The Clare-Gladwin Great Start Collaborative
The Michigan Office of Great Start was created to ensure children birth to age eight have access to high-quality health, early learning, and child care programs so they are safe, healthy, happy, and ready to succeed in school and in life.
This initiative is guided by four desired goals (also known as Early Childhood Outcomes):
Children are born healthy.
Children are healthy, thriving, and developmentally on track from birth to third grade.
Children are developmentally ready to succeed in school at time of school entry.
Children are prepared to succeed in fourth grade and beyond by reading proficiently by the end of third grade.
To help achieve these goals at a local level, every county in Michigan has a Great Start Collaborative. The Clare-Gladwin Great Start Collaborative Board meets twice a year and is a group of local parents, service providers, business professionals, community leaders and other stakeholders in the early childhood community who work together to build and continuously improve the network of supports and services for young children and their families.