HomeMy Public PortalAboutSupport for Early Childhood Education - IndividualCity of Watertown, MA
ARPA Project Proposal
Submitted by: Monica Fall
Submitted on: May 21, 2023
Request Number: ARPA-5
Project Name: Support for Early Childhood Education
Proposal Type: Individual
Recommended Project Manager:
Project Summary:
Provide support to the essential workers in early childhood education
Amount of ARPA Funds Requested: $
Minimum Funds Needed: $
Matching funds available? Don't Know
Other funds available? Don't Know
Project Narrative: I will use the form to enter narrative
Narrative description of the project:
To the Committee of the Budget and Fiscal Oversight,
I'm writing to you today to request your consideration of using some of the funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) for an extremely important group of essential workers, early
childhood educators and childcare workers. The early education and care industry has been particularly hard hit by the pandemic and is still struggling to recover
(https://www.wbur.org/news /2022/08/10/child-care-budget-economic-development-bill).
The stakeholders who gain from supporting early education and care workers are numerous. The workers gain some financial stability. Their employers gain peace of mind that their
employees are less likely to leave for better paying retail or commerce jobs. Owners can stay open and continue serving the community. Businesses benefit from the money that families
and early education and care workers are able to keep earning and spending.
Most importantly, families and caregivers maintain their access to quality care, and children maintain their quality early education. Numerous studies support what families know from
experience: the first years of schooling make a huge difference in our children's lives (https://www.ffyf.org/new -harvard-study-reveals-lasting-benefits-quality-early-childhood-education/).
Boston used $5.6M of their ARPA funds to support early education and care workers (https://www.boston.gov/news/5600000 -american-rescue-plan-act-funds-allocated-support-child-
care-centers-and-essential#:~:text=These%20grants%20are%20part%20of,Rescue%20Plan%20Act%20(ARPA).). This demonstrates not only that this is an appropriate use of these
funds, but that this is also a worthwhile use of these funds.
Thank you again for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Monica Fall
Detailed Project Budget:
Timeline for the project:
Resources required in addition to the ARPA funding:
Metrics for success of the project:
Outputs / outcomes:
What will be the overall beneļ¬t?