00:00:00:14 - 00:00:06:16 Dr. Winn I'm Dr. Rob Winn and you're listening to Real Cancer Talk from VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center. 00:00:07:12 - 00:00:33:19 Rudene Mercer Haynes Thank you for being here on Facts and Faith Fridays. Today is an amazing and very important discussion about resources for families. As you all know, when someone has a cancer diagnosis, you know life doesn't stop, right? You have so many other, responsibilities and and, you know, issues that you need to face. And sometimes you need help. 00:00:33:21 - 00:00:38:02 Rudene Mercer Haynes And so we're going to talk with CancerLINC, a representative from CancerLINC today. 00:00:38:02 - 00:00:40:08 Rudene Mercer Haynes We have Julianne Duvall with us. 00:00:40:08 - 00:01:08:07 Rudene Mercer Haynes I think she might be a familiar face to many of you. She's spent a career in nonprofit organizations, primarily as a leader in independent schools and a nonprofit board consultant. She served as a teacher, mental health counselor, administrator, fundraiser, leadership mentor. You've been doing God's work, Julianne. A board educator and executive director. Her decades of experience with organizational management, advancement, strategic planning and nonprofit board development make her an excellent fit to lead, CancerLINCs, 00:01:08:07 - 00:01:33:05 Rudene Mercer Haynes next chapter. Julianne is a cancer survivor herself. CancerLINC’s mission spoke to her as a way to support others going through the complex life disruption of cancer treatment. She's thrilled to to be a part of a dedicated team of professionals, volunteers and supporters to help advance the mission of CancerLINC. CancerLINC... and just for you,. 00:01:33:05 - 00:02:08:15 Rudene Mercer Haynes for those of you who are not familiar with CancerLINC, which I think that's kind of hard, but it's okay. CancerLINC is a Richmond nonprofit that links cancer patients and their families to legal, financial, and community resources to solve the non-medical obstacles that arise with a cancer diagnosis. With the help of over 200 volunteer professionals, CancerLINC addresses issues often experienced by patients such as medical debt, life planning, legal documentation, employment issues, insurance denials, housing insecurity, community resource support, and more. 00:02:08:15 - 00:02:29:06 Rudene Mercer Haynes As I said, beginning of this call, when a cancer diagnosis happens, life doesn't stop. There's so many things and so many issues that people still have to contend with. And some of it is exacerbated, by the cancer diagnosis. So, Julianne, I did not do you justice. And again, I'm going to say your undergraduate degree is at William and Mary. 00:02:29:06 - 00:02:41:01 Rudene Mercer Haynes I'm not hating on you. There's a UVA diploma back there. I'm not hating on you. I just wanted to, like, get to you as opposed to talking about your education. But thank you so much for being here, Julianne. 00:02:41:03 - 00:03:01:23 Julianne Duvall Thank you so much. It's lovely to join you all again. And for those of you who were on, two weeks ago, I announced that it was up my day 13 in the office. I can now say I have two additional weeks under my belt, leading this wonderful organization. And as Rudene said, I was a patient at Massey myself. 00:03:01:23 - 00:03:30:01 Julianne Duvall And so from the, the patient's perspective, I can certainly, relate to that experience. And I'll say what a wonderful organization Massey Cancer Center is in terms of the outreach that, you know, that it provides. In fact, CancerLINC is a wonderful partner with Massey. We have a number of referrals that come from the medical legal partnership, at Massey. 00:03:30:01 - 00:03:55:19 Julianne Duvall So that is, we are, key partners in the, social determinants of health, those wraparound services to help folks, once they have a diagnosis and are in treatment, we serve as a really wonderful hub for resources. So we are able to connect folks with legal and financial and community resources, often at no cost to them. 00:03:55:24 - 00:04:21:07 Julianne Duvall About 90% of our clients come to us meeting the, HUD guidelines for pro bono services. And so, we can make referrals to, attorneys and financial planners that are part of, of our network here. And, our clients then can be, be supported by those folks with all of the issues that they may have. 00:04:21:07 - 00:04:38:17 Julianne Duvall And for lots of folks, that may be multiple issues. I apologize for those of you who were on the call two weeks ago, I'm going to share a very shortened version of my presentation just so folks can, have a good feel and get a visual. Of the support that we offer. 