(TAMPA, Fla.) – Hillsborough Community College’s (HCC) Ybor City Campus Child Development Center was awarded a four-year, $1.7 million grant from the United States Department of Education. The Child Care Access Means Parents in Schools, or CCAMPIS, grant started on Oct. 1, 2021, and will end on Sept. 30, 2025.
“Access to affordable, high-quality childcare is a consistent challenge for our student parents,” Dean of Associate in Science Degree Programs on the Ybor City Campus, Sheila Rios, said. “We are extremely grateful for the opportunities the CCAMPIS grant award will provide to our students in supporting their educational goals.”
Through the Child Care Access program, the Child Development Center (CDC) will be able to support student families by subsidizing the cost of high-quality childcare. HCC anticipates the ability to provide 50 families with a scholarship that will cover up to 70 percent of full-day childcare tuition costs for students each year for the fall, spring and summer semesters. Totaling $428,717 each year, the CCAMPIS grant will also enable the center to:
– Develop partnerships with the families served to meet the needs of both children and their parents.
– Promote engagement in project-based learning initiatives with children ages 2-5.
– Foster collaboration on interdisciplinary research projects.
“This funding will help not only fund childcare tuition for our student parents, but also support the curricular activities and experiences of the children in our care, as well as student interns in our Early Childhood program,” Rios said.
The CDC is accredited through the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and provides high-quality care to children of student families attending HCC. Pursuit of this grant was linked to the strategic priority of transitioning the center into a model lab school.
Hillsborough Community College serves more than 42,000 students annually at its five campuses located throughout Tampa Bay. The College is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. For more information, visit hccfl.edu.