Boston, May 25 2023
Ellis Early Learning Awarded Three-Year Grant from Cummings Foundation
Ellis Early Learning has been awarded a three-year, $90,000 grant from the Cummings Foundation that will support its early education center in Jamaica Plain.
Ellis Early Learning is one of 150 Massachusetts nonprofits that will share in $30 million through Cummings Foundation’s major annual grants program, following a competitive review process.
“This generous grant from Cummings Foundation will make a meaningful impact on our caregiver workforce and strengthen the early childhood education services that we provide to families,” said Lauren Cook, CEO of Ellis Early Learning.
Based in the South End, Ellis Early Learning has over 135 years of history and experience serving Boston’s children, succeeding with an economically integrated model that provides for an inclusive, equitable quality early childhood education.
The Cummings Foundation grant will support a bilingual critical caregiver who will help nurture children, aid teachers and support families served by the Jamaica Plain center, which opened in 2021. Ellis Early Learning created this classroom support position to ease ongoing workforce challenges.
“The way the local nonprofit sector perseveres, steps up and pivots to meet the shifting needs of the community is most impressive,” said Cummings Foundation executive director Joyce Vyriotes. “We are incredibly grateful for these tireless efforts to support people in the community and to increase equity and access to opportunities.”
Cummings Foundation aims to give back in the areas where it owns commercial property. Its buildings are all managed, at no cost to the Foundation, by its affiliate, Cummings Properties. This Woburn-based commercial real estate firm leases and manages 11 million square feet of debt-free space, the majority of which exclusively benefits the Foundation.
This year’s grant recipients represent a wide variety of causes, including housing and food insecurity, workforce development, immigrant services, social justice, education, and mental health services. The nonprofits are spread across 46 different cities and towns.
Woburn-based Cummings Foundation, Inc. was established in 1986 by Joyce and Bill Cummings of Winchester, MA and has grown to be one of the largest private foundations in New England. The Foundation directly operates its own charitable subsidiaries, including New Horizons retirement communities, in Marlborough and Woburn, and Cummings Health Sciences, LLC.
Cummings Foundation has now awarded $480 million to greater Boston nonprofits. For the complete list of this year’s 150 grant winners, plus nearly 1,500 previous recipients, and additional information are available at www.CummingsFoundation.org.