Project Day Care serves the very low- and low-income families of Leon and surrounding counties who are faced with a short term shelter, income or health crisis.
Child care services are essential to a families ability to find and keep employment. For many low-income clients, child care fees can be prohibitive, consuming much of their paychecks. In addition, some families in an attempt to keep their employment, may seek child care that is not as safe (e.g., leaving child with older sibling, depending on a neighbor, or other family members to assist).
Quality child care gives children an extra boost when it comes to school preparedness. This is especially true of low-income families whose main priority may be getting food on the table, rather than reading to and playing with their children.
A crisis is an event of recent occurrence that interrupted the stability of the family. Grants are not issued for the payment of day care fees that are in arrears or to provide day care for general continuing education.
Recent program statistics indicate:
- 6% of the program clients required day care in a crisis situation focusing on their shelter
13% focused on health
75% required assistance in order to secure or retain employment
- 6% were homeless/G.E.D. clients.
Case work for this program is provided by existing social service agencies. When it is determined by a case worker that a client is in need of day care not available through other public and private programs, the client is referred to Project Day Care. A telephone interview is conducted by a staff program intake worker to determine qualification (income* & residency) and specific needs. The client is requested to locate a suitable licensed day care, arrange for enrollment, and notify the intake worker which day care service or provider is being used.
The intake worker verifies the client's qualifications with the referring case worker**. The intake worker then calls the day care to verify enrollment, determine cost, and authorize acceptance of the child. The parent is responsible for all transportation and registration fees, if any. Placement usually takes less than 2 hours and payments to the care provider are made within 10 days after receiving a bill.
The need for this program is demonstrated by the continued referrals from area agencies/programs. Referral agencies include Kids Incorporated, United Way of the Big Bend, Catholic Social Services, Telephone Counseling and Referral Service, Leon County Health Dept., Refuge House, Tallahassee Police Dept., Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, Dept. of Children and Family Services, Goal Employment, Project Independence, American Red Cross, and Brehon Serenity Shores Maternity Home.
As much as possible, the Project Day Care service delivery system utilizes the current benefit delivery system in place and maintained by other agencies. This eliminates duplication of effort that would otherwise exist. Client outreach is done by staff and case workers in agencies serving the target population. This reduces the amount of staff time required by the program and increases the number of contacts that are made.
* Income qualifications are determined and verified through CFS by using the Food Stamp, Medicaid, Woman, Infants and Children program, or Aid for Families with Dependent Children program income verification. This reduces the amount of staff time and service delivery delays that would be required if a separate and duplication income verification system was utilized.
** All referrals, client intakes, verifications and placements are done via the telephone and FAX. This reduces the time required to assist a family in crisis and eliminates the need for the client to come to the office.
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