NEWS

Reach Dane’s Head Start Program is set to renovate a new childcare and education center in South Madison for underserved children.

The Oscar Rennebohm Foundation has donated $50,000 to the UW-Madison’s Odyssey Project in 2020 in order to help break the cycle of generational poverty with increased access to education.

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Starting in the 2019-2020 academic year, Edgewood College students in liberal arts majors and/or from low socioeconomic backgrounds will be able to participate in a program that pays for 40 student internships per year, funded by the Oscar Rennebohm Foundation.

The Literacy Network has received a $300,000 grant in 2018 from the Oscar Rennebohm Foundation, which it will use over the next three years to assist ESL students in improving their fluency and earning degrees or certificates at MATC.

2018 marks the 50th anniversary of former Wisconsin Governor Oscar Rennebohm’s death. To mark the occasion, the Wisconsin State Journal re-ran an opinion article from that year reflecting on his legacy, including putting $2 million back into the Madison community and contributing to the creation of the Hilldale Shopping Center.

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United Way of Dane County raised almost $19,000,000 from local businesses, organizations, and individuals to fund initiatives to support the education, health, and economic well-being of everyone in the region.

The Dane County Board of Supervisors has approved the purchase of a building on the North Side to serve as an Early Childhood School Zone. The Zone, which will be at 2830 Dryden Drive, just off Northport, will provide a number of services to the Mendota, Lindberg, Lakeview and Gompers Elementary school areas.

The Early Childhood zone will be the second zone of its type in the Madison area. The Leopold Elementary school area has one such zone that has been successful enough that Dane County Executive Joe Parisi was able to secure funding for a new one. Read More

Dane County officials are working on fighting the county’s racial academic achievement gap by going back to the beginning.

“We know that the gaps in learning and opportunity don’t begin when kids are in school. They start when they’re born,” said Jane Belmore, early childhood project director for the Oscar Rennebohm Foundation, Inc.

To combat this, the county established three Early Childhood Zones, which facilitate home visiting programs for parents of young children and expectant mothers in low-income areas. The goal was to help families create stable learning environments for their kids. Read More