LYNN — The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday evening to approve the allocation of $3 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to Lynn-based nonprofit Learning Through Empowerment Opportunities — the largest city-funded grant the organization has received in its near 60-year history.
Ward 3 Councilor Coco Alinsug said that he decided he would vote in favor of the funding last weekend. He also said that when he reviewed the items on the list and didn’t recognize LEO, he scheduled a meeting with the organization.
“There was one item on the list that allocated $3 million to LEO, it’s an organization in Lynn, and I had no idea about that organization, I had no clue. So I called them, I went there, and I had a meeting with them because I cannot vote on something that I’m not familiar with. Now I can confidently vote for it,” Alinsug said.
LEO, a community action agency for Southern Essex County, works to offer an early education program for children, ensuring that they are behaviorally, cognitively, and physically prepared for school. LEO’s Development and Communications Director Lisa McFadden said that the funds will be used to renovate and expand their headquarters at 156 Broad St.
“The funding that we applied for is $3 million to put towards a capital renovation project,” McFadden said. “The building will be completely emptied and renovated to become a 15 classroom Head Start preschool for 370 three to 5-year-olds. We’re increasing our capacity by about 16 percent, and we’re adding two new classrooms.”
Councilor at-large Brian LaPierre worked on LEO’s Board of Directors in the early 90s. He said that the organization has been “a great nonprofit partner” to the city for years and that he was happy to see their application for funding approved.
“LEO serves people in need throughout our city. They have a long-standing history of being available in the city, and they’ve worked as a great nonprofit partner to us over the years,” he said. “They’ve done a lot of work for the folks in need around the Lynn community and we’re happy to accept their proposal and we’re very happy that they were accepted for funding this round.”
McFadden said that early education and care in a post-pandemic city is a high priority, and that with the ARPA funding, LEO will be able to not only expand, but improve their early education program.
“We all know that early education and care is such a priority right now for families, so we’re really happy that we’ll be able to increase the number of seats we have available, but also really deepen the level of education that we provide,” McFadden said. “We’re dealing with probably the lowest income residence in the city — families that are living at or below the poverty level, and working hard to get their children up to a level of school readiness that gets them to the Lynn Public Schools all that much easier.”
Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at [email protected].
