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Economic Security to add child care slots in four-county area

Joplin Globe - 3/22/2017

March 22--Thanks to a recently awarded federal grant, Economic Security Corp. plans to add 74 new child care slots for families in Barton, Jasper, Newton and McDonald counties.

The grant, from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will give Economic Security $8 million over the next five years to administer a program that will nearly double its child care services. The program targets economically disadvantaged pregnant mothers and children and their parents or guardians who are trying to find employment or who are struggling to keep employment.

The expansion aims to meet the needs of Southwest Missouri residents who have identified the lack of affordable, quality child care as a major issue in the area, said Debbie Markman, resource development director for Economic Security.

Educators who were part of an Economic Security-sponsored focus group in 2016 said the region in general lacked enough child care slots for its population, she said. And local Head Start parents who were surveyed last spring said that affordable, quality child care was their highest need, she said.

"Regardless of whether you're at 100 percent or 200 percent of the poverty guidelines, when you have a baby and they tell you it's going to be $125 a week (for child care), it kind of takes the breath out of your lungs," she said.

As part of the expansion of child care services, Economic Security expects that up to 35 full-time jobs in the early childhood sector will be created at either the nonprofit organization or its partner child care providers, Markman said.

"It's exciting because not only are we going to be adding quality child care, but we're also doing job creation," she said.

Economic Security is now taking care of behind-the-scenes work to get the program up and running, such as signing agreements with partner child care providers and ensuring that they are licensed and have up-to-date fire inspections.

There is no date scheduled yet for when the child care slots might be open, but Markman said some families can start planning now for those services.

"I think knowing that we have some of those slots available, we will be able to go to our Head Start waiting list and get them ready for what they need as far as eligibility so as those first slots are opened up, we'll be able to get those families in as soon as possible," she said.

Missouri's capacity for licensed child care was down 6 percent -- from approximately 148,000 spaces to 140,000 spaces -- from December 2013 to October 2015, the most recent date that such data was available, according to Child Care Aware.

To apply

Pregnant women and/or families who want to apply for Economic Security Corp.'s Early Head Start program may call the application hot line at 417-627-2030. More information is available at escswa.org.

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