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The pandemic has taken a terrible toll on child care providers.

Fortunately, help is available. Providers can – and should – apply for federally funded Child Care Stabilization grants. All programs that are licensed by the Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) are eligible.

Most important of all: Every program that applies and was open on March, 11, 2020, and is open now will receive funding.

The federal government has invested nearly $122 billion in Covid relief funds for K-12 schools.

Early education and care has received historic levels of relief funding as well, and providers should use these funds to stabilize and rebuild.

Most EEC-licensed programs have applied for the grant, but a small percentage still have not.

So here at Strategies for Children, we’re encouraging everyone to apply!

Strategies has been working with EEC to provide technical assistance in applying, and we’ve posted some helpful resources here.

To encourage everyone else to apply for the grant, we’ve shared the perspectives of providers who have already applied in two YouTube videos.

Geralyn Fagan, a family child care provider in Dorchester, heard about the grant through the nonprofit organization Project Hope, she says in a video about family child care providers, adding, “individual providers also supported each other” in applying.

When Fagan had a question, she called the help desk, “and they were so amazing… There’s a lot of assistance if you’re having difficulties.”

Joyce Browne Richelieu, a family child care provider in Dorchester, says, “I checked with my accountant and decided to apply for the grant, and the process for me was very simple.” Browne Richelieu also got on the phone to tell her colleagues about the grant and helped walk them through the process of applying. She used the funds she received to buy new equipment for the children in her care. She also plans on giving her assistant a Christmas bonus.

Gloria Valentin-Denson, a family child care provider in Hyde Park, says, the grant “was a great opportunity especially with the amount of financial loss that many of us have endured.” Because the pandemic forced so many programs to temporarily close, “The domino effect of our finances is really impacting a lot of educators right now who are self-employed.”

Valentin-Denson participated in Strategies for Children’s Speakers’ Bureau program. Her advice for providers who apply: keep checking the portal to keep on top of recertification requirements.

“This, by far, was one of the easiest applications,” Luisa Palladino says. She is the center director at the YWCA of Central Massachusetts, as well as a participant in Strategies for Children’s Speakers’ Bureau program. The video she appears in features group and school aged providers.

The funding her program received was used to give bonuses to existing and new staff, a crucial move given the workforce shortages in the field.

Jessie Vogel, the director of North Shore Nursery School, said she learned about the funding from another director, and she found the process of applying to be “fairly seamless, and now I’ve since reached out to other directors and encouraged them to apply.”

The grant has also had an impact on North Shore Nursery’s Schools’ strategic planning process, prompting a discussion about the future of staff salaries, based on “the reality of how much work they do in comparison to what they make.”

“If you can’t take care of your teachers, then you’re really not advocating as best you can for the field.”

Kelly Pellagrini, the director of Charlestown Nursery School says, “It also felt important from an advocacy perspective to be counted. One of the things that we’re not so great about doing in our field is talking about how hard this is.”

Charlestown also used its funding to provide staff bonuses. “It’s what other industries do without blinking,” Pellagrini says, adding, “We are only as good as our teachers.”

The take home lesson: Apply for the grant.

It’s a vital way to support children, families, staff, and the early education field as a whole.

For more information contact EEC’s ARPA Child Care Stabilization Grant Help Desk Support at 833-600-2074 or eecgrantsupport@mtxb2b.com.