REBUILDING GULF COAST
CHILD CARE

he child care sector along the Mississippi Gulf Coast was severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina. The largest number of damaged centers was in Harrison County with half completely unable to open and the remainder open, but needing repairs. Although Jackson and Hancock Counties had fewer centers, and those in Hancock suffered the worst destruction.

Assistance for Child Care Providers

Recognizing that employees need child care in order to return to work, Chevron Corporation paid for and provided contractors and builders to restore licensed child care centers in Jackson County. There was no such corporate sponsor in Harrison and Jackson Counties, so the Katrina Child Care Initiative emerged to rebuild centers in these counties.

MLICCI has partnered with the Help and Hope Foundation, Save the Children, the MSU Early Childhood Institute, United Way of South Mississippi and the Kellogg Foundation and UNICEF to raise money for rebuilding the child care sector along Mississippi’s Gulf Coast though the Katrina Child Care Initiative.

With a grant from the Kellogg Foundation, MLICCI leveraged matching funds from UNICEF to contribute $435,000 to the Katrina Child Care Initiative.

In addition, MLICCI is working in partnership with FOCAL (the Federation of Child Care Centers in Alabama) and the Mississippi Center for Nonprofits to award recovery funds to nonprofit child care centers impacted by Hurricane Katrina.