 CCFAP. Your show for the month of March, we're still in March, right? And in the final days, and we're excited to have you join us. We are going to focus most of the show tonight on our new early learning initiative and the two different elements of that. There's a capacity grant element and a new element, which is we call the First Step Scholarships Program. And I have Rebecca Reese from CEDO here to help me with this conversation. And we also, of course, as usual, want to hear from you. So the number's there on the screen, 862-3966. Call us to talk about high-quality childcare about the main topic of the show, but we're also happy to talk about anything else that's on your mind that has to do with the city of Burlington as we head into spring here. It is feeling spring-like today, finally, huh? Absolutely, it's gorgeous out there today. It is a beautiful day. We actually got down on the bike path for a few minutes and saw the new park that we're gonna be opening up this summer there. And we're gonna be calling, I think, Water Works Park on the west side of the water plant, and that's gonna be an exciting part of the summer. So we have to talk about that as well, or other parks if people don't wanna talk about City Hall Park, which has been in the news again, we can do that. But first let me tee off the conversation about high-quality childcare and Burlington's early learning initiative. I'm really excited about this. This is something that I have wanted to do really since being elected. Somehow, I read one book during the long campaign when I first was running for this job, which was Paul Tufts, Whatever It Takes, which is a great book about the Harlem Children's Zone and what they have done to really turn around that part of New York City. And one of the big things that they did was to have a big push on early learning and a whole series of programs there, baby college, but when I came away from that and other things over the last, other kind of early conversations I was part of in my first couple of years as mayor was a sense that high-quality childcare may be the most important neglected area of public investment in America. We actually spend, if you think about it, very little public money on our youngest kids, ages zero to three. Once kids get into the kindergarten system, we then start spending a lot of public money. And now, even with pre-K, we spend some public dollars on four and five-year-olds that are not yet in the kindergarten. But we are unique among kind of industrialized nations, if you will, for how little we spend in those earliest years. And that is ironic and unfortunate in that that is probably where government spending could have the biggest impact on social problems, on the lives of those kids. So much happens in terms of brain development and in terms of just sort of setting the behaviors and the the adverse child events in these first thousand days. Basically, these first thousand days of life are critical. We know that investing in kids in those years results in paybacks in terms of public. There's this idea of a public return on investment, which has been calculated in Vermont, I think be at least three to one for every dollar we spend in those early years. And yet we don't do very much of that. And so Burlington, fundamentally, we've been for years trying to think, is there a way for us to do something here in Burlington? There's a handful of cities around the country that have stood up some kind of program, but not very many. This is one of the many areas where Burlington is sort of on the cutting edge. And for the last couple of years now, we have had some progress on this. So let me, I'll take a breath here and turn it over for you, Rebecca. Why don't we dive right into the exciting news? We can come back to the capacity room, why don't we start with what we're in the middle of right now, in case there's anyone watching out there. Now we're on the kind of replay of this show. There's actually a very exciting opportunity for that is open to people right now, and will be open until April 5th. It's been, we're calling it the first steps scholarship program. Why don't you describe it, Rebecca? Yeah, absolutely. So the Early Learning Initiative has been one of Mayor Weinberger's biggest projects and efforts in the last few years. Again, the capacity grants we can come back to. But this is the first year for the first steps scholarship program, and it's just so exciting. We are taking funds and putting them directly into scholarships for the most vulnerable families and the most vulnerable residents of Burlington. We're looking at some of our youngest citizens, residents in the city. These are children, ages, infants, just up to two years old. The application opened just this month. And again, just like you said, it closes April 5th. So go to the city website to look for the application and fill it out. We're gonna be leveraging two sets of funds through this program. The city is also putting in money, but we're also leveraging the state childcare financial money that's out there. It's the state subsidy funds. And to help with this process, we've actually hired somebody through the Let's Grow Kids nonprofit to help with the applications. We don't wanna be able to, or we don't wanna be creating any other additional barriers to getting people to access these funds and these programs. So literally if someone wants to fill out an application, they can get some help with that. There's some complexity to the application, especially if maybe English is in your first language. And this person would actually help with the completion of the