Children’s Village Receives Grant from William Penn Foundation to Increase Access to High Quality ECE

Children’s Village is one of 11 organizations recently awarded grant funding

Children’s Village is excited to announce we are one of eleven organizations awarded funding by the William Penn Foundation, under their Early Childhood Education objective, to increase enrollment in Philadelphia’s high quality early learning programs!

Lauren Williams, Children's Village's Early Childhood Coordinator, talks with individuals interested in ECE employment at a Career Day at Parkway West High School. Parkway West is the only high school in Philadelphia with an Early Childhood Education CTE and Pre-apprenticeship Program. The Career Day was facilitated in partnership with Philadelphia Academies.

Funding from this two-year grant will support Children’s Village’s Staff Up Project. The project will help Philadelphia child care directors build a strong and diverse staff recruitment and retention culture at their centers.

One of the biggest constraints to providing access to high quality early learning are challenges in recruiting, retaining, and sustaining the ECE workforce. According to Start Strong PA’s 2024 Child Care Crisis Survey, 89% of Philadelphia child care providers reported teacher shortages with 92% reporting challenges to recruitment, and 69% reporting challenges to retention.

Our Staff Up Project will address staffing issues child care administrators face by providing training and coaching on human resources best practices, and by providing targeted technical assistance and resources to help directors at high quality centers bolster and diversify their ongoing staff recruitment and retention efforts.

The Staff Up project is a continuation of our efforts over the last three years to partner with local workforce development organizations to recruit, train, and effectively support entry-level ECE staff. The impact of this project was highlighted in a statewide case study.

Children’s Village’s Program Director Jewel Davis-Tombul and Lead Preschool Teacher Nancy Gerena-Aponte attend a job fair at Esperanza, hosted in partnership with PA CareerLink Philadelphia and the Mayor’s Office of Latino Engagement.

We are extremely grateful to the William Penn Foundation for their support and vision! Their investment will empower local ECE providers to overcome educator recruitment and retention barriers, ensuring more children in Philadelphia have access to high quality early childhood education.

For more information about the William Penn Foundation’s Early Childhood Education initiative, including the full list of recent grantees, please visit the Foundation’s awarded grants page.