Child & Family Services of Ne Michigan Inc

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If you are looking for 4C, we have transitioned to a Great Start Child Care Regional Resource Center.

If you are looking for child care, click on the Great Start Connect button on any screen.

In an effort to maximize increasingly scarce dollars for early childhood programs, Michigans Early Childhood Investment Corporation (ECIC) has awarded 10 new child care quality improvement contracts to organizations throughout Michigan. Child & Family Services of NE MI has been awarded with the Northeast contract, which will cover 11 northeast counties and 3 eastern upper peninsula counties. Those counties are: Alcona, Alpena, Cheboygan, Chippewa, Crawford, Iosco, Luce, Mackinac, Montmorency, Ogemaw, Oscoda, Otsego, Presque Isle and Roscommon Counties. You will see our coverage area below in yellow.

Our Great Start Child Care and Early Learning Regional Resource Center will streamline the delivery of supports and services for child care providers and families who access child care. Parents can access the Great Start website to conduct in-depth searches for child care providers who meet their needs. Professional development opportunities will be offered to child care providers to meet their annual training requirements. Providers will have facilitated opportunities to have peer discussions on topics such as discipline and learning activities. Informal child care providers can participate in quality improvement programs to make the child care they offer meet more needs of children.

NAUBINWAY – When Saundra Peters’ nephew died from cancer at age 28, she stepped in to help his widow with their three children. The youngest was just 10 days old.

Seven years later, Peters, 58 and now a grandmother, is still helping out with the youngsters, making it possible for their mother to work and attend school.

These days, though, rather than just helping out, she’s known in state government parlance as a “relative” child care provider.

For her work, she receives a modest stipend - $1.60 an hour – from the state Department of Human Services (DHS) Child Development and Care Program, which is designed to help low-income parents who are working or going to school with the cost of child care. (In some cases, subsidies go directly to providers, in other cases they go to parents. In all cases, parents choose their provider.)

Peters says that she, like many child care providers, is reluctant to accept the stipend. But she admits it helps with food and other household costs for the growing children.

“I’m responsible for another human being’s life. There’s no greater job than day care,” says Peters, who raised four children of her own while working for a natural gas pipeline company in the Upper Peninsula.

In addition to her nephew’s children, she also cares for an infant and another child with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

It can be challenging, but rewarding work. “I’ve always wanted to see kids succeed and see if I could make a difference in their lives or even make a memory.”

Making sure her child care skills are top-notch, then, is important to her, which is why Peters recently took a free, six-hour health and safety course newly mandated by the state.

According to a new state rule, all relative and aide providers enrolled with DHS prior to March 7 must take the course - called the Great Start to Quality Orientation - by Sept. 17 in order to remain qualified.

The training is provided through the Early Childhood Investment Corporation’s (ECIC) Great Start Regional Child Care Resource Centers. The ECIC, founded in 2005, is the state's focal point for information and investment in early childhood in Michigan. As part of ECIC’s efforts to implement a comprehensive early childhood system for Michigan, it aims to improve the quality of child care in Michigan through the Great Start Child Care Quality Program.

The course includes training in American Heart Association first aid, CPR certification, nutrition, health and safety, “Shaken Baby” Syndrome and “Safe Sleep” practices.

“(The instructors) encouraged the women to all participate together and discuss things, things that might help. I was so nervous. I hadn’t done CPR in so long.”
Robin Benson, project leader for the Great Start Regional Child Care Resource Center in the Alpena-based Northeast Region, says updating the skills of child care providers is important.
“As the saying goes, when you know better, you do better, and with the orientation and other learning opportunities, providers can take new information and do better for the children in their care by increasing the quality of that care.”
Benson says the new state requirement will have an important impact on the safety of Michigan’s children because it targets a large bloc of the state’s youngsters – those between birth and five.
“Michigan’s children deserve to be in safe environments, and the orientation will help providers to that,” Benson said.
Lisa Brewer Walraven, director of DHS’ Office of Early Education and Care, agrees.

“By taking this first step to create a professional development pathway for providers, we are making sure that every child in Michigan is exposed to opportunities that ensure their success in the future."

Research shows that children who receive quality child care as preschoolers are better prepared for school, which ultimately leads to fewer drop-outs, fewer students held back a grade, fewer special education referrals and better overall academic success, Walraven said.
Sixty eight percent of the region’s 415 active providers had completed training as of July 16. Statewide, roughly 37 percent of 21,182 providers had done so.
The Great Start Regional Child Care Resource Center/ Northeast Region includes Alpena, Alcona, Cheboygan, Chippewa, Crawford, Iosco, Luce, Mackinaw, Montmorency,Ogemaw, Oscoda, Otsego, Presque Isle and Roscommon counties.

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