The movement to strengthen early childhood education in Detroit is growing, and we are excited to be a part of it. The Southeast Michigan Early Childhood Funders Collaborative engaged us to plan, design, and implement a citywide campaign to boost enrollment in Detroit’s 65 Head Start centers along with our partners from Early Works.

Since it was created 50 years ago, Head Start has impacted 32 million children and their families. It’s one of America’s most successful education programs, and uses evidence-based practices while engaging parents in meaningful ways. We helped Detroit Head Start providers begin to build shared communication strategies to recruit more families to enroll in their programs.

In the fall of September 2014, we facilitated a design and planning exchange between Newark, New Jersey and Detroit with local residents and key community collaborators focused on place-based design and organizing.

“Are you a scientist?” a student asked me as he walked into the room with his class group. I paused to think in the midst of organizing construction paper and Play-Doh. “Well, sometimes, yes.”