Focus Area: Early Childhood

Grant Amount: $10,000

Located in Minneapolis. Morning Glory Montessori is an all-boys, Afrocentric, Christian, Montessori school for 3 years-3rd grade. MGM provides a safe, nurturing, and empowering environment that affirms, inspires, and supports Black boys to develop freely, excel academically, and become who God designed them to be.

Grant supports the establishment of Morning Glory Montessori preschool, which has been in development for five years and will open its doors in fall 2024. With an Afrocentric curriculum grounded in Christian liberation theology, the school will prioritize young Black boys, who face major challenges of discrimination in both early childhood programs and later in the K-12 system. MGM will begin by serving boys 3-6 years old and plans to expand programming to ultimately serve toddlers through 3rd grade, including girls. MGM recruited two Black women and trained them at the Montessori Center of Minnesota. They have completed their training as Primary Guides (teachers for the 3- to 6-year-olds) and are now MGM’s Founding Classroom Staff.