Grant to support child care plan in southern Indiana
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The Indiana Economic Development Association Foundation and Duke Energy Foundation have awarded a grant to support the development of a comprehensive plan to enhance childcare in southern Indiana.
The effort will be undertaken by One Southern Indiana and Ivy Tech Community College in Sellersburg.
The recipients say they will use the $18,000 grant to conduct research on understanding the gaps in the current child care system and formulate a plan to overcome those challenges.
“A lack of affordable, high-quality child care options can limit parents’ ability to work and participate in the workforce, which can negatively impact the economic development of our region, “ 1si CEO Wendy Dant Chesser said in a news release. “One Southern Indiana and Ivy Tech Sellersburg believe this project will help us better understand our region’s childcare gaps and develop a plan to address them.”
The project will be conducted in three phases: planning and strategy development, stakeholder engagement and innovation assessment, and reporting findings and community engagement.
“We are thrilled about this grant, which enables us to explore our community’s childcare needs deeply,” said Ivy Tech Sellersburg Travis Haire. “Through this project, we will be able to analyze data, identify gaps, and propose recommendations to enhance accessibility and quality of childcare in southern Indiana.”
1si and Ivy Tech did not provide a timeline for when the plan will be completed but said regular updates and progress reports will be made for the purposes of transparency.