In 2024, The Other Way Ministries received a three-year $195,000 grant to support its Little Lights Program, which provides high-quality, affordable childcare and early childhood education for low-income children ages 0-4, and holistic supports for their family. Hear from executive director Scott Bloem as he shares his insights into this program.
Name and role with the organization.
Scott Bloem, Executive Director
Brief overview of your organization and what you do.
The Other Way is a community development organization focused on the westside of Grand Rapids. We work especially with our neighbors who are struggling financially, including in the areas of food insecurity, youth development, resource assistance, housing and homelessness, and affordable childcare, to name a few.
Please provide an overview of your Little Lights Program.
Little Lights is a program designed to make high-quality childcare affordable for families with children ages 0-4, when childcare is often too expensive and difficult to find. The program is designed to be holistic to the child and family unit, providing meals and formula, assessments, referrals, and interventions for children when needed, as well as care and resource assistance for parents when needs arise.
Who does the program serve?
Little Lights prioritizes serving families who cannot afford childcare at “market rate”, and who live on the Westside of Grand Rapids. We also recognize that families sometimes need and seek care outside of their neighborhood, perhaps close to where they work or send their other children to school, so we do not limit our scope to Westside families exclusively.
What are its primary goals?
Our approach is what we consider “multi-generational” when it comes to childcare. The immediate goal and benefit of the program is to provide low-income parents with childcare that they can trust and afford, so that they are able to go to work or attend school or training programs. The longer-term goal we have for the children in our care is not just to provide a safe and caring environment, but to help prepare children for preschool and kindergarten. In that sense we seek to reduce or eliminate the well known phenomenon of the achievement gap in our public school system – where lower-income children start kindergarten behind their middle/higher-income peers.
How does this program support children and their families?
The need for affordable childcare is a local and national issue. In Kent County alone, an estimated 19,000 children live in households that cannot afford childcare (IFF Study 2023). Providing affordable care allows for parents of children ages 0-4 – an age when public funding for childcare is most scarce – to seek and maintain gainful employment. The average family at Little Lights pays under $20 per week out of pocket.
Additionally, by including a full-time Family Advocate in our center – funded by the Steelcase Foundation – we are able to provide assessments to every child in our program, as well as early interventions and referral services, as needed. Parents can also rely on the Family Advocate to help obtain basic needs assistance or referrals when facing a crisis at home.
How has parent voice shaped this project?
Convening a group of parents to form a Parent Leadership Committee has been one of the most rewarding experiences of this project. We quickly found that not only do parents have valuable gifts that they are very willing to share in support of our program and one another, they genuinely want to participate at a deeper level. Many parents feel isolated and are seeking community, and are finding it within the network of families and staff members in our program.
What do you hope is the lasting impact of the program for both its participants and their families?
We hope that every child leaves our program with a sense that they were loved and cared for every day, even if they are too young to remember every face and name. We hope that our kiddos move on to preschool and kindergarten developmentally on track with their peers, with the supports they need to feel and be successful. We hope our parents make lasting connections with other families and our staff – relationships that outlast the time they spent in the program, serving as networks of support to one another in times of crisis and celebration.
What have you learned and what might you share with other organizations who similarly provide early childhood education?
There are so many good programs out there – and much we can learn from others. For our part – we have seen that parents are powerful advocates and can be trusted consultants and advisors in decision-making and best-practices for classrooms. This is work that we share with each parent as a partner, and we can learn from each other and support one another, and when we do that well, the child, family, and center will benefit. That, and partnerships with other specialty organizations will go a long way, and there is a community of highly specialized partners in the West Michigan area with shared goals for early childhood.
How does early childhood education support the Steelcase Foundation’s overarching mission of cultivating communities where children and their families can flourish?
It is our belief that both the availability and affordability of high-quality childcare for all families is central to a flourishing community. Parenting very young children can be a very difficult job on its own, and lack of affordable quality childcare can hinder parents from employment, further schooling or training programs, and other opportunities. Having a trusted childcare partner can not only be good for parents pursuing those things, but can offer a network of support and community, and can lead to positive outcomes for children that potentially will pay dividends in the future.
Is there anything else you’d like to lift-up about this work?
Early Childhood work is difficult work, and a calling for those that commit to it long-term. We are so thankful for the team we have, and hope to see this work be recognized and valued across society for what it is.