Stryker Johnston Foundation awards $12.4 million for early learning

December 29, 2021

Early Learning Neighborhood Collaborative in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has received a three-year, $12.4 million grant from the Kalamazoo-based Stryker Johnston Foundation, MLive reports.

The grant will support the launch of ELNC-Kalamazoo, which, according to the organization, will work to “increase access to free, quality early childhood opportunities for vulnerable children, aged birth to 3 years old, with a heavy emphasis placed on the North and Edison neighborhoods” — areas with the highest poverty rates in the city. The program will help create eighteen classrooms to serve seventy-two infants and toddlers and nearly a hundred and fifty three-year-olds. Through partnerships with Kalamazoo community-based organizations, the program will provide a family coach for each child’s family as part of the program’s multi-generational model.

The Kalamazoo Community Foundation provided initial funding to enable ELNC to establish partnerships with local organizations.

“We approach this work by using a racial equity lens and asking ourselves what we have to do differently to reach those families that need us most,” said ELNC founder and CEO Nkechy Ezeh. “Every area that has a high concentration of poverty deserves a high concentration of resources and every child deserves a high-quality education. The work we are doing is laying the foundation for these children to be successful throughout their lives, and it will create a ripple effect throughout their communities.”

(Photo Credit: Uniting)
Source: PND

Thank you for reading!