Mi Escuela Montessori’s Brain-building Beginnings: Birth to Four Scholarship Program Receives $2,500 GiveWell Community Foundation Grant

[Lakeland, FL] – [11/03/2025] – Mi Escuela Montessori recently received a $2,500 Impact Polk grant on behalf of the George W. Jenkins Fund within GiveWell Community Foundation (GWCF). This grant will support Mi Escuela Montessori’s Brain-building Beginnings: Birth to Four Scholarship Program. The funding is part of GWCF’s recent Impact Polk 2025 grant cycle, which awarded a total of $665,933.73 to 92 nonprofit organizations. Impact Polk is GWCF’s annual competitive, donor-directed grant program with the goal of addressing community needs throughout Polk County. Impact Polk grants often support a broad range of needs, such as animal welfare, arts and culture, education, and health and human services. To learn more about this grant cycle, please visit impactpolk.org. 

The Impact Polk funds awarded will provide scholarships for toddlers and preschool students who qualify for subsidized child care through the School Readiness Program of the Early Learning Coalition of Polk. Families must have an income below the poverty line and must be working or in school for at least 20 hours a week. The School Readiness voucher will determine what co-pay the family can financially afford to pay and will subsidize the balance, however because the voucher only covers 62% of the tuition.  The scholarship will contribute toward the balance. 

The Brain-building Beginnings: Birth to Four Scholarship Program was developed to support low-wage earning families in providing a quality educational foundation for their children.  The dual language program at Mi Escuela Montessori is a learning-based, bilingual, language-rich program with a well-supported educational approach to helping young children acquire fundamental skills and abilities and hitting developmental milestones on time. Students are taught independence and self-care. They are supported in developing motor skills and vocabulary in both English and Spanish. They are in a warm and nurturing environment with a low ratio of adults to children.

About GiveWell Community Foundation

GiveWell Community Foundation (GWCF) works with individuals, families, businesses, and nonprofits to build a stronger community throughout Polk, Hardee, and Highlands counties and beyond through charitable funds and competitive grant cycles. Since its founding in 1997, GWCF has awarded more than $450 million in grants. Today, GWCF is home to more than 400 charitable funds and the Impact Polk and Empower grant cycles. To learn more about GWCF, visit givecf.org or call 863-683-3131.