Ready to Learn Providence, an education nonprofit, is working to regain funding from the U.S. Department of Education. The nonprofit has already laid off five employees and expects another round of layoffs next week.
Federal education officials put a hold on $1.5 million of the nonprofit’s funding following allegations of embezzlement at Ready To Learn’s parent organization, The Providence Plan.
Ready to Learn runs early childhood education programs in the Providence Public School system.
“We were, quite frankly, disappointed that the Department of Education didn’t allow us to continue the work on the ground while The Providence Plan is undergoing the forensic audit, and all of the things that we need to do, in order to ensure that we are the kind of fiscal organization that all of our funders expect,” said Ready To Learn Providence Director Leslie Gell.
According to Gell, the majority of her staff work in schools and never interacted with ProvPlan’s former finance director, Charles Denno, the man accused of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“It’s been tough, I can’t sugarcoat that,” said Gell. “When you ask how is morale, when you are – on a rolling basis – laying off a lot of your staff. Staff who have worked there, in some cases for over a decade, it has not been an easy time.”
