By HEATHER RUPPE
Colleton County’s First Steps program has received $15,000 in grant money for its Bags for Babes program, which provides an informational bag to every child in Colleton County who is under three years old.
The bags will be distributed to new parents at Colleton Medical Center and to parents who are going to well-child care visits at local doctors’ offices and clinics. Each bag will contain information about developmental milestones, local services offered and a book for the child.
The $15,000 will be given to the local First Steps program over two years.
During this two-year time, local First Steps officials expect to distribute about 1,000 bags to Colleton kids and parents. The agency also says they want to increase referrals to the local school district and to other county services, such as Head Start and BabyNet.
The local grant is part of several South Carolina First Steps programs being awarded funds from the Enterprise Holdings Foundation. In total, $282,731 has been given to seven different First Steps groups in the Palmetto State. According to state officials, the funding will expand programs and services that help prepare children for kindergarten.
“Located in every county of the state, First Steps nonprofits work in the heart of our communities. They understand the needs of local families, and they know what works when it comes to supporting young children,” said Georgia Mjartan, executive director of South Carolina First Steps. “These grants recognize and support the creative ideas that are making a real impact.”
According to information from S.C. First Steps, the Early Childhood Innovation Grants are “also designed to increase the state’s investment in early childhood through public-private partnerships.”
More than $100,000 of the funding comes from private philanthropy and the state income tax checkoff program, which allows taxpayers to contribute to First Steps on their state income tax form.
Also contributing this year to the funding bucket is Enterprise Holdings Foundation, which has awarded $15,500 to South Carolina First Steps through its ROAD Forward grants program. “We are proud to support South Carolina First Steps and its local partnerships in their commitment to ensuring that every child in South Carolina is ready for kindergarten,” said Enterprise Holdings representative Whitney Knudsen, in a press release. “Advancing diversity, equity and inclusion is a company-wide priority for Enterprise Holdings, and we’re committed to strengthening our community with the help of outstanding organizations like First Steps.”
Colleton is one of nine programs statewide to receiving grant funding. Those who were chosen had to go through a selection process. The winners were chosen by an independent, three-person review panel.
Other grant winners include: Anderson County, who was given $11,374; Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester County First Steps, who received $198,000; Cherokee County First Steps, who was awarded $19,000; and Cherokee County, who received $39,357;
