Description

A grant of $200,000 to African Economic Development Solutions (AEDS) will support African immigrant and refugee childcare business owners, educators, and families in navigating complex childcare systems while shaping policies that impact their businesses, jobs, and access to quality and affordable childcare services. AEDS will also engage with state agencies to advocate for African immigrant-owned and operated childcare programs, working to address policies and practices that create barriers to starting, growing, and sustaining businesses that provide these critical services.

Description

A grant of $200,000 to Amherst Wilder Foundation will support the acceleration and growth of the Saint Paul Promise Neighborhood’s Thrive by Five initiative, which works to help both parents and their youngest learners be ready for kindergarten. The initiative will implement an evidence-based home visiting model that includes early childhood developmental screenings, parenting skills, and resource connections. This initiative combines high-quality direct services for at-risk families with community building and systems change activities that directly engage families as leaders in creating the conditions in which their babies can thrive.

Description

A grant of $200,000 to Children’s Defense Fund–MN (CDF) will support ongoing efforts to develop community-based leadership, build power and mobilize communities into action. CDF will convene diverse stakeholders and support movement building to advance early care and education policies that better reflect the comprehensive needs and solutions proposed by Black, Indigenous and Communities of Color (BIPOC), as well as economically disadvantaged families.

Description

A grant of $200,000 to Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio (CLUES) will support Latina childcare providers through the development of a business incubator program that offers resources, training and systems navigation that support owning and operating sustainable childcare businesses. Funding will also support a childcare hub in St. Paul, which will equip family, friend and neighbor childcare providers with the resources needed to launch and operate their childcare businesses. CLUES will also use funding to develop an advocacy agenda focused on childcare licensing policies, certification processes and affordability.

Description

A grant of $199,659 to First Children’s Finance will support their ongoing work with the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, Lower Sioux Indian Community and Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa to increase the supply of high quality, culturally relevant childcare and early childhood education within the Indigenous community. Through collaboration with All Nations Rise, First Children’s Finance will engage tribal council, families, non-profits, businesses, health care, local school districts and counties to identify gaps and resources to create short-term and long-term solutions. This funding will also support the expansion of their efforts to an additional tribe.

Description

A grant of $200,000 to Fond Du Lac Tribal & Community College will support the ongoing development of Grandma’s House, Minnesota’s first Ojibwe immersion cooperative child care center for children 0 to 3 years, staffed by elders and parents. This development includes curriculum creation, elder and parent engagement, establishing a parent-elder cooperative model for systemic reform of child care in Ojibwe communities, and continued immersion learning for families.

Description

A grant of $22,500 supports the Greater Twin Cities United Way’s Start Early Funders Coalition, a collaboration of more than 15 members of Minnesota’s philanthropic community all focused on supporting our youngest children in Minnesota and their families. Efforts focus on centering equity within public policy, learning and research to improve early childhood care and education access, and amplifying the voices of parents and early care and education providers to better inform practices and public policies.

Description

A grant of $375,000 to Healthy Community Initiative will support the Growing Up Healthy Initiative, a program designed to increase access to quality early childhood supports for Latine, immigrant, refugee, non-English speaking, and low-income communities in Rice County. Growing Up Healthy works with individuals to navigate systems and connect families with high quality childcare, home visiting services and early childhood health and developmental screenings. Growing Up Healthy also amplifies the challenges families experience navigating and accessing these early childhood programs and advocates for local, county and state changes to systems that will have a lasting impact on the lives of families and children.

Description

A grant of $375,000 to La RED Latina de Educación Temprana will increase access to and quality of early childhood care and education for family, friend and neighbor (FFN) providers across Minnesota. With this funding, La Red will provide ongoing capacity building for FFN providers by offering free, culturally appropriate and easy-to-access trainings on child development and early learning, support families to access early childhood developmental screenings, and conduct home visits to FFN providers to provide hands-on training and support to improve care. La RED will also continue their work to influence policy and systems change to advance priorities that impact FFN providers.

