Sign in
Join now
Much of the federal aid sent to Colorado’s child care centers during the pandemic has helped keep businesses open and solvent.
But one small stream of federal COVID funding — $23 million — was used for innovation in the sector rather than its survival. That money was distributed through the CIRCLE Grant program and helped fund more than 200 projects around the state. The projects included weekly bilingual preschool classes for Armenian-American children, a training program for Head Start parents working as classroom aides, and a loan program to help childcare employees cover emergency expenses.
While the grant represents a fraction of the $678 million in COVID-related federal aid sent to Colorado’s early-year training sector, program leaders are proud of the local efforts they’ve driven.
“Once again, we are seeing that folks that are closest to the problems have the best solutions,” said Jennifer Stedron, executive director of Early Milestones Colorado, which distributed the CIRCLE grants.
Annual grants ranged from $10,000 to $300,000. Many of them aimed to make childcare more available to families. In some cases, that meant creating new study rooms for infants and toddlers or sending cell preschools to underserved neighborhoods. In others, the aim is to better meet expressed needs, for example by adding systems for bilingual students or children with disabilities.
The non-profit organization Armenians of Colorado Inc. she used her $35,000 CIRCLE grant to test a casual Saturday preschool elegance that spoke English and Armenian. A dozen young people participated in the program last spring at First Baptist Church in Denver, some of whom didn’t know a word of Armenian. and others who spoke only Armenian. They listened to poems and stories in Armenian and also did activities in English, adding one about the Easter Bunny.
The concept of “showing children that both languages can be used to have educational and social interactions,” said Simon Maghakyan, an activist with the Armenian network and CIRCLE Grant representative for Colorado Armenians, “it’s vital that they see the price of either. “
Some of the children, ages 2 to 5, had never attended kindergarten, she said. For most, it’s “their first arrival in any of the languages in written form. “The two languages have different alphabets.
The Armenian community has deep roots in Colorado, with some of the earliest immigrants arriving in the late 1800s. Statewide, there are about 5,000 people of Armenian descent. The Armenian Genocide during the World War I era, as well as more recent displacements, have gradually brought more Armenians to the United States and Colorado.
But it’s still a small group, and because of assimilation pressures and English proficiency around the world, it can be tricky to maintain the Armenian language, Maghakyan said. That’s why the Saturday preschool program is important. The CIRCLE grant only provided enough money to plan and execute a three-month pilot, but the organization’s leaders hope to find a way to continue it in the future.
In addition to investing in new systems for children, many CIRCLE grant projects have focused on supporting chronically underpaid early years of education with a pay raise, training, or other benefits.
WorkLife Partnership, a Denver-based nonprofit, used its CIRCLE grant to offer a flexible program offered to employers in exchange for payment to child care providers. The program is helping workers temporarily access small loans at a lower interest rate than payday lenders.
The procedure is simple: Employees who suffer a giant or unforeseen expense, such as a security deposit, application bill, or car repair, can apply for a $1,000 loan through WorkLife with no credit check or collateral requirements. The cash arrives in your bank account in as little as 24 hours. They then pay off the loan through monthly payroll deductions over the course of a year. With interest and administrative fees of $20, the total charge for a $1,000 loan is $1,116.
Logan Jones, WorkLife’s head of money services, said, “It’s designed to be a pay-as-you-go loan. “This helps employees, especially those with bad credit, avoid exorbitant interest rates in a crisis.
He said about 15 workers at two attractive daycare centers in the Denver area took advantage of those loans, at most to cover their housing costs. Borrowers don’t want to say why they apply for the loan, but many do so later as part of voluntary surveys. he explained.
Jones said the merits of getting loans were presented for free to child care providers through the CIRCLE grant, but many didn’t take advantage of it because there were so many opportunities and the grant gives CIRCLE at the same time.
“You want to roll it out gradually over a longer period of time,” Jones said.
Early Milestones’ Stedron said the one-year deadline was too short.
“I wish it had lasted forever, more than a year,” he said.
Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, where she covers issues similar to early formative years and literacy in early formative years. Please contact Ann at [email protected].
Chalkbeat is a non-profit news organization that covers educational settings in public schools.
© 2023 LongmontLeader