Scottdale Early Learning (SEL), a 501(c)3 early care and educational organization serving low and moderate income families in DeKalb County, has received a $10,000 grant from the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL) to explore and begin to address the issues faced by students who are parents. The grant was one of nine 2Gen Innovation Grants given to local organizations that support student-parents and their children. This is the first 2Gen Innovation Grant SEL has received.
SEL will use the grant to formalize a relationship with Georgia State University to asses the needs of Georgia State students who may be struggling with the dual responsibilities of completing their education while caring for young children. The effort will focus on students living in or near Decatur and Clarkston, Ga.
“We are excited to begin exploring these issues with Georgia State,” said SEL President and CEO Maryum Gibson. “For over four decades, SEL has identified challenges lower-income parents of young children in our community face, and worked to meet those needs by providing the highest-quality early childhood education and preparing children for kindergarten. In addition to the need for quality childcare, student-parents face additional, unique challenges, which we believe can be better understood and addressed through a partnership with Georgia State. The DECAL grant will allow the university and our leadership team to work together to identify key issues and formulate a response.”
Georgia State’s Interim VP for Student Engagement and Programs, Dr. Michael Sanseviro, agrees, “This partnership with Scottdale Early Learning will strengthen the university’s recent efforts to not only better understand the barriers faced by student parents on our Perimeter College Decatur and Clarkston campuses but also enable us to build a stronger, more strategic network of community nonprofit partners to whom we can refer our students facing basic-needs challenges that threaten to disrupt their college enrollment and progression.”
The SEL-Georgia State assessment effort will begin immediately and continue for one year. It comes at an exciting time for SEL, says Gibson, as SEL has just named Amity Farrar, executive vice president of Power 10, as its 2021-22 Chairman of the Board, and begun work on a new strategic plan.