Description

A grant of $189,293 to the Lower Sioux Indian Community will support the Cansayapi Healthy Start Project, which aims to promote the connection between health and quality early childhood care and education. The project will ensure that all Lower Sioux children have access to high quality home visiting and regular health and developmental screenings; access to culturally relevant language resources and cultural activities; and high-quality educational programming through their Dakota immersion Head Start and Early Head Start programs.

Description

A grant of $200,000 to Minnesota Coalition for Family Home Visiting will support the coalition’s offering and delivery of a free training series for family home visitors on the impact of bias and racism on maternal and child health. It will also support increased coordination and collaboration among home visiting and maternal and early childhood services to better meet the needs of families, and increase coalition participation among Greater MN and Tribal communities.

Description

A grant of $200,000 to Northland Foundation will support efforts to ensure quality early childhood programs and services are available and accessible, especially for young children and families from historically underserved and under-resourced communities in Northeast Minnesota. With this grant, Northland Foundation will provide culturally responsive and trauma-informed trainings and mentoring to child care providers, support the development of community-informed strategies to increase early childhood screenings, strengthen linkages between child care, schools, Indigenous education, FFN caregivers, public health and home visitors, expand the reach of home visiting programs, and strengthen partnerships to sustain systems change.

Description

A grant of $100,000 to Northside Achievement Zone (NAZ) will support NAZ’s continued implementation and training of all NAZ early childhood partners using Teaching Strategies Gold. This program helps build a robust data system that gives NAZ critical information to support healthy child development, ensuring children’s academic, emotional and behavioral needs are met and that they are ready for kindergarten. NAZ will also continue to improve data tracking between early childhood centers and family supports, as well as utilization of their Teaching Strategies Gold for child wellness and developmental goals between partner sites.

Description

A grant of $200,000 to Northwest Minnesota Foundation (NWMF) will support the Step Up program, a collaboratively run program between the NWMF and Peacemaker Resources. Step Up provides tools and resources for childcare providers across the Northwestern region of the state to address prejudice, stereotyping, bias and inclusion in their programs. The overarching goals of the program are to retain childcare providers and reduce or eliminate early childhood expulsions – a critical racial equity issue in early childhood programming.

Description

A grant of $200,000 to SPARK will support SPARK’s ongoing efforts to ensure that all St. Paul families have access to quality, affordable early childhood learning for three and four-year-old children. The next phase of their work includes raising public awareness of the need for high quality childcare and early learning in advance of a 2024 ballot initiative that would create an early childhood education program run by the city of St. Paul.

Description

A grant of $200,000 to United Community Action Partnership (UCAP) will support UCAP’s efforts to recruit and support multi-lingual providers in all settings: licensed programs, LNL (legally non-licensed) and FFN (Friend, Family, Neighbor), and address inequities in the early childhood system. UCAP will also hire an Early Childhood Equity and Engagement Specialist to lead UCAP’s intentional emphasis on community engagement, family engagement, building partnerships around equity issues, and the importance of quality early childhood education for lifelong health and success.

Description

A grant of $100,000 to Voices for Racial Justice (VRJ) will support VRJ’s Early Childhood Parent Fellowship, a BIPOC-centered shared learning space that prepares parents to advocate for strong, equitable early childhood programming in Minnesota. This cohort training model celebrates the voices, power, and knowledge of parents and caregivers, and prepares them to organize and advocate for their children and others like them.

Description

A grant of $450,000 to Way to Grow will support their comprehensive, data-driven Great by Eight program, which focuses on improving access to high quality early childhood programs, childcare and early learning, home visiting and early childhood screenings. With this funding, Way to Grow will reach families across Minneapolis, Brooklyn Park, Brooklyn Center, St. Louis Park and the surrounding suburbs, connecting families to health education and services, early education and basic support resources — to stabilize households and help parents ensure their children are born healthy, stay healthy and are prepared for school.