Dear Friend,

The American Rescue Plan Act, which passed in March, 2021, authorized historic levels of COVID-19 relief dollars to support child care, an essential sector of the economy that has suffered deep financial losses during the pandemic.

Massachusetts was awarded $314 million in ARPA child care stabilization funding, which the Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) is using to distribute 6-month grants available to all child care providers in the state.

Strategies for Children helped connect the early childhood field – including many who have never applied for public funds – to this grant by offering a series of informational webinars and provider panels. Attended by more than 1,200 individuals, these bilingual webinars helped demystify the grant application process, and boost application rates. To-date, EEC reports that 5,549 programs have submitted applications for funding (~76% of all eligible programs).

Our recent blog, All licensed child care providers should apply for a child care stabilization grant, highlights grantees in their own words:

Joyce Browne Richelieu, a family child care provider in Dorchester, says, “I checked with my accountant and decided to apply for the grant, and the process for me was very simple.” Joyce also got on the phone to tell her colleagues about the grant and helped walk them through the process of applying.

“This, by far, was one of the easiest applications,” Luisa Palladino says. She is the center director at the YWCA of Central Massachusetts. The funding her program received was used to give bonuses to existing and new staff, a crucial move given the workforce shortages in the field.

Gloria Valentin-Denson, a family child care provider in Hyde Park, says, the grant “was a great opportunity especially with the amount of financial loss that many of us have endured.”

Public recovery funding is making a difference for child care programs, educators, and the families they serve. More funding is needed to reverse the workforce shortage, pay educators a living wage, and increase affordability for families. These funds are helping to stabilize programs while we learn from their impact and develop long-term policy solutions. High-quality early education for all is within our reach if our elected officials continue to invest at the federal, state, and local levels.

 

As an independent, nonprofit advocacy organization Strategies for Children does not receive state or federal funding for any of its work. We are funded by philanthropic foundations, grants and individual donors.

Strategies for Children
400 Atlantic Ave  | Boston, Massachusetts 02110
http://www.strategiesforchildren.org

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