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SDF, Dr. Seuss Foundation Offering $1M in Grants

NONPROFITS: Effort Aimed at Increasing Access to Early Childhood Education

Two groups working to increase access to quality, affordable early childhood education and developmental care are partnering for the second straight year. San Diego Foundation (SDF) and the Dr. Seuss Foundation (DSF) will be providing $1 million in grant funding to be shared with local nonprofits working to make San Diego County children thrive.

Katie Rast
Director of Community Impact
San Diego Foundation

“The San Diego Foundation Early Childhood Initiative partnership with the Dr. Seuss Foundation recognizes the connection between educational readiness and social determinants of health, such as whole family health, financial security and access to supportive services,” said Katie Rast, director of community impact at SDF. “The earliest years of life are a critical time for mental and behavioral development and can have an impact on educational readiness and opportunities for a lifetime.”

SDF and DSF are committing the funding to go toward the 2023 Early Childhood Initiative Equitable Opportunities grant. The money imcludes $500,000 in funding from the SDF Early Childhood Initiative and $500,000 from the DSF.

Now an ongoing collaboration between the two foundations, the grant supports high-impact nonprofit organizations that provide critical services focused on regional resilience and long-term solutions. Those factors are related to early grade-level readiness and equitable access to opportunity that ensures a strong foundation for literacy in the earliest years, Rast said.

The approach recognizes the connection between educational readiness and social determinants of health, including whole family health, financial security and access to supportive services.

Strong Alignment

“This initiative and granting every year seem to become more important every year,” said Jay Hill, executive director of the Dr. Seuss Foundation. “The mission and values of SDF and DSF are in such strong alignment. We want to strengthen this partnership and we will keep working harder to see what more we can do in the future. By continuing to work together to strengthen early literacy, we’re ensuring young children have strong learning foundations that will support them in their lifelong educational and career pursuits.”

Jay Hill
Executive Director
Dr Seuss Foundation

The 2023 Early Childhood Initiative Equitable Opportunities grants will support nonprofit organizations that champion strategic efforts to build the region’s resilience and strength by increasing equitable access to educational opportunities and supportive services for children and their caretakers.

The grants will support early literacy and access to early education, instructional quality improvements and educational staff support, healthy, equitable starts for children and parents, and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) screening, prevention and intervention.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that adverse childhood experiences can have a tremendous impact on future violence victimization and perpetration, and lifelong health and opportunity.

Since 2018, the SDF’s Early Childhood Initiative has impacted the lives of more than 19,000 children ages 0-5, awarding more than $8 million to uplift children, families and childcare providers by providing more than 100 grants to more than 40 community-based organizations.

This year’s grants will build on SDF’s 2022 Early Childhood Initiative Equitable Opportunities grant first launched with the DSF in 2022. That partnership for equitable opportunities awarded grants to 21 local nonprofits and expanded to include a focus on early literacy.

“The Dr. Seuss Foundation has been a longtime partner with San Diego Foundation,” Rast said. “We found that we had a strong synergy around our areas of focus. We all recognize Dr Seuss is linked to literacy, and early literacy in particular, and that had a really nice overlap with what we’re doing through our Early Childhood Initiative.”

Winners of 2022 grants included:

  • San Diego State University Foundation’s Center for Excellence in Early Development in partnership with YMCA of San Diego County – $90,000 to address inequities in early education with early childhood mental health consultation.
  • Words Alive – $75,000 to offer bilingual early literacy workshops for life success by igniting a love of reading.
  • Episcopal Community Services – $70,000 to offer free bilingual therapy for low-income, high-potential young children and their caregivers in San Diego County’s south region.
  • Jewish Family Service of San Diego – $70,000 to support a strengths-based case management program that supports and empowers young parents by addressing the social, health, educational and economic challenges of adolescent pregnancy and parenthood.
  • La Maestra Family Clinic Inc. – $70,000 to provide ACEs screenings to address behavioral and mental health needs and offer the appropriate specialty and social services to interrupt toxic stress.
  • Promises2Kids in partnership with KidSTART Center at Rady Children’s Hospital – $70,000 to address the needs of young children involved with the child welfare system through care coordination and behavioral health services.
  • Social Advocates for Youth San Diego Inc. – $70,000 to rapidly expand childcare for low-to-moderate income families by opening new centers and adding new slots in the coming years.
  • Southwestern College Foundation for San Diego & Imperial Women’s Business Center – $70,000 to provide low-income women of color with an 8-week program to launch a family childcare business and complement it with a child development certificate from Southwestern College.

The Dr. Seuss Foundation

FOUNDED: 1958
PRESIDENT: Claudia Prescott
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Jay Hill
HEADQUARTERS: San Diego
BUSINESS: Family foundation
ASSETS: $50 million
EMPLOYEES: 2
WEBSITE: drseussfoundation.org
CONTACT: drseussfoundation.org/contact
NOTABLE: The Dr. Seuss Foundation strives to honor, preserve and fulfill the power and promise of the work of Theodor Seuss Geisel. Like the stories and teachings of Dr. Seuss, the values of the Foundation reflect the beliefs of the author: creativity and imagination, excellence, education and literacy, sustainability and environment, diversity and equity, and community.

San Diego Foundation

FOUNDED: 1975
HEADQUARTERS: Liberty Station, Point Loma
BUSINESS: Community foundation
REVENUE: $164M in FY 2022
EMPLOYEES: 84
WEBSITE: SDFoundation.org
CONTACT: info@SDFoundation.org
SOCIAL IMPACT: In 2021, San Diego Foundation released its Strategic Plan, which includes advancing racial and social justice, fostering equity of opportunity, building resilient communities and delivering world-class philanthropy.
NOTABLE: San Diego Foundation and its donors have granted more than $1.4 billion to support nonprofit organizations strengthening the community.

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