The funding comes as part of Lilly Endowment’s College and Community Collaboration initiative.
Purdue University has received $25 million in grant funding from Lilly Endowment’s College and Community Collaboration initiative, which will help fund childcare and early childhood education in the Lafayette area. Lilly Endowment aims to create a greater sense of community and collaboration within the community through this initiative.
According to an article on Purdue University’s website, Purdue University President Mung Chiang said of the funding, “On behalf of our neighbors and as Indiana’s land-grant university, we thank Lilly Endowment for initiating this program for the state and for choosing our proposal with this generous grant. It is an essential catalyst for transformative change in child care in Greater Lafayette and the nearby region. The availability of early childhood education will be critical to the university’s ability to recruit faculty and staff with young families and to the region’s continued economic growth and job creation. There is no sustainable excellence in ‘gown’ without a vibrant ‘town.’”
The funding will help increase training of early childhood educators and create more opportunity for available childcare in the region. Some of the early childhood education will take place at Purdue University.
Another aspect of the funding will go toward transportation initiatives, including renovating the Purdue University Airport, creating carpools, and improved biking trails along the river, all things that will improve the quality of life in the area.
Roberto Gallardo, who serves as Purdue University’s vice president for engagement, said, “This multifaceted approach to improve regional transportation will have wide-ranging benefits that improve the vibrancy of our community by boosting workforce development efforts.”
The College and Community Collaboration initiative launched at the beginning of 2023, and Lilly Endowment plans to continue the initiative in the upcoming year.
For more information about Purdue University, visit the school’s website.