Governor Walz Announces $6 Million Plan To Fund Child Care Jobs

Area child care facilities will receive hundreds of thousands of dollars to expand child care options in Hennepin County.

It’s a part of a $6 million child care grant that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s office says will create over 2,200 child care slots across the state.

At St. David’s Center for Child and Family Development in Minnetonka, Walz said there’s a significant need for this funding, which goes hand-and-hand with other workforce development grants.

“The development of these children is the workforce of our future,” Walz said. “It all fits together as part of the state’s economic, and our basic, social well-being.”

Some local beneficiaries include Head Start programs, two of which are located in Golden Valley and Brooklyn Center. Another is St. David’s, just south of Plymouth.

St. David’s received $270,000 to equip classrooms in central Minnesota as it expands.

Julie Sjordal, the center’s executive director, said this meets an urgent need.

“This DEED grant is critical in creating 126 new child care slots, slated to open next spring,” Sjordal said.

Walz said more DEED child care grants are coming in the future.

Child Care Grant Recipients

This round’s full list of recipients, per a release from the governor’s office, are:

• Alexandria Community Learning Center, Alexandria — $250,000
• Austin Community Charitable Fund, Austin — $250,000
• Centro Tyrone Guzman, Minneapolis — $245,000
• City of Alexandria — $280,000
• City of Luverne — $250,000
• Community Action Partnership of Hennepin County — $250,000
• Comunidades Latinas Unidades En Servicio (CLUES), St. Paul — $250,000
• Cook County Public Health and Human Services, Grand Marais — $250,000
• Glacier Hills Elementary School, Starbuck — $240,000
• Healthy Community Initiative, Northfield — $500,000
• Kandiyohi County and City of Willmar Economic Development Center — $500,000
• Lutheran Social Services, St. Paul — $100,000
• Northland Foundation, Duluth (serving the Northeast Minnesota region) — $400,000
• Northwest Minnesota Foundation, (serving the Northwest Minnesota region) — $400,000
• Parkers Prairie ISD 547 — $100,000
• Parents in Community Action, Minneapolis (runs Head Start programs in Minneapolis, Brooklyn Center, Richfield, Bloomington and Golden Valley) — $500,000
• Pine County — $500,000
• Prairie Five Community Action Council, Montevideo (serves Big Stone, Chippewa, Lac Qui Parle, Swift and Yellow Medicine counties) — $380,000
• Prairie Pines Childcare Center, Fosston — $75,000
• St. David Center, Minneapolis — $270,000
• Warroad Community Childcare Center, Warroad — $250,000 

Brooklyn Center | Golden Valley | Twin Cities