February 27, 2026
LANSING, Mich. – The Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential (MiLEAP) and The Kresge Foundation today announced a new partnership that builds on the state’s Nurture Benefits program. The neighborhood-based pilot will expand access to employee benefits, including health insurance, and provide coordinated supports to early childhood educators in the communities where they live and teach.
“Investing in early childhood educators is investing in Michigan’s children and their futures,” said Dr. Beverly Walker-Griffea, director of MiLEAP. “Through our partnership with the Kresge Foundation, we are piloting a neighborhood-based approach that layers benefits, professional development, facility improvements and other supports to help educators thrive, strengthen the profession and expand access to high-quality programs for children across Michigan.”
“This partnership demonstrates how place-based strategies can expand opportunities and stability for families,” said Wendy Lewis Jackson, managing director of Kresge’s Detroit Program. “By surrounding early childhood educators with the supports they need – right in the neighborhoods where they live and teach – we are helping to build a stronger, more connected environment for children and families.”
The pilot will launch in Detroit’s 48221 zip code, a community with one of the largest gaps between the number of children ages 0-5 and the number of available seats, to test the neighborhood-based approach and evaluate how layered supports can strengthen the early childhood education workforce within a community context.
MiLEAP will provide access to an employer-sponsored benefits package for educators in the pilot area to access Nurture Benefits, which offers comprehensive health, vision, dental, life insurance and retirement benefits for child care providers.
The Kresge Foundation will layer existing investments to supplement the subsidy, creating a robust ecosystem of support that includes professional learning opportunities offered through the Marygrove Learning Community. It will also leverage more than $1 million in facility improvement grants for center- and home-based providers, and a learning network with technical assistance offered through IFF to give providers the tools and support they need to stabilize their facilities, increase financial strength, and improve sustainability and program quality.
Moving forward, the partnership will also feature targeted outreach to connect educators with available supports, and housing incentives to encourage them to live in the neighborhood. Additional supports focus on kindergarten readiness and transitions, ensuring children benefit from high-quality programs from early learning through the start of formal schooling.
“Strengthening early learning in Michigan means making sure educators have the supports they need to make their work more sustainable,” said Emily Laidlaw, deputy director at MiLEAP overseeing the Office of Early Education. “Through this partnership with the Kresge Foundation, we’re connecting early educators with essential benefits, professional supports, and local resources that strengthen the profession so programs are stable, educators can stay in the field, and children and families can rely on high-quality early learning.”
The pilot reflects Michigan’s broader strategy to attract and retain talented early childhood educators and strengthen the profession. By testing a neighborhood-based, layered approach, MiLEAP and Kresge aim to identify effective ways to support educators where they live and work, increase the supply of high-quality programs and ensure children have access to strong early learning experiences.
Insights from this pilot will inform future efforts to expand supports across the state, helping make early childhood education a sustainable and rewarding career for Michigan’s educators.
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About The Kresge Foundation:
The Kresge Foundation was founded in 1924 to promote human progress. Today, Kresge fulfills that mission by building and strengthening pathways to equity and opportunity for low-income people in America’s cities, seeking to dismantle structural and systemic barriers to equality and justice. Using a full array of grants, loans, and other investment tools, Kresge invests more than $160 million annually to foster economic and social change. For more information, visit kresge.org.
About MiLEAP:
Established by Governor Whitmer in 2023, MiLEAP’s mission is to improve outcomes from birth to postsecondary so anyone can ‘make it in Michigan’ with a solid education and a path to a good-paying job. To learn more about MiLEAP, go to Michigan.gov/MiLEAP.
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