Three Castlegar child care facilities will receive Child Care Capital Grants from the Columbia Basin Trust.
The Trust announced over $1 million to create 100 new licensed child care spaces and provide new equipment and improvements to 41 facilities in the Basin on Thursday.
“These new spaces are an essential step forward in helping families around the Basin access child care,” said Johnny Strilaeff, CEO of Columbia Basin Trust, in a press release. “We’re also helping child care providers add equipment and upgrade their facilities to provide safer and more engaging places that support early learning and healthy child development.”
The three Castlegar facilities receiving funding are Arrow Lakes Preschool, Kootenay Family Place (KFP) Society for Children and Youth’s Hobbit Hill Children’s Centre, and Silly Monkeys Childcare.
None of the three child care providers are creating new spaces, but they are upgrading their equipment or facilities.
Arrow Lakes Preschool is receiving $5,000 to purchase active play equipment.
KFP’s Hobbit Hill Children’s Centre is receiving $20,665 to relocate its storage space and convert the existing storage space into additional facility space to improve the quality of care for children and the workplace for staff.
Silly Monkeys Childcare is receiving $5,000 to purchase equipment “to enhance outdoor play, including tricycles, scooters and safety equipment” and to “support the delivery of recently created child care spaces by purchasing storage and play furniture.”
“We are extremely grateful to the Columbia Basin Trust for funding our project to enhance our indoor and outdoor spaces,” Danielle Kozak, director and owner of Silly Monkeys Childcare, wrote in an email. “The staff and I identified areas in our programs that could be improved by the funding and we are very excited to put our plan into action. This project will be integral in enriching our program and providing the children with continued opportunities for growth.”
This is the first intake for the Child Care Capital Grants program, which launched in the fall of 2017.
The program is offering $1 million per year for three years. The next intake is will take place in spring 2018.
Visit ourtrust.org/childcarecapitalgrants for more information.