First Birth to 5 Center Opens in Regent Park, Detroit's East Side

Detroit families in Regent Park have a new option for their young learners with the opening of United Children and Family Head Start’s Regent Park center located at 16257 Bringard Dr. The center opened this week and offers early childhood learning to children ages 6 weeks to 5-years-old in one convenient location.

UCFHS has been a trusted provider of Early Head Start and Head Start on Detroit’s east side for more than 35 years. The agency operates six facilities and three child care partnerships and is federally funded for 445 early learning seats.

The Regent Park center ultimately will serve 24 children in three Early Head Start classrooms and 34 children in two Head Start classrooms, according to Roxanne Campbell, United Children and Family Head Start’s executive director.

“We’re thrilled to welcome families to our first Birth to 5 Head Start center,” said Campbell. “Many of our prospective and current Head Start families have two or more children. Having one facility that serves a broad age range provides a continuity of care and convenience that is a stated need of families. The center also brings much-needed Early Head Start services for infants and toddlers to the 48205 area.”

UCFHS partnered with LifeBUILDERS, IFF and the Kresge Foundation to establish the Regent Park Head Start at the former Tracy McGregor Elementary School, which recently underwent renovations.

“It’s been an exciting endeavor to work with LifeBUILDERS to intentionally renovate a space for early childhood education and to be a part of the long-term plan for a community center,” added Campbell. “We hope this becomes an important gathering place and resource for the Regent Park neighborhood.”

“Partnerships, like ours with United Children and Family Head Start, are key to the work that we do here in Regent Park,” said Larry Johnson, co-founder of LifeBUILDERS, a nonprofit organization deeply invested in the revitalization of Regent Park for more than 13 years. “This new education facility is not just about learning opportunities for young children, but it is an added beacon of hope for this community that tells families, ‘You can thrive here’ or to some, ‘You can move here.’ We are proud to partner with Roxanne Campbell and the amazing team at UCFHS.”

“The physical environment impacts a child’s ability to learn, and that’s why IFF is so committed to ensuring that Detroit’s children have safe, comfortable, beautiful, high-quality spaces in which to learn and grow,” said Ja’Net DeFell, IFF’s lead developer in Michigan. “We were so pleased to partner with LifeBUILDERS and United Children and Family Head Start to create this great space in Regent Park.”

For more information about United Children and Family Head Start, visit http://www.ucfhs.org. To learn more about LifeBUILDERS’s transformational work to restore an entire community in Detroit known as Regent Park, visit www.lifebuildersdetroit.com.