GREEN BAY, Wis. (WFRV) – A Brown County organization is asking families in need to apply for one of their childcare scholarships.
Officials say a $450,000 federal grant awarded to the United Way of Brown County and Family and Childcare Resources of Northeast Wisconsin expires at the end of next month. They still have money remaining on the grant and want people to apply for childcare scholarships so that the money doesn’t go to waste.
“(These childcare scholarships) are a game-changer because families are employed and they have peace of mind that their children are being cared for in a safe, quality environment so they can work,” United Way of Brown County CEO and president Robyn Davis told Local 5 News.
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The childcare scholarships cover some of the costs of childcare for families in need. Officials tell Local 5 News that about $97,300 of the $450,000 grant will go towards the scholarships. The rest they used or will use for training childcare providers and covering supplies for providers that otherwise wouldn’t fit into their budgets.
“There’s urgency because we need to spend the money, but more importantly, there’s urgency on behalf of the families that would benefit,” Davis said.
“Families have talked about how, because they received this scholarship, they were able to put food on their table,” said Jamie Tramte Brassfield, who is the director of finance and administration for Family and Childcare Resources of Northeast Wisconsin. “We also had one family talk about housing and their ability to pay for housing (because of the scholarship covering childcare costs).”
United Way of Brown County and Family and Childcare Resources of Northeast Wisconsin partnered in 2021 to create the culturally responsive childcare initiative. It aims to find solutions for childcare in Brown County.
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Tramte Brassfield and Davis said that high costs and limited availability make childcare very hard to obtain for many families in Brown County.
For more information about the grant they received and what it does to address the childcare problem in Brown County, please click here.
“I don’t think there’s necessarily a silver bullet, but the more that we come around the table and work together, we can come up with continued solutions,” Davis said.
For those interested in applying for a childcare scholarship, please click here.
