Focus Area: Early Childhood

Grant Amount: $10,000

Based in St. Paul, serves the east metro. Founded in 1906, the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation helps children, families and older adults through direct service programs, research, leadership development and community building. It operates a 4-star Parent Aware certified childcare program that takes a whole family approach to the families it serves.

Grant supports the childcare center’s family program coordinator position, which assists families in the childcare center to secure scholarship and CCAP support, to get basic needs met, to make mental health referrals, and to incorporate appropriate elements into the curriculum. This position has been expanded to help the families interact with case workers. Wilder has part of the Promise Neighborhood, an educational partnership that works to put children in several St. Paul neighborhoods on a path to success. Through this program, Wilder connects children at the childcare center with neighborhood schools when they are ready for kindergarten.