Montgomery College Receives Grant to Offer Education to Child Care Providers

[Howard Hartman]

Montgomery College Receives Grant to
Offer Education to Child Care Providers

Program Will Support New Family Child Care Initiative

The Montgomery College Foundation recently received a grant for $50,000 from the Early Care and Education Funders Collaborative of the Washington Area Women's Foundation. The grant will support the College's family child care initiative, which is designed to deliver training to child care providers who care for children ages 0 to 5 within their homes.

Family child care providers are often an overlooked group in the larger field of early child care education but they provide a valuable child-care option for many working parents in the community. Montgomery College's initiative—run by the Workforcce Development and Continuing Education division—willl serve 120 to 200 people. The grant-supported initiative will offer information sessions and pre-service training (now required by the Maryland State Department of Education) for people interested in the profession, provide technical assistance to family child care providers, and conduct MSDE credentialing seminars for family child care providers interested in continuing their professional development and education.

"As a higher education institution, Montgomery College is committed to providing training and professional development opportunities to family child care providers," said Dr. Betty McLeod, program director of Montgomery College's Early Childhood Program. "Family child care providers are important and valued resources in our community, and we have the ability to educate and enhance their role in early child care through the Family Child Care Fundamentals initiative."

The Early Care and Education Funders Collaborative is one of four funds under the Washington Area Women's Foundation's Stepping Stone initiative to increase the economic security and financial independence of low-income, women-headed families in the Washington region. The Early Care and Education Funders Collaborative awarded $125,000 for the June 2009 grant cycle. Other grantees are Prince's Georges Child Resource Center ($50,000) and WETA ($25,000). In addition to the Washington Area Women's Foundation, the partners that form the Early Care and Education Funders Collaborative include PNC Bank, the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, Boeing, the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation, the City Bridge Foundation, Freddie Mac Foundation, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

"The grants provided by the Early Care and Education Funders Collaborative will help prepare more young children for kindergarten, and will open doors to better paying careers for child care workers," said Craig Pascal, senior vice president and territory manager of community development banking at PNC Bank and co-chair of the collaborative.

The Washington Area Women's Foundation is building stronger communities by investing in the power of women and girls. Since its founding in 1998, the Foundation has helped improve the lives of 300,000 women and girls in the Washington area region.

For more information about the Washington Area Women's Foundation

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