Entering its 2nd year, Preschool Teacher Training Program ElevatEd Expands to Seven More Cities

The initiative, which is run by JFNA, JCC Association and URJ, comes to Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Miami, Pittsburgh, Seattle and St. Louis

The early childhood education initiative ElevatEd is expanding to seven new cities beginning this school year with the goal of training hundreds more preschool teachers in the coming years, the organizations behind the project said this week.

The new cities are: Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Miami, Pittsburgh, Seattle and St. Louis. The expansion to those cities is being supported by their local Jewish federations, as well as an anonymous private foundation.

ElevatEd, which is run jointly by the JCC Association of North America, Jewish Federations of North America and the Union for Reform Judaism, launched last year in five cities: Boston; Denver; Houston;: East Bay, Calif.; and Long Island, N.Y. While each of the participating cities financially supports the initiative, the bulk of the funding comes from the Jim Joseph Foundation, Crown Family Philanthropies and the Samuels Family Foundation.

The goal of the three-year pilot program is to ultimately train an additional 300 early childhood educators — 30 in each community — in an effort to address the national shortage of well-trained preschool teachers.

“We are thrilled to partner with seven new cities across the country for the second cohort of ElevatEd, as we continue to refine our talent and recruitment strategies and adapt our curriculum based on valuable feedback from the first cohort,” ElevatEd executive director Orna Siegel said in a statement.

“While expanding into new diverse communities, we are deepening our relationships in the five communities from our first cohort,” she said.

Read the full story in eJewish Philanthropy