The Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child at the University of Notre Dame Secures $1.1 Million Grant to Advance Whole Child Development in India
Notre Dame, Indiana—The Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child (GC-DWC) in the Institute for Educational Initiatives (IEI) at the University of Notre Dame has been awarded a $1.1 million grant from Porticus to continue its groundbreaking work in advancing Whole Child Development (WCD) education in Telangana, India. This funding will support the expansion of the GC-DWC’s Project Sampoorna, a transformative initiative that aims to build, operate, and replicate a WCD model for education in India through holistic systems engagement. The project is dedicated to helping disadvantaged and overlooked children overcome their historic subservient role in society and enabling them to join the formal economy.
The GC-DWC has been actively engaged in India since 2020, working in collaboration with the Telangana Social and Tribal Welfare Society (the “Society”) and alongside education leaders to develop and implement innovative learning models that prioritize children’s cognitive, social-emotional, and physical well-being. With this latest grant, the Center is positioned to make an even greater impact by embedding WCD practices into the fabric of Telangana’s education system.
The GC-DWC has launched a Whole Child Development Teaching and Research Center, dedicated to supporting teacher capacity development and program evaluation in the years to come. This includes a Safe and Inclusive School Initiative, which has been successfully introduced across the Society over the past few years and includes comprehensive teacher training, the implementation of a ‘We Succeed Together’ agreement to enhance school culture, and the integration of social-emotional learning (SEL) into daily instruction. Additionally, the GC-DWC will continue and expand upon its collaboration with Osmania University in embedding WCD courses into teacher preparation programs. This investment represents a significant opportunity to not only strengthen the capacity of the Society’s educators, but also shape the broader education landscape by preparing a new generation of teachers with a WCD-centered approach.
“We are honored to receive this generous support from Porticus, which enables us to expand our partnership with the Telangana government and implement evidence-based whole child development strategies,” said Neil Boothby, Professor and Director of the Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child at the University of Notre Dame. “Through targeted teacher training and the creation of inclusive, student-centered learning environments, this initiative will empower educators to integrate social-emotional learning within academic instruction, ensuring that children develop the critical thinking, resilience, and interpersonal skills needed to thrive in school and beyond.”
The two-year grant will enable the GC-DWC to further integrate Whole Child Development approaches across 399 residential schools, directly impacting over 12,000 teachers and 239,400 students. This initiative builds on the success of previous work, reinforcing the commitment to creating safe, inclusive, and high-quality learning environments for marginalized students.
To read more about Project Sampoorna’s impact, visit: https://www.nd.edu/stories/empowering-through-education/
About the Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child (GC-DWC)
The Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child (GC-DWC) at the Institute for Educational Initiatives at the University of Notre Dame, collaborates with researchers and practitioners to ensure the wellbeing—physical, emotional, social, and cognitive—of children and adolescents in low-resource and conflict-affected settings. Established to serve as a coherent platform for the Institute for Educational Initiative’s growing portfolio of global child development and learning programs, the GC-DWC creates environments that foster resilience and encourage children and adolescents to thrive. Using an innovative whole child development approach tailored to context-specific needs, the GC-DWC translates research into timely and thoughtful action, adapts research tools to improve the development of learning programs and policies, and activates systems (families, schools, communities) to lift children and adolescents out of adversity.
For more information about the GC-DWC and its initiatives, visit https://iei.nd.edu/gc-dwc/about.
About the Institute for Educational Initiatives
Founded in 1996, the Institute for Educational Initiatives consists of more than two dozen initiatives that strive to improve education for all youth, particularly the disadvantaged, paying special, though not exclusive, attention to Catholic schools. Through research, the formation of teachers and leaders, and direct service to educational systems, the IEI’s scholars and practitioners pursue interdisciplinary collaborations to better understand and improve PK-12 education both in the United States and internationally.
For more information about the IEI and its initiatives, visit iei.nd.edu.
