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We thank you for another successful year in 2024. We are excited to announce our new foundation name. North Carolina Empowering Kids and Communities Foundation will now operate under Leuth Family Foundation.
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Learn more about our work in schools and education programs. To apply for a grant, see our grant application.
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A Close Look at Early Childhood Education
A new year brings new opportunities in the nonprofit world. As we look to evolve our strategy as the nonprofit landscape changes, we look to continue investing in projects and organizations focused on early childhood education.
Research shows investments in early childhood education can provide a return of 4:1, which is a notably high return. Studies show, for each dollar invested, four dollars will come back into the community through productivity and savings.
Our grant to Reading Partners, a New York based reading tutoring program and Hogar del Niño, located in La Romana, both focus on early childhood education opportunities. These academic programs enable students to have access to quality early education, despite their economic circumstances.
In a meeting with Reading Partners, the team highlighted the importance of reading agility and the impact this has on the rate of learning students can achieve. Weak reading comprehension skills lead to negative rates of learning as classes become more challenging and complex as the school year proceeds.
Poor reading scores also result in long term learning gaps for students compared to their peers. Improving literacy rates early on can improve students’ overall academic performance.
Our grant to Hogar del Niño, supports 18 students to receive education, nutrition and medical care, who otherwise would not have had access to any education. Hogar del Niño supports students from birth to 18 years old coming from the most vulnerable communities of La Romana and surrounding areas.
The school utilizes an education model that focuses on innovation and multidisciplinary balance. This structure allows equal attention and relevance of the Sciences and Liberal Arts, including a Makerspace, the Polytechnic, University and Professional Technical Scholarship programs.
Research demonstrates the benefits of a strong early education and we look forward to continuing our partnerships with programs focused on this critical area.
If you are a nonprofit 501c3 organization focused on early childhood education, apply for a grant on our grant application page!
Sources for this article:
https://www.air.org/our-work/human-services/early-childhood-and-child-development