As the Children’s Learning Center starts its work to move to a new home on Cabot Street, it has picked up a large amount of cash for facility development and improvements.

The Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) and the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation (CEDAC) recently announced $7.5 million in grants supporting early education programs planning facility development and improvements statewide.

The Children’s Learning Center, located at the Cummings Center since 2005, is one of three organizations receiving $1 million.

A 2011 study on the condition of early childhood facilities and out-of-school time centers found that deficiencies in the buildings impacted the quality of teaching and learning.

“It is well established through research that environments influence the architecture of a child’s developing brain,” said Early Education and Care Commissioner Tom Weber. “Having program spaces that facilitate positive experiences for children is critical.”

Community Teamwork, Inc. and the United Teen Equality Center have been awarded $900,000 from the state for early-education programs.
The two Lowell agencies were among 10 statewide to receive a total of $7.5 million from the state Department of Early Education and Care and the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation.
Lowell was the only community to have multiple agencies awarded.
Community Teamwork, known as CTI, received $500,000. The United Teen Equality Center, known as UTEC, got $400,000.
The state passed legislation in 2013 creating a capital fund to support facilities that host early-education programs licensed by the Department of Early Education and Care. It set aside $45 million in funding over a five-year term.
Twenty organizations requested funding for the first funding period, totaling $17 million. The state approved about half of the requests, judging applicants on feasibility, readiness to implement a new program, and likeliness of long-term sustainability and success.
The funding will support improvements in large-group and early-education and care programs, the state said.
“It is well established through research that environments influence the architecture of a child’s developing brain, so having program spaces that facilitate positive experiences for children is critical,” Early Education and Care Commissioner Tom Weber said in a statement.
“The planned facility developments will modernize spaces, improve the efficiency of systems, and provide better environments for the children that support their optimum growth and learning,” he said.

The Merrimack Valley YMCA of Lawrence is one of 10 agencies statewide to share $7.5 million in grants awarded by the Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) and the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation (CEDAC).
The Merrimack Valley YMCA will receive $800,000 to be used to support early education program facilities development and improvements that provide higher quality environments and settings for young children.
“It is well established through research that environments influence the architecture of a child’s developing brain, so having program spaces that facilitate positive experiences for children is critical,” said Early Education and Care Commissioner Tom Weber. “The planned facility developments will modernize spaces, improve the efficiency of systems, and provide better environments for the children that support their optimum growth and learning.”
“Spaces designed for learning are essential to high quality early childhood education, which the Commonwealth of Massachusetts recognized by establishing the Early Education and Care and Out-of-School Time Capital Fund,” said Roger Herzog, CEDAC’s executive director.
Other agencies receiving grants ranging from $400,000 to $1 million located in Attleboro, Beverly, Boston, Chicopee, Lowell, Lynn, Revere and Southbridge.

Ten Massachusetts nonprofits that provide higher quality environments and settings for young children have received a total of $7.5 million in state grants to support early education program facilities development and improvements.

The grants were awarded by the Department of Early Education and Care and the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation.

A 2011 study on the condition of the facilities in which early childhood and out-of-school time centers in Massachusetts operate found that deficiencies in the buildings impacted the quality of teaching and learning, and recommended the development of a sustainable source of public capital to help nonprofit providers serving children living in low income communities improve their facilities.

Early Education and Care Commissioner Tom Weber said, “The planned facility developments will modernize spaces, improve the efficiency of systems, and provide better environments for the children that support their optimum growth and learning.”

All of the programs selected to receive a grant award serve publicly subsidized families, have demonstrated financial need, and have secured additional funding to pay for a portion of their project costs.

The Beverly Children’s Learning Center (BCLC) in Beverly, which provides an affordable, educational environment that promotes socially responsible behavior for children, will use its $1 million grant to pay for, renovate, and outfit a building at 550 Cabot Street as the center’s new and expanded home.

“We are bursting at the seams,” said BCLC Executive Director Judy Cody, of the organization’s current location in the Cummings Center. “The new facility, with 16,000 square feet, will give us the space we need to support quality improvements to our programs and physical environment such as more protected outdoor space, classrooms with natural light, and play and learning areas that are age appropriate.”

Ellis Memorial, a Boston nonprofit that provides intervention and counseling services to children, disabled adults, elders, and families in Boston’s South End and nearby neighborhoods, said it will use the $800,000 grant it was awarded to help fund renovation of the organization’s property.

