ELKHART — The Community Foundation of Elkhart County has received a $7.5 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. in support of a new early childhood development program.
With the grant, the Community Foundation will support and expand the work of Building Strong Brains, Elkhart County’s early childhood initiative launched in 2022. The Community Foundation and numerous community partners are working to strengthen a system to support children under the age of six and the families who raise children. so that every child is ready to learn and thrive in kindergarten.
“Early childhood development is one of the most critical periods determining a person’s life outcomes, and the correlation between kindergarten preparation and all other academic progress is strong,” said Pete McCown, president of the Community Foundation. “If we can ensure they are ready to succeed and thrive when they enter the doors of a structured school experience, we can make a real difference in the lives of children in Elkhart County.”
The community is coming together to join the coalition, which aims to change the province’s approach to early childhood development.
Eleven organizational sponsors help guide the work. Action teams focus on community support for children and families, high-quality child care and early learning environments, and maternal and child health. Kim Boynton will lead as director of the Building Strong Brains coalition.
Lilly’s grant comes through the Community Leadership Implementation Grants component of the eighth phase of its Giving Indiana Funds for Tomorrow (GIFT VIII) initiative. This is one of 30 implementation grants awarded through GIFT VIII, a statewide Lilly Endowment initiative designed to support the efforts of community foundations and their partners to strengthen the quality of life for the people of the towns, cities, counties and regions they serve.
This is Lilly Endowment Inc.’s greatest gift. in the history of the Community Foundation. Support from Elkhart County donors was a key factor in securing the gift and resulted in additional funding for the Tolson Center for Community Excellence and the Fund for Elkhart County at the Community Foundation.
GIFT VIII resulted in a total of $11.5 million in investments in Elkhart County. In addition, the Community Foundations of Elkhart, St. Joseph and Marshall Counties will receive $20 million from GIFT VIII to establish a regional housing trust and land bank.
In 1990, Lilly Endowment launched the GIFT initiative to help establish and grow community foundations throughout Indiana. Lilly Endowment hoped that Indiana’s community foundations could improve the quality of life in their communities by organizing conversations among people of different ages, socioeconomic backgrounds, occupations, races and cultural traditions about their community’s most pressing needs and opportunities and the best ways to meet them. them.
