Heart of Detroit: Bright Beginnings

DETROIT – It's a place where children can come for day care if their mothers are homeless or in shelters. It has the perfect name: Bright Beginnings.

"Many children are actually born in the hospital and come directly to the shelter," said Cheryl Johnson, a volunteer at the day care.

She said most of the children's first stages of walking and talking all happen at the day care.

"This is the beginning of home for them," Johnson said.

Johnson has been at the day care since it's start as a joint initiative of COTS, Say Detroit and the Ilitch Charities for Children.

Homeless mothers can't take their babies to job interviews or have them along during treatment. So, the babies find a safe haven thanks to workers and foster grandmas like Patricia Marshall.

"Grandmothers have that, oh, Kleenex under the sleeve for the nose, the hug and the squeeze. I mean we come in and we hug them. They miss that, you miss that hug and stuff," she said. "We give them love."

Children stay in Bright Beginnings until two-and-a-half, when they can move up to other COTS programs and hopefully out into society with their families.