LIMA, Ohio (WLIO) — A local donation is keeping the West Ohio Community Action Partnership’s (WOCAP) Head Start programs open temporarily after the government shutdown halted funding.
The Health Partners of Western Ohio Foundation is stepping in with a $220,000 emergency donation to WOCAP.
The funding will keep WOCAP’s Head Start and Early Head Start programs open for two more weeks after the federal government shutdown delayed new grant funding for November.
The funding will keep WOCAP’s Head Start and Early Head Start programs open for two more weeks after the federal government shutdown delayed new grant funding for November.
Without that support, the program — serving more than 300 children and families in the Lima area — would have been forced to close on Nov. 3, leaving parents without child care and putting 79 employees out of work.
“Seventy-seven percent of our families are employed, and then we were going to have to lay off about 79 staff. So it’s also our staffing that are affected as well. And I think it’s, even with everything that’s going on in the SNAP benefits, most of our families are on SNAP. And so they were going to have kind of a double whammy. So this is really, I think, the true definition of community right here,” said Kimberly Bruns, CEO of the West Ohio Community Action Partnership.
“When we heard that 335 children and families were going to be disrupted by the federal government shutdown due to their grants not being released, we really looked and said, ‘Does this fit with us?’ And this absolutely does. You think about what’s happening in the country, and disruption of the federal government is going to impact some of our children the most, and we know that it’s very important for them to have stability in their lives. This impacts families and parents and their jobs, which would be a ripple effect to their employers. And so we really wanted to step in to say, let’s keep them open. We were able to do two weeks, and we’re hoping that things settle down in Washington,” said Janis Sunderhaus, CEO of Health Partners of Western Ohio.
“The staff shared with me how ecstatic the parents were. They were just so happy because they didn’t know what they were going to do. They didn’t have a backup plan for child care. Some of them said they may have to quit their jobs, so they were really excited. Even our staff, because we were going to lay them off for two weeks, didn’t know what they were going to do. One of the staff told me, ‘I just don’t even know how to say thank you,’” said Phyllis Montrose, child development services director for the Head Start program.
The donation will fund two weeks of care, early education and meals for children until federal funding resumes.
WOCAP says it remains hopeful the shutdown will end soon, but leaders are preparing to seek additional community support if it continues.
