5.10.2000 ET

(CSRwire) The Freddie Mac Foundation has made a two-year, $325,000 grant to Calvary Bilingual Multicultural Learning Center to assist in the renovation and expansion of their facility. The new facility will allow Calvary to expand their reach to the Columbia Heights, Mt. Pleasant, Adams Morgan and Shaw neighborhoods in Washington, DC.

“Comprehensive community-based programs such as Calvary’s provide essential support to children and their families living in low-income communities,” explained Maxine B. Baker, president and CEO, Freddie Mac Foundation. “The Freddie Mac Foundation is committed to expanding and improving childcare and other child- and family-centered services in at-risk communities. Through our continued support of Calvary, we are working to ensure that brighter futures await this community’s children and families.”

The Calvary Bilingual Multicultural Learning Center provides infant and toddler care, a bilingual early childhood education program; a youth leadership program; an after-school program that includes a computer technology center and arts enrichment; and a family institute of counseling and intervention in partnership with Healthy Families America (HFA), another Foundation-funded program.

Calvary has made a major contribution to the revitalization of the community by serving over 200 children, youth and families. The current programs have flourished to the point that they have outgrown their old facilities. The new facilities will serve an additional 32 infants and toddlers (a 16% increase), an additional 55 preschoolers (a 73% increase) and an additional 75 school-aged children (a 100% increase). It will be one of the few community resources offering evening and weekend hours that coincide with the demanding schedules of low-income working parents.

“We could not have launched Phase II of our renovations for The Calvary Learning Center without the very generous support of the Freddie Mac Foundation whose contributions to us since 1994 total nearly $1 million,” said BB Otero, executive director, Calvary Bilingual Multicultural Learning Center. “The demand for childcare in our community greatly exceeds the supply. Already there are 40 families on the waiting list for infant care and over 100 children on the waiting list for the early childhood development program. This grant will help us to better meet our community’s childcare needs.”

The Freddie Mac Foundation is dedicated to brightening the future for children, youth, and families at risk and will grant $20 million this year to organizations working to prevent child abuse and neglect, find homes for foster children, and strengthen early childhood education opportunities. This grant supports the Freddie Mac Foundation’s mission by increasing the number of quality child care slots for infants and toddlers in low-income communities, and by delivering an array of services to children from infancy to 15 years of age and their families. It also addresses another Foundation goal to support comprehensive community-based programs.

In 1994, Calvary responded to an increasing need for services by acquiring its own 65,000 square foot facility and renovating 11,000 square feet of it within six months for ongoing program activities. Now launching the second phase of its building renovations, another 19,000 square feet is being converted into useful space, bringing the total program space to 30,000 square feet. The new section will house a new infant/toddler center; an expanded early childhood education program; a computer technology lab; interviewing and counseling space for the Family Institute and Healthy Families programs; arts programs; a half-court basketball court; and a rooftop playground.

Created by Freddie Mac in 1990 under the leadership of Chairman Leland C. Brendsel, the Freddie Mac Foundation is dedicated to brightening the future for children, youth, and families at risk. As the largest corporate funder in the Washington ,DC metropolitan area, Freddie Mac and the Freddie Mac Foundation have invested nearly $80 million in nonprofit organizations serving children and families.

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