application. Absolutely. So like I said, the application is on the city website. You can fill it out there and send us in your stuff, or you can contact directly. Her name is Paula Bonnie, and she is just wonderful. Her number, I'll give it a few times throughout this, is 802-448-4307. So she's helping throughout the process to help fill out the application and also to pull the documentation together. So the folks that are actually eligible for the program, you have to make 65% or less of the area median income. This varies depending on family size. So right on the application, those numbers are there, so you can kinda check that out and see. So you'll have to prove how much money you make, whether it's through information from your employer, your W-2, paystubs, anything like that. You also have to prove that you're a Burlington resident. Because this money can be used for childcare outside of Burlington, but it has to be used for Burlington families. So you have to prove your residency. And then once you get through the application program with Paula, we'll work with you to also find a spot. We are accepting 20 children in this first year. It's our pilot year, so we wanna make sure that we can get it right with these first 20 children. So we have slots held around the area, both in Burlington and a couple surrounding towns as well. In high quality childcare centers. Yeah, that's a key point. Let's talk about that a little bit in this idea of high quality childcare. I think, to some, it's not intuitive what that means necessarily. And, but it turns out it's really critical. It's the difference between a child in this first thousand days of life having a high quality experience where they're really being, getting a lot of individualized attention, where they're being stimulated and engaged consistently. The difference in outcomes for kids that have that kind of high quality experience versus something less where they're put in front of the television set or just not putting a corner to kind of play on their own or to be kind of extreme about it has a huge impact on whether or not this is actually a positive experience and helps with that child's future development or not. So that is a key part of this, right there. And the money that we're making available is for scholarships for Burlington kids ages zero to three ultimately, but they have to be two when they apply, I think is the point, right? Absolutely. But it's to help kids from zero to three years of age. However, the other, and you can use these scholarships anywhere if it's helpful for that family's life because there's a job at a Milton or a Williston or something like that. You can take the scholarship as portable, you can go there, but it has to be invested in a high quality program defined as a program that I believe is getting four or five stars from the state's grading system. Is that right? Yeah, absolutely. So registered childcare centers all over the state including in Burlington are rated on this star system. And so high quality actually constitutes four and five stars. So this funding has to go to children that are enrolled in high quality childcare centers. So four and five stars. But like I mentioned earlier, we actually have 20 held slots around the area. So we're happy to work with those families that are awarded a scholarship to either use one of those spots or we can, if they have a spot somewhere else, they can use the funds there. Great. Yeah, absolutely. That is one of the hopes that, what is the kind of theory of change here? What is this program gonna do? Well, first of all, it should really help kids that otherwise, we know there's a big gap. We know there's something like 300 or so kids born into Burlington families every year. So call it 900 in ages zero to three, excuse me. And we know that the number of high quality slots, childcare slots in Burlington at least serving that population is around 100 or something like that, right? Yeah, absolutely. It definitely does not keep pace with all the children that are being born in the city and in the area. It's really difficult to find childcare around here. And it's one of the issues that this whole program is really trying to address, both with now the scholarships, getting families directly into these slots and also trying to create new ones through the capacity grants that have been going on for a couple years now. Yeah, exactly. So we'll talk about the capacity grants in a second. My hope too is that the, if we get this new program really stood up and stable and it's clear it's gonna be there for a while and it should be. The funding source for this is a structural part of the budget. We have these essentially restricted funds that per our charter are supposed to be used. We're originally money that was flowing to the schools, frankly, but then the state financing said that that was not legal. And so we are redirect, I think consistent with the spirit of that initial charter amendment that creates this funding source. We are doing something that certainly benefits the schools and that investing in kids zero to three will downstream when we talk about these public returns and investment. All the studies suggest that if you get this right, the need for special education later on is less the need for all sorts of negative public spending. To address problems goes down, whether it's corrections or drug treatment or what happens to kids in those early years and has a big impact on those downstream events is the belief. And so I guess my point I'm trying to make is I think if we create this program, it's clear it's gonna be around and we can even grow it and