The City of Goleta is helping out with one of the region’s most pressing needs: child care.
The city agreed at a December meeting to give $250,000 to various child care programs.
The Goleta City Council awarded $150,000 total to Children’s Resource & Referral of Santa Barbara County and Women’s Economic Ventures to help recruit and train 12 new child care providers, among other responsibilities.
It also awarded $50,000 to the Santa Barbara Foundation to increase organizational capacity among nonprofit child care providers, with a priority for providers serving children from newborn to 5 years old.
United Way of Santa Barbara County will receive $50,000 for incentives for businesses to make investments into child care benefits for their employees, and support start-up costs for local employers expanding or launching child care programs and facilities.
Click here for a full list of items for which money will be provided.
“I am happy to see that we’re having a recommendation to significantly invest in Children’s Resource & Referral,” said Goleta City Councilman James Kyriaco, who has made child care one of his top professional priorities.
Goleta Councilman Stuart Kasdin praised the collaboration between Children’s Resource & Referral and the WEV, calling the partnership “unique.”
He noted that there are 150 spaces for children in family-based facilities and 1,320 that are center-based. The gap shows the potential for expansion in the family-based child care centers.
The big need for child care services, he said, is for newborns through 2 years old. About one in eight kids will find a spot in that age group, compared with nine out of 10 spaces available for children ages 3 to 5.
Public schools launched transitional kindergarten for 4-year-olds in 2022, and the program will be in full force for all children who turn 4 by Sept. 1. Preschool teachers in private facilities are in training and getting certified and are expected to move to the public school system, creating a shortage of teachers for newborns and children up to 3 years old.
Kasdin said the money is well spent.
“A lot of the money that we are proposing is going to help expand those opportunities,” Kasdin said. “To the extent that our money is going to be able to help some of those facilities to add capacity for zero to 2, we’re not spending millions, but hopefully that can help make a difference.”
Ashley Goldstein, director of programs for Women’s Economic Ventures, said there is a great need to let community members know that such opportunities exist.
“Outreach to young families and potentially new providers in Goleta is definitely an area of need,” Goldstein said.
