We are reimagining the city’s neighborhoods by putting essential building blocks in place that will support the healthy development of young children. We do this in alignment with Hope Starts Here (HSH), an initiative launched in partnership with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, focused on helping create a Detroit where children are born healthy, well-prepared for kindergarten, and on track for success by third grade and beyond.

Launched jointly in 2016 by Kresge and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Hope Starts Here (HSH) engaged more than 18,000 Detroit community members – from parents and childcare providers to business leaders – to create a framework for a coordinated, high-quality early childhood system.

The 10-year framework released in 2017 has six imperatives:

1. Promote the health, development and well-being of all Detroit children.
2. Support parents and caregivers as children’s first teachers and champions.
3. Increase the overall quality of Detroit’s early childhood programs.
4. Guarantee safe and inspiring learning environments for children.
5. Create tools and resources to better coordinate systems that impact early childhood.
6. Find new ways to fund early childhood and make better use of existing resources.

In November 2019, HSH supporters marked progress at the third anniversary of the framework with the announcement of an implementation director and discussed progress on each of the imperatives.