Indianapolis (March 31, 2016) – The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA) today named 20 organizations from 18 different Indiana counties recipients of the Early Education Matching Grant (EEMG). These grants will help recipients provide quality early education for low-income children in Indiana.
Twelve previous grant winners will renew their grants, and eight sites have been awarded new grants to serve a total of 1267 children for both the 2016-17 and 2017-18 school years. The matching grant recipients and their counties are listed at the end of this release. Families in these counties should contact one of these providers if they are interested in receiving pre-K education for a 4-year-old child.
Only programs located outside of the five counties participating in the state’s On My Way Pre-K pilot were eligible to apply for the EEMG grants.
“The EEMG program is an important tool toward increased school readiness and academic success for low-income children in Indiana,” said Nicole Norvell, Director of Indiana’s Office of Early Childhood and Out of School Learning. “The grants leverage public and private investments within high-quality community-based programs, including school-based, faith- based and nonprofit early learning programs. This approach allows many more at-risk children living outside of the five pilot On My Way Pre-K counties to access essential high-quality early education.”
Twenty grants, totaling $3,385263, are being awarded and another $4,896,015 in matching funds have been obtained by those grantees from foundations, United Way agencies, corporations, coalitions of public-private organizations and individual donors. These grants will be used to expand high-quality early education programs for low-income families with 4-year- old children.
The EEMG program, established by the Indiana General Assembly in 2013 (and renewed in 2015 for an additional two-year cycle), allows high-quality, early child care and education programs to apply for matching funds to serve 4-year-old children from families whose incomes are below federal poverty guidelines. It is separate and distinct from the On My Way Pre-K program, which was approved by the 2014 General Assembly and is currently underway in Allen, Jackson, Lake, Marion and Vanderburgh Counties.
In the EEMG program, grants are awarded directly to providers statewide, who use the funds to enroll qualified children; while in the On My Way Pre-K program, families in five pilot counties (Allen, Jackson, Lake, Marion and Vanderburgh) apply directly for scholarships.
Applicants for EEMG were required to have already achieved Level 3 or Level 4 in Paths to QUALITY TM, Indiana’s voluntary child care quality rating and improvement system. They were also required to secure a cash match from a community organization or other funding source.
The 2013 matching grant legislation established that $2 million would be available for two years, beginning in 2014. Grants awards will be effective July 1, 2016.
More information about the Early Childhood Matching Grant is available here.
