The Saint Paul Children’s Collaborative may help develop citywide programs with high potential to impact children, youth and families. Most recently, those projects have included:
Saint Paul PreK
The Saint Paul Children’s Collaborative, in partnership with an incredible work group and advisory committee of community members and experts, developed a Blueprint for a citywide “3K” program to provide equitable access to affordable, high-quality preschool for young children in Saint Paul. The SPCC Board accepted the report in Fall 2017 and called on our organizational partners (City of Saint Paul, Ramsey County, Saint Paul Public Schools and CAP/RW) to work together to advance the 3K Blueprint to a more detailed plan for serving our city’s young children.
The Blueprint has evolved through work by the City, engaging multiple stakeholders. In early 2024, MetrixIQ, a consulting practice with deep expertise in city-based PreK programs, was engaged to develop a budget, scale-up proposals and other recommendations to be used to inform Saint Paul’s Early Childhood Initiative plan. SPCC is excited to share this report with the Saint Paul community, in order to inform discussion on the proposed program.
- Planning for the Saint Paul Early Childhood Initiative – Executive Summary (2024) (Note that the full report is 4.1MB – please contact us at spcc@advance-consulting.com if you would like us to send you a copy of the full report)
- Press Release re: Report (April 19, 2024)
Previous reports/summaries:
Saint Paul Financial Empowerment Community Council
Saint Paul Children’s Collaborative co-director Nicole MartinRogers was appointed by Mayor Carter to serve a two-year term in 2022-2023 on the City of Saint Paul’s Financial Empowerment Community Council (FECC), and she was reappointed for a second two-year term in 2024-2025. The FECC was created for the purpose of advising the City’s Office of Financial Empowerment, which is led by Muneer Karcher-Ramos. In addition to serving on the committee overall, Dr. MartinRogers was also asked to serve on the FECC’s Research Subcommittee, which involves reviewing research that is commissioned by the Office of Financial Empowerment, including a study of CollegeBound Boost and a return on investment of the CollegeBound program, an evaluation of a housing program for people reentering the community from incarceration, and the City’s financial traumagraph project with 10seven. In addition, Dr. MartinRogers was invited to participate in the City’s financial health equity planning process, to identify key factors and develop an action plan around those factors that impact the financial health of the City’s residents. This group has been meeting approximately monthly since spring 2023.
CollegeBound Saint Paul
The Saint Paul Children’s Collaborative is currently participating in the effort, led by Mayor Melvin Carter, to implement a citywide College Savings Account program, with the goal of helping families with young children build their financial empowerment, increase their assets, impact multiple generations and leverage other efforts to make post high school education and training a reality for all. The program has been named “CollegeBound Saint Paul” and current information may be found here.