00:04:38:17 - 00:05:04:04 Julianne Duvall So CancerLINC is coming up on 28 years in the community. We were founded by two attorneys who were going through breast cancer treatment themselves and really seeing, what the obstacles were. And they were getting information from cancer patients. And they founded with, with the mission to link folks to these resources. 00:05:04:04 - 00:05:08:24 Julianne Duvall So there's a real quick little PSA, with each new discovery. 00:05:08:24 - 00:05:16:01 Video Cancer is becoming more treatable. But chances of survival are highest when you can focus on the cure and let go of some of the stresses, 00:05:16:01 - 00:05:17:02 Video that can get in the way of healing. 00:05:17:02 - 00:05:17:19 Video 00:05:17:21 - 00:05:19:19 Video That's why CancerLINC was created. 00:05:19:23 - 00:05:21:17 Video It's a free service that helps support 00:05:21:17 - 00:05:22:13 Video patients who need 00:05:22:13 - 00:05:37:11 Video help with financial, legal, and life matters at a time when many patients feel overwhelmed by life matters, they can rely on CancerLINC. We help cancer patients and their families get the compassionate guidance they need when they've never needed it more. 00:05:37:13 - 00:06:04:21 Julianne Duvall So as we look at the overlap of legal services, financial services and community resources, we can really serve as a hub for folks. So we get referrals through social workers, through pastors, through folks who, just happen to be, in a doctor's office and see our brochure for and once they come to us by, typically by phone, we can connect them to the services that, that they need. 00:06:04:21 - 00:06:38:13 Julianne Duvall And we follow up with them and make sure that they are, that they're getting the services that they've been connected to an attorney or to financial services or to community resources that they need. We do no direct payments to anyone. And we take we don't take any money from, from any of our clients. We, our, our all of our funding comes from, individual corporate, donations and grants and fundraisers so that we can provide these services, for no cost. 00:06:38:15 - 00:07:04:10 Julianne Duvall So we have a network of volunteer attorneys. These are the kinds of cases that, our attorneys will deal with while someone is in cancer treatment. We have a staff attorney who will, head up to the hospital if, if needed, or have folks come to the office in order to work on, Wills advanced medical directives, those kinds of things. 00:07:04:10 - 00:07:34:14 Julianne Duvall Anything that's a little more complex, like perhaps, clients having an employment issue or a housing issue than we would refer those out to any of our pro-bono attorneys, to work with our clients in terms of financial services, certainly medical debt management is, an issue and debt consolidation. So we also offer connections with those financial services providers pro-bono. 00:07:34:16 - 00:08:11:10 Julianne Duvall And then when we think about community resources, we can think of all of the wraparound services, food, housing. Again, we make no direct payments to anyone, but we can connect, folks with those organizations that, can support them. So oftentimes folks will call in, and our clients have, a complexity of issues. And so our social workers who work in client services and our staff attorney can work with them to figure out, what the priorities are and where we can direct them and connect them. 00:08:11:12 - 00:08:43:06 Julianne Duvall Of course, there are things that we don't do, we don't do family issues that are not related to cancer. Nothing with immigration law or, medical malpractice. So if you look, we are, we are in a growth period of time in terms of, we've been really successful getting the word out and doing a lot of outreach through, a variety of mechanisms, not just, not just traditional things, but, feet on the ground. 00:08:43:07 - 00:09:05:01 Julianne Duvall Our, our outreach manager, who just jumped on the call I saw was at Massey yesterday and visited with over 100 patients to let them know about our services. And so we, we can see that, that the word is getting out. So we've had a 73% growth in the number of patients served over the last five years. 00:09:05:03 - 00:09:37:05 Julianne Duvall And so we are building staff capacity. We continue to recruit the professional service providers so that we can build a network. And knowing that Massey is the largest safety net hospital in Virginia, that the folks who come to Massey for cancer treatment might be, 80 to 100 miles away. And so we continue to look at building a network that reaches far beyond just the central, surrounding Richmond area. 00:09:37:07 - 00:10:02:22 Julianne Duvall And if you look at the non-medical issues that we address, you can see where those tend to fall. Again, there's life planning documents and medical planning documents we often do in-house with our staff attorney at no cost to clients. And then we can, refer out for this other, things. And if you look at our patient demographics, you can see that 91% of our patients were below the federally defined poverty rate. 00:10:02:24 - 00:10:26:17 Julianne Duvall And so this is a service that most of them would not think about accessing. If it were not free, it would not be a high priority. And yet we see time and time again in surveys and follow ups with our clients that our services really helped alleviate the stress, of all of these issues during their cancer treatment so that they can really focus on their health. 