Explanation
This ordinance authorizes Columbus City Council to enter into a grant agreement with the Columbus Early Learning Centers in support of the organization’s Step-Up Family Funding program.
CELC a non-profit early learning center that serves over 300 children per year is seeking a grant in the amount of $29,000.00 to be used as Step-Up Scholarships for families. A Step-Up Scholarship will allow families experiencing the effects of the benefits cliff or a lapse in funding to pay $90.00 per week as they work to establish a stable, secure economic future; removing the significant barrier of high quality child care cost, allowing families to access the child care they need for employment and economic self-sufficiency. Our goal is to maintain children's enrollment at our centers, with their parent(s) being able to work and/or go to school continuously.
One of the biggest barriers to employment for those working in hourly wage jobs or entry level salaried positions is the prohibitively high costs of child care and the dearth of quality, accessible public providers. Parents are often left to choose between the lesser of two evils: low-quality care or forgoing needed pay to stay at home and care for a child themselves - which could push the family into poverty.
This lack of affordable childcare is one the largest barriers preventing CELC mothers from achieving economic self-sufficiency. In the January 2018 Spark Report, published by the Women's Fund of Central Ohio, the prohibitive cost of high-quality childcare continues to be a barrier for economic self-sufficiency for women in Ohio. To cover this basic need, federal, state, and local programs help subsidize the cost of childcare for our lowest income families. Gaps occur for many reasons such as; cuts in hours or being laid off from work, or a small raise that increases income to the point where families are responsible for 100% of their childcare costs and the pay increase does not cover that cost. Ap...
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