Our mission at Early Milestones Colorado is clear: we aim to make our state the best place to be a child. One of many ways we improve early childhood is through collaborative funding that supports local solutions. Since 2015, we have disbursed more than $35 million to scale and spread change for all young children and their families in Colorado. Our Impact on Equity (IOE) Initiative was launched in 2024 to build on this success.
From 2024 – 26, IOE focused on powering collaborations to reduce inequities for families with children prenatal to three. These collaborations improved the lives of the people and places furthest from opportunity through policy and practice change.
Announcing our Grantees
We were excited to announce the first cohort of our Impact on Equity Initiative in 2024:
Aspen Community Foundation – Planning for a new Special Tax District for Early Childhood through The Confluence Early Childhood Education Coalition (CECE Coalition)
Colorado Perinatal Care Quality Collaborative – Bringing together communities, peers, lived experience experts, providers, and policymakers to create an equitable and integrated perinatal behavioral health system
Hunger Free Colorado – Tracking experiences of families in accessing SNAP and other nutrition assistance programs and developing systems and policy recommendations to improve access
Immunize Colorado – Improving immunization rate equities in El Paso County and statewide
La Plata Food Equity Coalition – Advocating for early care and learning to serve Latine families with children 0-3 years
Mile High United Way – Removing barriers for Family, Friend, and Neighbor caregivers to achieve maximum uptake in claiming Colorado’s Care Worker Tax Credit
Triad Bright Futures – Supporting Maternal Child Health Leaders for Equity (MCHLE) for Latine community members to explore careers in Maternal and Child Health
Impact on Equity grantees focused their efforts on the counties highlighted in dark blue in the map below.
Announcing our Funding Partners
The IOE was seeded by a $2.5M donation from MacKenzie Scott to Early Milestones. We were also thrilled to have five additional visionary funding partners join us – one anonymous national funder and four highly respected local Colorado philanthropic leaders in Early Childhood, Kate Kennedy Reinemund, Chris Watney, the Carson Foundation, and the Chambers Initiative.
Impact on Equity Initiative In-Person Gathering
On March 5th, 2024, the Impact on Equity Initiative grantees gathered for an in-person event in Denver. We spent the day connecting, collaborating, and learning together.
More questions? Email elandes@earlymilestones.org