we're already looking at ways without going to taxpayers to try to grow this program over time. And there should be ways to fund this over time that if it really does save us in other areas we should be able to redirect some funds whether it's healthcare dollars or perhaps some day other public sources into growing this program. The existence of these scholarships could lead other programs to say, you know, we really should think about upgrading so we become a four or five star program or maybe the existing four and five star programs when they see that there are gonna be more of these kids coming through with these funding sources they may expand the number of slots. And so I think the scholarship program, hopefully if it works the way it did in Minnesota which is our model for a lot of this program should actually expand the number of high quality slots that exist in the area on its own. In addition to that, we have this grant program. So why don't you talk about that? Oh yeah, absolutely. So the grant program has been going on for a couple of years now. The first year was last year we had several applications and awardees come in and we actually created and will be coming online 62 new spots in town. Several of these are at the YMCA which will come on next year. And even more of them are at the Sarah Holbrook Community Center which should be coming on in 2021 which is just incredibly exciting to be able to pull all those new spots right here into our city. Other spots were created in various other centers as well. So that has been a huge help to the city and to try and really address this issue. Yeah, and then the scholarships will just continue to pull in funds both from the city and again from the state childcare subsidy program as well because the scholarship is set up to leverage both of those funds for each family. Yeah, yeah. So the Y program is very exciting. If anyone's been down College Street recently you've probably seen it. This is the old Ethan Allen Club that is now under it's a massive construction site and they're moving right along, their steel is up, they're starting to close the building in and it's really, I believe that will probably be the largest expansion of the childcare system. I think in the zero to three area that we've seen in a long time, right? It's very long time. Absolutely. 15 spots, yeah. It's gonna be incredible and it's just gonna bring such an amazing resource to the city. It's really gonna be incredible, yeah. Yeah, and we're quite excited about that. The city is just a small part of why they were able to do this but we were happy to be able to be one of the funders to contribute to get that off the ground. This is our whole Brook Projects not quite at the groundbreaking stage yet. I actually haven't heard an update on that for a little while. What's their goal now? Yes, absolutely. I believe that the slots should be, the goal is to come on 2021 and I think they're gonna be breaking ground really soon. I think that's coming along. Great, well, that's exciting. It is very exciting. And how many spots there? What's the expansion they're gonna be? Eight. Eight there, yeah, absolutely. But that's a totally new program for them which is just really great. They're going into the infant and toddler care. Awesome. Yeah. We also had Ohavi Zedek open up a new facility. A new facility for sure. That was kind of a cool example where it was a pretty small amount of money that the city invested, but it really kind of helped unlock. It basically helped pay for a bathroom renovation, I believe, right? Yeah, absolutely. So that they could get through the state regulations and make sure they meet all of this, yeah. For a couple other grants, what we've done has been more at the planning stage. A couple of planning stages and also we worked with a couple centers in town to just help stand them up and make them stronger footing, financial footing, be able to purchase their building, things of that nature. So it was really great. In the process, we've also been working with the family room really closely as well. We helped them get through opening registered preschool classroom and getting CC, the state subsidy funding through that to have that new revenue. And we're also now working with them. Have they actually done that? They've actually started that and it's working now? Yeah, I believe so, absolutely. And now we're also working with them in connection with the scholarship to help find families, really connect with those that they know could really benefit from this program. And again, Paula Bonney, the social worker that's working to get people through the application process is actually meeting families at the family room as well, just like meeting them where they're at, where they're comfortable, where they know and it's really helping get through that process. So it's great. Excellent. Yeah. All right, 862-3966 is the number. If you're interested in calling and talking about this or anything else, let's hit that big headline again. So we are, at the time that we're doing this show, it is, what is it? It is March 27th. 27th, yeah. The application process is open for another, at least another eight days. Like that first deadline at least is April 5th, right? There's a possibility, I guess, if we don't install all the slots immediately that people could apply later, but if this is appealing to you or someone you know, now is the time to act on it. You have until, you gotta get it in by a week from Friday, by April 5th. The way to get an application is you can go to the city website or as you said, you can go to the family room. You can go really to any of the high-quality childcare centers, I think in Burlington are all well-versed in this and they can, so if you already have a kid in one of these systems, you're just walking by the Y, you can stop in and they're probably gonna be able to help you. And you can get on the phone with Paula and talk through all the details. Yeah, exactly. And the application is on the city website, so it's easy to find, it's right there on the home page. Paula Bonney, again, her number is 802-448-433. 