Invitation to Apply: Neighborhood and Family Engagement Grants

Ready for School, Ready for Life is a collaborative effort to build a connected, innovative system of care for Guilford County’s youngest children and their families. Our overarching goals are to improve school readiness and third grade reading achievement for all of Guilford County’s children. As part of this work, Ready Ready is releasing a funding opportunity aligned to our Neighborhood and Family Engagement Strategy.

This strategy is a county-wide, system-building initiative focused on improving outcomes for children and families from prenatal through age eight (PN–8) in Guilford County. Rather than funding new or standalone programs, this strategy invests in coordination, alignment, and shared learning. The goal of this strategy is to strengthen how existing community organizations, schools, early learning providers, and systems work together, especially in neighborhoods experiencing the greatest school readiness disparities.

Ready for School, Ready for Life (Ready Ready) invites organizations to apply for our Neighborhood and Family Engagement (NFE) Grants, a place-based approach to strengthen coordination across the prenatal to age eight (PN–8) system.

Why Neighborhoods?

The neighborhoods where children grow, learn, and play matter. Neighborhoods can have a direct impact on a child’s ability to access opportunities that allow them to thrive. In partnership with UCLA and Guilford County Schools, Ready Ready administered a community level kindergarten readiness assessment known as the Early Development Instrument (EDI). The EDI is a population level tool that looks at children’s health, development, and school readiness. It does not assess individual children or schools. It helps communities understand where systems can work together more effectively to support families and young children. Ready Ready has utilized these and other data points to identify four priority zip codes (27405, 27406, 27260, 27262) in Guilford County to receive enhanced service coordination through a neighborhood hubs model.

What is a Neighborhood Hub?

• An Institutional Anchor (schools and early learning providers)
• A Community Anchor (a trusted neighborhood-based organization)
• Family Leadership (Parent Ambassadors and Family Leadership Council members)
• Integration with Routes to Ready and other system supports, including The Basics Guilford

Together, these partners coordinate how families access support, how systems align around school readiness, and how neighborhood voices inform learning and decisions. To advance this work, Ready Ready is seeking to fund partners working in these four priority zip codes (27405, 27406, 27260, 27262).

If you have additional questions about this work or the application process, please review our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document. Ready Ready will also host information and Q&A sessions prior to the full application process. In these sessions, we will share information about Ready Ready, walk through the application, and answer any questions applicants may have. All sessions will have identical content, but organizations are welcome to attend as many sessions as they would like to. The schedule for the information sessions is below:  

Ready Ready views Community Anchors and Institutional Anchors as co-builders of Guilford County’s PN–8 system. This work requires trust, shared learning, and sustained collaboration. We invite partners who are excited to shape and not just participate in systems change for children and families.