Dalton/Whitfield, Murray, Gilmer, Gordon, and Catoosa Counties Selected As An Early Education Empowerment Zone

  • Saturday, September 20, 2014
Dalton/Whitfield, Murray, Gilmer, Gordon and Catoosa Counties were selected as one of Georgia’s four Early Education Empowerment Zones and will participate in a community commitment ceremony at 3 p.m. on Oct. 3 at Whitfield/Dalton Day Care Center, 515 South Pentz St. in Dalton.  The five counties will collaborate together in what will be known as the Northern Counties zone.  

Early Education Empowerment Zones, or E3Z’s, are regions of the state that have agreed to work in partnership with the Department of Early Care and Learning and other state agencies to pilot early education system reform initiatives and partnerships to support better outcomes for young children.
 The five county region will receive over $1 million in targeted resources and will participate in research that will help the state identify sustainable and replicable implementation strategies that can be scaled statewide. Funding for the E3Z initiative is part of the $51.7 million Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge Grant received last year by Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning from the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  

“This is fabulous news for the children and families of Whitfield County,” said Suzanne Harbin, Whitfield family coordinator. “We will share this grant with four other counties in our area—
Catoosa, Murray, Gilmer and Gordon. The collaboration and commitment to children and families in our community by everyone involved in making our grant proposal was outstanding. The commitment and cooperative spirit among agencies, businesses, medical professionals and others interested in early childhood education throughout our community was quite evident during this process.  Our families and children will certainly benefit from the additional resources and research which the E3Zzone grant will bring to our area.  We are excited to get started.”

“Expanding opportunities and experiences for early learning for preschool children pays huge dividends towards their future educational success,” said Dr. Jim Hawkins, superintendent of Dalton Public Schools. “The first five years of life are critically important for learning and development. This funding wouldn’t have happened without the great partnership and collaboration with Archway and the First Five workgroup. We are excited to see the work of the Early Education Empowerment Zone and its impact on the educational futures of our children.” 

DECAL used quantitative data like third grade reading proficiency, poverty level, premature birth rates, and the percentage of licensed childcare capacity filled by children receiving subsidy gathered from the Department of Public Health, Department of Economic Development, the Department of Community Affairs, and the Department of Education to initially identify eleven geographic regions of the state with challenging circumstances for children. Then site visits to each of the potential zones were conducted to examine qualitative data focused on each of the community’s capacity to pilot, refine and model initiatives and partnerships that support an accessible, aligned and coordinated system of early education across Georgia

The E3Z initiative will be implemented over the three-year period remaining for the ELC Grant. Georgia's grant includes a variety of projects, all of which focus on improving services to Georgia's children from birth to age eight and their families. While DECAL is the lead agency for the grant, the work will be accomplished through partnerships with other state and federal agencies and non-profit organizations. Bibb County, Clarke County, and a Southern County Zone (Colquitt, Cook, Brooks, Lowndes, Echols) were also selected as E3Z locations. 
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