Community Foundation for Livingston County Selects Kindergarten Readiness as Key Focus During 25th Anniversary

The Community Foundation for Livingston County announced it is awarding a $25,000 grant to the Livingston Educational Service Agency (LESA) to support a countywide program for families and children. The grant is part of the Community Foundation for Livingston County’s upcoming 25th anniversary celebration and a commitment to the future of the county’s youngest citizens.

The project will build on the existing work of LESA’s early childhood staff by focusing on boosting the kindergarten readiness for the 2015-2016 school year. Among the tools to be created are:

· A Book “By Kids for Kids”: Written by current kindergarten students for incoming students, it will use drawings and words to highlight things they need to know before their first day.

· Activity Calendar for Parents: This three-month activity calendar for parents of incoming kindergartners will be supplemented by activities highlighted in the Social, Emotional and Approaches to Learning Objectives identified by the Kindergarten Readiness Survey.

· School Connections Event: Held for incoming kindergarten students and their families, this event will be hosted at 18 elementary schools across Livingston County. LESA will create an event template for principals and parent-teacher organizations to successfully utilize these events to best prepare students for school.

· Kindergarten Transition Planning Forums: Three Kindergarten Transition Forums will take place. Each will be designed to launch countywide planning for longer-termed needs and goals for kindergarten readiness. Forums would include principals, preschool directors, parents, kindergarten and preschool teachers and community members.

· Kindergarten Transition Binders: A compilation of information gathered at the forums to ensure that everyone within the program is working with the same approach.

“We are grateful for the generosity and vision of the Community Foundation for Livingston County to allow LESA and the early childhood community to focus on the continuum of learning for children,” said Dan Danosky, LESA Superintendent. “Learning doesn’t start in kindergarten, nor does early learning stop at age five. This grant demonstrates the support for and value of seamless teaching and learning in the home and at school.”

This is the second recent partnership between the Community Foundation for Livingston County and a major nonprofit in the county. Last November, the organization collaborated with Leadership Livingston to promote civic leadership, providing $10,000 grants each to local adult and youth leadership teams to fund projects that will benefit residents of the county.

Since its founding in 1991, the Community Foundation for Livingston County has awarded more than $600,000 in grants to support and improve the public well being and quality of life in the areas of human services, the arts, civic affairs, education, health and the environment in Livingston County.

“Our organization has accomplished so much in 25 years,” said Doris Ostrander, Chair of the Advisory Committee for the Community Foundation for Livingston County. “As we continue to grow, it is our responsibility to benefit the community around us. That starts with making sure our youngest receive the best possible education and opportunities.”

For more information about how you can support the Community Foundation for Livingston County, contact Randy Ross at either rross@cfsem.org or 810.229.2550.

The Community Foundation for Livingston County, founded in 1991, is an affiliate of the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan. The Foundation has awarded more than $600,000 in grants to support and improve the public well being and quality of life in the areas of human services, the arts, civic affairs, education, health and the environment in Livingston County. The Foundation also has established 16 funds to recognize local individuals and businesses, growing the Foundation endowment and related fund to $1 million.

The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan is a full-service philanthropic organization leading the way to positive change in our region. As a permanent community endowment built by gifts from thousands of individuals and organizations, the Community Foundation supports a wide variety of activities benefiting education, arts and culture, health, human services, community development and civic affairs. Since its inception, the Community Foundation has distributed more than $657 million through more than 49,000 grants to nonprofit organizations throughout Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Monroe, Washtenaw, St. Clair and Livingston counties. For more information, please visit cfsem.org.