Thrive by Five Washington and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced $4 million in new, joint funding to support the White Center Early Learning Initiative (WCELI) that was launched last year and shows progress in preparing children for kindergarten.
WCELI received $11.7 million in 2008.
“The White Center Community is working with a sense of urgency to help make sure its young children get the best start in life possible,” said Nina Auerbach, president and CEO of Thrive by Five, the state’s public-private partnership overseeing the work in White Center and similar work in East Yakima.
To help better prepare kids to start school, the partnerships – also called the Thrive Demonstration Communities – are testing new ways to provide the best child care and early learning opportunities for children and their families. Each community’s partnership is a model for what can be done to substantially increase access to high-quality early learning opportunities for children from birth to age 5.
“The continued funding for the White Center Early Learning Initiative means that hundreds more families will receive support getting their children ready for school and life, beginning at birth. This is a wonderful example of a public-private partnership, where philanthropic dollars leverage state and federal funding to benefit our community, state and nation,” said Dr. Monte Bridges, superintendent of the Puget Sound ESD, which oversees the community partnership in White Center.
Highlights for White Center include:
- Broke ground on nation’s 20th Educare, which will open this winter (Educare is a national model for high-quality child care).
- Started the Outreach Doula program, a home-visiting program supporting Somali and Latino families with health, development and early learning information before their child’s birth and for up to two years after that, if needed.
More information available at the Thrive by Five website.
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