Sidewalk photo by Blandine Schillinger; Puzzle photo by Anita Sheridan

Learning from Elgin

Improving early learning opportunities for Illinois children was one of Grand Victoria Foundation’s earliest priorities.  We started in our home town, Elgin.  A study by IFF identified several challenges: capacity, quality, coordination of resources, community engagement, financing. These became our areas of focus, not just for Elgin, but across the state. In Elgin we worked with community leaders to coordinate resources and helped build a new childcare facility serving 210 children. We also provided funding for other centers to upgrade to meet NAEYC standards, and organized workshops to help people start high-quality home-based centers, which serve many of Elgin’s Latino families. 
 

Taking it statewide

We’ve expanded the work statewide through Building Blocks [2003-2008]. We supported Metropolis Strategies to develop IECAM, a statewide asset map of child care resources and funded IFF to use the tool developed for Elgin to help other high-need communities evaluate, coordinate and improve child care services. Meanwhile, community foundations participating in Communityworks are implementing several strategies to improve early learning at the local level. And – coming full circle, we’re bringing back to Elgin some of the community foundations’ kindergarten readiness strategies.  

Today, we carry forward our work on early childhood through our Core grantmaking. We fund Illinois Action for Children to help local communities assess and improve their childcare options. We support the Illinois Early Learning Council and other critical statewide groups to work on policy issues, especially coordination and funding. We’ve supported professional development to improve the quality of childcare workers and center directors, including Gateways to Opportunity maintained by INCCRRA, and we’ve collaborated with other funders to build the next generation of policy leadership through the Illinois Early Childhood Fellowship.