Last month, Early Learning Indiana announced the Early Years Initiative, a $50-million competitive grant opportunity generously supported by Lilly Endowment Inc. to help infants and toddlers develop foundational knowledge and skills that support their future learning and development. ELI President and CEO Maureen Weber was joined by Ted Maple, vice president for education at Lilly Endowment Inc., and Dr. Parisa Mansoori, a community-based pediatrician and a member of the ELI Board of Directors, for the announcement.
Child care providers, faith-based institutions, community service organizations and other organizations throughout the state are invited to submit grant proposals to expand proven models and launch new programs and projects to foster healthy brain development in infants and toddlers. Visit EarlyYearsInitiative.org to learn more and access available resources. Proposals are due by June 15.
Celebrating Children, Families and Early Childhood Programs
Week of the Young Child (WOYC) is an annual celebration of children, their families and the early childhood programs that are critical in their development. This week, we will be celebrating #WOYC23 in our Day Early Learning centers and providing opportunities for all families to continue learning objectives at home with activity kits. Families are also invited to a special reading event at their center in the month of April. Learn more about everything WOYC on our blog.
Strengthening Families at Home
As part of the Early Head Start (EHS) program, teachers perform home visits for all of our EHS students to share about the child’s education and developmental progress as well as encourage parent-child interactions, activities and learning in the home. During each home visit, families receive an activity kit including a book, manipulatives or toys, and suggested activities. Our theme for this round of home visits is animals. To support this important program, you can purchase items from the EHS Amazon Wish List.
New Partnership Serving Mothers and Children
Early Learning Indiana is partnering with Volunteers of America (VOA) — with the generous support of an Early Head Start Expansion grant — to open a Day Early Learning microsite. Day Early Learning at Theodora House will support mothers in recovery from opioid and other addictions with access to high-quality early care and learning for their young children while in the VOA’s Fresh Start Recovery Center residential treatment program. This is the first Day Early Learning microsite in which the children and educators will be in one classroom, with the capability to serve up to eight children from six weeks to 3 years old. The new space is currently under construction and is set to open later this spring.
Early Learning Indiana and Child Care Resource and Referral Network team members have been making connections in local communities. Employers in Tipton and Rush counties know that access to reliable early learning services is key to economic growth. Members of our leadership team participated in panel discussions on child care solutions alongside our Child Care Resource and Referral Network and the local business communities. ELI also joined a conversation in Marion County supporting immigrant families to talk about the importance of early learning and embracing diversity.
Continuing our connections and learning statewide, ELI team members visited Early Childhood Alliance at their IMD Early Learning site in Warsaw to tour their program and learn more about their partnership with Instrumental Machine and Development. ELI also participated in the Making Early Childhood Count workshop in Scottsburg, Indiana, presented by Align Southern Indiana, INAEYC and SPARK Learning Lab to promote the Early Learning Marketplace to providers, demonstrating the value of the tool in connecting families with available child care seats.
If you know of an upcoming event Early Learning Indiana should be a part of, please reach out to Natalie Brake.
A Lasting Impact
For Carolyn Dederer, she won’t get to see the fruits of her financial gift to Early Learning Indiana, but that is all part of her plan. In 2013, before finishing her tenure as president and CEO of Early Learning Indiana (Day Nursery during Carolyn's tenure), Carolyn made a legacy gift commitment to the organization as part of Early Learning Indiana’s Next Century Legacy Society, a gift that would go to Early Learning Indiana upon her death. “I had come to understand you can make a gift to things that are meaningful to you — whether that be your church, the cancer society or education — and you won’t miss that money because you’re going to be gone,” Carolyn explains. “It’s easier to do it in your will than while you’re still living and need the money. It’s a way to make a statement that says, ‘This was important to me.’” Read Carolyn's story for more about what inspired her to include Early Learning Indiana as part of her legacy.
If you are interested in learning more about Early Learning Indiana’s Next Century Legacy Society, please contact Kirsten Yeager, director of development, by email.
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