Nearly a century ago, Black philanthropist Tobie Grant and Scottdale resident Norma Gay Winchester created the Tobie Grant Housing Development. Together, Grant and Winchester gained 40 acres of property to house unemployed Black people at the beginning of the 20th century. Decades later, at a community meeting, residents of the housing development voiced concerns about the need for a school for very young children and the result was the birth of Scottdale Early Learning, Inc. (SEL). Scottdale Day Care, as it was known when it was founded in 1977, was housed in two vacant units on the grounds of the housing development until 1996 when the center moved to its current Scottdale location in Decatur.
Since its founding, SEL has provided early education and parent training services to low-income, minority children, ages 6 weeks to 5 years old. The children who are currently enrolled represent ten different countries and speak fifteen different languages. The long-standing non-profit organization conducts both center-based and community-based early care and education services at two locations in Dekalb County.
The Midway location opened in 2019 to address the changing needs of the community and to support SEL’s mission to provide early education that fosters the intellectual, creative, social, emotional, and physical development of its students. The Midway center currently serves approximately 150 children, while the original Scottdale location serves 85 students.
In 2018, Reinvestment Fund helped finance SEL’s facility expansion by lending the center $1.5 million to acquire and renovate the building that now serves as the Midway location. In 2022, Reinvestment Fund closed another loan with SEL. This second loan helped bridge a $250,000 Community Development Block Grant with DeKalb County to fund the second phase of renovations, which fully support the playground, a new roof, and other necessary repairs to their kitchen and other parts of their facility. Reinvestment Fund partners with the GoATL Community Guarantee Pool, which provided a guaranty for the loan as well as a grant to assist with interest payments.
This financing support is a major push in helping Scottdale Early Learning maintain high-quality early childcare in a neighborhood that desperately needs it. According to recent Reinvestment Fund research from Childcare Access in Metro Atlanta, which analyzes supply and demand in Atlanta Metro’s 5-county region, there is a significant gap between the number of children who are of preschool age and the amount of full-time childcare seats available. The existing level of childcare supply leaves roughly one-third of the region’s demand for childcare potentially unmet.
In April 2023, Natasha Dowell, Reinvestment Fund Director of Lending & Investments, Southeast, spoke at the groundbreaking for SEL’s new pre-kindergarten playground.
“As the need for early childhood education and parent training has expanded exponentially in central DeKalb County, Scottdale has risen to meet the need and continues to successfully prepare children for kindergarten and success in school,” said Dowell. “Reinvestment Fund was proud to support Scottdale when they originally moved into this Midway location and we are proud to support the center again as they bring a beautiful playground to this space.”