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Community Child Care Resources, Inc. Children in Centers 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 the 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 . From current Early Learning Coalition, Head Start, Redlands, and CCCR waiting lists : Early Learning Services 259 * Redland ' s Christian Migrant 133 Head Start 33 CCCR 151 Total Wait List (birth-5 years) 623 * includes Pre-K Early Intervention Of those 623 , 307 are infants and toddlers . It is important to remember that Head Start and Pre-K Early Intervention do 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 the County mainland. d. There are 735 children 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 . Based on information from the Indian River School District Food Service Program, 52% of kindergarten and elementary students are eligible for free or reduced school lunch. Free/reduced school lunch is based on 185 % of poverty. The Indian River County birth rate has held steady at about 1 ,000 births per year. Therefore, we can extrapolate that 2 , 575 children from birth to age 5 are eligible for the CCCR program at 185 % of the poverty level . Beyond that, we have no way to determine the number of families that fall within the 185 %-200% poverty level , and would be eligible only for CCCR' s childcare subsidy . We also know that 52% of all babies born in Indian River County are Medicaid eligible, or at the 185 % of poverty level identified by the federal government. The Children ' s Services Advisory Committee 2002-2005 Community Assessment and Plan lists Indian River County ' s subsidized/assisted pay childcare services ' capacity (infant/preschool ) at 489 . According to these statistics , 2 , 086 children do not have the opportunity for early childhood education. 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. a. Head Start, Subsidized Care (ALPI) through the Early Learning Coalition, Redlands Christian Migrant, and Voluntary Pre-K (three hours/day) are similar programs that serve part of the CCCR targeted population. b . CCCR' s income eligibility cap is 25 % higher than those programs ; therefore, 25 % of CCCR ' s targeted population is not served by the other programs . The population is severely underserved, demonstrated by a wait list of 735 eligible children age five and under, with ALPI , Head Start, Redland ' s, Pre -K, and CCCR serving at capacity . 5