Indy Book Project is a 100% volunteer-led nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring all central Indiana children have access to books. Founded in 2018 in Zionsville, the organization provides new and gently used books to schools, community centers, pediatrician offices, Little Free Libraries and other nonprofits. The goal is to get books into the homes of children from birth through 12th grade. Indy Book Project recently announced a major giving milestone, giving away 100,000 books to children. Learn more by visiting indybookproject.org.

1. A Path for Career Growth – We reorganized our classroom-based teams and added career pathways through a new “Excel at DEL” program to help more educators advance their careers in the early learning sector.

2. Come Back Stronger Fund – With support from Lilly Endowment Inc., we launched Round 2 of the Come Back Stronger Fund, distributing an additional $10M to early care and education programs across the state to support their increased costs due to the pandemic and help sustain their operations.

3. Build, Learn, Grow Scholarships – On behalf of the state of Indiana, we carried out the Build, Learn, Grow Scholarship Program, awarding $30,978,517 in scholarships to help Indiana families that work in essential businesses with the cost of early care and education for their children.

4. Closing the Gap Report – We published “Closing the Gap: An Assessment of Indiana’s Early Learning Opportunities” to articulate the true state of child care access across Indiana and empower communities to explore solutions to their child care gaps.

5. Closing the Gap Grants – In conjunction with the release of the Closing the Gap report, we opened the Closing the Gap Fund and issued 17 Closing the Gap grants with the support of Lilly Endowment Inc. to create more than 900 early learning seats in high-need communities in Indiana.

6. Day of Impact – At our 3rd annual Day of Impact — sponsored byQBM, Resultant and many others — over 100 volunteers completed projects across all eight Indy Day Early Learning centers, including refreshing two staff break rooms, landscaping a butterfly garden, building a music wall, painting sensory paths onto playground areas and restocking lending libraries.

7. Modernizing the Industry – We drafted an Early Childhood Education Modernization brief, articulating a vision, framework and recommendations for the future of the early learning industry, which is sparking public policy discussions with invested stakeholders all across Indiana.

8. Reimagining Early Learning – We hosted providers and community partners at an event to “Reimagine” our state’s early childhood education system following the influx of federal stimulus funding.

9. Early Head Start Grant Recipient – We won a major grant for the expansion of our Early Head Start programming, enabling us to serve an additional 75 children.

10. Two New Day Early Learning Centers – We transitioned operations of the Purdue University Early Care and Education Center and Patty Jischke Early Care and Education Center, welcoming 30+ new team members and 162 children to the Day Early Learning family.

11. Indianapolis’ South Side Expansion – In partnership with Christel House Academy, we raised $1 million in grant funds to support the opening of the new Day Early Learning at Manual on the city’s south side and received a $1 million matching grant from United Way of Central Indiana.

12. Early Learning Educator Solutions – Through the support of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation, we launched the Classroom Support Work-Based Learning Program in our Day Early Learning centers, training 19 team members with credentials to advance their careers and improve their classroom practice.

13. Arago Honor Recipient – We received the Meridian Foundation’s inagural Arago honor in recognition of innovation through our Classroom Support Work-Based Learning Program. The award comes with a $10,000 cash prize.

14. Assessing Learning Success – Through the use of TS Gold assessments, we supported children in meeting or exceeding widely held expectations in literacy, mathematics and social emotional development. This initiative helps quantify the success of our mission: to ensure children throughout Indiana are empowered with essential skills to be successful in kindergarten and beyond.

15. Kindergarten Readiness Leadership – We trained 381 educators to serve as Kindergarten Readiness Indicator (KRI) assessors for the state of Indiana, empowering them to administer the new KRI assessment to their pre-K students. With the support of the Richard M. Fairbanks foundation, we also launched Getting on Track, an initiative to help children in our Day Early Learning centers build early math and literacy skills in preparation for the kindergarten readiness assessment.

16. Accredited by National Association for the Education of Young Children – Three of our Day Early Learning Centers renewed their NAEYC accreditation. We also achieved NAEYC accreditation for Day Early Learning at Eastern Star Church, officially making all Day Early Learning centers nationally accredited. 

