After more than 40 years of serving young children from low to moderate-income families in the Scottdale/Decatur area, Scottdale Early Learning (SEL) has purchased a second child care facility just three miles from its original location.  The non-profit early care and educational organization has launched a $1.8 million capital campaign to fund space additions and renovation of the new building, as well as the hiring and training of new staff to care for the students at the new location.  SEL will continue to operate in its current building at 479 Warren Ave. in Scottdale, but thanks to the addition of the second building, the organization will double the number of young children and families served beginning in the fall of 2019.  Located at 2939 Midway Rd. in Decatur’s Midway Woods Community, the new facility will be known as Scottdale Early Learning at Midway Woods.

“I am extremely grateful to our Board of Directors for having the vision to expand SEL’s facilities and staff in order to better fulfill our mission of providing early education that fosters the intellectual, creative, social, emotional and physical development of our students,” said Maryum Lewis Gibson, president and CEO of Scottdale Early Learning.  “Thanks to generous support from the Community Foundation, we were able to develop a comprehensive strategic plan, which gave SEL a clearly-defined road map to achieve our goal of serving more children and families.

“We had 100 percent Board participation in the early fundraising efforts, and several generous foundations and organizations, including DeKalb County, provided us with the financial support to purchase the new building,” Gibson continued.  “Our lead gift was a $750,000 grant from the Joseph B. Whitehead Foundation /United Way of Greater Atlanta, and we have been recommended to receive $250,000 through the Community Development Block Grant.  We were able to purchase the new facility without a down payment thanks to a bridge loan from the Reinvestment Fund, supported with capital from the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta and Reinvestment Fund’s network of investors.  This loan was created for us with a very favorable interest rate and flexibility, which made the new building purchase possible while the capital campaign is underway.  Now we are launching our public capital campaign and are already encouraged by the support and enthusiasm of the community.”

For decades, SEL has worked to mitigate socioeconomic disadvantages through high quality education, family involvement and community engagement to ensure that all SEL students are ready for kindergarten.  Not surprisingly, there is a waiting list of families hoping to enroll their children, so expanding student capacity was a key goal of SEL’s strategic plan.  Improvements were made to the Warren Street facility last year, while the executive staff and Board members searched for a secondary facility nearby.

“We found our new childcare facility late last year,” said Gibson.  “We already had families from Midway Woods inquiring about our programs, so we knew the need was there.  It’s close to our original facility and didn’t need extensive improvements.  C. D. Moody Construction is expanding and renovating the building, but all in all, it’s a very good fit for what we needed.”

Gibson says SEL at Midway Woods is already licensed to accommodate 100 students, but will open with approximately 85 students in the fall.  “We are expanding our partnership with the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning to offer 32 Head Start spaces at the new location.  The addition of this facility could reduce our current wait list to almost zero and will give dozens of high-risk children the opportunity to enroll in vital early learning programs.  I am asking the community to support our capital campaign so we can finish the renovations and upgrades on this wonderful new space.”

Gibson will lead the expanded organization and has been named President and CEO of Scottdale Early Learning.  Additional members of the SEL leadership team are: Dr. Tyeichia Mason, vice president of programs, Labeebah Thompson, vice president of administration and Anita Douglas, vice president of development.