12.03.07

For immediate release
December 3, 2007
Bill Tinsley
Partnership for People with Disablities
(804) 828-8243
watinsley@vcu.edu

CarMax Foundation Grant Expands Corporate Support for
Partnership’s “Include Me” Inclusive Preschool Project

Richmond, Va. – The Partnership for People with Disabilities at Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Education announces the receipt of a $27,000 grant from the CarMax Foundation. The funding enables the organization to increase the number of child care centers providing inclusive quality education to children with special needs in Greater Richmond.

The “Include Me” project provides information and technical assistance to early childhood teachers to make them more effective at including children with disabilities and developmental delays in their classrooms alongside typically developing peers.

“The support of a corporation like CarMax is vital to the long-term success of the ‘Include Me’ initiative. More families with children with disabilities will have an easier time finding centers willing and prepared to accept their children,” said Mary Lynn White, inclusion specialist and project director.

The CarMax Foundation’s Richmond Program supports local programs dedicated to education, youth leadership, and community enrichment. The Richmond Program is designed to make the Greater Richmond area a positive place for families to live and work. This past year, the Foundation awarded more than $440,000 to more than 30 Richmond-area organizations. CarMax associates in Richmond support many of these organizations in various ways through volunteerism and monetary donations.
The Partnership is Virginia’s only federally designated university center for excellence in developmental disabilities. It operates under the umbrella of the VCU School of Education and maintains an interdisciplinary approach. For more information, see www.vcu.edu/partnership.

About VCU and the VCU Medical Center: Virginia Commonwealth University is the largest university in Virginia and ranks among the top 100 universities in the country in sponsored research. Located on two downtown campuses in Richmond, VCU enrolls nearly 32,000 students in 205 certificate and degree programs in the arts, sciences and humanities. Sixty-five of the programs are unique in Virginia, many of them crossing the disciplines of VCU’s 15 schools and one college. MCV Hospitals and the health sciences schools of Virginia Commonwealth University compose the VCU Medical Center, one of the nation’s leading academic medical centers. For more, see www.vcu.edu.

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