Families with children will benefit from Outagamie County grants to resource centers
About $2.8 million of Outagamie County’s federal pandemic aid funds will be used to support families and child care.
This week, the county announced it awarded a $2 million grant to First 5 Fox Valley to create a family resource center. The center will be a hub for support and services for families, community members and service providers.
The county also awarded a $750,000 grant to Child Care Resource & Referral Fox Valley in Kimberly to start Child Care Essential Services, a shared services network for child care providers.
These networks aim to save child care providers time and money by centralizing essential services.
Here’s what to know about these new programs.
More: Help Me Grow extends free early childhood resources to Northeastern Wisconsin
First 5 Fox Valley family resource center will be a 'one-stop-shop' for families
Barb Tengesdal, executive director of First 5 Fox Valley, said the family resource center will provide myriad supports to strengthen Outagamie County families with children up to age 17. Services will include things such as parent education classes and playgroups, events and additional resources.
To do this, First 5 is collaborating with many existing agencies, including Family Services' Parent Connection, CCR&R Fox Valley and Children's Wisconsin.
“It really provides families with what they need to be strong and resilient and help their children thrive,” Tengesdal said of the family resource center.
Many of the services will be housed under one roof in a to-be-determined “hub," and will extend to secondary locations across the county. The hub will also house a year-round play space designed by Building for Kids that can be used by families, community parenting groups, child care programs and more.
First 5 Fox Valley Family Resource Center services will be free to the community.
Shared services model centralizes key needs of child care providers
Child Care Essential Services will consist of five main services, each free to participating regulated child care businesses:
A part-time maintenance technician to help providers with facility needs.
A cleaning service to deep clean child care spaces on a monthly basis.
A part-time information technology consultant to assist with technology needs and questions.
foundational trainings for those in Outagamie County that are needed to work in a child care center or start a regulated family child care (a child care business operated inside a provider's home).
Three full-time substitutes to rotate between participating child care programs.
Accessibility at helm of family resource center plans
First 5 Fox Valley is working to secure a location for its Family Resource Center hub that is easily accessible to public transportation in downtown Appleton.
It also will employ multilingual navigators, who will connect families with the resources they need, and partner with organizations that uplift people of color.
In addition to its main location, the family resource center will have a presence in other locations. While these locations have not yet been determined, Tengesdal said many will be in typically underserved communities, such as rural areas.
Child care shared services network will help families, too
With funding for Child Care Counts, Wisconsin's pandemic-era child care stabilization payment program, set to run out in early 2024, many Outagamie County providers face losing about one-fifth of their revenue or more, said CCR&R Fox Valley Executive Director Candy Hall. Parents will likely have to shoulder at least some of those costs, in addition to inflation costs — even though child care is already unaffordable for most Wisconsinites.
“The idea is (offering a free shared services network will) help lower the cost for child care providers, which ultimately will lower the cost of child care on families," said Outagamie County Development and Land Services Director Kevin Englebert.
More: 4 takeaways about the high cost of child care in Wisconsin and nationwide
Hall said the substitute pool offered under Child Care Essential Services will prevent unexpected disruptions in care.
"Our hope for the sub program is that it will help families because child care programs will hopefully be able to keep classrooms open," Hall said. "We have programs who have shared ‘If two teachers call in sick, it means I have to call 10 parents and tell them they cannot come in today, because I have to maintain ratios, and I don’t have anybody to put in that room.'"
What will the grants cover?
The $2 million grant awarded to First 5 Fox Valley will not cover the entirety of starting the family resource center. The grant funds will be braided with other public and private funding sources to purchase and develop the downtown hub, as well as set up the satellite activities across the county, Tengesdal said.
She expects the center's hub to be up and running by early 2026.
Relying on multiple funding streams will help make the resource center sustainable after the grant's spending deadline of Dec. 31, 2026, along with leasing out office spaces, and meeting rooms to cover ongoing facility costs, Tengesdal said.
The $750,000 grant that CCR&R Fox Valley received will cover the cost of running the shared services network for two years, from its launch in 2024 to the end of 2025. After that, Hall said, providers may need to pay a portion of the cost of the services. However, depending on what services are used the most, the network's budget may be amended so it can provide some services free of charge to providers for longer.
Madison Lammert covers child care and early education across Wisconsin as a Report for America corps member based at The Appleton Post-Crescent. To contact her, email mlammert@gannett.com or call 920-993-7108. Please consider supporting journalism that informs our democracy with a tax-deductible gift to Report for America.
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Pandemic funds go toward more family, child care support in Outagamie County
