Early Childhood Consortium-Year 2

Our Goal: To increase the number of children entering elementary school healthy and ready to learn.

Project Description: This second grant from The Nicholson Foundation to The South Ward Children's Alliance (SWCA) will enable it to continue previously funded Foundation work underway as part of a $30 million, five-year, federal Promise Neighborhood grant. During this second year, SWCA’s Early Childhood Department will target five key areas related to early childhood—home environment and parenting interventions, family support and family health, early childhood education programs, parent incentives/networks, and outreach and communications. As a result of this integrated, coordinated continuum of high-quality early childhood programs and supports for parents and children from pregnancy through pre-kindergarten, SWCA expects that children will enter school healthy and ready to learn. SWCA’s Early Childhood Department will also continue to improve quality of local early childhood education programs by providing professional development for childcare providers, including offering scholarships for providers to obtain their Child Development Associate Credential in partnership with Programs for Parents, a non-profit also serving the Newark and Essex County communities.

About the Grantee: The South Ward Children's Alliance (SWCA) is a community-based organization that coordinates and integrates early childhood and school programs and other initiatives and services for children in Newark's South Ward. SWCA is a project of B.R.I.C.K. (Building Responsible Intelligent Creative Kids), which operates two elementary schools in the South Ward. SWCA is based in large part on the Harlem Children's Zone approach.

Learn more about the South Ward Children’s Alliance.