Lilly Endowment grant to help strengthen early childhood education in the Indiana Uplands region

Lilly Endowment Inc., through the eighth phase of its Giving Indiana Funds for Tomorrow (GIFT VIII) initiative, has awarded a $7,834,000 Community Leadership Implementation Grant to the Community Foundation of Bloomington and Monroe County (CFBMC) on behalf of the Indiana Uplands region. GIFT VIII is a statewide Lilly Endowment initiative designed to support the efforts of community foundations and their partners to strengthen quality of life for the people in the towns, cities, counties, and regions they serve.

This implementation grant, one of two that CFBMC received through the GIFT VIII initiative, will strengthen the quality and capacity of early childhood education programs in 10 counties of the Indiana Uplands region. Counties served by this grant include Brown, Crawford, Daviess, Dubois, Greene, Lawrence, Martin, Monroe, Orange, and Owen.

In 2021, Indiana Uplands counties began examining how they might improve their child care landscape and early learning outcomes in collaboration with Regional Opportunity Initiatives (ROI) and Monroe Smart Start (an early learning leadership initiative of CFBMC). In the years since, each Indiana Uplands county has established or expanded early learning coalitions comprised of local community foundations, early education providers, school systems, community economic and development organizations, employers, and other organizations. These county coalitions have conducted research, identified best practices, and developed locally specific early care and education strategic plans in collaboration with ROI, defining proposed activities to increase access to high quality early care and education opportunities. ​

“Thanks to this funding from Lilly Endowment, communities in the Indiana Uplands region will be able to begin activating strategies they have developed in collaboration with local stakeholders and regional partners with the intent of improving outcomes for thousands of children, families, employers, and communities,” said Community Foundation President and CEO Tina Peterson. 

In collaboration with community foundations and each county’s early care coalition, CFBMC will launch Indiana Uplands Smart Start. With the support of a regional team of Smart Start coordinators, each county will receive funding and ongoing support through the grant to begin implementing initiatives outlined in their early care and education strategic plans. While specific activities will vary in each county, funding will be used to create and expand the capacity of childcare centers to serve more children, create efficiencies through shared services, strengthen provider sustainability, and deliver resources to improve the quality of educational experiences children receive before kindergarten. 

To advance these efforts, the Indiana Uplands Smart Start team will coordinate activities and provide project leadership, facilitation, and connectivity to subject matter experts and business mentors. A new regional Employer Resource Network will also provide innovative services to support employer and childcare provider partnerships in the Indiana Uplands.

“Not only is early care and education critical for young children, but it also impacts our region’s institutions, employers, and prosperity,” said Jennifer Myers, director of Monroe Smart Start. “Our region has united around a shared commitment to improving early learning, and county coalitions are excited to continue our momentum in the region and begin translating the work into measurable impact for the benefit of all Indiana Uplanders.”

This grant is one of 30 implementation grants being awarded through GIFT VIII. CFBMC was also awarded a second Community Leadership Implementation GIFT VIII Grant from Lilly Endowment to deploy evidence-based strategies focused on reducing Monroe County’s unsheltered homeless population. Read more about this grant.

In 1990, Lilly Endowment launched the Giving Indiana Funds for Tomorrow (GIFT) initiative to help establish and further develop community foundations throughout Indiana. Lilly Endowment hoped that Indiana’s community foundations could enhance the quality of life in their communities by convening conversations among people of diverse ages, socioeconomic backgrounds, occupations, races, and cultural traditions about their communities’ most compelling needs and opportunities, as well as the best ways to address them.