00:10:26:17 - 00:10:40:08 Julianne Duvall And so we, get feedback, routinely that we are part of their care and they're, ability to focus on their health. Are there any questions for me? 00:10:40:10 - 00:11:03:07 Rudene Mercer Haynes Juliana always have questions. We all know this. So first of all, I think it's amazing that there's been connections made in the chat. There's a group that, I guess Robin Sessoms represents Prostate Health Matters, which serves as a comprehensive resource to all men and especially underserved and marginalized men who are going through the prostate cancer journey. 00:11:03:12 - 00:11:27:16 Rudene Mercer Haynes And Brian Cosell is making the connection to make sure that that organization is identified as part of your community resources. So I'm glad to see that those kind of connections are happening. You said repeatedly that the organization doesn't do any direct payment, right? How can people contribute to. So I'm trying to figure out how do you actually contribute to CancerLINC? 00:11:27:16 - 00:11:35:03 Rudene Mercer Haynes One, I guess you could be a volunteer attorney or volunteer financial professional. Can you give funding? 00:11:35:05 - 00:11:37:03 Julianne Duvall Yes. 00:11:37:05 - 00:12:07:12 Julianne Duvall We raise money to CancerLINC.org. And we raise money from individuals, from corporations and from foundations. And that basically provides the staff and the materials and infrastructure, in order to, build the network and make the connections and be there when the phone rings so that we can meet their needs. We also have a community resources guide that gets updated, monthly on our website. 00:12:07:12 - 00:12:32:06 Julianne Duvall And, thank you. It's just, that Rachel drop or, dropped our, our link into the chat, but our community resources guide is quite extensive, and that's the network of, providers that we refer to so that somebody could, look on that online and say, okay, well, maybe we've got a transportation issue. Where can we go? 00:12:32:06 - 00:13:01:05 Julianne Duvall Of course, you could call us and we can direct you. But, folks can use that, community resource as well. And then as someone asked, about non-English speakers. So we do have a Latino outreach program and we have a, a translator and an interpreter. We also, use services through VCU and bond support translation services in order to facilitate that. 00:13:01:07 - 00:13:15:05 Julianne Duvall So and all of our website can be translated into Spanish if you just click on the button to change everything into Spanish language and we promote, we have all of our promotional materials are available in Spanish as well. 00:13:15:07 - 00:13:32:05 Rudene Mercer Haynes I'm going to ask one more question and I'm going to open up to everyone else. I know you gave us a full list of all the different types of issues that are types of law that might be implicated, right? But can you give us like a real life example of other, more common examples of why people would come to CancerLINC? 00:13:32:05 - 00:13:34:10 Rudene Mercer Haynes 00:13:34:12 - 00:14:06:11 Julianne Duvall A really common one is related to public benefits. So social Security disability benefits, people are often denied on the first go round. And so seek legal help with applying for a reconsideration of that. We, we were just talking the other day about a case where a couple were about to be evicted from their, rental property because, they weren't making, sufficient gains on their, rent. 00:14:06:11 - 00:14:36:11 Julianne Duvall And so work they worked with an attorney to come up with a different payment plan and things like that, so they could stay in their home. There are certainly employment issues. In fact, I was sitting in client services the other day when a call came in from someone who had just been, let go from his position about three days after, the request for short term disability for cancer treatment and, so that was a quick referral to an employment attorney. 00:14:36:11 - 00:14:50:19 Julianne Duvall Sometimes those cases can be resolved with a phone call from a referral attorney to, the employer. And sometimes that needs to get more complex, but again, at no cost to the client. 