New Hope for Families Launches Training Program for Early Childhood Educators
New Hope for Families, in partnership with Early Learning Indiana, Ivy Tech Community College, and Lilly Endowment Inc., designed and launched Jump Start, a new teacher training program to help meet an overwhelming need for well-qualified early childhood educators for our community’s youngest children.
“We are thrilled to team up with these outstanding partners in order to launch an exciting new program that will benefit the region in the years ahead,” commented New Hope Executive Director, Emily Pike. “Working together, we have created something that none of us could have done alone.”
Jump Start combines mentored, practical, hands-on work experience with a customized three-year academic program of study, culminating in an Associates Degree in Early Childhood Education. New Hope enrolled its first class of Jump Start teachers-in-training in January 2025.
Emmanuela “Emma” Macedo (center) is one of the teachers-in-training at New Hope for Families.
Shortage of Qualified Early Childhood Educators
Indiana faces a shortage of qualified early childhood educators; this shortage is projected to top 9,000 teachers statewide in the coming years. Inadequate compensation and suboptimal teacher training programs are likely contributing to this ongoing shortfall. (1)
New Hope Early Learning Center has been directly impacted by the shortage of early childhood educators. When New Hope expanded its early learning program from 16 to 48 children in 2022, the agency struggled to hire qualified teachers to fill those openings.
These shortages are compounded by high turnover rates among early childhood educators — approximately 30% nationwide — which has forced many providers locally and nationwide to close classrooms. (1) This is particularly disruptive in programs which, like New Hope, follow a continuity of care model, prioritizing relational care and whole child development by allowing teachers and children to stay together in a cohort over multiple academic years.
Jump Start
Jump Start teachers-in-training are employed full-time with benefits, spending 25 hours per week in a classroom and the remaining 15 hours per week on academic work. Additional incentives to complete the three-year program include an intentional cohort model, focused mentoring by experienced teachers, a 100% subsidy on tuition and fees, along with a completion bonus.
Each Jump Start teacher-in-training is paired with an experienced lead teacher in his or her assigned classroom, providing daily mentorship through modeling and intentional guidance. Additional support is provided by New Hope ELC Education Specialist Nadra Huma Quraishi.
“A strong teacher training program in early childhood education is not just important—it's essential,” said New Hope Early Learning Director Calie Litzy. “Every day, we see how well-prepared teachers transform classrooms into nurturing, engaging spaces.“
Jump Start is funded through an Early Years Initiative grant from Lilly Endowment Inc., administered by Early Learning Indiana.
New Hope Early Learning Center Education Specialist Nadra Huma Quraishi (left) quizzes teachers-in-training on components of trauma-informed care.
New Hope for Families
Since 2011, New Hope for Families, located in Bloomington, Indiana, has provided emergency shelter and other supportive services for families with children impacted by homelessness in south central Indiana. Community members started New Hope to address a strong and growing need for support to families experiencing homelessness in Monroe County, where 38% of people experiencing homelessness during our most recent Point in Time count were families with children. More than half of children in these families are under age six.
New Hope is the only shelter in Monroe County where families experiencing homelessness can stay together while receiving emergency shelter and accessing other supportive services, and welcomes families regardless of marital status, gender, or sexual orientation. Begun in one small single-family home, serving just three families at a time in the summer of 2011, New Hope has grown into a thriving social service agency sheltering 12 or more families each night, offering dedicated homelessness prevention services, and providing early childhood care and education to children impacted by homelessness in a mixed-income cohort.
New Hope Early Learning Center
New Hope Early Learning Center was established in October 2015 as a support for families in our emergency shelter program, with a dual goal of enabling parents to get back to work and preparing children for early success in school. New Hope ELC serves up to 52 children from six weeks to five years of age in four mixed-income classrooms. Each year, 50-70% of children served at New Hope Early Learning Center are impacted by homelessness or housing insecurity.
Brighter Futures Indiana. “Developing The Early Childhood Education Workforce: Indiana's Transition to Teaching Initiative.” (May 2024) https://brighterfuturesindiana.org/pdg-reports/developing-the-early-childhood-education-workforce