PAACT is a citywide alliance of public and private partners collaborating to improve learning, health, and well-being for Atlanta's youngest children and their families.
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In 2023, the City of Atlanta, private foundations, business leaders, and philanthropists made a historic investment of more than $20 million in early childhood education. PAACT: Promise All Atlanta Children Thrive inspired this commitment and spearheaded the fundraising efforts. Now, PAACT is collaborating with implementation partners to increase equitable access to high-quality early learning environments across Atlanta. These partners are 1) repairing and renovating child care facilities, 2) providing child care scholarships, and 3) incentivizing teachers to remain in their current programs and attain literacy training.
PAACT: Promise All Atlanta Children Thrive joined my office to make this vision a reality and it continues to be an honor to work with them. We’re also excited to continue collaborating with GEEARS: Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students and the Atlanta Committee for Progress.... I’m also grateful to our implementation partners . . . Thank you for continuing to stand with our youngest Atlantans.”
The PAACT Repair and Renovation Grant program supports Atlanta’s early care and learning system by funding improvements to child care facilities. It also bolsters providers’ success by connecting them with business coaches and expert consultants. PAACT’s partners in this program are the City of Atlanta, the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, Reinvestment Fund, Low Income Investment Fund, and Early Learning Property Management.
We've seen providers really feel empowered. They are breathing new life into their program by giving it a little facelift or a big facelift. It gives them some new optimism and energy to reassess their building. Maybe they didn't think it would be possible to accomplish a project like that. And so now they kind of explore what else they can do.”
Prior to our renovations, we had several challenges with cooking in a small and outdated kitchen. The renovations allowed us to broaden and have our nutrition specialist cook in a more conducive space."
PAACT doesn’t leave any stone uncovered when it comes to ensuring that they're able to meet providers where they are. They've offered to not only make phone calls but visits to providers to explain different things. They ensure that they are visible.”
The PAACT Scholarship Initiative provides eligible families with scholarships to help alleviate the cost burden of child care. Two different scholarships are available: The QCC-Boost Scholarship, funded by private philanthropy, and the APS Scholarship, funded by Atlanta Public Schools.
This [the Boost Scholarship] is a great opportunity to help people who are caught in the middle; who aren’t eligible for typical assistance. I am so very grateful for this program because it helped me get back on my feet.”
Having two babies at home was really, really stressful and I was trying to figure out how to work and stay in school... [The Boost Scholarship] helped me to get on my feet.”
Receiving this scholarship has had a profound impact on both my education and my family. Financially, it has alleviated a significant burden, allowing me to focus more on my career rather than worrying about tuition costs.”
It was like everything worked together once I got the scholarship … It’s been a blessing for me, and I know for the other teachers as well.”
I had to get a credit card to pay for child care before the scholarship because my salary wasn’t enough, but now I can afford it and pay down my credit card."
Created and funded by the Rotary Club of Atlanta, in partnership with PAACT and aligned with the Mayor’s PAACT Commitment, the Early ChildhoodChampions (ECC) Teacher Bonus program approaches the early childhood education workforce shortage with a creative solution that speaks to teachers’ values. The program provides compensated professional development that helps teachers add new skills and curricula to their educational arsenal, increasing the quality of students’ experiences. The motto of the ECC Teacher Bonus program is Retain and Train. It's inspired by this sobering fact: Georgia’s child care workers are among the lowest paid in the nation. In 2022, our early educators earned a median wage of $11.71 per hour—two dollars less than the national average.
Our feedback indicates that this show of appreciation, combined with the investment in teachers’ skills and careers, is extremely meaningful to them.”
The content was so helpful in day-to-day interaction with the kids. It has changed the way I do things in the class, and it is more effective.”
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In the wake of the Early Childhood Champions initiative’s success, and with Atlanta hosting the 2025 College Football National Championship game, the Rotary Club of Atlanta saw an opportunity to expand this recognition of early educators. With a connection from the office of Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, Rotary and PAACT pitched an idea to the College Football Playoff Foundation (CFPF). In Atlanta this year, they proposed, let’s award early educators, too. Once the CFPF agreed, another PAACT partner, the United Way of Greater Atlanta, matched the foundation’s $50,000 commitment. As a result, 20 veteran early childhood educators were each honored with a $5,000 Early Childhood Champions Hall of Fame Award. This award is part of our efforts to improve early childhood workforce recruitment and retention. When educators receive the support they need, they’re able to invest even more in the growth and development of our youngest learners.
They [early educators] just don’t get the recognition they deserve. The amount of impact that they’re making in the communities with our young boys and girls is just phenomenal.”
When asked what receiving the Early Childhood Champions Hall of Fame award meant to them, teachers said:
I can't do anything but cry. [This award is] a blessing. I'm going to do some things with my kids and, you know, put some things in the classroom.”
I was surprised that you see my worth. [It] took me by surprise that someone else recognized what we do as teachers. So that was a big shock to me.”
Founded in 2018 by GEEARS: Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students, in partnership with Atlanta Public Schools (APS), the Atlanta Early Education Ambassadors program is an innovative vehicle to help Atlanta’s families navigate the early childhood landscape. The Ambassadors are a group of involved parents, grandparents, teachers, and community members who lead Pre-K recruitment, inform families with young children about early learning resources, and raise public awareness about the importance of early childhood across the city. They live, work, shop, and socialize in the program’s targeted areas—APS’s Washington, Douglass, Therrell, and Mays clusters. They advise caregivers at malls, supermarkets, apartment complexes, and community events. They counsel parents, for instance, on why Quality Rated child care, preschool, and Pre-K are valuable resources for their children. They tell them how to find convenient programs, how to apply, and how to enroll. They’re also sources of information about other essentials like immunizations, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), Childcare and Parent Services (CAPS), and more.The ambassadors know their communities’ institutions and their challenges. They know their neighborhoods. They feel like family.
When families know that the ambassadors are also neighbors—that they live or work or worship in their very own communities—it makes for a unique bond. They're familiar with the challenges they face and the environment they live in. So, when an ambassador says, 'Listen, here's how early childhood education can really benefit both your children and you,' that community member is receptive to their message."
Being able to really serve the community from a holistic perspective has been a tremendous blessing for me.”
Since the program began....
The Literacy and Justice for All (LJFA) initiative is dedicated to equipping Atlanta- and Marietta-based children ages zero through eight with essential reading skills and fostering early literacy. LJFA is guided by experts at the Rollins Center for Language & Literacy at the Atlanta Speech School. PAACT is Atlanta’s backbone for the LJFA. This means that PAACT is the lead convener of LJFA’s many partners, including the Atlanta Public Schools’ Office of Early Learning, Quality Care for Children, YMCA of Metro Atlanta, Sheltering Arms, and the Grady Talk With Me Baby program. PAACT runs monthly partner meetings, guides implementation of LJFA trainings, and provides support to child care providers participating in the program.
Since launching...
638 early childhood education teachers have been supported with research-based literacy coaching.
