Be honest: How many of you made a New Year's resolution to save more money?

Saving money can be especially hard to do in a tough economy, so kudos to you. For families at the bottom of the economic ladder, saving money can make a real difference.

Erin Currier directs the Pew Economic Mobility Project. She says "when low income families can develop their own savings, their own assets, their children are significantly more likely to move up the income ladder."

Currier's team did a 2009 study called "A Penny Saved is Mobility Earned," and they found that savings and upward mobility are linked together, especially for families in the lowest income bracket.

Children of low-saving (i.e., below median), low-income parents are significantly less likely to be upwardly mobile than children of high-saving, low-income parents.

Seventy-one percent of children born to high-saving, low-income parents move up from the bottom income quartile over a generation, compared to only 50 percent of children of low-saving, low-income parents. 

Promise Neighborhoods were launched in 2010 by the U.S. government as a way to improve educational opportunities for kids in high-poverty neighborhoods, and  provide residents with "cradle to career" services a la the highly successful Harlem Children's Zone in New York City.

We've written about the  Detroit Promise Neighborhood initiative in the Clark Park and Osborn neighborhoods. They received a $500,000 one-year planning grant from the federal government last year, with the hope that they would receive up to $6 million more this year to implement the plans.

But that didn't happen.

Dan Savage and Terry Miller created the It Gets Better Project to keep LGBTQ youth from committing suicide, and lives have probably been saved. But, not all of the rejection LGBTQ youth face comes from classmates; sometimes the rejection comes from family members and this can mean these kids are out on the street.

If you haven't heard it yet, tune it to Lindsey Smiths's series on how kids are faring in Muskegon Heights. Muskegon Heights is the first place in the state to turn all its public schools over to a charter company, Mosaica Education.

The answer? Preschool.

What I'm about to tell you is a business story; a business story about adorable four year olds. 

We've talked a lot about the early childhood development on this blog and in our stories, with a special emphasis on the importance of preschool for kids at-risk of school failure. Michigan ranks 24th in terms of how many of its four-year olds attend preschool. We're behind states like Georgia, Louisiana and Arkanasas. But that could start to change thanks, in part, to help from an unlikely group.

Thank you for engaging with State of Opportunity this year. We're taking a break to be with our families and hope you and yours have a safe and happy holiday season.

Check out all of the amazing things we've learned this past year and the amazing people we've learned from.

See you soon.

-The State of Opportunity team

State of Opportunity started broadcasting this July, so we only have half a year of reporting under our belts.  But we’re going to use the end of the year as a chance to take a look back and try to create a vision for the next year nonetheless.

When we stared this project the idea was that there are some issues we’re just not talking about as a state; and they are poverty, children and how the deck may be stacked for or against a kid from the instant they begin to grow in their mothers bellies. These things will make or break Michigan’s collective future.  But we don’t talk about it because it can be challenging, or sad, or just awkward.

We have reported stories this year that do have some of those moments, but we’ve also reported your stories, told you things you might not have known, and connected you with people and places you knew little about.

If you haven’t yet traveled this road with us it’s o.k., jump right on board now.

Over our three years we’ll journey with kids from before they are born until they become adults.  But right now we’re focused on moms, babies, and preschoolers.

Here’s where our reporting has taken us so far:

• We’ve learned a ton about kids’ brains and how early matters big. Just how big? Jennifer Guerra reported differences in kids brains caused by a lack of opportunity can start showing up as early as 18 months-old ,and can impact success for a lifetime. And there are four more just as stunning truths where that came from.
• A supported pregnancy can really boost the odds for even the most at-risk kids and their parents.
• If we don’t take risks to maternal and infant health seriously the consequences are dire. Michigan’s infant mortality rate, meaning the number of children who die before they can reach age one, is shockingly high. Jen Guerra brought some of these stories to light in a way that was fascinating, touching, and troubling.
  

I met up with a group of military wives at an empty VFW post in Lansing. Kimberly Sucheck is a charismatic brassy blond former cop called "Madea" by her teenager after the outsize Tyler Perry character.

Sucheck is a military wife. Her husband has been in the Army National Guard for well over a decade. She brought four other women with husbands in the military together so I could ask them about what it's like to raise kids when your life is entwined with the military.

Each of their husbands have at least two deployments under their belts. Some of their husbands are getting ready for another deployment to Afghanistan, including Kerri Gallagher. She has four children who have been through deployments before, but she said it’s still hard and confusing.