Want to give back this holiday season and make a difference? You can help change a child’s life through Early Learning Indiana’s Tuition Assistance Program.
Our Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) provides scholarships to families to help offset the cost of child care and early education to qualifying families at all of our Day Early Learning centers. Our TAP has a dual benefit for families. Parents are able to go to work or school full time to provide a better life for their family, while their child is in a safe and nurturing environment and benefitting from a Day Early Learning education. For the child from a low-income family who is at-risk of starting school behind his peers, exposure to an excellent early education program greatly improves their quality of life and chances for the future. And for the parent barely able to make ends meet, being able to work or attend school full-time can make all the difference in the family’s stability, self-sufficiency, and future.
“Tuition assistance greatly helps my family. As a single mother, full-time student and a part-time employee, I need all the help I can receive. I’m consistently doing all that I can to ensure a brighter future for myself and my family, but often times it is still very difficult to make ends meet. Through the assistance I receive, I am able to continue to better myself for my family. I know that my daughter is able to receive great care and early education while I am away and that is a relief in so many ways.” – Day Early Learning Parent
Research tells us the most critical time in a child’s development is the first five years of life. During these years, children learn to understand their own feelings, develop empathy for others, and learn how to build relationships. Without these skills, children often demonstrate persistent physical aggression and anti-social behavior as they grow older. In our Day Early Learning centers, we surround our children with vibrant classrooms and enriching curriculum enhancements using the philosophy of child-centered learning into daily activities, artist residencies, and interactive arts education experiences. We also offer preschool lending libraries and engaging mind and body fitness programs like martial arts. Children who have exposure to an exciting array of inspiring experiences become passionate learners as they grow older.
- Our primary goal is for every graduate of a Day Early Learning Center to be happy, healthy, and kindergarten-ready with a passion for learning. The children served by the Tuition Assistance Program receive the full benefits of a Day Early Learning environment where their physical, emotional, social and cognitive needs are met, and they acquire a foundation of social and academic skills needed for success in school and life.
- Our secondary goal is to be able to offer financial assistance to every family that needs it. In 2014, Early Learning Indiana provided Tuition Assistance to 494 children. This year, we expect the need for TAP to be even greater, and have raised our fundraising goal for this program for 2015. Tuition Assistance comes entirely from philanthropic gifts from United Way, foundations, corporations, our Early Learning Indiana Endowment, and gifts from individuals like you.
- Our third goal is to help enable families to become self-sufficient. Our research shows that the average earning of a family on TAP is $20,000. Our program has a profound two-generational impact on children and families. Parents are able to go to work or school every day to make a better life for their families when their children are in a consistently safe and nurturing environment during the day, and their children receive a high quality early education.
Please consider making a tax-deductible gift to Early Learning Indiana. Your gift will help change a life, change a family and build a better community.
“I’m extremely thankful for the tuition assistance program that is offered to help low income families. I would have never been able to afford premium daycare being a single, one income parent. I was able to send my kids to Day Early Learning IU Health where they were being taught a state approved curriculum, fed and nurtured while not in my care.” – Day Early Learning Parent