17. Strong Finances – Despite the impact of the pandemic on reduced enrollment and increased expenses, we were able to sustain our operations while keeping our workforce intact. We are well-positioned to continue our innovative, mission-related activities in 2022.

18. Enrichment Programs – Our Spirit of Philanthropy teams supported quarterly activities for each center, including providing family and child enrichments through the Summer Gardening Program and Week of the Young Child activities, as well as Fall-in-a-Bag and Holiday week gifts for teachers.

19. Stronger Together Grants — With generous support from Lilly Endowment Inc., we selected seven organizations to receive $100,000 grants to launch regional shared service hubs around the state. These hubs will allow local child care providers to streamline their operational services, saving money and allowing them to focus their time and energy on providing high-quality child care.

20. Tanner Teacher of the Year – Day Early Learning at Fort Harrison pre-K teacher Angie Laureano was named our 2021 Tanner Teacher of the Year in recognition of her consistent dedication to her center and students over the last year, especially, and her commitment to intentional learning through play.

21. State of Early Learning — Early Learning Indiana President and CEO Maureen Weber hosted her inaugural State of Early Learning in January 2021, outlining the impact of the pandemic on early childhood education and steps to improve early learning access, affordability and quality for Hoosier families and children. Mark your calendar for the 2022 State of Early Learning on Jan. 27 at 11:30 a.m. EST. Register here.  

INDIANAPOLIS (Nov. 30, 2021) — After releasing its August 2021 “Closing the Gap: An Assessment of Indiana’s Early Learning Opportunities” report, Early Learning Indiana announced today the 17 organizations receiving Closing the Gap grants to address local child care access issues in their communities, increase capacity and quality, and ensure affordability and choice for families. The funding is made possible through a 2019 grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to support Early Learning Indiana’s statewide work to improve access to high-quality early learning programs in Indiana.

“The challenge is great, but the opportunity to build a system of more equitable access for Hoosier children is even greater,” said Maureen Weber, president and CEO of Early Learning Indiana. “Our Closing the Gap grant recipients have put together collaborative solutions to solve some of the greatest barriers to access to high-quality early learning in their communities, and we are proud to help kick start their work.”

The 17 grant recipients represent 18 unique counties in Indiana. In total, their proposals will create 926 new child care seats for 269 infants and toddlers and 657 preschool and pre-K children. These recipients have proposed strategies to address a variety of community-level access issues, including providing high-quality early learning services to families experiencing homelessness, offering care options that prioritize extended hours to accommodate parents who work late shifts, and building an intergenerational model connecting early learners to seniors.

Grant recipients include:

• Adams County Economic Development Corporation – Adams Co.
• Mental Health America of Boone County — Boone Co.
• Lewis Cass Schools (Lewis Cass Early Learning Academy) — Cass Co.
• Boys & Girls Clubs of Harrison-Crawford Counties — Crawford Co.
• Greene County Foundation — Greene Co.
• TOTally Kids Childcare at St. Mark’s — Hendricks Co.
• Henry County Child Care Network — Henry Co.
• Bona Vista Programs — Howard Co.
• Appleseed Childhood Education, Inc. — Jasper Co.
• LaunchPad Child Care and Early Learning Coalition — Kosciusko Co.
• Wee Care Early Learning Ministry — Marion Co.
• Monroe County United Ministries — Monroe Co.
• First5 of the Rush County Community Foundation — Rush Co.
• Scott County School District 2 — Scott Co.
• ABC & ME — Tipton Co.
• Union County College Corner Joint School District — Union Co.
• United Way of the Wabash Valley, Inc. — Vigo Co.

Early Learning Indiana’s Closing the Gap report centered around the Early Learning Access Index, which helped qualify and quantify child care access throughout the state, assessing the additional factors of quality, affordability and choice as well.

Notable findings of the report include:

• The statewide Early Learning Access Index is 60.6 out of 100, equaling moderate access to early learning and care statewide​.
• In more than two-thirds of Indiana counties, existing child care capacity can serve fewer than half the children ages 0-5 who need care.
• 14 counties have no high-quality infant/toddler care.

