The Guthrie Center Area Development Corporation has been awarded nearly $300,000 in funding from the Child Care Business Incentive Grant program to address an identified childcare shortage in the community. Currently, Guthrie Center only has enough licensed child care spaces for 16 percent of the children in Guthrie Center, but several organizations and businesses are actively working to build a new facility for an existing provider, the Little Charger Early Learning Center. The local school district, city leaders, and others plan to raise $1.74 million to build the center a new facility, which will provide space for an additional 37 child care slots. New Hope in Carroll was also chosen to receive funding through the program, but a much smaller amount. New Hope was awarded $17,500 to establish a new center to serve employees’ families and, eventually, the community at large. The project is anticipated to help at least 15-25 families, primarily those working afternoon and evening shifts, focusing on learning activities and serving special needs children. Seventeen other projects were chosen statewide to receive $26.6 million to build new child care facilities or expand existing ones. Due to the high level of interest in this first round of funding, Iowa Workforce Development (IWD) and the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced a second round of grants to be awarded. A complete list of the latest recipients and grant application materials are included below.
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2022 Child Care Business Incentive Infrastructure and Slots Awards
Child Care Business Incentive Grant Application
