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Rural Child Care Services To Get A Boost In Maine

Robbie Feinberg
/
Maine Public File

Maine's U.S. senators say a Portland group has been awarded $400,000 to help improve rural child care in the state.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Community Economic Development Grant Program is awarding the grant to Coastal Enterprises Inc. The funding will help CEI implement a project called the Incubating Child Care Centers in Rural Maine Project.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins and independent Sen. Angus King say the project is a five-year effort to "provide capital and technical assistance to start-up child care businesses in Maine's economically disadvantaged rural counties."

The senators say more than two thirds of Maine children under the age of six live in households where all parents are working. That is especially burdensome in rural parts of the state that have less access to services.