Grand Beginnings

The vision of Grand Beginnings is to create a community that values the health and development of young children, their families, and the professionals who work in early childhood.

Our Mission:

To promote a child-centered school readiness system that fosters early learning, facilitates healthy child development, and promotes family success in Grand and Jackson Counties.

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87% of Grand Beginnings funding is used to directly provide programs to young children, their families, and the professionals who serve them. We are committed to being resourceful, responsible, and transparent with financial resources. 

Grand Beginnings offers free family engagement and education opportunities to support family success and promote school readiness. We also support early childhood programs and community partners with coaching, technical assistance, health screenings, and mental health services. The organization administers the Early Childhood Community Tuition Assistance Program, which needs at least $100,000 annually to make sure that young children have access to high-quality, licensed care and their families can work. This fosters healthy child development, increases self-sufficiency for households, and supports our local economy.

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Our current needs are:
1. Early Childhood Community Tuition Assistance Program funding
2. Caregiver support funding (ex. classes that focus on school readiness)
3. Funding for child care resource and referral services

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Grand Beginnings is a 501(c) 3 organization dedicated to serving the children, families, and early childhood professionals of Grand and Jackson Counties, Colorado. We live in a geographically large and very rural resort region with seven incorporated towns strung along highways. With an estimated 750 children under the age of six, 12 licensed child care programs, and a community with a high cost of living and relatively low median wages, it is a small community with unique challenges. In 1998, a group of concerned parents came together to discuss and address the unique challenges facing families with young children and child care providers in the community. At its official inception in March 2000, a Board of Directors was formed and bylaws were adopted. Grand Beginnings became a non-profit organization with 501(c) 3 status in 2003. In 2007, we became an official Early Childhood Council. As an Early Childhood Council and Child Care Resource and Referral, Grand Beginnings works to strengthen the comprehensive early childhood system across the four domains of early learning, family support, social emotional development and healthy development. We are able to bring our rural voice to the state level, ensuring that our children, families, and professionals have what they need to be valued, healthy, and thriving. We fully embrace the Early Childhood Colorado Framework and align our work to ensure that there is access, quality, and equity in the three domains of family support and education, health and well-being, and learning and development. We are proud of our community's desire to support young children and their families, and we are committed to our mission will continue to work to ensure that every young child in our community has what they need to succeed in life.