Kimball awarded $15,000 to invest in area children

Babies babble and may be able to form sounds like “da-da” or “ma-ma,” but young children don’t have the ability to speak for themselves or advocate for their needs. Because of this, 19 Kimball area residents have joined together to put an emphasis on early childhood care and education. This month, the Kimball community was awarded $15,000 by the Initiative Foundation to develop and financially act upon ideas for area children under 5. The grant is funded in part by a $3.2 million grant from the McKnight Foundation directed through the Initiative Foundations. Kimball is one of the 36 communities in the state that will participate in the coalition process. The Iniative Foundation’s Vice President of Community Initiatives Karl Samp said the grant will truly pay off. “This (funding for early childhood) repays itself seven-to-one. It is the best economic development return in the nation,” he said. Samp was referring to a study conducted last year by the Federal Reserve Bank in Minneapolis that found every dollar spent on early childhood education reduces money spent on criminal justice, special education, teen pregnancy and welfare. The Initiative Foundation grant will also provide more opportunities for a positive upbringing during the most crucial years. Samp cited a state study conducted in 2000 which showed that only 44 percent of children entering kindergarten were going in with proficient skills for math and reading. Bringing it to the table The local Early Childhood Coalition includes representation from businesses, city council, home daycare providers, faith communities and the Kimball public schools. There are also many parents on the board. It is coordinated by Margaret Arnold and co-chaired by Scott Thielman and Jerry Albert. Members had different reasons for joining, but all agreed that the community needs to emphasize education beginning at birth. Maggie Lundorff, coordinator of Kimball Early Childhood Family Education, said, “One of the things that makes a strong community is seeing where they put their action.” Lundorff felt the formation of this group shows that the community is committed to educating its youngest members. Mayor Karla Davis said, “As a daycare provider and mother of two, I like to be supportive of the growing and developing of our community.” Superintendent Scott Thielman said, “The district standpoint is that it is important for the community to be involved [in education]. This is happening with the community grant.” Tom Ehlinger of American Family Insurance had two children who attended ECFE classes and one who is currently enrolled in the program. “We have really seen the changes in our kids. My concern is that there are lots of families who aren’t educated on the whole process. Ehlinger added that vital information can be taken from the parent education aspect of early childhood classes. He also said he hopes the community will better publicize these opportunities so more families will utilize the classes.  Carla Asfeld of the Kimball Public Library said two of her children attended Head Start. “My two daughters went and benefited tremendously. Since that time, Head Start has collapsed in the community. I can’t believe that more people in the community can’t benefit from the program.” She thought the coalition could discuss implementing more options like the Head Start program. One of two Kimball and Princeton were the two selected locations awarded funding from the Initiative Foundation in 2003-04 in the local region. Last year, two different communities were selected and two more will be added in the upcoming year. These six pilot communities will create localized plans to use that may be modeled in the state and nation. Linda Kaufmann, Youth and Grants Specialist of the Iniative Foundation, will conduct training and facilitate meetings of the Kimball Early Childhood Coalition. She said Kimball was chosen because the community had a broad base of support. To be eligible, cities must have participated in the Healthy Community Partnership Pro-gram grant, where they identified education as one of their community priorities. Since Kimball had done this, a visionary committee was formed this fall to identify early childhood needs in the community. Margaret Arnold oversaw the union of this group and wrote the grant. She explained that two main concerns that coalition members voiced early on included educating parents about available resources and making the existing services more usable. “We wanted to reach parents in settings we aren’t reaching now,” Arnold said. “We wanted to define groups of people who are missing and find out how to invite them [to use early childhood services].” Kaufmann added that one of the features of the coalition is that it takes actions after identifying the needs of the community. She said that some of the original concepts will be looked at further, but new ideas may come out of brainstorming sessions. Because of this, all community members are invited to voice concerns to one of the members, or attend a meeting. “It is a totally open slate,” Matt Kilian, Director of Communications for the Initiative Foundation said. “There is no preset plan [on spending the money]. It is powerful because everyone has an equal voice.” To ensure different community voices are heard, the coalition will conduct a survey of 50 community members in January. Results will be compiled and shared during a community vision session in April. A national impact Upon successful completion of the program, Kimball will be eligible to apply for another grant of $10,000 next year. Ideas generated from the coalition may be used in creating a statewide early childhood education emphasis and promoting ECFE in a national effort. Kilian said this emphasis is needed because today’s youth will be tomorrow’s leaders. “These kids that they (the Kimball coalition) are talking about, one is going to be a banker, one is going to be the superintendent. These are the people that will be sitting in your chairs making your decisions [in the future].”