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Communityworks Fund
History: Charitable Goals of Communityworks
Your Community Foundation successfully secured three rounds of support from Grand Victoria Foundation, a state-wide private foundation based in Chicago, to help our community address three important issues: childcare and early childhood education, workforce development, and land use and protection. The Community Foundation led a two-year effort to identify the challenges and opportunities in our communities in the three target areas. An impact plan and goals were developed as a result of discussions, community meetings, and review of findings by a 36-member Advisory Team with representatives from all four counties. From that effort, issues and opportunities for leadership and grantmaking to affect change in Adams, Brown, Hancock and Pike counties were identified and are taking place. Improving the early care and education of children and jobs were identified as the most important issues to address in the near term.
Your Gifts in Action: Quality Child Care…Priceless!
Our communities generously committed more than $225,000 for the Communityworks Fund for which the Community Foundation received $250,000 in matching funds from Grand Victoria Foundation. That permanent endowment makes grants to serve the three target areas.
We began by partnering to improve the quality of childcare by increasing the pool of educated providers, improving retention and revenue streams of child care workers, and demonstrating to parents the benefits of choosing quality care. Few of the four Illinois counties that we serve have licensed child care centers, yet all have licensed family care homes. Through a partnership with West Central Child Care Connection, a mentoring program for family-based daycare providers was developed that initially impacted 45 rural homecare centers and 425 children and their families. The providers worked with mentors using a national rating scale to evaluate their progress, designed specifically for family child care homes. A significant result of the mentoring was that parents commented on positive changes in their children’s behavior and realized the value it added to their children’s development.
West Central Child Care Connection has since leveraged additional dollars to bring the program to even more child care providers and children. It has also presented the mentoring program as a model at multiple child care conferences.
Expanding into Workforce Efforts
Your Community Foundation continues to work with nonprofits to support additional programs in child care and is expanding the Communityworks program to meet our goals in workforce development. Our workforce development efforts will seek to ensure workers are prepared with skills needed to fill a variety of existing and expanding employment opportunities that provide livable wages and benefits.
Building Stronger Communities – Two Extraordinary Opportunities for You!
1. You can continue to assist your communities by making a gift to the Communityworks Fund. This endowment enables us to make grants that impact our communities in the areas of child care, workforce development, and land use and protection.
2. NOW, Grand Victoria Foundation has offered one more opportunity to support the Community Foundation’s continued leadership, convening, grantmaking and impact. This is a rare opportunity – for every dollar that you contribute to our Friends of the Foundation effort, Grand Victoria Foundation will match your gift - it's that simple! But this has to be done by September 30. Friends of the Foundation Gift Intent Form
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