Ellis Memorial CEO Leo Delaney said, “This is great news for Ellis, and for low income working families whose children have the most to gain from access to high quality early education and out of school time programs.”

BCLC said it will launch a capital campaign to raise $2.5 million to pay for and build out the new space.

Also receiving grants were the following:
• Catholic Charitable Bureau of the Archdiocese, Lynn – $750,000
• Community Teamwork, Lowell – $500,000
• For Kids Only, Revere – $400,000
• Markman Children’s Programs, Attleboro – $1,000,000
• Merrimack Valley YMCA, Lawrence – $800,000
• Tri-Community YMCA, Southbridge – $800,000
• United Teen Equality Center, Lowell – $400,000
• Valley Opportunity Council, Chicopee – $1,000,000

The Valley Opportunity Council will be able to demolish an old dental office it has been using as a day care center and build a new, larger school thanks to a state grant.
The Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care awarded the Valley Opportunity a $1 million grant that will allow the organization to tear down its center at 374 Montgomery St and construct a building better designed for a school.
“Without the state resources, the project was stalled for several years,” said Stephen C. Huntley, executive director of the Valley Opportunity Council.
The Valley Opportunity Council purchased the building from the STEPS Development Day Care Center in 2006. Before that it was a dental office, Huntley said.
The building is too small for the number of children the organization would like to accept. Classrooms are also undersized for a preschool and they don’t have bathrooms and other amenities ideal for an early childhood center, he said.
The parking lot is also badly designed for the center so that will also be improved, he said.
Currently there are 45 children who attend the about 3,000-square foot center. The new building is expected to measure about 5,200 square feet and there will be space to expand to about 80 children, he said.
There is a waiting list of parents who want to enroll their children in the Valley Opportunity Center. Huntley could not say exactly how long the list is.
The project is estimated to cost $1.8 million. The remaining money will come from a combination of a grant from the Irene E. & George A. Davis Foundation, a Community Development Block Grant from the city and a bank loan through the Chicopee Savings Bank, which will paid back with tuition funds earned from the center, Huntley said.
In total the Valley Opportunity Council serves about 1,375 children in at least two centers run by the non-profit organization. It also contracts with a number of home-based day care operators who receive vouchers to teach the young children, Huntley said.
“All of our parents are working. The amount they pay depends on their income,” he said.
In some cases parents pay full tuition to send their children to the center. The state subsidizes tuition for children of lower-wage employees based. The amount those employees pay in tuition is based on their salary, Huntley said.
Providing subsidized day care allows parents to work, even if it is at a low-paying job. The center also provides high-quality early education so young children are better prepared for kindergarten, Huntley said.
“We hope to start construction next fall,” he said. “We will open in September 2016.
Huntley said the Valley Opportunity Council still has to complete designs and go out to bid before the project can start. It will also start seeking an alternative location for the staff and students during the one-year construction period, he said.

CEO Leo Delaney announced today that Ellis Memorial (“Ellis”) was awarded $800,000 in a competitive application for state funds to renovate or build facilities for early education and out of school time programs. Administered by the Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) and the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation (CEDAC), the total $7.5 million in grant awards statewide will support facilities development and improvements to provide higher quality educational environments and settings for children and youth. Of the 20 organizations statewide that submitted requests, only 10 were selected. Ellis was the only organization in Boston to receive a grant. Selected organizations demonstrated “sound feasibility of project, readiness for implementation and potential for long-term sustainability and success.”
Said Delaney, “This is great news for Ellis, and for low income working families whose children have the most to gain from access to high quality early education and out of school time programs.”
The grant will be used to help fund the $3.5 million gut renovation of the organization’s historic property at 66 Berkeley Street (pictured at left).
Once complete, the project will add 32 new slots in early education, significantly improve programmatic conditions for the Ellis School-Age Program which currently uses the building, add meeting and community space on the ground floor, and create a state-of-the-art music and movement studio on the building’s top floor. Ellis has owned the building since 1924. In 2009, the organization acquired a derelict building at 58 Berkeley Street, and successfully completed a $5 million renovation to build a new Early Education Center which opened in 2012. Board President Larry Hughes, CEO of BNY Mellon Wealth Management, welcomed the news saying, “This is a terrific vote of confidence in our project and our leadership team, and an exciting start to the New Year for all of us at Ellis.”