San Diego Foundation announces Early Childhood Initiative Resilience Grants

Deadline: 17-Jul-20

The San Diego Foundation has announced $1 million in total funding for Early Childhood Initiative Resilience grants.

The goal of Early Childhood Initiative Resilience grants is to increase access to quality, affordable early education and care for children and families. This includes efforts to strengthen the regional ecosystem, increase cross-sector collaboration, and promote systems-level change through strategic and collective impact.

Strategies

The following are strategies that support the goal of Early Childhood Initiative Resilience grants. Organizations will be asked to identify the lead strategy they plan to employ in their application. All applicants are encouraged to address service and support for low-moderate income families, and communities experiencing negative social determinants of health.

• Resources & Support for Disproportionately Impacted Children & Families
  • Respond to the needs of children ages 0-5 and families in crisis, those experiencing financial hardship, and/or populations experiencing health disparities. These strategies may include access to critical resources, and must also identify plans to connect children and families to early childhood care, family strengthening efforts, and related services.
• Mental/Behavioral Health & Early Intervention
  • Strengthen and expand access to mental and behavioral health services for children ages 0-5 and their families as part of an effort to increase intervention and developmental support for children.
• Strengthen and expand access to preventative and interventive services for children ages 0-5 and their families, including family strengthening efforts and systems-level impact initiatives that expand abuse prevention and related services.
  • Administer innovative impact investing/microlending models that support small early childcare providers, with a focus on those that serve low-moderate income families, provide affordable care, and those that have adopted or will adopt high quality instructional standards and practices.
• Expand facilities to increase the number of spaces available for children 0-5, or make services available to more families through innovative developments that enable expanded access to care (based on COVID-19 requirements).
  • Support professional training, curriculum development, supplies and counseling to improve instructional practices and support early childhood staff. Projects should illustrate a broad impact on instructional quality and staff support/retention, with potential to impact a group or network of early childhood professionals.
• Develop strategic cross-sector initiatives to inform public policy and advance efforts to remove systemic barriers to early care and related services. Strengthen opportunities for the San Diego region to receive increased public funding in support of access to early care for low-moderate income families.
  • Abuse Prevention
  • Strengthen Small Providers Through Access to Capital
  • Service and Facility Expansions
  • Instructional Quality Improvements & Staff Support
  • Systems-level change initiatives

Funding Information

The Foundation will accept requests up to $150,000 per organization.

Eligibility Criteria

• Each proposal must be led by a nonprofit with 501(c)(3) public charity status, operating in and serving San Diego County.
• A 501(c)(3) public charity may serve as a fiscal sponsor for another applicant to administer the grant and provide regular financial reporting to The Foundation.
• Organizations may be part of more than one proposal but may only serve as lead applicant for one proposal.
• Projects must be completed within an 18-month timeline.
• The Foundation will not fund endowments, existing obligations/debt, scholarships, or projects that promote religious or political doctrines.
• Projects must expand care for low-to-moderate income communities and/or populations experiencing health disparities or negative social determinants of health.
• Projects will serve children from ages 0-5 in the areas of educational and cognitive development, physical and mental health, abuse prevention, early intervention and care, children experiencing trauma or homelessness/housing insecurity, or similar field of care.
• Given focus on long-lasting solutions and building the capacity of this sector, projects must demonstrate having other significant resources or plans in place to ensure program longevity.