CONTACT:

Jennifer Gallo, Community Public Relations Coordinator
302-479-1691

For immediate release – February 8 , 2007

 

The Family & Workplace Connection Receives Grant from Chichester duPont Foundation
$40,000 grant enables child care providers to attend college

WILMINGTON, DE - The Family & Workplace Connection (FWC) is pleased to announce funding from the Chichester duPont Foundation that will support the Teacher Education And Compensation Helps Early Childhood ® Project (T.E.A.C.H.). The T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood ® Project provides scholarship opportunities for early care and educational professionals. Current scholarships offered provide scholarships and supports for Child Development Associate (CDA), Associate degree in Early Childhood and the Early Childhood Director’s Certificate. The Chichester duPont Foundation is dedicated to promoting the quality of life for American citizens and their environment.

The $40,000 grant will enable the expansion of the T.E.A.C.H. program, administered in Delaware by The Family & Workplace Connection, which currently supports 73 scholars. The project, begun in North Carolina in 1990 by Child Care Services Association, was created to meet the needs of child care programs and the children and families they serve. T.E.A.C.H. addresses the problems that impact the quality of child care: poor education, low compensation, and high turnover in the child care sector. T.E.A.C.H. provides early childhood professional development opportunities for teachers, directors, and family child care providers. Through scholarships for college credit, paid release time from work, a salary increase or bonus upon completion, and a teacher commitment to stay for a period of time in child care, the T.E.A.C.H. project increases the pay and formal education of child care providers in the program and reduces turnover, which addresses some of the most urgent problems facing the child care industry nationwide.

In 2004, FWC was licensed to administer the T.E.A.C.H. Project in Delaware, the 23 rd state to participate providing tuition, books, travel stipends, release time, and increased compensation linked to successful completion of 9-18 credit hours per year. For each year of educational support, the recipient gives an additional year’s service in a Delaware early childhood program. In 2006, FWC celebrated its first T.E.A.C.H. graduate.

The Family & Workplace Connection is a nonprofit regional dependent care resource and referral organization whose mission is to enhance the supply and quality of care and education for children and elders and to help families effectively manage their work and personal life responsibilities.