Great Start Collaborative

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The Hillsdale County Intermediate School District (HCISD) has chosen to continue operations “business as usual” for the remainder of the school year. All current initiatives, programs, and events will continue as planned through June 30, 2027.

Michigan's 2026 Summer Reading Programs are officially underway! The statewide theme for this year is "Unearth a Story," focusing on discovery, archaeology, and dinosaurs. Programs are free, open to all ages, and run from June through August, offering prizes, reading challenges, and community events.

For more information, visit your local library!

For a complete list of local libraries and their service areas, click here.

Try this BINGO card for more reading fun! 👇

Officially known as the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), Meet Up and Eat Up provides free nutritious meals to children up to age 18 and living in low-income areas, where 50 percent or more of the students qualify for free or reduced-price school meals.

After school lunchrooms close for summer break, SFSP helps prevent more than 500,000 Michigan children from going hungry each year. Filling the summer hunger gap is vitally important because it can reduce summer learning loss, also known as summer slide, for children.

https://www.mcgi.state.mi.us/schoolnutrition/

Research shows that talking, reading, and singing with your children regularly from birth helps build important language, math, and social-emotional skills, preparing them for success in school and beyond!

Check out the Talking is Teaching website for additional resources.

Is your baby’s or young child’s development on track for his or her age? Young

children grow so fast it can be hard to know what to expect. With the newly updated

FREE Milestone Tracker app from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

(CDC), you can learn how children play, learn, speak, act, and move as they grow

and how you can support your child’s development.

• Interactive milestone checklists in English and Spanish for children ages 2 months

through 5 years;

• The ability to adjust the checklist age if your child was born prematurely;

• Photos and videos that illustrate each milestone and make tracking them for your

child easy and fun;

• Your child’s milestone summary to share with others, like your child’s health care

provider;

• Tips and activities that can help your child’s development;

• Information on what to do if you have a concern about your child’s development;

• Reminders for appointments and developmental screening; and

• New milestone countdowns and custom user profiles

Learn more at www.cdc.gov/MilestoneTracker.

• Free tools
• Books for families
• Resources to support developmental screeners
• Helpful resources for parents
• Resources to help promote your child development

Learn more at www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/parents/index

Did you know that there are many Little Free Libraries in Hillsdale County... 18 of which we monitor.

The Great Start Collaborative Family Coalition members volunteer to help keep our Little Free Libraries stocked with children's books throughout the year.

For more information on Little Free Library please visit https://littlefreelibrary.org/

When: Every Friday at 10am
Who: Moms and their little rascals
Where: Hillsdale First Baptist (across from the library)
What: A chance to spill coffee while chatting, and see who can stack the most toy blocks while making new mom friends

Click here to register

Click here to register

Click here to register

Click here to register

Click here to register

Great Start to Quality allows you to search for all licensed programs in Michigan. You can search in the ways that are most important to you, whether it is by area, cost, or specific needs.

https://greatstarttoquality.org/find-programs/