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Gift Builds on Support from Robin Hood’s Fund for Early Learning and the Museum’s Successful Longstanding Collaboration with the Department of Homeless Services

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New York, N.Y., October 1, 2019 – The Children’s Museum of Manhattan (CMOM) announced today that it has received a $247,500 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to install permanent learning hubs for young children and families in shelters across Harlem, Brooklyn and the Bronx. Under the program, Baby Brain Building Community Hubs, the Museum will install graphics and exhibit elements in the shelters, and design and implement skill-building workshops. The community hubs will serve approximately 700 children and their adult caregivers annually.

Additionally, Robin Hood’s Fund for Early Learning (FUEL) has approved a grant to the Children’s Museum of Manhattan (CMOM) to pioneer new ways to advance the early childhood life skills and literacy of children ages 0-3 years from low-income communities, including homeless shelters. The grant will also support important early childhood development research with Harvard University and Johns Hopkins University. CMOM is the first museum to receive a grant from the Fund for Early Learning from the Robin Hood Foundation, New York’s largest poverty-fighting organization.

During the IMLS review process it was noted that, “This is truly transformative work, leveraging institutional and city resources with audiences often marginalized and overlooked. This is a model Children’s Museums across the world should be considering. “

Kelvin Chan, Director, Fund for Early Learning (FUEL) at Robin Hood said, “This is FUEL’s first grant to a children’s museum, given because we are impressed with CMOM’s ongoing success working with hard to reach populations through the Museum’s hub program.”

Commented Jane McIntosh, Chief Advancement Officer and member of the Executive Leadership Team, “The essential support the Museum has received from Robin Hood, the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) and now, IMLS, is a major affirmation of the outreach work we have been doing in the homeless community for more than two decades. As CMOM looks to moving into its new home in 2023, this initiative assumes even greater importance in serving our larger community.“

CMOM’s work with New Yorkers experiencing homelessness began over 20 years ago with an innovative program that welcomed teen mothers and their children to the Museum for weekly writing, arts and parenting workshops. Over the years, thousands of mothers and children in need have benefited from this program. CMOM and DHS began their learning hub partnership in 2014, and now have a total of 32 hubs in underserved communities in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan: eight in Head Start daycare centers, 23 in homeless shelters and one at NYC’s Administration for Children’s Service intake office in downtown Manhattan. Plans are underway to install four new shelter hubs in 2020 with funding from the NYC City Council Members.

CMOM’s mission is to be the stewards of early childhood and to help our youngest citizens grow and develop into their best selves.