00:14:50:21 - 00:15:03:03 Rudene Mercer Haynes Thank you. I don't know if you saw the one question from Katrina Falls upon seeing her name correctly. Does CancerLINC need any entry level volunteers? People can work remote. 00:15:03:05 - 00:15:04:23 Julianne Duvall Don't see that question. 00:15:05:00 - 00:15:11:13 Rudene Mercer Haynes Oh, sorry, I was. Oh, it's directly to me. I'm sorry. Yeah, you guys. 00:15:11:15 - 00:15:54:08 Julianne Duvall You know, we, we always. We love having volunteers. We often have interns from, VCU. Master's in social work program as well. We run a lot of events that do take volunteers, and we do, recruitment. Again, financial services folks and, and working with the legal community to, to staff those pro-bono services, our board, is made up primarily of attorneys, financial planners, community agency folks and representatives from all the cancer, provider cancer care providers in Richmond. 00:15:54:09 - 00:16:21:24 Julianne Duvall So we have, a broad network, even at the board level, of folks who are investing their time as volunteers. But if somebody is really interested in our mission, we would love to connect them with opportunities to support us. We most recently, had the Henrico Fire Department, play and dodgeball in a dodgeball tournament against Henrico police, with CancerLINC as the beneficiary. 00:16:21:24 - 00:16:47:16 Julianne Duvall And then we also offer, several events annually that are fundraising events, one being a big cornhole tournament in September 14th at the City Stadium. So those are fun ways to advance our mission and raise the funds that we need in order to pay the folks who who, support the cancer patients in our community. 00:16:47:18 - 00:17:11:02 Rudene Mercer Haynes Awesome. I don't see you more questions in the chat, but the one thing I think we have to talk about before we let you go is, and I'm going to say the word wrong because it it's a strange word. Toxicity, financial toxicity, a cancer diagnosis just basically meaning, like, you know, you're just so overwhelmed because the cost of cancer care is just astronomical, right? 00:17:11:04 - 00:17:26:13 Rudene Mercer Haynes Do you have a story? Some some words of uplift for situation where people, you know, are sort of dealing with, you know, the debt associated with cancer care and you know, how you all help to navigate or give assistance. 00:17:26:15 - 00:17:54:05 Julianne Duvall Yes. And some of those stories are, are not not just belonging to the, to the clients and to us, but really from our referral partners as well. So that, we were just talking the other day about a, a client who was working through one of our law firms who happens to be, Williams Mullins, and the client was in significant student debt and was falling behind through treatment. 00:17:54:07 - 00:18:19:10 Julianne Duvall They were able to, get the majority of the debt wiped clean through legal processes. And then the law firm basically paid off the remaining balance of that. So you see goodness in lights, from lots of folks who are involved in the process of supporting people through their treatment. So that's a lovely story. 00:18:19:12 - 00:18:26:04 Rudene Mercer Haynes I love to end on a note where lawyers are lauded. So thank yeah. 00:18:26:06 - 00:19:03:09 Julianne Duvall We have we have some amazing ones. And actually, there's a quick question. What are the requirements to receive assistance? Thank you. Robin. When someone calls to us, we have an intake process. We do have to capture demographic information, including financial resources. If someone, does not meet the requirement for, pro-bono work, we can still refer to folks and, but 90% of the folks who come to us do meet the federal HUD guidelines for, for for assistance. 00:19:03:11 - 00:19:43:12 Julianne Duvall We are only operating right now in Central Virginia. To our knowledge, there is only one other organization like CancerLINC in the nation, and it's outside Minneapolis. So we are looking at, opportunities for us to either expand across Virginia a little bit further as we staff up and build those networks. As you can imagine, that might that takes a little bit of time or looking at ways to, provide training to other localities that would want to have a CancerLINC type organization in their community. 00:19:43:12 - 00:19:50:01 Julianne Duvall So that's an all in our strategic plan as we move forward with expanding. 00:19:50:03 - 00:20:08:03 Rudene Mercer Haynes So thank you so much for all the life changing work that you're doing. And as you can see, there's tons of questions that up in the chat. So if you wouldn't mind, responding to them if you can and leaving contact information. So for folks to sort of follow up with you separately. We're coming twice in a month. 