Deadline: 2-Feb-21
The Transforming the Early Childhood Workforce in Colorado Initiative is pleased to release the Request for Proposals for 2021 funding for partnerships interested in advancing the early childhood workforce. The Initiative is an innovative public-private partnership between Buell Foundation, Gary Community Investments, Early Milestones Colorado, the Colorado Department of Education, and the Colorado Department of Human Services.
The EC Workforce Innovation Grants are designed to quickly capitalize on grantee learnings so that promising approaches have the best chance to spread and provide the impetus for sustainable and systemic change. As a part of this Initiative, the Transforming the Early Childhood Workforce in Colorado Team will:
- Invest in local partnerships to implement innovative, scalable, and sustainable strategies to advance the early childhood workforce.
- Work in partnership with Mathematica Policy Research to provide technical assistance using data to accelerate learning and implementation success.
- Evaluate the progress and outcomes of the Initiative.
- Support local-to-state feedback loops to reduce system-level barriers to improving early childhood workforce recruitment, retention, and compensation.
Funding Information
- Partnerships may apply for up to $200,000 for one year of funding.
Activities
Early Childhood Workforce Innovation Grantees will:
- Implement projects with a long-term goal of impacting recruitment, retention, compensation, and/or support of the workforce.
- Collect and use data on the project to analyze performance and adjust for greater effectiveness.
- Share data and information to inform change at the broader state system level.
- Participate in technical assistance and evaluation efforts provided by the Initiative.
- Engage in a learning community to share progress, successes, opportunities, and barriers.
Eligibility Criteria
- Eligible applicants for this grant opportunity may include but are not limited to:
- EC and/or workforce development 501(c)3 organizations/nonprofits
- State Agencies, including departments of labor, education, human services, etc.
- School districts, colleges, and universities, local government, including departments of health and/or human services, education, community development, town councils, etc.
- Ineligible Entities:
- For-profit businesses are not eligible to apply as the primary applicant; however, they may partner with one of the entities.
- Partnerships:
- The program is looking for active and engaged partnerships that are the best fit to address the identified local or state EC workforce challenge. Though a single entity will be the primary applicant/lead agency for the grant and the recipient of grant funds, additional partners with a shared commitment to change are required. Projects should identify both traditional and nontraditional partners with the varied skills, resources, and experiences needed to ensure successful implementation.
Timeline
- January 8, 2021 — RFP release;
- January 14, 2021 (10:00 a.m.) — Informational webinar;
- February 2, 2021 (5:00 p.m.) — Intention to apply due;
- February 24, 2021 (5:00 p.m.) — Proposal due;
- June 1, 2021 — Awarded projects start.
For more information, visit https://earlymilestones.org/2021-early-childhood-workforce-innovation-grants-request-for-proposals/