A new grant program will help Atlanta child care providers who serve low-income families stay afloat amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The program will award grants of up to $20,000 to eligible applicants to pay for basic expenses and other costs as they struggle with declining revenues.
The emergency money is provided by the United Way of Greater Atlanta, the Joseph B. Whitehead Foundation and the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation.
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The Atlanta group Promise All Atlanta Children Thrive teamed up with the nonprofit Quality Care for Children to announce the program.
“This emergency fund aims to ensure that the City of Atlanta’s early learning sector remains stable to allow our children to have access to high-quality early learning opportunities when we emerge from this public health crisis,” said Brittany Collins, director of PAACT, in a written statement.
Licensed child care centers and family child care homes that provide early learning and care for children from birth to age five are eligible for the grant program. That includes providers that stay open during the pandemic or close temporarily. Applicants are expected to pay employees if they receive funding, even if the centers close.
Nearly two thirds of the state’s child care providers reported in a survey that they are less than a month away from closing for good, according to the grant program organizers.
Eligible providers must be located in the City of Atlanta and meet other eligibility requirements.
Top priority will go to those that serve low-income families and operate within the neighborhoods that serve Washington and Douglass high schools or other high-need areas.
Promise All Atlanta Children Thrive is a city alliance brought together by the nonprofit Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students.
Providers are asked to apply for the funding by May 1.
For more information, email info@paactatl.com.
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