A New Opportunity FOR ECCE Programs
We are excited to announce a new grants program for early childhood care and education (ECCE) providers in the Greater Charlottesville Area. Our new School Readiness Impact Grants program aims to help local providers expand access to their programs, improve program quality, and enhance teacher compensation. This grant initiative is now accepting applicants here. All applications are due by April 2, 2025.
To apply for funding, applicants must outline plans to use the grant money for at least one of the following goal categories:
- Increasing Access and Program Expansion: Adding program slots, updating classroom facilities, hiring additional qualified staff
- Supporting Teacher Compensation: Increasing salaries, benefits, and/or professional development opportunities
- Enhancing Program Quality: Enriching curriculum, updating educational materials, offering ongoing professional development for teachers, and implementing best practices in early childhood education
This grant program represents one of our three core impact areas that focus our organization’s mission to help all families thrive: School Readiness, Financial Stability, and Connected Community. The School Readiness impact area includes services, programs, and other initiatives that help provide local families with high-quality care and education so that all children can arrive at school ready to learn and succeed.
Adding to Our Work Around Early Childcare and Education
While the School Readiness Impact Grants program is new, our work helping to improve the state of childcare in our region is not. Earlier this year, we were renamed as the lead organization of Ready Region Blue Ridge, through which we oversee several initiatives as a part of this mission. In this role, we have helped create more local childcare slots by supporting the growth of new and existing early learning and childcare centers. We have also helped simplify the preschool application process by building the Go2Grow enrollment portal, which helps qualifying local families explore, compare, and apply for free or reduced-cost care and education programs (and is now live for the 2025-2026 school year).
Meredith Locascio, our Senior Ready Region Blue Ridge Director, noted that while funding for this cycle of Impact Grants is limited, we are committed to expanding it for future iterations of the program. She said: “These grants aim to offer a low-barrier, high-impact opportunity for our providers. For this cycle of grants, priority will be given to applicants who demonstrate plans to create additional slots for children and/or increase compensation for their staff, as these initiatives will have the most direct impact on our local communities.”
Considering there is currently a shortfall of more than 8,000 childcare slots in the Blue Ridge region, grant funding programs like this one play a vital role in ensuring accessible, high-quality early childhood care and education is available to those in our area who need it. Ravi Cooper, our President & CEO, explained how these programs provide lasting benefits to our community: “Through our extensive research and work with local families, we’ve seen that many find it challenging, if not impossible, to maintain financial stability without access to quality, reliable childcare. Providing the necessary funding to create and sustain these programs not only empowers our community’s children to learn and thrive, but also local families to be financially stable and truly reach their full potential. We feel honored to be able to offer these grants and play a role in improving our community for all.”
Help Us Spread the Word
Locascio says that her team will notify School Readiness Impact Grant applicants on May 1 if they have been selected to receive funding. We encourage any qualifying providers in our area to apply and welcome everyone’s help in spreading the word!