Lilly Endowment Awards Ivy Tech Foundation $21.9 Million to Strengthen Indiana’s Early Childhood Workforce

Lilly Endowment Inc. has awarded Ivy Tech Foundation a $21.9 million, three-year grant to support the efforts of Ivy Tech Community College (Ivy Tech) to help strengthen Indiana’s early childhood education workforce. This funding will support programs and partnerships that will expand options for and improve access to high-quality postsecondary education and training for current and future early childhood education professionals.  

Indiana’s current supply of well-qualified early childhood education professionals is inadequate and hampers the state’s capacity to provide high-quality child care options for Hoosier families. Demand for these professionals is expected to continue to grow. The grant will support Ivy Tech, already the state’s largest provider of post-secondary education and training to early childhood professionals, in its efforts to expand its current programs and create new, innovative education and training opportunities.  These include, among others, new credentials for Hoosiers who seek to enter and advance in the early childhood education profession.