View a PDF of awardees, their locations and project descriptions here.

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About Early Learning Indiana
Early Learning Indiana is Indiana’s oldest and largest early childhood education nonprofit, providing leadership, advocacy and early childhood education services to continually improve the early learning landscape in Indiana. Today, Early Learning Indiana operates 10 high-quality Day Early Learning centers, a network of premier community-based schools used to advance the science of early learning, train the next generation of teachers and leaders, and instill essential skills in the children we serve. Through regional and statewide programs, the organization enables early learning providers to build capacity, transform operations and improve learning outcomes. Learn more at EarlyLearningIndiana.org.

INDIANAPOLIS, Nov. 22, 2021 —High-quality early childhood education has proven to close early gaps in academic outcomes based on race and family income. But while Indiana has expanded pre-K funding in recent years, more needs to be done to maximize its power.

That’s why a group of early childhood education leaders and philanthropists today announced the launch of a new tool in Marion County – Getting on Track (GoT) – in an effort to improve academic outcomes for all pre-K students, including Black and Hispanic students and students from low-income families.

The independent research organization, NORC at the University of Chicago, will implement GoT at eight Early Learning Indiana sites within Indianapolis over the next two school years, starting in the current 2021-22 school year. The Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation contributed $879,469 and PNC Bank contributed $30,000 to launch the tool in Marion County.

“The pandemic has shown us the critical role that quality early childhood education plays. It is not only key to supporting working parents, but also to ensuring children get a strong start in life by helping them to develop the foundational academic skills that are key to success in kindergarten and beyond,” said Claire Fiddian-Green, president & CEO of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. “As we work to ensure more students have access to high-quality early learning opportunities, we also must ensure early childhood teachers have the tools and training they need to help every student succeed. That’s what Getting on Track is designed to do.”

Through GoT, early childhood education students are tested three times annually to assess math, oral language and emergent literacy skills. Through these assessments, GoT helps early childhood educators determine where pre-K students need to make academic progress and gives them the knowledge and tools they need to intervene. GoT aims to reduce inequality in math and literacy skills at kindergarten entry and equip students with a foundation for academic success beyond pre-K.

“At PNC, we recognize that education is a powerful means for economic and social mobility. That’s why 17 years ago, we launched PNC Grow Up Great^® to help children from birth through age five develop a passion for learning and help set them up for success that lasts a lifetime,” said Connie Bond Stuart, PNC regional president for Central & Southern Indiana. “Getting on Track makes perfect sense for us because it helps build upon the impact that early childhood education is making for students of color in our state and provides a targeted tool to enhance their academic outcomes.”

Over the last decade, NORC and the University of Chicago have worked to develop and evaluate GoT’s effectiveness in Chicago, Northwest Indiana, and Oakland, Calif. It has shown impressive results in these pilot cities: students attained a 48% increase in verbal comprehension in one school year and students from low-income families demonstrated a significant increase in math skills, reducing the disparities in outcomes with their higher income peers by at least 45%.

THE CASE IN INDIANA

A recent report from Early Learning Indiana shows that Indiana lacks sufficient program capacity, quality and affordability to meet the early learning needs of the state’s population. There are only enough early childhood education seats to serve 55% of the population under age six who might need care, and fewer than 20% of programs meet state benchmarks for high-quality. Ensuring early childhood educators have the tools and training they need to serve students well is among the strategies needed to increase the number of high-quality seats.

“The first five years are critical to a child’s growth and development,” said Maureen Weber, president and CEO of Early Learning Indiana. “Getting on Track is an important assessment tool that will help educators ensure children are developing the essential, foundational skills they need for success in kindergarten and for the rest of their lives.”

NORC will collaborate with Early Learning Indiana to implement GoT at eight sites across Indianapolis and train Early Learning Indiana educators in the system. NORC will measure the impact of GoT on student learning during the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years and assess whether the system can be expanded to additional providers.

