Greene Early Childhood Collaboration Receives Slice of $2.5 million from Birth to Five Illinois

October 17, 2025

Original coverage in My Journal Courier by Ben Singson.

A slice of $2.5 million will allow a Greene County group to continue its mission of improving access to childhood care and education services.

Greene County Collaboration, administered by Greene County Health Department, received a $30,000 grant as one of 43 early childhood collaborations to split the funding from Birth to Five Illinois.

Birth to Five Illinois was established in 2022 as a first-of-its-kind statewide infrastructure designed to address early childhood needs at the community level. Greene County Collaboration was established about a year later as a network of providers and organizations seeking to reduce barriers to care in the county, said Molly Peters, public health administrator for the health department.

Greene County is part of Birth to Five's Region 40, which also includes Calhoun, Jersey and Macoupin counties. An action plan for the region recommended the development of collaborations to enhance early childhood education and care service awareness and the attraction and retention of childhood care and education providers.

Since Greene County Collaboration was established, the network has been working to set up the Integrated Referral and Intake System in the region, Peters said. The system, also known as IRIS, is a creation of the University of Kansas Center for Public Partnerships & Research that allows families to connect with providers. IRIS already is operating in several regions of the state, but Greene County plans to recruit other counties to join its network once finished, Peters said.

The collaboration is starting out with early childhood programming but, once the IRIS set-up process is finished, it will allow the group to expand and encompass other demographics, Peters said.

"We can really incorporate a multitude of organizations so that families and early childhood and individuals are referred into programs," she said. "The follow-up of that ensures that they'll receive services and are aware of services that are available."

The grant will allow Greene County Collaboration to continue its work in the region into 2026, when it plans to expand its network to encompass more organizations, Peters said. The collaboration aims to provide families with "quick connection" to services that might not be on their radar, she said.

"They might qualify for services they don't even realize exist," she said.