The Fund will help support health- and safety-related expenses
in the wake of COVID-19.
As early care and learning providers across the country face an uncertain future because of COVID-19, Early Learning Indiana is launching the Come Back Stronger Fund with the support of a $15.7 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. The fund is designed to reinforce Indiana’s supply of high-quality early learning opportunities, especially for the most vulnerable children.
“In the best of times, early learning providers operate on razor-thin margins due to the imbalance between the cost of providing care and families’ ability to afford it,” said Early Learning Indiana CEO Maureen Weber. “As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the path forward is even more precarious with added safety-related expenses and uncertainty around enrollment and staffing. This funding will help providers make necessary operational changes to deliver safe and high-quality early learning services that are critical for Hoosier families and the state’s economic recovery.”
Through the Come Back Stronger Fund, Early Learning Indiana will offer grants of varying amounts that will depend on the number of children served. The grants will help offset new expenses incurred by providers to safely operate and continue delivering early learning experiences in the wake of the pandemic. These include measures such as enhancing sanitation practices, altering key aspects of the physical environment to support social distancing, adopting new staffing models that minimize exposure, expanding to serve more children in response to a depletion in community supply, and investing in personalized sets of materials and toys to limit cross-contamination among children while maintaining an environment that stimulates child development.
“High-quality early care and education programs are essential to the learning and development of children and to parents’ ability to work and support their families,” said Ted Maple, the Endowment’s vice president for education. “We are pleased that this fund will help providers continue to offer high-quality learning experiences while safely serving children in the face of the unparalleled COVID-19 challenges.”
Licensed and registered centers, ministries and family child care home providers in Indiana serving vulnerable family populations are eligible to apply. Providers must serve children ages 0-5 and be a Paths to QUALITY level 3 or 4 provider or a level 2 provider that has committed to reaching higher levels of quality in due course. Grant amounts of up to $40,000 will be tiered based on the number of children served, with an additional sum available to providers with 25% or more of their enrolled children receiving federal Child Care and Development Fund assistance from the state of Indiana.
In addition to grant funding, Early Learning Indiana will provide technical assistance to Indiana child care providers and help them develop strategies to continue offering high-quality early care and education programming to children and families during the pandemic. Grant funding from Lilly Endowment to Early Learning Indiana in 2019 will also support planning and developing new tools and resources for child care providers to help strengthen and sustain their programs into the future.
Early child care organizations will be able to learn more about the Come Back Stronger Fund and apply at www.earlylearningin.org/comebackstronger. Guidelines and application instructions will be available on Tuesday, May 19. Early Learning Indiana also invites others to contribute to the fund to help make more grants possible throughout the state.
Media Resources
Early Learning Indiana is Indiana’s oldest and largest early childhood education nonprofit, providing leadership, advocacy, and early childhood education services to continually improve the early learning landscape in Indiana. Today, Early Learning Indiana operates nine high-quality Day Early Learning centers, a network of premier community-based lab schools used to advance the science of early learning, train the next generation of teachers and leaders, and instill essential skills in the children we serve. Through regional and statewide programs, the organization enables early learning providers to build capacity, transform operations, and improve learning outcomes. Moreinformation is available at EarlyLearningIndiana.org.
Lilly Endowment Inc. is a private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly Sr. and sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. While those gifts remain the financial bedrock of the Endowment, the Endowment is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion and maintains a special commitment to its hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana.
6 Comments
I am almost 63 years old and have had a licensed childcare since 2000, and I don’t think it’s fair that because I’m not at a level in path to quality that I’m not considered for the grant,. My childcare is not just a baby sitting, sit in front of a TV all day, my kids are learning daily, and don’t appreciate it that because I don’t have a sign in my yard saying what stage I’m in that my daycare is not as good as the ones that display that sign.
I would love to apply but when I hit the apply button it just goes back to another page.
Good morning I like to apply for your grant thank you
How do I print out a copy of our Round Two submitted application?
I would like to apply for the grant
I am on the board of the “Warrick Literacy and Educational Connections” in Warrick, CO. Indiana. We are raising funds to provide children 0 to 5 FREE book in their hands. Our goal is to provide FREE BOOKS for over 4000 eligible children. We are raising funds to provide these books and to continue to add more and more children as the 5’s go off to kindergarten. Our efforts will help raise the literacy skills of the children entering the public or private school at the age of 5. If you can share any information I would appreciate a contact.