Funder collaborative Blue Meridian Partners has awarded a multiyear, $8 million grant in support of a new partnership aimed at connecting assets and improving equity and educational and career outcomes in northwest Dayton, the Dayton Daily News reports.

The funding will support the Northwest Dayton Partnership, which includes neighborhood associations, community groups, the Dayton Foundation, Learn to Earn Dayton, Preschool Promise, Phoenix Next, Dayton Public Schools, and the City of Dayton. The $11.1 million Hope Center for Families project, which is scheduled to open this fall, also is expected to participate. The partnership will fund impactful programs, projects, and collaborations designed to provide neighborhood-based two-generation supports that advance racial and economic equity, such as early childhood education, quality K-12 schools, and wraparound services for children and their families, said Learn to Earn Dayton CEO Kristina Scott. With community input, some funding will be distributed to deeply connected but historically underresourced organizations to help build "civic infrastructure," said Scott, while some will be used to bring best practices and technical assistance to the area.

The Northwest Dayton Partnership will develop a sustainable plan for improving opportunities through comprehensive and generational work, said Blue Meridian chief investment officer Jim Shelton. The funder collaborative has invested about $95 million to date in place-based partnerships in a dozen cities, and Dayton was awarded funding because of the impressive work local stakeholders have done to invest in their community and work together on shared plans aimed at creating pathways to success for kids living in poverty, he said.

"This is really about [how] we accelerate all the work that's happening and the good things that are happening" in northwest Dayton, said Scott. "And we want to build a solid foundation so it can last for a lifetime."

(Photo credit: Learn to Earn Dayton)