Help CFNLA sustain Early Childhood Education Scholarships and ensure Caddo Parish gets its fair share of state dollars!
Friends of Community Foundation of North Louisiana, we need your help! Caddo Parish has until January 30, 2024 to raise money and receive a dollar-for-dollar match from the state of Louisiana. All funds will provide scholarships for low-income children ages 0 to 3 to attend Type III Childcare and Early Education Centers. At a minimum we need to raise just under $3 million. We are halfway to our goal! Please help us ensure Caddo Parish gets its fair share of the state match by making a donation today! Notably, CFNLA receives no proceeds from this effort. Give online now to double your gift.
An alarming 60% of Caddo Parish children are not kindergarten ready when they begin school. Numerous studies indicate a lack of kindergarten readiness strongly correlates with academic and behavioral challenges and involvement with juvenile and adult criminal justice systems. As 90% of brain development occurs before the age of 5, a child’s experiences in the early years are crucial for children to build essential skills that serve as a foundation for their future development.
However, 30% of families with children under the age of 5 in Shreveport-Bossier are in poverty. At an average cost of $8,000 annually, full-time early childhood education is unaffordable for many families in our community. To ensure all families have the opportunity for economic mobility and for our local economy to thrive, working parents must have stable, affordable, and quality early childhood education options. Employee absences and turnover due to childcare issues cost Louisiana employers $816 million a year, resulting in a $1.1 billion loss annually for Louisiana’s economy.
As a solution, the CFNLA Early Childhood Education (ECE) Fund provides full scholarships for eligible low-income children ages 0 to 3 to attend Type III (privately owned small businesses) early learning centers. In order to qualify, caregivers of children must also be working, in school, or actively seeking employment. Thus, the ECE Fund has been an economic game changer for families.
Ensuring all children have access to early care and education is how we proactively change our community. By equipping children for educational success, we increase kindergarten readiness, academic success, graduation rates, and decrease behavioral challenges and involvement with criminal justice systems.
Help us ensure a brighter future for our community by supporting the ECE Fund! To learn more about the ECE Fund and the outcomes thus far visit cfnla.org/ece.