When a small preschool in Garfield County, Colorado, received a modest award through the state’s CIRCLE grant program, the director used it to launch a teacher apprenticeship pipeline. Two years later, that single idea had spread across four neighboring counties, helping stabilize the early learning workforce and giving young educators a pathway into the profession.
Stories like this one aren’t unusual. Across Colorado, this one-time CIRCLE funding has seeded lasting improvements in responsive access to care and opportunities. These projects show what happens when funding starts with trust and flexibility: local leaders use that freedom to design what their communities truly need, allowing more children and families to participate and benefit. Funded by the Colorado Department of Early Childhood and distributed by Early Milestones Colorado, the grants were a response to the challenges providers faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“CIRCLE empowered us to move beyond survival mode during the pandemic and build an organization rooted in resilience, innovation, and community leadership.”
– CIRCLE Grantee
Community-Centered Design Expanded Access
Launched in 2022, CIRCLE provided early childhood providers and community partners one-time grants with wide latitude to tackle their most pressing challenges. That flexibility mattered. Instead of following a prescribed plan, organizations focused on what worked for their families, staff, and neighborhoods to expand access to services.
Here’s what that looked like in action:
- Language connection: Interpreter stipends, bilingual training programs, and resource libraries in Spanish, Arabic, and Dari helped families participate fully in care and supported educators who reflect their communities.
- Financial stability: A micro-loan pilot offered teachers affordable credit. Tax-credit coaching returned tens of thousands of dollars to small centers, helping keep wages steady and classrooms open so educators could continue the work without financial disadvantage.
- Rural services: Vacant lots became outdoor classrooms, and mobile programs brought opportunities to families in remote areas who otherwise would not have access. A substitute-teacher placement app, seeded with grant dollars, continues to fill staffing gaps statewide.
- Community voice: Local directors who led pilot projects joined state task forces and testified before legislators, ensuring policy discussions included real experiences from the field and that decision-making stayed responsive and accessible to those most affected.
These efforts worked because responsiveness and access were built into the design of the grants from the beginning, rather than added as afterthoughts.
Ripples That Last
The changes that began under CIRCLE have continued to ripple outward. Families participate more fully when services are offered in their first language. Educators stay in the field when they have financial breathing room. Rural communities gain consistent spaces for learning and care that close long-standing gaps in access.
When the original funding ended, the mindset shift remained. Many community organizations describe the partnerships formed during CIRCLE as the foundation for stronger, more connected local systems that keep responsiveness and access for all at the center.
“It’s not just about new dollars – it’s about building the capacity to go deeper, do better, and keep people at the center of the work.”
– CIRCLE Grantee
Lessons for Responsiveness in Funding to Expand Access
For early childhood leaders and funders looking to make short-term grants create long-term change, the CIRCLE experience offers three key lessons:
- Trust local wisdom. The people closest to families know where the barriers are and how to remove them to create more responsive access for all.
- Pair funding with practical support. Technical assistance, learning communities, and flexible reporting helped grantees integrate new ideas into daily operations, extending the benefits long after the grant period ended.
- Value relationships as results. The networks built through CIRCLE have proven just as durable as the programs themselves, strengthening the state’s early learning ecosystem and keeping responsiveness and access at the core of collaboration.
Why It Matters
Two years after the CIRCLE program closed, nearly half of the projects are still active. Thousands of families, educators, and communities continue to benefit from innovations that were established because local people were trusted to design what worked for them and because every project was grounded in responsiveness and expanding access.
CIRCLE shows that durable progress doesn’t have to come from new policies or permanent funding streams. Investing in local capacity – the know-how, trust, and relationships that allow communities to keep growing even after the grant ends – is a strong path forward toward a more responsive, far-reaching system in which all children and their families can participate and thrive.
As the Garfield County preschool director reflected, “We started with a small grant. What we built was a future.”
Learn more about these findings at marzanoresearch.com/circle.