00:20:08:03 - 00:20:13:22 Rudene Mercer Haynes Again, they're no secret meetings. They're no secret meetings. But I know that there's. Yeah. 00:20:13:24 - 00:20:45:01 Julianne Duvall I just dropped my email in the chat. Also, info at CancerLINC will get you to, to really helpful folks as well. When we look at cancer, the clients have cancer diagnosis. We also work with families, who are impacted. So oftentimes a client is not necessarily in a position to do the outreach themselves. And so, we work with many families who have a, a cancer diagnosis, a person in their family with a cancer diagnosis. 00:20:45:01 - 00:21:11:09 Julianne Duvall So we can, work with them to sometimes caregivers will call us, to make those referrals. So can we make referrals? New Jersey, New York, new Jersey, Texas. I don't think that we can necessarily we do not have networks of pro-bono, attorneys outside of the Central Virginia area. As as I think it will be as far east as we're going right now, 00:21:11:09 - 00:21:39:17 Julianne Duvall is around Tappahannock as far west is not quite to Charlottesville, down to the North Carolina line and towards Fredericksburg. So, again, we're looking at how to scale up the kind of services that we provide. So other organizations, whether that's near other major cancer centers in the country, or for us to expand into other, geographic areas within Virginia. 00:21:39:19 - 00:21:48:04 Julianne Duvall We would really like to do that because we see such a positive impact on our clients and their ability to focus on their on their care. 00:21:48:04 - 00:21:51:12 Rudene Mercer Haynes Awesome. Well, good luck with everything. And again, thank you for being here. 00:21:51:14 - 00:21:53:16 Julianne Duvall Thank you so much. 00:21:53:18 - 00:22:17:03 Rudene Mercer Haynes Now, we're going to turn to the other part of our conversation today, which is, you know, making sure that we have good, high quality childcare and great early childhood education. And we have a representative, Kandra Brown, who is an early childhood navic navigator for the region Central of the Virginia Department of Education. I hopefully I have your title correct. 00:22:17:05 - 00:22:41:06 Rudene Mercer Haynes Kandra. She's an early childhood education administrator with a heart for making a difference in the lives of children. With over 18 years of experience in early childhood care and education, she has had the privilege of serving as the Director of Operations for a child care center and a licensing inspector for the Virginia Department of Education's Office of Child, Child Care, Health and Safety. 00:22:41:08 - 00:23:07:15 Rudene Mercer Haynes In her current role as an early childhood navigator, her goal is to work directly with child care providers to increase the supply of publicly funded early childhood care and education options for families in the central region of the Commonwealth. You know, you not know this, but, I'm I'm trying to improve my Spanish. And so I listen to Spanish talk radio. 00:23:07:15 - 00:23:31:18 Rudene Mercer Haynes I understand every seventh word, but there's one announcement that keeps our advertising that keeps coming up talking about, the first five, and it's saying how the first five years are so important for making sure that kids are reading and engaging socially, to help sort of build some of that mental and stamina to be successful in life. 00:23:31:23 - 00:23:45:08 Rudene Mercer Haynes Again, every seventh word. I've heard it like ten times. So now I know what the advertisement is saying. But I think that's right in your wheelhouse. And so I'm so happy to have you here today. And, I'm going to turn it over to you. 00:23:45:10 - 00:24:15:02 Kandra Brown Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon everyone. And yes, that's the correct title. I’m an early childhood navigator. I recently, this is a pilot position that, DOE recently created, about a year ago. And basically the goal is to make sure that, childcare providers get what they need in order to provide quality care to the children in Virginia. 00:24:15:04 - 00:24:53:16 Kandra Brown So Virginia is serving more, young children and publicly funded early childhood care and education settings than ever before. During this session, we will discuss efforts to increase access while supporting quality, including key changes to eligibility, funding levels, provider supports, and more. Next slide please. So we envision a Virginia where all children right, have the opportunity to enter school ready. 00:24:53:21 - 00:25:32:07 Kandra Brown And that starts from birth. And so which and our vision is just simple, to kids come to school ready. Families have choices that fit their unique needs. Educators are supported and appropriately compensated, and programs are equitable and quality and meet the needs of young learners and their families. Next, four out of ten Virginia children enter school without key literacy, math, and social and emotional skills. 