At right, a recent grant from the Katherine C. and David E. Moore Fund for Education is helping All Our Kin improve the educational offerings and operations of home-based child care providers in Westchester. Photo courtesy of All Our Kin
In 2023, the Westchester Community Foundation developed grantmaking strategies for two new permanent funds to address pressing needs in early childhood education and Indigenous communities.
To honor the Katherine C. and David E. Moore Fund for Education’s goal of improving early childhood education, the Foundation set out to understand the early childhood landscape for Westchester children. With a specific focus on the experiences of children ages 5 and under, the Foundation met with Westchester providers to understand their priorities, challenges, and needs. It also reviewed local policy priorities and broader statewide efforts for early childhood services and programs.
“These conversations were critical,” said Lauren Perkins, a Westchester program officer. “They outlined the extraordinary challenges facing both families and child care providers across the county.”
Those the Foundation spoke with emphasized two primary concerns: constraints in recruiting and retaining a skilled workforce, and the high cost of child care in Westchester. Equitable access to affordable child care is a key priority in the county’s economic recovery from the pandemic, yet providers operate on extremely narrow profit margins and struggle to keep their doors open.
To improve local child care, the Foundation will use the Moore Fund to seed innovative approaches to sustaining quality services, strengthen the county’s network of providers, and fill critical service delivery gaps. As a complement to the advocacy underway for increasing public investment in early childhood programs, the Foundation’s grantmaking strategy also will fund initiatives to help child care providers serve more families, work with parents and caregivers to ensure equitable access to high-quality care, and support advocacy for policies that address challenges facing Westchester’s families and early childhood providers.
A NEW FUND FOR NATIVE AMERICANS
Another example of tailoring a grantmaking strategy to meet pressing needs came via the Mortimer Fund for Native American Children, established through the bequest of Harry Mortimer, who was a resident of New Rochelle.
“As an outside entity, we recognized that we had knowledge gaps,” Perkins said. “Our advisory board and staff participated in trainings to better understand individual Tribal histories, organizations, and laws.”
The Foundation also reached out to federally recognized Native Nations and Native-led organizations serving Native youth to understand the landscape of needs and priorities in New York State and across the diaspora of Indigenous Lenape people whose communities historically occupied the lands of Westchester County.
This research led the Foundation to develop a grantmaking approach focused on equitable opportunities for Native youth to reach their full potential, exercise their self-determination, and create community solutions that incorporate their distinct culture, values, history, language, and community priorities.
Through the Mortimer Fund, the Foundation will prioritize projects operated by Native Nations and Native-led nonprofits that address the needs of Native youth, and projects that set out to launch and test the efficacy of new ideas.
The Foundation also recently awarded grants to the Seneca Nation of Indians to help revitalize Seneca language instruction for young children and their teachers, and to the Shinnecock Indian Nation to build capacity and develop programs at the Boys & Girls Club.
“Words are helpful in the beginning,” Perkins said. “But action is required to achieve mutuality. Our hope is that through the Mortimer Fund, we can continue to learn and build meaningful relationships with Native communities.”
CREATE YOUR OWN PERMANENT FUND
Anyone can create a permanent fund that addresses issues or causes of their choice with The Trust. Most often, donors create these funds in their wills or by bequest to support grantmaking into the future. To learn more, visit giveto.nyc.
Peter Panapento
peter@turn-two.co
(202) 531-3886
Courtney Biggs
cbi@nyct-cfi.org
(212) 889-3963
Peter Panapento
peter@turn-two.co
(202) 531-3886
Courtney Biggs
cbi@nyct-cfi.org
(212) 889-3963