Child Care Connections (CCC) is working hard to combat the 59% shortage in child care in our area, and we’re excited to share our progress. Over the past year, we have seen 40 new child care jobs created through 21 licensed child care businesses opening their doors or expanding their operations. What’s the result? We’re now looking at approximately 262 new* openings for children ages 0-5 in our service area.
In 2018, CCC received a total of $20,000 in funding from Park County Community Foundation, Greater Gallatin United Way, and United Way of Lewis and Clark Area to help us start our New Provider Mini-Grant program. We’ve been able to offer limited Mini-Grants to already licensed child care providers in the past. But, our 2018 project allowed us to offer start-up funding to unlicensed child care providers as they worked toward meeting licensing requirements. This was a huge step in encouraging new providers to enter the early care and education field.
Overseen by our New Provider Support Specialist, Tammy Christofferson, funds for this program are used to help offset the cost of becoming a licensed provider, which is a common barrier for interested professionals. New providers were able to use the funding to access required resources such as fencing, egress windows, playground equipment and educational tools to comply with Montana State Child Care Licensing rules.
With the wind at our backs and a growing buzz around our new Mini-Grant program, in the Spring of 2019, we learned that we would be receiving additional funding through the Montana Department of Health and Human Services. This funding came with updated guidelines allowing us, and other CCRRs, to continue offering support to new child care providers as they pursue their child care licenses. Early care programs in Bozeman, Belgrade, Lincoln, Logan, Augusta, Helena, and White Sulphur Springs are benefiting from the $71,000 we have committed, in total, to them through our mini-grant program.
We can’t deny that over 260 new licensed child care openings throughout our service area is a tremendous feat. However, we still have a long way to go considering there are currently about 25,000 children under the age of six in Montana who likely need access to child care. We estimate that over 2,600 of these children are living in our service area according to 2018 data from the Montana Early Childhood Services Bureau.
Stay in touch to learn more and support our plans as we continue to combat the critical shortage in child care by increasing our recruitment efforts and continued support of licensed child care professionals.
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*Notably, these are not additional openings because they are offset by the number of child care providers who had closed. Below is a graphic from a MT Department of Health and Human Services presentation which represents the trends of businesses as they open and close each year and how this affects child care availability:
Child Care Connections is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that is the sole Child Care Resource and Referral agency for Gallatin, Park, Meagher, Jefferson, Broadwater, and Lewis & Clark Counties in Montana.
Article by Rose Heider, CCC Development and Communications Coordinator, September 25, 2019
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