00:25:32:09 - 00:26:13:13 Kandra Brown Need it to succeed. We envision a Virginia where all children have the opportunity to enter school ready. These numbers are even more jarring for students who have faced historically, who have historically faced barriers. 60% of students overall come to kindergarten ready. However, less than half of black, Hispanic and children with low incomes and less than 40%, children with disabilities and multilingual learners come to kindergarten ready. 00:26:13:15 - 00:26:45:01 Kandra Brown And I just want to note that these data points are from the annual Virginia Kindergarten Readiness Program Assessment results from the fall of 2023. Next slide. Preschool can have a significant impact on school readiness for Virginia students from low income backgrounds. Only three of ten students from low income backgrounds with no preschool experience enter school ready slide five. 00:26:45:03 - 00:26:46:19 Kandra Brown Please. 00:26:46:21 - 00:27:22:07 Kandra Brown We're going to talk a little bit about, Virginia's early childhood landscape next, Virginia's public private landscape is comprised of a diverse, you know, amount of provider types to offer families choices to meet their needs from family childcare programs, and homes to licensed childcare centers, public schools, religiously exempt programs and Head Start and early Head Start grantees. 00:27:22:09 - 00:27:58:13 Kandra Brown And while there are lots of different choices, available to families, we also know that choices are limited by a variety of factors including affordability. Next public funds can help support choice for families in need. Unlike in K through 12 education, not all young kids are guaranteed to be served through public education, so public funds are offered. 00:27:58:15 - 00:28:28:01 Kandra Brown Public funds offer choices for families furthest from opportunity to choose a provider, a program, or a setting that meets their individual needs. Also providers or settings, receiving public funding are held to consistent expectations for health, safety and quality. Virginia is making strides to offer more choices for more families. 00:28:28:01 - 00:29:07:08 Kandra Brown These are, the key publicly funded programs that are offered in Virginia. You have the Virginia Preschool Initiative, which is most commonly known as the VPI program, a mixed delivery grant program, Head Start and Early Head Start. The childcare subsidy Program, and Early Childhood Special Education. There are four established public programs created to support families and communities, and we will now review what programs exist, who is eligible, and how to enroll. 00:29:07:10 - 00:29:45:22 Kandra Brown Starting with the Virginia Preschool Initiative program, which is known as VPI. Ages served are 3 to 4 year olds and sometimes five year olds. It is this program is primarily in public elementary schools. And some programs, are and licensed childcare centers. Some of the family eligibility requirements are that family income is under 200% of the federal poverty level, which you can see is about $60,000 per year for a family of four. 00:29:45:24 - 00:30:14:23 Kandra Brown If a family is experiencing homelessness, parents did not complete high school students with disability or also, the local divisions do have some room to create local criteria for eligiblility as well. No parent payment is required. And the school day is 5.5 hours, for a full day and 3.5 hours for part day. And it's only offered during the school year. 00:30:15:00 - 00:30:47:16 Kandra Brown So, recently the department is working on wraparound services. So children who participate in those part day programs also, are able to apply for other public funds so that they can, the parent, can have, care for their children all day long. And you can apply with the local school division for the VPI program, and the web page is at the bottom. 00:30:47:18 - 00:31:24:02 Kandra Brown Next is the VECF Mixed Delivery grant program. This serves infants, toddlers and preschoolers. This program is always normally found in childcare centers and family day homes. The eligibility criteria, is similar to the VPI program. So the family income is below 200% of the federal poverty level. Homelessness, parents who complete high school students with disability. 00:31:24:02 - 00:31:38:21 Kandra Brown And then also again, they have localities have room, to fill, certain slots. No parent payment is required for that as well. 00:31:38:23 - 00:32:06:23 Kandra Brown The Head Start and Early Head Start program. This is one of our oldest programs. Birth to three years old is, for Early Head Start and then Head Start, 3 to 4 year olds. Head Start services can be delivered in public schools, childcare centers and families day homes. And some of the eligibility criteria are under 130% federal poverty level. 