Hundreds of parents struggling to pay childcare expenses may qualify for help through a new partnership between the Early Learning Coalition of the Big Bend and the Leon County Children's Services Council.
The CSC is providing $250,000 to the Coalition in an effort to target the ALICE population, which stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. The money will be used to pay for the first month's child care expenses and the remaining 11 months will be paid by ELC, which will be drawing down $2.8 million in federal and state funds for the partnership.
As a result, the ELC expects to help more than 500 children or families receive child care services. Before now, the nonprofit's School Readiness Program required household income to be at or below the 150% poverty level to qualify — meaning a household of two, for example, had to have an annual income of $27,000 or less.
This partnership increases qualifications for that same household to be about $39,000, said ELC CEO Liz Murphy, who's agency works across a seven-county service area.
The initiative, she said, comes as more employed residents may see a wage increase after the passage of a 2020 Florida law to raise minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2026, which will increase $1 every year until then.
"As wages go up – which we're excited about that for employees who are showing up and deserve it – our income scale did not really match the increase of that income going up," Murphy said. "That's why this partnership is...
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