Gil Minor Innovation & Impact Fund
Gil Minor was an advocate and true champion of education in the Commonwealth. He was an incredible man and leader who exemplified strong character and humility in all he said and did. He was generous with his time, wisdom and resources.
Gil was our “coach” and served on the E3:Elevate Early Education Board of Directors for many years. He cared deeply about education from early education on up. In 2017, he wrote an Op-Ed in The Richmond Times Dispatch about the importance of investing in early education, made many persuasive calls and personal visits to policymakers to ensure that there was a historical $85m state investment to provide access to quality early education for thousands of children and families across Virginia. He was adamant that there should be a bridge between early education, K-12 and higher education.
Gil’s passion for E3’s initiatives was vital to our success. He loved and believed in our work. The New E3 School’s high quality implementation model for all children was near and dear to his heart. The school was created from scratch to drive innovation, policy change and public-private investment. The STREAMin curriculum developed in our school by UVA is in over 5,000 publiclyfunded early childhood classrooms across Virginia. Gil never missed an opportunity to show off our school to business leaders, policymakers and gubernatorial candidates. He was a huge supporter of expanding our school to other areas.
During a strategic planning session, he insisted that E3 needed an Innovation and Impact Fund that would allow us to be nimble and flexible to address education issues. When the E3 Board decided to pivot and focus on the fact that too many children could not read by third grade, he shared his personal struggle. He believed in raising awareness and advocating for the Virginia Literacy Act (VLA). The VLA passed with bipartisan support.
For Gil, this was a workforce development issue. He knew that if we could ensure every child had the basic skills to read, write and do math, they would be successful in K-12, higher education, the workforce and life.
E3 is tackling the reading crisis as our next big problem to solve. 43% of Virginia’s third graders cannot read. It is even worse in some communities.
The Gil Minor Innovation & Impact Fund will:
- Create Literacy Innovation + Impact Pilots to help more children read by third grade through the implementation of the Virginia Literacy Act. These “proof of concept” models will drive change, policy and investment.
- Generate resources for innovative literacy initiatives.
- Utilize the Virginia Language and Literacy Screener System (VALLSS) data in preschool through eighth grade to drive instruction, professional development and coaching in classrooms.
- Expand access to quality for underserved and working families through The New E3 School Scholarship Fund.