07, accepting applications until April 5th. After that, we can still accept them. You'll just potentially go into the waiting list and we'll pull from there at a later time. The family room knows about it and again, just like you said, all the high-quality childcare centers in the area know. One cool thing that you guys have done is, I've seen it on the handout, I think it's on the website as well, is the kind of critical information for getting the ball rolling at least is translated into six or seven different languages, I believe, right? So we're really hoping this is something in the various new American communities within Burlington consider and take advantage of if it's helped them. Yeah, absolutely. And again, especially with the family room connection, they have folks there that can help. We have Paula that can connect you to translation services if that's necessary. And the flyer, which is on the website, but also can be found at the family room and the other centers, has a translation right on the back of it. You know, something, it's interesting, just as we've been standing this up, the state is having a big, there's a big bill in the state that could get action this year. The state is considering adding some additional funding to the pre-K years. And so that's something we're watching and following as well. If that works, that could make it possible for us to reach even more kids, potentially. We think there's a, all the studies have suggested there's a really large gap between where we are today and where we would be if you had a system that was really, that had high quality slots for as many kids as needed in the region. So, but it's been, it's interesting. I think it's one of the few issues where it feels like there really is alignment at all levels of government, at the local state, and even the federal government has been, well, certainly in a President Obama, there was action under this area. I'm not sure that the current administration has been as supportive. But there's a lot, but there is actually a lot of bipartisan appeal to this as well. And this is, and you see a lot of businesses being very supportive of new investments in this area, in that it's one of the things that certainly in Vermont impacts our workforce, that there isn't enough high quality childcare opportunities. I think it slows the pace that some women who wanna get back into the workforce after pregnancy, they stay out of the workforce for longer because of the lack of quality here. And I think it has other kind of negative impacts on the ability of businesses in the area to grow. So it's always been interesting to me about this issue is how broad the appeal is and how many people come to it from different directions. And that's one of the things that I think has given it some momentum right now. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, and even beyond the bill that's in the state house right now, the state has raised the financial assistance numbers twice just over the last year or so. So it's really already bringing more money into the system and really trying to get some more revenue and some more support in there because it's just so needed, yeah. Well, great. Yeah, absolutely. Rebecca, it looks like we have a little bit of time. You wanna talk about it, you have a role and really another opportunity for a lot of Berlin-tonians that we don't, I think that I think is underappreciated as well, not as many people in the community take advantage of it as they should, which is Burlington's long-standing lead program. Absolutely. Do you speak a little bit about that and how people pursue that? Yeah, for sure. And it's also, it's really connected to this work as well. I mean, the whole program is trying to create healthy and safe homes for all Berlin-tonians in our city. It's really working to make lead safe homes. So what we do is we work with landlords and tenants to be able to come into your home, do testing, find out where all the lead-based paint is, determine where the hazards are, and really directly deal with those hazards. Lead poisoning affects the youngest children, so similar to what the scholarship program is working on. What happens is, oftentimes what happens is components, friction surfaces, windows, doors that are painted with lead-based paint create dust when you open and close them, whenever you close your door, things like that. And small children that are still displaying the hand-to-mouth behavior go around, they play on the floor, they play with their toys, and they put things in their mouth, and then they become, they end up getting an elevated blood lead level as the terminology that we use. And so our program goes in, does the testing, and throughout the process, we often replace windows in places, we do exterior painting, we strip doors, and we create lead-safe homes for people to live in. It's extremely important, and we've been doing it for a long time. I think we've done over 600 units in the city, which is really exciting, but there's a lot more out there to do. And so yeah, it's a great program. We have $2.9 million to spend over just the next few years. It's