2007-308Q - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Childcare Resources of Indian River: Children in Centers Program. Funder Children's Services Advisory Committee B. PROGRAM NEED STATEMENT (Entire Section B not to exceed one page. 1 . a) What is the unacceptable condition requiring change? b) Who has the need? c) Where do they live? d) Provide local, state, or national trend data, with reference source, that corroborates that this is an area of need. a) Working families whose incomes are below 200% of poverty cannot find dollars for childcare without sacrificing essentials such as food, shelter and clothing. The quality of the care in which young children spend a large part of the day is of vital importance to their ability to acquire school readiness skills; and ultimately to succeed in life. This quality of care is neither available nor affordable to low-income families unless subsidized in some way. In addition, parents with minimal income, education and/or lack of positive life experiences face much higher levels of financial and emotional stress creating a barrier to them effectively parenting their children. b) Current wait lists: Early Learning Coalition 34 (this reflects only one week of applications as they purged their entire waitlist April 25 , 2007 and started over) RCMA 258 Head Start 150 Childcare Resources 227 Total Wait List (birth-5 years) 669 Of those waiting, 397 are infants and toddlers. It is important to remember that Head Start does not provide services for infants/toddlers, which is in critical shortage in Indian River County. c) The targeted population appears to be spread evenly throughout Indian River County. The four elementary schools with the highest percentage of students who qualify for free and reduced lunch are Fellsmere, Dodgertown, Vero Beach and Thompson which are distributed widely in the county. d) There are 669 on the combined wait lists ; however, this represents only the people who have called for help. It does not reflect the number of people needing assistance. The 2006 County Needs Assessment estimates that there are 5 ,910 children in our county under the age of five. 48% of the babies born in Indian River County are born to mothers who qualify for Medicaid (48%=2, 836 children ages 0-5) . All of these children would qualify for services from at least one of the agencies mentioned above. Currently, a total of 1 ,242 children receive services from the Early Learning Coalition, RCMA, Head Start and Childcare Resources. The 2006 Needs Assessment indicates there has been a 14% reduction in the capacity of childcare programs from 2001 to 2005 . Relative to peer counties, Indian River County has far fewer providers offering infant care. A September 2006 poll of licensed childcare centers in our county revealed that there were a total of 138 slots available for infants . 1 ,358 babies were born in Indian River County in 2005 (Dept. of Health) . 2. a) Identify similar programs that are currently serving the needs of your targeted population; b) Explain how these existing programs are under-serving the targeted population of your program. Head Start, subsidized care through the Early Learning Coalition, and RCMA are similar programs that serve families with varying income eligibility requirements . The target population for Childcare Resources families is 150-200% of the federal poverty level and we are the only organization that serves that group . The existing programs do not serve the targeted population of our program. 4