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East Grand Forks town hall meeting will discuss child care needs in community

Grand Forks Herald - 4/16/2022

Apr. 16—EAST GRAND FORKS — A child care town hall meeting will be held from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday, April 25, at the Spud Jr. in downtown Grand Forks.

The city of East Grand Forks is working with First Children's Finance on a

Rural Child Care Innovation Program

and will be hosting a meeting to discuss the opportunities and challenges regarding child care as well as to share child care survey results. The meeting also will be a time to develop solutions to address child care challenges in the community.

The RCCIP is a community engagement process designed to address child care challenges in rural America. According to First Children's Finance, East Grand Forks has a shortage of approximately 210 full-time child care slots. To address the shortages, a team from East Grand Forks has been put together to lead the process of investigating the issue.

Paul Gorte, the economic development director in East Grand Forks, said the meeting is for "anyone and everyone who is interested in child care," including parents and child care providers.

Gorte, one of the team members investigating child care needs, said meeting attendees will be able to share solutions addressing child care challenges. Two to three top ideas will be identified in each area of child care and will be refined further after the meeting, "so that we can do the things that we can accomplish," Gorte said.

Child care shortages have been a challenge since even before the pandemic, forcing parents to leave the workforce to care for children and also preventing parents from re-entering the workforce.

"It takes people out of the workforce to take care of children and it doesn't allow entry in the workforce by people that may not know English or need to have some training to improve their skills to re-enter or enter the workforce," Gorte said.

The meeting will be free to attend and dinner will be provided. Anyone wanting to attend the meeting will need to register by noon on Wednesday, April 20 at

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/east-grand-forks-rural-child-care-innovation-project-town-hall-tickets-265435363317

. Spud Jr.'s address is 302 DeMers Ave.

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