Early Childhood Race to the Top Grant Awarded

Early Learning Program Funding Awarded To SMC For The Little Guys! 🙂

“The St. Mary’s Early Childhood Advisory Council (ECAC) has been awarded the Maryland State Department of Education’s Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge Grant (RTT-ELC). The RTT-ELC is a program jointly administered by the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Funds administered at the state level will expand and improve learning services and development programs for children, from birth to 5 years old. The grant awarded to the ECAC on February 5 is in the amount of $29,900 and is to be implemented over a three year period.

The Early Childhood Council is made up of about three dozen representatives from agencies in the county, including the St. Mary’s County Department of Aging & Human Services, Department of Social Services, St. Mary’s Public Library, St. Mary’s Health Department, St. Mary’s County Public Schools, child care providers and others.

“This grant will allow us to pull together a lot of the good work being done to help young children and their families. It provides us and the family a chance to address the achievement gap before it becomes a chasm,” said Kelsey Bush, Youth Coordinator for the St. Mary’s County Department of Aging & Human Services.

In St. Mary’s County grant funds will be used to support a comprehensive approach to superior early learning programs. Specific projects grant funds will improve include:

• Providing two buses for Early Learning Fairs at Park Hall and Lexington Park Elementary Schools. The buses will provide transportation for parents to register their children for kindergarten;

• Train council members, agency staff and interested community members on the impact of growing up in poverty;

• A strategic planning contractor who will set up the first six months of content management for a social media campaign;

• Identify and train “Community Mentors” within targeted neighborhoods that will help families find programs and become aware of services;

• Train ECAC members in Maryland’s Early Childhood Family Engagement framework;

• Print a yearly booklet of low cost events that take place locally;

• Planning of an annual retreat;

• Training the ECAC on maintaining social media postings.

Acting as the fiscal agent in St. Mary’s County for administering this grant will be the Promise Resource Center. The Promise Resource Center is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to providing training, resources and certification for those who care for children in the tri-county area.

“Our non-profit status will make it possible for the Promise Resource Center to receive donations on behalf of the ECAC from individuals and companies. Donations that are received may allow the ECAC to add additional projects or extend the current ones selected. The Promise Resource Center’s specialized work mirrors the grant requirements set forth by the Maryland State Department of Education – making it a complementary fit for managing the grant,” said Siobhan Ponder, Executive Director for the Promise Resource Center.”

 

Source: http://smnewsnet.com/archives/97414/early-childhood-race-to-the-top-grant-awarded/