FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Gillian Linden
703.402.6507
gillian@rosengrouppr.com
ROCHESTER, MINN. (August 2, 2023)—Jeremiah Program (JP)—a national nonprofit with one of the most successful strategies for disrupting generational poverty and investing in economic mobility among single mothers and their children—today announced plans to take over operational leadership of the Child Development Center (CDC) at its Rochester-Southeast MN campus.
“We are excited for the opportunity to ensure our childcare operations in Rochester reflect the unique support and resources necessary for our JP moms and their children, like we do at many of the JP campuses around the country,” said Ally Hanten Ebert, Executive Director, Jeremiah Program Rochester. “We are very lucky that we have the amazing support from the Rochester philanthropic community to fill the financial gap, because we all know without quality childcare our economy doesn’t work—especially for a JP mom living at the financial margins completing her degree.”
Mothers need to know they have reliable childcare in place in order for them to bet on themselves and pursue their education and economic mobility—the two key levers in creating opportunities for single moms and their families to help pull them out of poverty. Without this key component of childcare, the equation doesn’t work.
Family First had been providing Early Head Start and Head Start programming to JP Rochester since 2020. This transition comes at an untenable time for childcare economics in America, with providers being asked to do more with less. JP is committed to ensuring a seamless transition for its families, and is thrilled to be able to retain some of the current staff to provide continuity of care for JP families.
“We’re so grateful to be able to provide for our families and the teachers who serve these communities. This is another opportunity for us to double down on our commitment to single moms in pursuit of economic mobility,” added Chastity Lord, President & CEO, Jeremiah Program. “JP’s childcare staff are recognized as an integral part of JPs mission of disrupting generational poverty. We are committed to ensuring they have everything they need including benefits, education assistance and reimbursement, and savings and investment plans.”
The center will remain at the Rochester campus and is available to children of single moms enrolled in Jeremiah Program. In 2022, 69 JP kids benefitted from high-quality early education programming at Rochester’s Child Development Center.
About Jeremiah Program: Jeremiah Program (JP) is a national organization whose mission is to disrupt the cycle of poverty for single mothers and their children, two generations at a time. By investing simultaneously in a mother’s vision for her personal and professional goals and the education of her children, she simultaneously reauthors her family’s outcome as well her community’s — proof points matter. In 2022, JP supported 1,500 moms and children across nine cities in Austin, TX; Baltimore, MD; Boston, MA; Brooklyn, NY; Fargo, ND-Moorhead, MN; Las Vegas, NV; Minneapolis, MN; Rochester, MN; and St. Paul, MN.