Focus Area: Early Childhood

Grant Amount: $10,000

Located in Northfield. Established in 1992, HCI builds partnerships and encourages community collaborations that support children, youth, and families in Northfield and the broader Rice County. HCI provides behind-the-scenes support to more than 30 initiatives in Rice County, helping them further leverage resources for programs that benefit youth and families.

Grant supports HCI’s early childhood programs Growing Up Healthy and Early Childhood Navigators. Growing Up Healthy supports Latinx families with programs such as early childhood navigation, home visiting, family engagement, and caregiver organizing. Early Childhood Navigators connects Rice County families who have preschool children to early learning experiences, preschool, FFN care, ParentChild+ home visiting, and early childhood screenings. Navigators are Latine women who are longtime residents in the communities they serve; all are bilingual. They receive training through HCI, although a key asset is their lived experience.