Achievements

Since its inception in 1995, the Meriden Children First Initiative has continually set a variety of major goals and milestones for providing support services to children and their families within the greater Meriden community.  Children First Initiative  is proud of reaching and exceeding these goals and milestones and notes the following achievements:

• Increased advocacy abilities of more than 100 parents through formal leadership training from the Parent Leadership Training Institute. 
• Leveraged public and private resources towards improved child outcomes, including a City Community Development Block grant for the Parent Leadership Training Institute. 
• Established the Parent Information Bureau at the Meriden Public Library. 
• Provided leadership to expand full-day Kindergarten for an additional 100 Meriden children. 
• Encouraged the Board of Education to act on improving our local high school facilities. 
• Provided funds for the Books for Babies Project to encourage family literacy. 
• Provided resources in support of the 'Read With Me' model. 
• Helped capture School Readiness funding, which prepares Meriden’s 3 & 4-year olds to thrive in school. 
• Led “Project Attendance,” improving first-week-of-school attendance in 2000 by 3% over 1999. 
• Helped open 2 new public library branches in the Nathan Hale district and at the downtown Boys & Girls Club. 
• Commissioned 2004 Meriden report on child well-being indicators, measuring how we're doing as a community on issues related to health, safety, early learning, education and self-sufficiency. 
• Urged state legislators to establish a Connecticut Parent Trust Fund, which will provide resources for parent advocacy training across Connecticut. 
• Prevented State cuts to local public bus service. 
• Led a successful campaign to expand school breakfast program to Meriden elementary schools. Board of Education, after a four-month effort, voted 7-0 in support. 
• Led a 2002 community-wide effort to secure a fully-funded budget for the Board of Education, including nearly $500,000 for new school enrichment programs, including music, gifted and talented, mentoring, and more!