The new Children's Campus of Kansas City, in downtown Kansas City, Kansas, will hold a grand opening June 8. (Artist's rendition)

   The grand opening of the new $15.5 million Children’s Campus of Kansas City will take place at 11 a.m. Tuesday, June 8, at 444 Minnesota, Kansas City, Kansas.
   The three-story, 72,000-square-foot building will serve as a new collaborative model for education, service and research, according to a University of Kansas spokesman.
   Three programs will be housed there: the Juniper Gardens Children’s Project of the University of Kansas, Project Eagle Community programs of the KU Medical Center and the Family Conservancy.
   Services offered on the campus will include early childhood education, family support, health, oral health and mental health services for young children and their families in Kansas City, Kansas, and Wyandotte County, according to a news release. 
   The center will support the educational success, health and well-being of more than 1,000 children and families annually in Kansas City, Kansas, the spokesman said.
   Under the leadership of Martha Staker, the Children’s Campus of Kansas City Inc. was incorporated in 2004 to close the gap between research and practice to improve the outcomes of disadvantaged children, the spokesman said. 
   The mission of the Children’s Campus is to assure that children birth to 5 years of age who are most at risk for academic failure and their families have seamless and integrated access to the public-private resources they need to succeed, according to the news release.
   Research shows that investments in the early years have high rates of return and interventions at later ages in the life cycle have low economic returns, the news release stated. People who participate in enriched early childhood programs are more likely to complete school and much less likely to require welfare benefits, become teen parents or participate in criminal activities, according to the news release.
   Speakers June 8 will include Martha Staker, president and CEO of the Children’s Campus of Kansas City and executive director of Project EAGLE, a division of the Department of Pediatrics, KU Medical Center; Mayor Joe Reardon, Unified Government of Wyandotte County, Kansas City, Kansas; Dan Pedersen and Harriet Meyer, the Bounce Network of Educare Centers; Bill Dunn Sr., J.E. Dunn Construction; Mary Cohen, Barton P. and Mary D. Cohen Charitable Trust; Timmasha Clanton, Project EAGLE policy council president; Dr. Barbara Atkinson, executive vice chancellor of the KU Medical Center; Betsy Vander Velde, president and CEO of the Family Conservancy; and Charles Greenwood, executive director of Juniper Gardens Children’s Project, senior scientist and professor, KU’s Life Span Institute.
   On the first floor of the building, Project EAGLE Community Programs will manage the Educare of Kansas City center, which is part of the Bounce Leaning Network. The Bounce Learning Network, established by the Buffett Early Childhood Fund and Ounce of Prevention Fund with local public-private partners, consists of 11 partnerships in Chicago; Omaha; Milwaukee; Tulsa; Denver; Oklahoma City; Miami; Seattle; West DuPage, Ill.; Waterville, Maine; and Kansas City, Kansas. 
   There are 12 Educare classrooms. Additionally, Project EAGLE directs the community’s Early Head Start program, Healthy Start Program, Healthy Families Program and Connections Centralized Intake and Referral System. More than 1,000 children and their families will receive services annually from Project EAGLE. Research and evaluation are part of each of these programs.
   Also on the first floor is a 1,000-square-foot health clinic with three accessible examining rooms that will be staffed by clinicians of the KU Medical Center in partnership with the Public Health Department of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County, Kansas City, Kansas, and safety-net clinics. 
   The Family Conservancy will occupy the second floor of the building and will provide mental health services, parenting education, crisis intervention, assistance to overcome poverty and professional development services. They will serve 1,200 parents and 1,500 early education professionals annually. 
   The Juniper Gardens Children’s Project, one of the 13 centers of KU’s Life Span Institute, will be located on the third floor of the building. Juniper Gardens will improve children’s developmental experiences and their academic and social achievements through research. Although the campus focuses on children and their families in its immediate community, the research generated from the new collaborative model will influence policy and practice.
   Substantial monetary, in-kind and moral support has come from many community sources. Major donors include the Barton P. and Mary D. Cohen Charitable Fund; J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation; Local Initiatives Support Corp.; Unified Government of Wyandotte County, Kansas; Buffett Early Childhood Fund Broadway Square Partners; Hall Family Foundation; J.E. Dunn Construction; Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation; George Kaiser Family Foundation; Lafarge; and William T. Kemper Foundation.
   Individual families from the community have contributed $12,000. Dickinson Financial Corp. donated the land. Former KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway donated $50,000.
   Board members of the Children’s Campus of Kansas City are Rosalyn Brown, Ray Daniels, Bill Dunn Jr., Barb Friedmann, Charles Greenwood, Morris J. “Jery” Nunn, Dean Olson, Marty Porter, William B. Schmidt and Martha Staker, president.