Why Grantmaking?
Grantmaking is the founding program and tool that The Women’s Fund Miami-Dade (WFMD) has used throughout its history to fulfill its mission of leveraging resources on behalf of women and girls and addressing systemic barriers.
In 2021-2022, WFMD successfully resumed grantmaking after a 5-year hiatus. A diversely talented Grantmaking Committee was established to design, develop and implement grantmaking strategy, process and plan to deploy these funds aligned with WFMD’s mission and goals. The inaugural grant-making cycle started midway through the pandemic, which had revealed the many economic, health and family security, and safety burdens that disproportionately fall on women.
Marya Meyer, WFMD Executive Director and Miriam Altman-Reyes PowerSchool VP Strategy & Partnerships
Line behind sign:
What it means for Economic Mobility
The crises in early education and childcare, rooted in labor issues and business models, rose to the fore in Grant Committee discussions. This broken system with a direct impact on women, and especially, women of color who both represented the bulk of the childcare workforce and center ownership as well as the “primary consumer” who is in search of quality and affordable childcare for their children. After informed discussion and “deep dive” research, the Grants Committee recommended directing available funds to community-based efforts that offer and/or contribute to lasting solutions to the financial sustainability problems of the childcare system in Miami-Dade as a strategy to advance women’s economic mobility.
WFMD understands problems in the early education and childcare system from the perspective of the women who worked in the system and the women who utilized it as parents for safe quality care so they would be able to go to work to provide for their families and to advance themselves. Since many organizations focus directly on the child outcomes of the system, we maintain focus on the business and labor issues of the system as they affect women. This perspective is novel within the established intermediary organizations of the childcare system, which allows WFMD an opportunity to take a leadership role in directing resources to a hole in the funding landscape.
We are responding with urgency to problems exacerbated by the pandemic, which has revealed many systemic issues that disproportionately affect women and their economic security and well-being. Among these is an inadequately supported childcare and early education system (Childcare System) that remains unaffordable to many. Both the women who work in the childcare sector and the women who rely on it so they can go to work themselves, have suffered disproportionately from a fractured system.
Get to know our current grantees:
2022 Systems Change Grantees
Challenge | Opportunity | Results
The Empowering Youth / Sheyes Learning Centers partnership was awarded a two year grant of $84,000 to develop the Empowering Early Learning Educators group into an effective advocacy arm of a collective of child care centers.
empoweringearlylearningeducators.com, empoweringyouthinc.org and sheyeslearningcenters.org
Empowering Youth / Sheyes Foundation: Andrea Wanza & Juanita Walker
Juanita Walker
Andrea Wanza
- Empowering Youth Inc. (EYI) was founded in 2008. Our mission is to provide meaningful comprehensive programs that serve at-risk youth and other families through education, mentoring and counseling as well as to create and support programs that focus on healthy, emotional, social, and intellectual development. Our childcare facility, Pink and Blue Children’s Academy has been in the Miami-Dade community for over 40 years. We strive to serve and improve our community by providing economic and social resources to residents in the cities of Miami Gardens and Opa-Locka as well as throughout Miami-Dade County. We connect individuals who are interested in pursuing careers in the childcare Empowering Early Learning Educators in Dade County with other successful professionals in the same field. We are active members of the Empowering Early Learning Educators in Dade County led by Ms. Junita Walker and the Together for Children’s (TFC) Miami Gardens/Opa-Locka Coalition where we currently head the Strengthening Families committee and carry out the action plan and activities on behalf of the organization. Sheyes of Miami Childcare has been in business for the last 28 years serving the Liberty City and Brownville area. All the Centers have been accredited for the last 20 years. The Sheyes Foundation has formed two years ago in 2020 to address the concerns in the childcare industry through the Empowering Early Learning Educators in Dade County focus group which is made up of local childcare providers
- Mentors and mentees will meet individually and as a group each month to share progress and successes. Participants will also be provided with resources that can assist them financially with childcare while participating in the program and a stipend for successfully completing the 6-month program.
- A critical issue in the childcare system is the lack of flexibility that it offers to working women and the cost of childcare, especially during the COVID pandemic. Our proposed solution is to connect young women with professional women who have established careers in the childcare/education industry for bi-weekly mentoring/coaching sessions. Mentees and mentors will be matched according to career interests. Mentors will provide mentees with information on resources and assist mentees in identifying career and personal goals utilizing the SMART goals method.
- Using strategic planning efforts, EYI will continue to collaborate with other organizations, maintain compliance and positive relationships with current funders and partners, seek new partnerships and funding opportunities, advocate for more programs in our community, and seek support from participants, residents of the cities we serve, business leaders, and other community-based agencies. EYI will use multiple resources to locate and secure funding at the federal, state, local, private and in-kind levels to ensure the sustainability of the program beyond this grant period.
- https://empoweringyouthinc.org/ and http://www.sheyeslearningcenters.org
The Business and Leaderships Institute (BLI) was awarded a two-year grant of $54,000 in support of its pilot program, Educator to Entrepreneur (E2E), which exposes, educates, and supports students in launching childcare sector careers.
bliel.org
Robyn Perlman
- Activated by the knowledge that too many childcare centers and home-based businesses are struggling to succeed, The Business & Leadership Institute for Early Learning (BLI) aims to change this statistic by empowering early childcare small business owners to think differently about problems and solutions. Our mission is to Propel Growth & Leadership for Early Childcare Entrepreneurs. The BLI recognizes the fundamental impact early learning has on the health & well-being of our community.
- The BLI works exclusively in the childcare sector. It is committed to building a platform where private and public business leaders, public policy decision-makers and early childcare centers and home-based business owners, operators and educators gather to explore the business of the childcare industry and its ability to provide quality early learning given the current industry climate and the struggle for profitability within socio-economic realities.