an entirely federally funded program. Yeah, absolutely. It's a fully federally funded program. We pay for the testing. We pay for me to go in and do the risk assessment reports. You come away with reports of where all the lead-based paint is, what work is going to be completed to address those hazards, and then how to continually keep your home and properties safe for the future. I think what some people may not realize about, that's probably a lot of things that people don't fully realize about this program, but one, I think important message is that it is available to any Burlington resident can at least that first step, the part where it's you who shows up, is the assessment is free to any Burlington resident, I believe, isn't that right? It is, absolutely, so. We actually did it in my home early on while I was mayor, and it was a great. We own an old home. We certainly were aware this could be a potential risk, but really didn't have a whole lot of way, even as someone who had, I knew about friction services. I'd been in construction. I had some awareness of the threat, but I didn't really have a great sense of how easy it was to address some of the bigger risks. And so, yeah, the program came in and did find that we had a lot of these, on all of the windows, we, in the kind of window wells, we would have chips building up over time and we came out of that and did come. We made a pretty simple change where we have this, I think it's basically a piece of thin metal that we put down at the bottom, on the sill, at the bottom of it. Yeah, right in that window well. And it makes it much easier to clean and much clearer when there's something there that you should try to get out of there whenever we take down the storm windows or put them up, I try to go in there and if I'm really ambitious, I try to, I don't know if I've ever actually managed, but you see who actually has these vacuum cleaners that have these special filters that you can use. Yeah, we have four HEPA vacuum filters, so that's the best way to clean up anything around your house. People, how often do those get used? Are they while you don't? Regularly, people come and get them fairly, like very often, especially whenever the weather turns, I mean, they're out all the time. It's really great. Yeah, they're free to use. You can just give us a call. You sign them out and you keep them for about a week or so and bring them back. It really, it works well and it's definitely the safest way to be able to clean up around your home, especially around your windows and things like that whenever the weather turns. So pretty much any house that was built before what, like 1973 or? 1978. 1978. Yeah, 1978. Any house before 1978 is eligible for a site visit. I can come out and tell you, give you some information about it and then. That's a key year because after that, paint no longer. Yeah, lead-based paint was outlawed at that point. Right. There are times where people found the old can of paint in the basement or anything, but from 1978 on it was outlawed. So our program works with folks that are 80% or less of the area median income. And, but the. For the next stage. For the next stage. But the risk assessment can happen for anybody. Right. Yeah. But then, if you do income qualify and there's a real hazard in your home, it's really quite remarkable, the level of help that CEDA can provide. You want to describe it. Yeah, it's pretty incredible intervention. So we do all the testing. We test every painted surface in your home. We, typical interventions that we do, replacing windows with brand new wooden sash kits. They match, look the same, but they're brand new windows. We strip doors. We do full painting exterior paint jobs, which is huge, you know. And that's all, it's all kind of. It could be a whole building. The whole building, absolutely. Yeah. And if you, even if you have a garage or anything that tests positive. And, and this program is available to multi-family property owners. Yeah, and the property owner applies. They have to, they have to be income qualified tenants of some sort. The tenants do, yeah. The property owner applies to our program and then we work with the tenants to get their applications. They also have to apply and give us some information about their income to make sure that they qualify, but we work with them throughout the whole process. Interesting. Absolutely. Well, great. We have just a couple of minutes left. Let's recap the main event again. For anyone watching out there again, there's an opportunity for the next couple of weeks. If you or someone you know has an infant or a toddler and you need help getting that toddler or infant into high quality childcare, the city is offering a scholarship that, and I'm not sure we've said, it can be up to about the, well, how will that part of it work again, Rebecca? How much per child, it's about a $6,000 per child. It can be up to $6,000 per child, but we're also working with the state subsidy program and we will help you apply for those funds and get you through that process as well. So both of the city scholarship and the state funding comes together to potentially pay for your entire childcare tuition. Okay, so if you're interested in this, you have until a week from Friday to apply April 5th and go straight to the city website. Right there on the homepage is more information. You can also go into the family room or any of the other high quality childcare providers in town, or we'll say one last time that Paula's. Yeah, give Paula Bonnie a call. Her number is 802-448-4307. Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you in a month.