Alcona County in Michigan's Upper Peninsula is known as a " childcare desert," with a low number of providers and a high number of kids needing care, reports the Alpena Montmorency Alcona Educational Service District.
That's why AMAESD and Alcona community schools are working together to bring more child care into the county with the help of a rural child care innovation program grant, MLive.com reports.
"There was a whole slew of grants coming through Michigan through the caring for my future grants and one was the Rural Child Care Innovation Program grant and it was written for Alcona County, because Alcona County is in what's known as a childcare desert," says Angela Bruning, AMAESD's Great Start collaborative coordinator.
"So the ratio of kids needing childcare to those available to provide it, is low."
Bruning says they're working with home and group providers to figure out how to bring more childcare programs into the county, and they've already got some existing before and after school programming in place.
"So there's a lot of moving parts around the childcare challenge, there's no silver bullet involved for sure," she says.
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