ACTION ALERTS!

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S LETTER

F

or an update on post-Katrina recovery and our current programs, read this letter from Carol Burnett, MLICCI’s Executive Director.

$25.7 MILLION IN UNSPENT TANF FUNDS
SHOULD BE USED FOR CHILD CARE
FOR THE WORKING POOR

Summary

Assistance with child care has been identified as the single most important factor in helping low-income families successfully leave welfare and maintain jobs. Adequate child care is also an important factor in economic development and job growth. Two federal programs are available for Mississippi to use for million of unspent TANF funds for child care.

DHS has added new barriers for subsidy eligibility that are not part of federal regulations. In so doing, DHS claims that there is no need for additional subsidized child care, when in fact, many families are in dire need of assistance and would be eligible under federal guidelines. MLICCI has conducted a survey of child care workers across the state demonstrating that the need is far greater than DHS asserts.    TOP  »

Read more about the TANF and CCDF programs and how to make them more effective:

You can help!

Share MLICCI's DVD entitled Building A Strong Child Care System for Mississippi's Working Families.

  • Hold meetings at your child care center and with local community groups and invite parents, community leaders, elected official, and the media.
  • Show the DVD and share local, personal stories about the importance of affordable, full-time child care for working parents with young children.
  • If you need more copies of the DVD, or if you would like help planning your local meetings contact the Mississippi Low-Income Child Care Initiative at info@mschildcare.org
  • Watch the video online

    • Contact government officials and tell them to support strategies that improve and increase low-income child care:

    Support using TANF funds for child care, contact:

    • Governor Haley Barbour, 501 N. West Street, 15th Floor, Jackson, MS 39201, tel: 601-359-3150
    • Don Taylor, MDHS Executive Director, 750 North State Street, Jackson, MS 39202, tel: 601-359-4500
       

    Support creation of a grant program to provide money to child care centers to help them afford to participate in the new quality rating system, the Mississippi Child Care Quality Step System.

    Support including child care as a component of Mississippi's economic development strategy so that federal Community Development Block Grant funds can be used to expand the supply of affordable child care for low and moderate income working parents.

    • Contact the Governor's Office (see above) and Mississippi Development Authority
      Mississippi Development Authority, P.O. Box 849, Jackson, MS 39205, 601-359-3449
The MS Department of Human Services has opted to leave over $25 million in TANF funds unspent rather than use them to address low-income families’ urgent need
for child care.
Assistance with child care has been identified as the single most important factor in helping low-income families successfully leave welfare and maintain jobs.