00:32:07:00 - 00:32:23:18 Kandra Brown Which is about $40,000 a year for a family of four. No parent payment is required. And you can apply through any local Head Start grantee. 00:32:23:20 - 00:32:57:11 Kandra Brown The Childcare Subsidy program is the largest publicly funded program serving the most families in all. In all of the publicly funded programs in Virginia. While DOE provides oversight for this program, the Department of Social Services administers the program. My colleague Amanda Kay, the childcare subsidy program manager with DSS is here this afternoon. To review the subsidy program with you, Amanda. 00:32:57:13 - 00:33:24:22 Amanda Kay Thanks, Kendra. Good afternoon everyone. Wonderful to be here with you all. To talk about the childcare subsidy program. So, as Kendra mentioned, it is, the largest publicly funded early childhood program, in the state, currently serving over 43,000 children throughout the Commonwealth. So we serve, children ages six weeks to 12 years old, and various different types of childcare centers and family day homes. 00:33:24:24 - 00:33:47:19 Rudene Mercer Haynes We have, recently expanded eligibility in regards to income requirements and, for families with young children under the age of five, now, up to 85% of the state median income, which averages to be around 97,000 for a family of four. And I'll pause there just to say that a lot of families don't recognize that they are eligible for the program. 00:33:47:19 - 00:34:21:14 Rudene Mercer Haynes You know, they think very low income. And that's no longer the case with childcare subsidy. Under our expanded eligibility. And then for families with only school age children, we go between 150 to 250% of the federal poverty level. And that depends upon the locality as well. Parents also must be in an approved activity, to participate in the childcare subsidy program, which could, be working, looking for work, in school or job training. 00:34:21:14 - 00:34:56:05 Amanda Kay So one of those activities must also be taking place for eligibility to occur. We do have family copayments within the childcare subsidy program that range, from $0 all the way up to $180 per child per month. And those co-pays are assessed based on the family's income. Families, are approved for care based on parents, school or work schedule, depending on whether they work full time or part time is dependent upon how many hours we will approve for the children to be within, paid for care. 00:34:56:07 - 00:35:18:08 Amanda Kay Families can apply through their local Department of social services or online through common health, along with any other benefit programs within social services. And then additional information. Is placed upon the Virginia Department of Education, their child care VA website, and I'll pass it back over to you, Kendra. 00:35:18:10 - 00:35:20:24 Kandra Brown Okay. Thank you. 00:35:21:01 - 00:35:22:15 Kandra Brown So. 00:35:22:17 - 00:35:57:10 Kandra Brown Ready Regions are the regional innovations and capacity pillar. Virginia is unified early childhood system Ready Regions, coordinated enrollment and family engagement for early childhood programs in every corner of the state, including in supporting programs with the completion of the required XXV five which are quality activities and they are ran by lead agencies listed here here on this slide. 00:35:57:12 - 00:36:35:08 Kandra Brown Next slide please. So how can families find childcare programs in their area? They can visit the childcare.virginia.gov website and navigate to the families tab. And click Finding Childcare. The search for childcare website web tool is linked here. And the search tool provides facility information and inspection reports, for licensed, religiously exempt centers, voluntarily registered family day homes and certified preschools. 00:36:35:10 - 00:36:41:15 Kandra Brown Next slide please. 00:36:41:17 - 00:37:22:06 Kandra Brown Virginia's early childhood system must also ensure that all children have quality teaching and learning experiences that meet their unique needs. In response to state law, Virginia has developed a, VQB five, which is Virginia Quality birth to five system, and that is to measure and improve quality of infant toddler and preschool classrooms. VQB-5 is used in childcare centers, family day homes, public preschools and Head Start sites. 00:37:22:08 - 00:37:56:08 Kandra Brown So all publicly funded programs the past school year. So school year 2023-2024 was the first year publicly funded childcare programs were required to participate in VQB-5. This fall, quality profiles and quality ratings will be published on videos website. The screenshot to the right, is an example of the web page, but it has not gone live just yet. 00:37:56:10 - 00:38:34:24 Kandra Brown Next slide please. So state leaders, has they've given VDOE a clear directive for 2025 and 26 to accurately measure and report on family demand, between 2021 and 2024, Virginia used Covid relief funding to support the recovery of the childcare sector and respond to increasing family demand for services. As a federal, as federal relief funding expires, we anticipate that the demand will exceed available supply. 