Program areas at Child Care Connections
Resource and referral program: as a Child Care resource and referral agency (ccr&r), Child Care Connections (ccc) offers programming that supports families and early childhood professionals. This is done by administering the best beginnings Child Care scholarship (bbs) which provides financial support to income-eligible parents or guardians to pay for Child Care while working or in school. In addition, ccc administers the stars to quality program which serves as Montana's Child Care quality rating system. During the 2023 program year, 940 children and 646 families in our service area received safe, licensed Child Care because of the bbs. Ccc distributed over 560 Child Care referrals to families seeking licensed Child Care programs. Additionally, ccc assisted 201 Child Care providers in obtaining or maintaining licenses and offering safe Care to 5,574 area children. To do this, our staff provided 986 hours of coaching and technical assistance to local early childhood professionals, enhancing the quality of Care given to children and families.
Other programs: in the 2023 program year, ccc offered a variety of wrap around services. Through our safety program we distributed 216 bike helmets to the community. Launched in august of 2022, Child Care Connections' gap Child Care scholarship is an innovative program taking down the barriers to Child Care. Helping families cover the cost of Child Care for up to three months, this program offers wraparound support to ensure that local families have the tools to continue on a successful path forward. During the 2023 program year, 157 children were given access to quality Child Care through the gap Child Care scholarship program throughout our service area. $183,752 in gap Child Care scholarships were awarded to families across gallatin, park, lewis & clark, and jefferson counties.
Child and adult Care food program: the Child and adult Care food program (cacfp) reimburses participating licensed Child Care providers for serving healthy meals to the children in their Care. By administering the cacfp local Child Care providers received $407,234 in reimbursement for 229,637 nutritious meals that were served to children in Care. Beyond serving healthy meals, this program also offers support to Child Care providers and families including nutrition education and basic culinary education for children.