Mayor Visits City-Supported Child Care Center to Celebrate National Community Development Week
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Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway will be visiting Reach Dane’s new child care center on April 11 to celebrate National Community Development Week.
The new center on Latham Drive opened last spring, allowing preschool children to receive a full day of programming that focuses on emotional wellbeing, equality, and autonomy. Reach Dane provides services to 1,000 children, ages 0-5, and is often the last stop for children and families who have very few childcare options. Reach Dane operates 10 regulated child care programs in Dane County, including seven in the City of Madison. Every program has a five star rating.
Federal support from the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and Home Investment Partnerships (HOME) programs allowed the city to grant $300,000 to Reach Dane to buy a new building to expand childcare services for underserved families in Madison.
“The City deeply values the amazing work Reach Dane is doing to provide high-quality, early childhood programming to Madison’s most vulnerable families. Last year, Reach Dane served more homeless children than any other Head Start program in Wisconsin,” said Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway. “We rely on federal dollars like CDBG to continue supporting programs like these that provide an enriching educational experience for underserved kids.”
The CDBG program provides cities with federal funds to provide decent and affordable housing, expand economic opportunities, and support neighborhood centers. In addition to helping Reach Dane buy their new building, the City has also used these funds in 2022 to help more than 70 homeowners with rehabilitation projects, support over 1,300 small businesses with technical assistance, and more.
The HOME program is used in partnership with nonprofits to build, buy, or rehab affordable housing and to provide direct rental assistance to low-income people. In 2022, Madison used these HOME funds to support ACE Apartments, a new development where 84% of the units are affordable. HOME also helped 30 households with down payment assistance to purchase a home, and provided rental assistance to those facing homelessness.
Click here to watch a video on the importance of Community Development Week.
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