Family Promise of Gallatin Valley awarded $989,734.45 grant from the State of Montana
Bozeman, MT – Family Promise, the nation’s leading nonprofit addressing family homelessness and early learning, has announced a grant award in the amount of $989,734.45 through the State of Montana. This funding allows Family Promise to significantly expand existing services at Rising Stars Early Learning Center by both increasing capacity and hours of operation.
Recommended by Montana’s ARPA Health Advisory Commission and subsequently approved by Governor Gianforte, the funding is meant to increase childcare capacity by opening new or significantly expanding current childcare facilities.
“This opportunity will help increase access to sustainable, quality childcare for Montana families by bolstering availability at the local level,” Governor Gianforte said.
“This funding is meant to fill current voids childcare providers have identified in the communities they serve.”
Montana’s current childcare crisis results in not enough supply to meet the demand, exacerbated by not being able to recruit and retain staff. One in six childcare jobs was lost during the pandemic and turnover rates were high, around 30 percent. The intent of the funding is to expand equitable access to high quality childcare, promote and support parental choice, appropriately support a skilled workforce, and facilitate a robust childcare sector thereby supporting Montana businesses and the economy.
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Funding will allow Rising Stars to increasing enrollment, increase hours of operation, and open one day per weekend. This will open an additional 40 childcare spots: 24 spots for children aged 0-2 and 16 spots |
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for children aged 3-5. Overall, with this proposed extension of services, Rising Stars will offer a total of 56 more affordable, high quality, childcare early learning slots. According to Family Promise Executive Director, Christel Chvilicek, “By including affordable childcare and early learning in our holistic approach to ending family homelessness, we are piloting an innovative system for empowering low income, homeless, and other vulnerable populations in our community. Expanding our services over the next three years allows us to impact over 56 additional families and uplift our community one child, and one family, at a time.” |
Currently, Rising Stars ELC has 66 children enrolled, ages 0 to 5. 13 of these families are recipients of the Best Beginnings state scholarship and 21 families are on the Family Promise childcare scholarship. The remaining families are full tuition paying families. 31% of the families we serve are minority families, some of which do not speak English as a first language.
With the grant award, Family Promise will further increase access to childcare for underserved and vulnerable populations, especially minority families and families facing housing instability or homelessness. Family Promise’s Rising Stars Early Learning Center provides quality childcare and early learning experiences to families and their children, regardless of their ability to pay.
To learn more about the impact of Family Promise in our community, visit familypromisegv.org or call (406) 582-7388.
