Execs unveil plan
to support early learning programs
Larry Shaw
By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE — Everyone needs a boost once in a while — even children — and that’s why Larry Shaw, president and chief executive officer of MMG Insurance, is doing his part to help Elevate Maine.
Shaw and nine other CEOs from companies across the state comprise the Maine Early Learning Investment Group, or MELIG, whose mission is to increase the education and skill levels of Maine people by ensuring that all children are fully prepared when they enter kindergarten.
“We want a workforce that is ready for the demands of the future,” said Shaw. “While we don’t know exactly what those are, we know they’ll be more complicated and complex, and peoples’ skill sets will have to be better developed. There’s going to be just a real need for all children to have a shot at learning and becoming better educated no matter what path they choose.”
MELIG gathered at the Statehouse last month to introduce Elevate Maine, a new initiative to financially support high-quality early learning programs for Maine children and families. The program is designed to raise early education to the highest standards and practice, to elevate student achievement for optimal success in school and beyond, and to elevate the quality of Maine’s workforce. Educare Central Maine (ECM), a learning and development center based in Waterville, is MELIG’s implementation partner.
Through Elevate Maine, MELIG and ECM are working to raise private funds from businesses and individuals to support evidence-based programs to replicate the elements of ECM’s best practices across the state, regardless of learning environment — programs that will help prepare today’s children to be tomorrow’s skilled workforce. ECM is designed to serve as a state-of-the-art professional development and resource center for child care professionals.
“As I looked at the information, one of the things that I found intriguing was the science is so strong about how the young brain develops, and so much of it is formed in those early years,” Shaw said. “It’s all about how the brain is stimulated from birth to age 3.”
MELIG members have learned that by age 2, the child’s brain is about 80 percent of its adult size, and by the time a child is 3, the brain has formed nearly 1,000 trillion neural connections, far more than the adult brain. These excess cells and neural connections in the brain die off when they are not stimulated.
According to Shaw, the saying “use it or lose it” is a neurological fact, which is why it is important for children to have positive experiences because so much of neural circuitry is put in place in childhood. Research shows that children who are exposed to toxic stresses — abuse, neglect, substance abuse, mental illness, domestic violence — experience physiological changes that inhibit their ability to develop into healthy, vibrant adults, which impacts the quality of the Maine workforce.
MELIG also found that of the 260,000 children who will be born in Maine in the next 20 years, one-third to one-half will not be fully employable in the new economy.
The $10 million MELIG hopes to raise will be used to fund Elevate Maine’s six-pronged approach which includes creating a campaign to raise public awareness, parent education and mentoring, early educator training and technical assistance, early educator coaching and mentoring, professional development scholarships and quality improvement grants, and child scholarships for low-income children to high-quality early learning programs.
“Essentially it’s an awareness campaign, educating the educators, and raising money for the children,” said Shaw. “We’ll go out and meet with individuals, businesses and foundations … finding like-minded groups of individuals that see this issue similarly to how MELIG sees it.”
In addition, communities will have the opportunity to apply to become one of three “first targeted” areas to implement the program.
Shaw, the father of three sons who are all in college, said he views Elevate Maine from both a business perspective, as well as that of a parent.
“My reaction to Elevate Maine was twofold — it was from a business perspective as a CEO about future workforce, but as a parent and having our children be fortunate enough to go through a quality education system, I’m in the camp that I think every kid should have that shot,” he said. “With MMG being involved, I come at this from a business perspective, but at the same time I can’t help but have the passion created and kept ongoing by being a parent as I watched my own kids develop.
“Our kids received very early stimulation from both parents, and had some early opportunities to go to nursery schools. We could see firsthand what a difference that made in their development,” said Shaw. “It’s not that complex … having parents read to their children and engage them is part of the puzzle.”
The only CEO in northern Maine that is a MELIG member, Shaw said he’s passionate about enhancing educational opportunities for today’s youth.
“Not only myself, but the board at MMG, sees this as an opportunity to assist the educational system in getting children ready to become successful adults in the workforce,” he said. “We — as a company — try to support education as much as we can. We’re fortunate here in that we’ve got the school system, the university and the community college, and everybody’s trying to collaborate and best prepare the children for the future.”
For more information, visit www.melig.org or www.educarecentralmaine.org.
