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City of Duluth's 1200 Fund provides funding to support regional Child Care Workforce Solutions Pilot Project

[DULUTH, MN] –The City of Duluth’s 1200 Fund announced today in a news conference at City Hall with community partners from the Northland Foundation its funding support, by way of a $300,000 grant, for the regional Child Care Workforce Solutions Pilot Project, which is being administered by the Northland Foundation.

The Child Care Center Workforce Solution Pilot Project will make available flexible funding through a competitive process to licensed child care center and family programs to help with staff recruitment and retention. Selected pilot projects will also receive peer learning opportunities and specialized trainings. The Northland Foundation will award funding ranging from $1,500 to $12,000, through a competitive process, to eligible child care programs based on existing licensing capacity. “Northland and our partners are doing what we can to support workforce attraction and retention to help address our region’s significant child care shortage,” states Tony Sertich, Northland Foundation President. “The City of Duluth 1200 Fund’s $300,000 grant to our organization provides a major boost to extend the reach of this pilot within the City of Duluth and help stretch additional funding from partners including the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation across the region.”

“We know the child care shortage is negatively impacting the workforce, families, businesses, and our communities. We are pleased to partner with the Northland Foundation to launch this new opportunity to help stabilize and grow child care program capacity to serve more families with young children,” stated Elena Foshay, Director of Duluth Workforce Development.

“This partnership with Northland Foundation is a stepping stone in the right direction to assist providers in their time of need,” said Deb Otto, member of the 1200 Fund board. “We are thrilled to partner with the Northland Foundation and appreciative of all of the work they have done in the childcare space.”

Applications will be accepted beginning today through December 13 at https://northlandfdn.org/grants/apply-report.php. Awards will be finalized the week of January 24, 2023.

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