ELV Overview
Merage Early Learning Ventures is a groundbreaking endeavor engaging the public, private, and philanthropic sectors to address the operational challenges facing early care and education (ECE) in Colorado. With extensive experience in capital finance, business development, and early childhood education, the Merage Foundation is uniquely poised to launch this initiative. The Merage Foundation's leadership provides a model for new relationships with funders, new financing strategies and new partnerships so that it may systematically address:
- Streamlined ECE Funding and Finance
- Operational Efficiencies for ECE Businesses
- ECE Policy Reforms
- Public Awareness
- Parent Engagement and Consumer Education
- Access to High Quality ECE
To address these challenges, the foundation invests in the existing industry infrastructure and advocates for policies to reduce the fragmentation in the sector. This approach will increase coordination in the current system and stimulate new investments in ECE organizations by identifying key business, philanthropic, and education entrepreneurs to drive ECE finance and policy change, and facilitate innovative allocations of existing resources in order to bring innovations to scale. Learn more by visiting www.earlylearningventures.org.
Why ECE?
The seeds of academic success are planted well before a child enters kindergarten: a child's brain reaches 80% of adult size by age three and 90% by age five. A child's earliest experiences are responsible for wiring the brain for future use, thereby building its basic architecture. Children who do not have the opportunity to receive structured developmental supports are more likely to not graduate from high school, receive welfare benefits, and commit crimes. Long-term educational achievement is uniformly linked to participation in high quality early care and education (ECE). Sadly, less than half of Colorado's children participate in structured ECE programs and Colorado ranks 40th in national ECE quality standards and oversight.
Colorado takes pride in being a state with a high percentage of college graduates in the workforce, yet for the first time in history, high school and college graduation rates are declining in the U.S. and rising worldwide. The Merage Foundation is confident this unprecedented trend can be reversed by changing our educational investment priorities, and establishing a coordinated and systematic approach to early learning. We believe all children have the right to develop strong learning foundations through universal access to high quality ECE programs. The Merage Foundation is launching Early Learning Ventures; a bold approach to creating sustainable change in the ECE sector. Learn more by visiting www.earlylearningventures.org.