Agenda - 06-30-1992 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Presentation to County Commissioners' Meeting on June S, 1992 I am Judy Stewart, President of the Board of Directors of Day Care Services Association. Thank you for allowing me to address you tonight. You have all received a letter from me on behalf of our agency that outlines our request - -so I won't go over the content of the letter again. I would just like to summarize a few points that I hope you will consider in making your decision. First, Day Care SeriflZ ' Associatio as been providing services to low income families and providers in Orange CV for 17 ye Up until now, we have never requested funds from the county, but rather used e United Way, the towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro, and private contributions to provide scholarships to families. However, funds from these entities are all directed toward scholarships and only pass through DCSA. We have used monies from fundraising initiatives, such as concerts at the Dean Smith Center, to administer both the scholarship program and the entire agency. However, these funds have greatly diminished and this is no longer feasible. Secondly, Day Care Services Association's entire cost for the administration of a $120,000 scholarship program and an agency with a budget in exce ainate'with is y $30,000. We are asking for the county to provide for one -fourth of this c t- -o Thirdly, Day Care Services Association works dilige and supplement the day care subsidy program offered by the Department of Social Services. Over the past couple of years DCSA has -been there- to pick up on the needs of c 1' s or ro s of- famtlies when DSS has needed or directly asked for our assistance. For example, when, because of lack of funds, DSS terminated subsidy to families needing childcare for.wchoolage children , DCSA provided subsidy to many of these families. Over the years, when families receiving DSS funding have lost funding because they received a slight raise and became ineligible, DCSA has helped these families be able to continue in child care with scholarship assistance. When DSS has not had money to help particular families in crisis, such as families living in Community House needing day care, DCSA has provided scholarships. Finally, weeppreciate that these are difficult tim6for the county and county funding. However, these are also extremely difficult times for our agency and the families that we serve. Child care in our county is not affordable for low income families without assistance. Between the subsidy programs offered by DSS, our subsidy program, and the subsidies given by nonprofit day care providers, we, as a community, are still not meeting the needs of families. Without assistance from the county, DCSA may be forced to take funds that have been historically used to fund scholarships for families and use these to cover administrative costs. $7,500 is not a lot of money in the scheme of our county, but it is a lot of money to families. We appreciate the difficulty of the task that you have before you. We hope that you can find a way to help us with our current need. Thank you.