private organizations to help more children overall.

The Ohio partnership still is in the beginning stages, so no specific plan for the funding has been set.

Debbie Cheatham, program administrator for Help Me Grow said she is unsure about when or how local programs will actually see the money. Local programs are not likely to be affected anytime soon.

The Early Childhood Funders’ Collaborative, consisting of both national and local foundations, chose four states to receive funding based on a variety of criteria, said Marcia Egbert, senior program officer for The George Gund Foundation. The collaborative researched all 50 states before selecting the four for the program.

“We chose Ohio for a number of reasons, all of which have to do with a readiness to move forward and create a higher quality set of services for kids,” Egbert said. “We were looking for states not starting from scratch, and Ohio fit that criteria.”

The grant will be distributed to each state in two phases of $175,000, said Robin Harris director of public policy for the Ohio United Way. The first phase will be awarded before December.