Spokane Standard

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on child-care facilities in Spokane County with more than 50 child care programs forced to either close temporarily or permanently, according to the non-profit organization Child Care Aware of Washington.

CARES Act funding is helping the City of Spokane provide a financial lifeline to child-care providers and families in need of child-care services via organizations within city limits like Community-Minded Enterprises, according to the TV station KXLY.

CME will be distributing $170,000 to licensed child-care providers to make sure they can keep their doors open and to families that need assistance paying for those services.  

Sprouting Up Kids, a child-care facility in Spokane temporarily shut down after a member of their staff tested positive for the coronavirus.  

“It’s definitely a hardship for our staff because it’s a temporary loss in income,” Katelynn Campbell, director and co-owner of the store, told KXLY.

Sprouting Up Kids received $3,000 from CME and they are putting that money to good use, according to Campbell.

“This $3,000 grant couldn’t have come at a better time just to help us be able to pay our bills and keep our doors open for parents who still need us to provide care,” Campbell told KXLY.

The Children’s Learning Center at Whitworth Church shut down their operations from mid-March through June to protect their staff and community members and lost about $30,000 in the process, according to KXLY.

They were not able to get assistance from CME because they are outside of the Spokane city limits but, Sarah Garrett, the director of the facility told KXLY, they were approved for financial assistance through the Greater Spokane Incorporated and the Washington State Department of Children, Youth and Families.

“All of those things came right in the nick of time…,” Garrett told KXLY. “It’s not as bad as it was. I still continue to search for any funding I can find.”