Child Care Aware of Kentucky Program Impacts Littlest Kentuckians in a Big Way

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 19, 2019) — If you’re a University of Kentucky employee who’s a parent or just a Kentucky resident with a child, the Child Care Aware of Kentucky program could have the services to support your child care needs. The program, housed at the University of Kentucky Human Development Institute, holds the state contract for resource and referral services designed to positively impact the lives of the littlest Kentuckians and their families.

Child Care Aware of Kentucky is committed to ensuring families have access to safe, affordable and quality care. Their goal is to improve child care quality by offering training and technical assistance to child care providers and connecting the community-at-large to resources and educational materials that support quality child care.

“Our work supports child care providers, families and local communities to help assess child care needs and ensure quality options are available,” said Mary Howard, director of the program. “This team recognizes the impact of quality early learning environments to promote optimal growth and development for all young children and works hard to support this throughout the state. The strength of Child Care Aware of Kentucky is our staff. I am so proud of the work of our team.”

Child Care Aware has a staff of approximately 80 and provides statewide support for services, which include:

• Resource and referral support for families looking for child care.  
• Technical assistance for licensed child care centers and certified family child care homes to get started in providing child care, to meet regulatory compliance, and to promote quality child care.
• Training support to ensure that there is high quality professional development to support early care and education professionals.
• Support for scholarship programs for early care and education professionals seeking credentials and degrees.

For more information about the Child Care Aware of Kentucky program and all of its services visit www.kentuckypartnership.org/child-care-aware-of-kentucky.