Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Kaity Altu, Grant Manager, Child Care Connections at Family of Woodstock about the importance of investing in children. The NYS Office of Children and Family Services is offering a new grant opportunity to help open new child care programs in our region!  The INVEST IN NEW YORK CHILD CARE DESERTS GRANT hopes to address child care deserts across our state by offering $100 million in funding to help build child care in the areas of New York with the least supply. Child care deserts are areas that do not have enough licensed and registered child care slots to serve the children who live there and can be found throughout NY State. The grant is open until Thursday, May 18th.

We talk about the grant as well as the importance of childcare for a well functioning society, the challenges faced by childcare providers, the financial barrier to childcare and the issues that impact it, and how the US ranks in global terms of investment in childcare and child poverty.

You can reach out to Kaity with childcare questions at [email protected] and checkout her "krafts" on Facebook.

Here are the other resources I mentioned; Screening children for anxiety via NPR.

Freakonomics Podcast - Why does the US have the highest child poverty rates.

And last but not least, the Heal Well "Together for Mental Health Panel" that I mentioned and will be moderating on May 5 at 5:30pm.

Today’s show was engineered by Ian Seda of Radio Kingston.

Our show music is from Shana Falana !!!

Feel free to email me, say hello: [email protected]

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