Dogwood Health Trust is seeking proposals from nonprofit organizations, government agencies, education institutions and others who serve the Qualla Boundary and 18 counties of Western North Carolina, who want to stabilize and grow the local early childhood education workforce to better support students in reaching success.

The online application will be available Aug. 8, on the Dogwood Health Trust website; responses are due by 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 16. Award notifications will be made in November with funds distributed in December. A special information session will be held at noon Aug. 9, for organizations that wish to learn more or apply. Registration for the information session can be found at dogwoodhealthtrust.org/strategic-priority/education/.

Dogwood is particularly interested in projects that take a multi-year approach, include more than one of the ECE workforce populations (public, private, home and family care providers), and approach workforce solutions with an eye toward equitable outcomes. Dogwood will award grants ranging from $250,000 to $1,000,000 depending on the organization’s capacity, geographic scope and strength of the proposal and will consider requests that increase access to existing ECE credentials, attract new or career-changing adults into the ECE profession, and/or improve working conditions for the existing ECE workforce.

“Even before the onset of COVID-19, Western North Carolina struggled with a childcare shortage,” said Dr. Ereka Williams, vice president of Impact — Education. “Part of that has to do with workforce; the professionals who provide early care and education in our region face considerable barriers when it comes to turning their passion for child development into a sustainable career. With this RFP, we hope to support innovative ways to remove those barriers and attract more educators into the early childhood realm.”

Priority will be given to proposals that equitably attend to at least one of the following:

● Approach, curriculum, training and evaluation

● Career ladder attainment (growth of existing ECE workforce and/or growth of new results

● Leadership opportunities among members of the ECE workforce who are BIPOC (Black, indigenous and people of color), from rural communities, first-generation credential holders and/or have faced a lack of access to resources and opportunities

All grant recipients will engage in the Start with Equity Academy, a four-part, two-hour learning academy/community of practice to support grantees’ equity-centered approaches. The Start with Equity Academy will be led by Dr. Iheoma Iruka of the Equity Research Action Coalition at UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute.

For more information and to apply, visit Dogwood’s website, at dogwoodhealthtrust.org/.

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