The Junior League of Ann Arbor has agreed to a 3 year project partnership with Perry Nursery School of Ann Arbor. The first year of the project is 2004/2005 and will run through 2006/2007 (based on the JLAA calendar year).

Perry Nursery School of Ann Arbor has remained true to its mission of providing quality, affordable, full-time childcare and support services for low income single parent families since 1934. Today, Perry is one of the oldest United Way agencies in the community and the oldest child care center in Washtenaw County.

The JLAA involvement with Perry Nursery is focused on the following four areas in the 1st year:

1. Enrichment Activities – to provide art, music and dance classes on a regular basis. Our role is to develop a resource list from community that can support these activities. Make Music Make Art is the phrase that Perry has coined for this activity.
2. PR / Facility Enhancements – our goals here are to make improvements to the staff room at Perry; lend support to their 70th Anniversary celebration; and to raise the awareness in the community about the JLAA and Perry Nursery School.
3. Life Skills – our role is to develop a resource list of people in the community that will volunteer their time to teach classes to the parents on issues like parenting and money management. In order for the parents to be able to attend the classes the school also provides dinner and baby sitters which is another area of opportunity for the league to help out.
4. Conflict Resolution – to provide training support to the Perry staff and parents on dealing with conflict resolution issues. Our role here is more financial in nature in helping to fund the training that would be provided by a staff psychologist.