Total Investment - $5,010,811
Rationale
High quality care and early education lay the ground work for future success for all students.
High quality care and early education lay the ground work for future success for all students.
Grants
My Very Own Library – $3,237,811
Provision of ten free books of their choosing, over the course of three unique book fair events, to 12,000 Newark elementary students at 20 NPS schools. Every participating school receives at least one author visit with free copies of the author’s book (for an eleventh book), and hosts family engagement events to create a strong school to home literacy connection.
United Way of Essex and West Hudson - $656,000
The United Way will serve as the lead implementing agency for Raising a Reader Newark. Raising a Reader provides resources and guidance for families to implement home-based literacy routines for children ages 0-8 through an evidence-based program offered by local affiliates nationwide. It will serve 2,000 students ages 0-5 per year in the city. Participating children in the program will be given several age-appropriate books to take home and read with their parents. Every week they will exchange the books for new ones to bring home and read. The program will also provides support and guidance to parents and teachers on how to get children to develop the habit of reading at home. Nationally, more than 1.25 million families have been served by the program to-date.
The Reinvestment Fund – $378,000
Creation of Child Care Map Newark that created a public-facing analysis of supply and demand of quality child care in the City of Newark, followed by an initial investment in a Fund for Quality for early childhood education in Newark.
Programs for Parents - $250,000
As part of our partnership with the Newark Early Learning Funders Group, FNF is providing funding to Programs for Parents to create a Newark Family Engagement Network that includes a family resource guide and app, increase center quality by preparing providers to enter the State Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS), and provide tailored professional development and advanced credentialing to early learning teachers.
Jumpstart – $200,000
Jumpstart is a national early education organization that helps children develop the language and literacy skills they need to be successful in school. This grant will provide them with the planning and scale up funds necessary to bring their successful early learning model to Newark’s South Ward.
Family Intervention Services – $120,000
Family Intervention Services will work to coordinate and align efforts underway in Newark related to education reform, early learning, youth development, and the promotion of strong families and neighborhoods.
BRICK - $100,000
FNF is partnering with BRICK to establish an effective Pre-K to 3rd grade early literacy initiative that prepares children to read to learn by the beginning of 4th grade. The program will be piloted at Peshine Avenue School.
aXcess Newark and Text4Baby - $69,000
An advertising campaign to encourage Newark parents to utilize aXcess Newark, a resource app for Newark families developed in conjunction with Programs for Parents, and Text4Baby, a service that sends three informational texts to pregnant and young mothers per week with nutritional and educational tips. The goal is to dramatically increase the number of Newark parents utilizing both services to maximize information and resource availability.