00:38:35:01 - 00:39:04:16 Kandra Brown In families that are interested in the Virginia Preschool Initiative, Mixed delivery, and or the childcare subsidy program are encouraged to put their names on a waitlist, for services to help VDOE accurately estimate family demand, I local Department of Social services may initiate wait lists in the childcare subsidy program beginning July 1st, 2024. 00:39:04:18 - 00:39:08:21 Kandra Brown Once all available slots have been filled. 00:39:08:23 - 00:39:19:24 Rudene Mercer Haynes Can I stop you right there? So is there availability now for the childcare subsidy program? Back to your previous slide or we already in a waitlist situation. 00:39:20:01 - 00:39:22:14 Kandra Brown That's a good question for Amanda. Yeah. 00:39:22:14 - 00:39:48:07 Amanda Kay So wait lists are it will depend upon localities. So right now we are approving all applications that are coming in through June 30th. If an applicant were to come in after June 30th, they are not going to be guaranteed a spot within our program and they potentially could be placed on a waitlist. And that, again, is depending upon their locality and the funding that's been allocated to their locality. 00:39:48:09 - 00:40:08:18 Rudene Mercer Haynes I want to make sure that all of our people in positions of power and influence have heard that day that these applications should be done by June 30th and, to ensure, I mean, again, we hope there's coverage for everyone. But you want to get in there early. That's a week after June 30th. Absolutely. All right. Thank you. 00:40:08:20 - 00:40:15:01 Speaker 6 Okay. Is this throughout Virginia, including the Northern Neck area? 00:40:15:03 - 00:40:20:13 Amanda Kay That is correct. Yes. That's the entire Commonwealth. Yeah. 00:40:20:15 - 00:40:27:08 Rudene Mercer Haynes Again, exclamation point on that one. Not just Richmond. 00:40:27:10 - 00:41:04:15 Kandra Brown So some key messages that you can share with families, is that Virginia has programs that can help make childcare, or preschool more affordable for their family. Some options may even be at no cost to them. Helping prepare children for kindergarten, is so important. Like we mentioned earlier, the birth to five years, are the most important years of a child's life. 00:41:04:17 - 00:41:38:11 Kandra Brown Giving your child the opportunities to learn and grow with peers. And there are organizations that can help, parents better understand options and apply. They can contact the ready region and local partners for information about which programs, their child may be eligible for. I'll also put a link in the chat, for those, ready regions information so that you'll know, which readI region is assigned to your area. 00:41:38:13 - 00:41:40:03 Rudene Mercer Haynes Okay. 00:41:40:05 - 00:41:44:07 Kandra Brown Next next slide. 00:41:44:09 - 00:42:02:23 Kandra Brown Well, thank you for your time today. I hope you now have a better understanding of Virginia's early childhood landscape. And how we can support Virginia as little as learners, and their families. Questions? 00:42:03:00 - 00:42:23:11 Rudene Mercer Haynes This was incredible. Really appreciate sort of that overview, because I think some of us are kind of only stuck and only know about Head Start or early Head Start and did not know about the wide range of programs that existed. So this will not be your only time here. Hopefully you can come back, and, and share with us again. 00:42:23:13 - 00:42:27:16 Rudene Mercer Haynes So thank you for dropping a link to, 00:42:27:18 - 00:42:28:17 Kandra Brown That is the very. 00:42:28:17 - 00:42:50:19 Rudene Mercer Haynes Ready Region context. Yes. Perfect. Perfect. So folks, please drop something in the chat if you have have any questions here. I know it was a lot of information, but I think the the critical things that you need to remember were the eligibility criteria, what families can qualify. You know what the benefits are June 30th, how many times we're going to see that before this call ends? 00:42:50:21 - 00:43:11:14 Rudene Mercer Haynes To direct families, to these websites. And for June 30th and last but not least and, losing it, what was the other thing I was going to tell you? Kandra is going to be back. Kandra and and Amanda will be back. So thank you. And we just dropped the presentation into the slide. I mean, to the chat as well. 00:43:11:14 - 00:43:17:22 Rudene Mercer Haynes thank you.