The national spotlight is shining on Detroit, as Superbowl XL roars into town. But after the glitz and glitter are gone, nearly half of the children in this beleaguered city will still be living in poverty, and Detroit will still be hard-pressed to provide basic services they need. Connect for Kids' Cecilia Garcia looks at how one nonprofit organization, Communities in Schools of Detroit, is trying to pick up the slack.

Roller rinks, aquariums, and art centers, oh my! More and more kids are lending their creative ideas to help build strong communities nationwide. And, in some cases, they're helping bring in the bucks to accomplish positive changes for youth. Rob Capriccioso reports.

Even though it's almost 30 years old, the WDHS Student Video Program at Dearborn High School is still cutting-edge, giving kids the tools to harness new media in the service of creativity, learning, and really cool stuff. Rob Capriccioso reports.

At the Ypsilanti Farmer’s Market in Michigan, kids are hawking their own organic produce right next to long-established local farmers—earning money, learning skills, and making friends.

The Michigan Council for Maternal and Child Health is a non-profit advocacy organization committed to promoting, protecting, and preserving the health and well-being of Michigan's pregnant women, infants, children, and their families.

Catalyst for Action is committed to making a difference in the lives of Michigan children by providing tools and training for activist advocates.

The Leelanau Children's Center is a provider of high quality, nurturing, developmentally appropriate early childhood education programs which advocate for children, parents and families in our community.

Priority Children, was launched to organize a community-wide effort to improve the quality of life for children in Genesee County. By continuously collecting data and regularly publishing reports on the well being of children in Genesee County, Priority Children is able to educate the community on the problems affecting Genesee County's children. Priority Children provides advocacy leadership on issues affecting children and families and helps the community solve problems by sponsoring community forums, workshops, task forces and other events.

Do state preschool programs make a difference for kids? In a word: yes, according to a rigorous assessment from the National Institute for Early Education Research. In a study of 5,071 kindergarten-age children in five states -- Michigan, New Jersey, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and West Virginia -- those who attended state-funded preschool programs scored higher on early language, literacy, and math tests. The differences were statistically significant, and applied to children of all economic backgrounds.

As of year 2004, eight states and two large cities had at least 95 percent of children younger than age six enrolled in fully operational, population-based immunization registries, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools has the full story.

High-quality early childhood programs can produce broad, long-term societal benefits -- including increased employment and associated tax revenue, reduced crime, and reduced dependency on social welfare systems. Many states are moving toward providing universal pre-K to all children. This RAND report describes eight states' efforts to create statewide systems of high-quality pre-K.

An analysis of government spending in the late 1990s shows that despite an economic boom and rising state spending, few public funds reached children in need in five economically distressed cities: Baltimore, Detroit, Oakland, Philadelphia, and Richmond. In these areas, state per capita expenditures rose 12 percent -- but spending by all levels of government for services to children rose only an average 2 percent per child.

The Arcus Fund supports efforts within Michigan to improve the quality of life of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) community.