Gainesville Family Learning Center receives $35K donation from Harris Rosen Foundation

On the heels of receiving a high rating from the Early Learning Coalition of Alachua County, a $35,000 donation has been made to the Gainesville Empowerment Zone Family Learning Center by the Harris Rosen Foundation.

“As founder of Orlando-based Rosen Hotel & Resorts, which created the Rosen Foundation 37 years ago to provide opportunities for underserved communities, I know a few things about startups and the importance of early learning in a child’s life,” said Harris Rosen, president and COO of Rosen Hotels & Resorts Inc., Florida’s largest independent hotelier, in a press release Friday. “Seasoned as I am in both of these areas, I have been struck by the tenacity of Gainesville for All and its supporters in their efforts to improve academic achievement among children from low-income families.”

Significant progress has been made toward Gainesville for All’s long-term goal of demonstrating a way to narrow the academic achievement gap between Black and white students in Alachua County since the Family Learning Center opened eight months ago on the campus of Metcalf Elementary School in northeast Gainesville, according to the press release.

In fact, the center is providing 4-year-olds in its voluntary pre-kindergarten program some of the best classroom practices in Alachua County based on assessments conducted by the Early Learning Coalition of Alachua County, according to a press release provided by the center last month.

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The center received an assessment score of 5.53, which is the high end of the mid-range, and just short of 6 and the “excellent” category. The ELC assessment scores range from 1.2 to 7 and are based on direct observations of teacher and child interactions. The scores are weighed by the presence of specific dimensions such as effective teaching practices, according to Schuran Cartwright, director of the center, in a press release.

“We’re thrilled to have gotten such a high score in our very first assessment,” Cartwright said. “This represents a credit to our staff and all of the people who believe in our mission.”

Of more than 70 VPK programs in the county, the center was one of just 17 to score in the mid to high range, according to a press release.

James F. Lawrence, president and CEO of Gainesville for All, the center’s sponsor, was equally pleased about the assessment score. He said the score showed the center was making solid progress toward its long-range goal of helping to close the academic achievement gap in the county by focusing on low- income young families with children ages 6-weeks- to 4-years-old.

“As we gain traction toward our mission, we’re also making inroads toward our short-term goal of producing kindergarten-ready children and families,” Lawrence said. “We’re providing the foundation for a lifetime of learning.”

A recent University of Florida Lastinger Center study also gave the center high marks, according to the Rosen Foundation’s press release.

“Like our Tangelo Park and Parramore programs, which GNV4ALL used as a blueprint for the Family Learning Center, we sincerely believe these strategies are models for the state and indeed the nation," according to the foundation’s press release.

Funded by Rosen, the programs in the Tangelo Park and Parramore neighborhoods in Orlando serve the disadvantaged by providing those communities with a free preschool, free college or vocational school for every graduating senior and free parenting classes.

For more information about enrollment, volunteering and mission of the Family Learning Center, visit gnv4all.org or gnv4all on Facebook.

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Foundation impressed with work at Gainesville Family Learning Center