HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The need for quality childcare has risen in Alabama.
"When you become a parent, that's kind of the number one thing you worry about the future of your child," shares Quinton Young, Homeownership coordinator for the Huntsville Housing Authority. " For a single parent, childcare is paramount. You can't work if you don't have childcare. You can't pay for housing if you don't have childcare. You can't really do much of anything when you have a child and you're trying to figure it out. You're trying to make a career and there's nowhere for the child to go. So, you want to make sure that you can pay for the child, but also be able to chase your own career as well."
The Community Foundation of Greater Huntsville and the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber announced three new grant-funded initiatives that will focus on increased capacity for childcare in Huntsville. Childcare has been consistently identified as a critical workforce challenge. "We got to talk about quality, and we got to talk about the workforce," Minority Leader Rep. Anthony Daniels shares. "You know, throwing money at a situation without really fully understanding and delving deep into understanding how we move the needle, training people that are in communities where the impact of the lack of childcare and the expense of childcare is impacting the most.
The first two initiatives are funded by the Community Foundation of Greater Huntsville’s Women’s Philanthropy Society (WPS). The WPS Grants Committee selected Huntsville Housing Authority’s Childcare Project and Heart of the Valley YMCA’s Pathways to Solutions to each receive a $50,000 grant. Both programs are addressing the critical shortage of trained childcare workers and childcare openings.
"We're here to accept a grant of $50,000 grant from the community foundation that allows us to create a childcare program that is more of a workforce development, but a full wraparound program," Young shares. "That allows us to train our residents and participants to be childcare certified and also give them a business.
Dr, Shannon Neblett, Chief Director of Development at the YMCA shares her gratitude for the recognition. "The YMCA is grateful for receiving this grant from the Women's Philanthropy Society. With these funds, we will open up CDA certification opportunities to underserved women in the community. It will be completely paid for on top of all of the classes required. We will also be paying for them to take the examination, provide daycare during that time as well. So, we are hopeful that we will not only be able to do this this coming year, but in the future as well.