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ABOUT THE RICHARD M. FAIRBANKS FOUNDATION
Since 1986, the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation has strived to advance the vitality of Indianapolis and the well-being of its people by addressing the city’s most significant challenges and opportunities. Through strategic grantmaking, research and evaluation, and cross-sector collaborations, the Foundation aims to improve outcomes across its three focus areas: Education, Health, and the Vitality of Indianapolis. Learn more at RMFF.org.

ABOUT EARLY LEARNING INDIANA
Early Learning Indiana is Indiana’s oldest and largest early childhood education nonprofit, providing leadership, advocacy and early childhood education services to continually improve the early learning landscape in Indiana. Today, Early Learning Indiana operates eight high-quality Day Early Learning centers, a network of premier community-based lab schools used to advance the science of early learning, train the next generation of teachers and leaders, and instill essential skills in the children we serve. Through regional and statewide programs, the organization enables early learning providers to build capacity, transform operations and improve learning outcomes. Learn more at EarlyLearningIndiana.org.

ABOUT PNC FOUNDATION
The PNC Foundation, which receives its principal funding from The PNC Financial Services Group (www.pnc.com), actively supports organizations that provide services for the benefit of communities in which it has a significant presence. The foundation focuses its philanthropic mission on early childhood education and community and economic development, which includes the arts and culture. Through Grow Up Great, its signature cause that began in 2004, PNC has created a bilingual $500 million, multi-year initiative to help prepare children from birth to age 5 for success in school and life.

ABOUT NORC
NORC at the University of Chicago conducts research and analysis that decision-makers trust. As a nonpartisan research organization and a pioneer in measuring and understanding the world, we have studied almost every aspect of the human experience and every major news event for more than eight decades. Today, we partner with government, corporate, and nonprofit clients around the world to provide the objectivity and expertise necessary to inform the critical decisions facing society.

INDIANAPOLIS (July 27, 2021) — Early Learning Indiana and Christel House Indianapolis are teaming up to create a new early childhood education center — Day Early Learning at Manual — on the south side of Indianapolis.

“Quality, licensed early care and education is one of the greatest unmet needs of south side Indianapolis families,” says Maureen Weber, president and CEO, Early Learning Indiana. “A new center at Manual will add 80 new high-quality child care seats for infants to 5-year-olds.”

Building upon the $5.5 million Christel House has invested into turning the previous Emmerich Manual High School facility into a community-serving campus for traditional K-12 students and adults seeking a high school diploma, the ambitious $2 million early childhood education center construction plan will require extensive renovation to convert office space at Manual into rooms appropriate for infants, toddlers and pre-K students. United Way of Central Indiana has committed to making a $1 million match for the capital project.

“To receive the match, we must raise $1 million by Aug. 30, 2021,” says Weber. “It’s a big goal, but we are confident the community will support this important need. We’re seeking private support to secure the remaining $38,000 needed to meet the match requirement.”  

“Quality early childhood education makes a positive impact on everything from children’s future learning to family self-sufficiency and breaking the cycle of poverty,” according to Dr. Sarah Weimer, executive director, Christel House Indianapolis. “We’re turning Manual into a community-serving campus. The new Day Early Learning center offers a crucial opportunity to ensure Indianapolis’ most vulnerable residents get a great start in life.”

Donations can be made at https://earlylearningin.org/manual/.       

About Early Learning Indiana
Early Learning Indiana is Indiana’s oldest and largest early childhood education nonprofit, providing leadership, advocacy and early childhood education services to continually improve the early learning landscape in Indiana. Today, Early Learning Indiana operates eight high-quality Day Early Learning centers, a network of premier community-based lab schools used to advance the science of early learning, train the next generation of teachers and leaders, and instill essential skills in the children we serve. Through regional and statewide programs, the organization enables early learning providers to build capacity, transform operations and improve learning outcomes. Learn more at EarlyLearningIndiana.org.

About Christel House Indianapolis

Christel House Indianapolis is a network of charter schools supported by Christel House International. Christel House Academy South opened in 2002 and was Indiana’s first charter school to receive the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform’s designation as a “School to Watch” and was recognized nationally as one of 10 MetLife Foundation–NASSP “Breakthrough Schools.” For more information, please visit www.chschools.org.