Growing Inland Achievement

Author: Growing Inland Achievement

  • GIA Grant Funding Available to Support Inland Empire Students

    GIA Grant Funding Available to Support Inland Empire Students

    Grant Funding Available to Support Inland Empire Students

    COVID-19 Emergency Funding of up to $50,000 and Innovation Awards Funding of $150,000 Available for Educational Organizations Supporting Inland Empire Students

    Growing Inland Achievement (GIA), an educational intermediary organization seeking to improve the Inland Empire economy by raising the region’s educational attainment rates, has announced that COVID-19 Emergency Funding is now available for educational organizations supporting critical student needs amidst COVID-19. Organizations may apply for up to $50,000 in funding from now through April 21. Additionally, GIA has extended the application deadline for their $150,000 Innovation Awards to April 30.

    School closures and economic shutdowns due to the global pandemic have created educational and financial challenges for Inland Empire students and institutions. GIA created the COVID-19 emergency fund to assist with immediate challenges the coronavirus pandemic will present for students in the next 3-9 months.

    “The regional effect of the coronavirus requires us to focus on the educational and economic challenges of the present moment to continue the pursuit of the network’s shared vision,” said Ann Marie Sakrekoff, Senior Director at GIA. “After many conversations with our educational partners throughout the region, we have identified three focus areas for the emergency grant funding including; student basic needs support, class of 2020 college transition support, and technology assistance.”

    Awardees of emergency funding will be informed of approval and have funding distributed by May 4, 2020.

    In addition to the COVID-19 emergency funding, GIA will continue with their Innovation Awards which awards grants of $150,000 to organizations working towards accomplishing one or more of five measurable goals:

    • Align educational policy initiatives regionally via cradle-to-career collective impact model.
    • Increase college preparedness, particularly in math, resulting in a 20% reduction in the number of students requiring remediation at matriculation from high school to college within five years. 
    • Increase baccalaureate, associate, certificate, and credential attainment by 15% across the two counties within five years. 
    • Increase the six-year graduation rate by 10% over five years.
    • Improve career preparedness through strengthened partnership with industry to better align education with workforce development needs. 

    Applications for Innovation Awards are due by April 30 and funding is dispersed in two parts to grantee organizations in June 2020 and May 2021.   

    Growing Inland Achievement is a bi-county, educational collaborative in the Inland Empire that brings together leaders across K-20 education, civic, and business sectors. GIA organizes and collaborates with the Inland Empire Educational Network to create innovative practices that achieve large-scale social and institutional change, and prove working together is more impactful than working alone.

  • GIA Receives Grant from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

    GIA Receives Grant from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

    GIA Receives Grant from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: Awarded $1.29 Million to Expand Capacity

    Growing Inland Achievement has received a generous grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to expand our efforts to improve educational and economic success for students in the Inland Empire. The grant is part of the Gates Foundation’s Intermediaries for Scale initiative, which recognizes disparity caused by race and income is increasing difficulty for students to achieve educational and economic success. The Intermediaries for Scale grant received by GIA deepens both synergy and alignment within our network and strengthens our strategies to serve educators and educational institutions as connectors, advisors, and strategists. What will the Gates Foundation grant mean to our network, and what will increasing scale look like? GIA has begun the process of increasing awareness, building connections, and informing campus-level decision-making to transform our region’s educational institutions and economy. First, GIA plans to increase issue awareness at educational institutions by hiring staff so we may tell the region’s story to our network and the public. This will also help GIA strengthen partnerships with industry to bolster the collective impact of the organizations and institutions committed to our network’s mission. Second, GIA’s will better inform campus-level decision-making by hiring graduate-level interns to build regional data capacity and evaluate grants for continuous program improvement. In this way, increasing capacity means GIA can better integrate numerous effective practices and maximize our network’s collective impact to achieve our educational and economic goals. GIA is grateful to the Gates Foundation for their partnership in our network’s pursuit to collectively impact educational and economic success for students, and transform the region .