Last week, United States Senators Tom Carper and Chris Coons and USDA officials announced a federal grant award to Primeros Pasos, a non-profit organization dedicated to the establishment of a multi-cultural early child care education center for all children of families living and working in the Georgetown, Delaware area.
USDA recognizes that access to quality child care is a major component in helping the unemployed and underemployed make the transition to employment. This organization is improving the quality of life in rural America and is gifted with the two elements necessary for the success of this facility -- sound management and community support.
Primeros Pasos (First Steps) has developed a multicultural, early learning program designed to prepare preschool children for academic success in elementary school. Their program began in 2007, and currently operates in donated space provided by a local church that provides limited capacity for about 20 children.
Through donations, community support, public and private financing – Primeros Pasos will move from the basement of the church to a 1.3 acre property. Three donated modular buildings are on the site that will be retrofitted into a new multi-cultural, early learning center expected to accommodate up to 68 children. The project is in the early stages of work with an estimated opening in the fall of 2014.
The project is made possible in part by a $50,000 Community Facilities grant provided by USDA Rural Development.
