Page 86

86 | P a g e FFY 2025–2027 CCDF State Plan

EXPAND grants: one for licensed child care providers to expand their operating hours and a second for government entities and nonprofit organizations to form collaboratives to address the child care access challenges in their communities. Funded by the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act, five licensed child care learning centers, two licensed family child care learning homes, and six nonprofit and government entities received EXPAND grants in October 2023. Providers received awards up to $500,000 and nonprofit and government entities up to $750,000. Project periods run through December 31, 2024, with provider grantees using funds to implement the supports they need to extend their hours and nonprofit and government entities using funds to support providers in their areas and offer child care tuition assistance to their local communities. DECAL is working with University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government to evaluate the implementation and impact of these grants.

e. Other. Specify what population is being focused on to increase supply or improve quality. Describe: Not applicable 4.5.5 Prioritization of investments in areas of concentrated poverty and unemployment Lead Agencies must prioritize investments for increasing access to high-quality child care and development services for children of families in areas that have significant concentrations of poverty and unemployment and do not currently have sufficient numbers of such programs. Describe how the Lead Agency prioritizes increasing access to high-quality child care and development services for children of families in areas that have significant concentrations of poverty and unemployment and that do not have access to high-quality programs. The Lead Agency’s vision statement is that ￿Every child in Georgia will have equal access to high quality early care and education.￿ Goal Four in the Lead Agency’s strategic plan is to ￿Expand Two Generational (2Gen) approaches to better support children and families.￿ To accomplish this, the Lead Agency has developed strategies for achieving this goal. The first strategy is to expand supports and resources for families seeking additional education and/or work experience. The second strategy is to increase community-based 2Gen initiatives. The third strategy is to strengthen family resiliency by engaging families in their children’s care and education. As part of its child care access, consumer education, and family outreach activities, the Lead Agency funds participation in community events to distribute information about accessing early education supports and to provide referrals to high-quality child care. In addition, the Lead Agency developed a family-centered coaching model that trains all Child Care and Parent Services (CAPS) staff to provide family-centered coaching to all CAPS families at initial determination and each annual redetermination on available services and supports. In 2023, the family resource and referral portal, Find Help Georgia, https://findhelpga.org/, went live to connect families to financial assistance, food pantries, medical care, child care, job training, and other free or reduced-cost services in their communities. DECAL is maintaining the site and actively working with Community Based Organizations to ensure the information is up-to-date and accurate to expand access to available resources. Families can search for resources such as financial assistance, food pantries, medical care, child care, job training, and other free or reduced-cost services in their communities through the website. A mobile app for Find Help Georgia has also rolled out and has proven to be highly utilized.

In addition to these 2Gen strategies and activities, the Lead Agency requires that all licensed child