Menu
The Bainum Family Foundation’s investment and partnership with AdventHealth hospital system and Lift Orlando has fueled the creation and growth of the West Lakes Early Learning Center (ELC).
Opened in April 2020, the state-of-the-art early childhood education program — which is within Lift Orlando’s community revitalization footprint — has become an integral part of the West Lakes community.
Since its opening, all infant and toddler classrooms consistently operate at capacity with waiting lists. In 2023, 82% of children enrolled qualified for free and reduced meals. In addition to serving approximately 140 infants and toddlers enrolled, West Lakes ELC has expanded its comprehensive services model to serve children attending other early childhood programs within West Lakes. More than 190 children and their parents/caregivers from both West Lakes ELC and other local early childhood education centers receive a range of services, including speech and language therapy, applied behavior analysis therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, feeding therapy, play therapy, personal care services, referral to ear/nose/throat (ENT) care, and life counseling. West Lakes ELC has also partnered with the Maryland-based Reginald S. Lourie Center to provide Trauma Informed Preschool Supports (TIPS).
While celebrating West Lakes Early Learning Center’s growth and impact, community partners helped the foundation recognize that this program only served a portion of young children in this community. The foundation’s intentionally narrow focus ultimately did not align with the “help the whole community prosper” ethos that partners strived to create. Listening to these insights, the foundation widened its lens to do more.
Lift Orlando established the Early Learning Provider Network to support all licensed early childhood education programs within the 32805 zip code. The network supports 19 licensed early childhood education programs collectively serving nearly 1,000 young children. These programs, like many others, operate with razor-thin margins that make quality necessities available at West Lakes ELC like facility upgrades, staff retention incentives, and learning materials seem like luxuries. Lift Orlando built relationships with these programs and provided the resources they deemed most needed.
This transformative partnership exemplifies the power of listening, holistically considering consequences — both positive and negative — and adapting based on community voices. Thanks to invaluable community feedback, the foundation was able to work in and with the broader West Lakes community to build relationships, listen openly, and support their identified solutions rather than advancing the solutions the foundation thought would be most effective. An educator from West Lakes expressed their impact on their facility:
I was able to update my playground that was old and outdated. Now thanks to [the foundation], I was able to add a castle playground set which includes two swings, a slide, a climber, and a castle at top and bottom. This may be nothing to others, but this has been a dream come true for me. I also was able to replace my stairwell that was made from wood that had begun to rot and become unstable due to the previous storms and normal wear and tear. I can’t thank you all enough for choosing me and my center!
Alongside this partnership, the foundation collaborates with Lift Orlando to capture and share knowledge, empowering broader community impact. By funding Lift Orlando’s capacity to manage and disseminate data and insights, the foundation supports practices that drive strategic decision-making, advance equity, and amplify community voices. Funds have been used to increase Lift Orlando’s capacity to capture, use, and share learning and data to further advance community impact.
Reflecting on the collaboration, the Lift Orlando team shared, after their recent Love is Local Summit:
Lift Orlando is deeply grateful for Bainum’s generous investment in our early learning initiatives…their help has supported our early learning collaborative of 18 locally-owned early learning centers. These critical early learning providers now benefit from a shared community, resources, and training provided by Lift Orlando. We are forever grateful to have that level of deep, committed support from the Bainum Family Foundation.
This partnership stands as a testament to the impact of true community-driven partnership.