- The BLI’s purpose is to determine the individual business owner’s capacity to deliver quality education and care and help them work towards a performance-based business resulting in increased revenues invested in sustainability and growth. We look to empower these entrepreneurs as business professionals who are building healthy sustainable businesses and engaging with the greater business community as equals.
- Builds a network of individuals from various professional business sectors to combine the best business minds and best business practices to find innovative early childcare industry-specific solutions to current and future environments.
- Empowers the small business owner through ongoing mentoring, resources, and accredited business/leadership-related educational training sessions facilitated by leading subject matter experts.
- BLI’s Educator to Entrepreneur (E2E) initiative creates a scalable solution by creating the missing workforce pipeline which seeks to satisfy both the employer and the employee needs by providing the participants with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to develop a career pathway to monetize their passion through degreed professional stature and entrepreneurship. The key components are Mentorship, Internship, and Sponsorship.
- Piloting in two high schools in Miami-Dade, the E2E program provides regular mentoring to 9th through 12th-grade students enrolled in the Academy of Education throughout the school year. Mentors involved in this pilot are successful childcare business owners who are part of the BLI leadership and donate their time to the high schools throughout the school year. They offer a comprehensive agenda that will supplement the content delivered in the Academy. It introduces the students to the inner workings of a childcare business. Topics include financial literacy, best practice job skills, professional grooming, interviewing skills, work ethic, and ultimately a perspective on entrepreneurship and executive decision-making.
- To create a continuum of professional growth, BLI will select one senior who will graduate in 2022 to launch their early childhood career paths, providing them with employment by one of the E2E mentors and sponsorship through a partnership with the Children’s Forum to earn the national CDA credential and to enroll in Miami-Dade College for up to 12 semester hours each year through the TEACH scholarship, together with BLI funding. This includes three hours per week of paid release time to attend class or prepare assignments. Additionally, this scholar will receive support and encouragement from their employers as well as the opportunity to learn the business side of the centers during their employment.
- Chosen scholars will be hired at an entry-level starting wage of $11 per hour, the prevailing minimum for 2022. To bridge this wage gap that has impacted the early childhood workforce shortage, each scholar will be eligible for a stipend of up to $8000 each year, based on the successful completion of up to 12 semester hours and continuous employment. Scholars can earn this in increments as college credits are earned. This translates to a $4 per hour differential over year one alone, bringing the starting wage to a very competitive $15 per hour.
- To continue adding to the workforce pipeline, at the end of the second year of funding, BLI aspires to select an additional senior who will graduate in 2023 to benefit from the Mentorship, Internship, and Sponsorship process in the third year of funding.
- The E2E initiative is at the forefront of a rapidly emerging nationwide trend mainly among larger companies to offer educational benefits to their employees. Some offer tuition reimbursement whereas others, such as Amazon and Walmart, offer a tuition benefit with no out-of-pocket cost to the employees. These efforts have been seen to reduce turnover and communicate to the employees that their employers are investing in their futures. The participating scholars in the E2E program will have no out-of-pocket expenses as they pursue their education and will also receive paid release time for study and transportation in addition to earning the wage differential for successful academic progress.
- http://www.bliel.org/
Overtown Children & Youth, Sant La, Connect Familias was awarded a one-year grant of $50,000 to support C3’s its work to connect stakeholders in the childcare system.
overtowncyc.org, www.santla.org, connectfamilias.org
C3 Overtown Anthony Robinson, Sant La Leonie Hermantin and Connect Familias, Betty Alonso
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- Betty Alonso
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- Leonie Hermantin
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- Anthony Robinson
Eligibility: All non-profit organizations and any individually led or group efforts or programs or coalitions under the umbrella of a non-profit organization were eligible to apply for funds. WFMD encouraged organizations and individuals to consider applying as a partnership, group, and/or coalition if a collaborative structure best supports the proposed solution.
In this cycle, WFMD has awarded grants to community-based efforts that offer and/or contribute to lasting solutions to the multi-faceted challenges of the early childhood education system in Miami-Dade.
Examples of support WFMD can provide to our grantee partners in all current and future cohorts, include:
Capacity:
- Current data and evidence-based research on relevant issues
- Development of impact metrics, data collection advice and reporting tools
- Exposure to potential funders
- Exposure to best practices
- Website and content support (limited cases)
- Introductions to potential partners, advisors and staff
- Strategic planning input
Visibility/Leadership Support:
- Integration of grantees’ work into our Impact Collaborative series
- Support public awareness of grantee work, including speaking opportunities, introductions to media, recorded interviews, social media, newsletter & website features
- Advocacy
Community:
- Convenings between organizations working on related issues and building collaborative relationships through these connections
HerStory Videos – Hear from Grantees
Robyn Perlman
Business & Leadership Institute
Leonie Hermantin
Sant La
Dr. Andrea Wanza
Executive Director of Empowering Youth Inc.
Graylyn Swilley-Wood
Overtown Children & Youth
Mark Needle & Rebecca Shearer
Ideas Consortium – UM
Get involved.
Our respectful request for your ongoing investment in our Community
Your Women’s Fund invites you to continue to work through us to create a stronger fabric of Miami-Dade. Your investment in the problem-solving recipients of our relaunched core Grants Program, and in our operational team, in 2022 and again in 2023, would contribute to the replenishment of the $200,000 grant pool we have guaranteed and enable our team to increase our capacity to engage additional funders while delivering on our expanded programs.
2022 Grantees and Women’s Fund Staff
Past Grantees
Our Past Grantees Have Made a Tremendous Impact on Our Community