Zero to Five Montana – June 2024 Newsletter

Not only are we celebrating five years as an organization in 2024, but Zero to Five Montana is happy to announce our official status as a standalone 501(c)(3) organization.

As part of the original Zero to Five network seed-funded by the Headwaters Foundation (thank you Headwaters!) Zero to Five Montana was established to serve as a statewide early childhood advocacy organization.

While we have evolved and grown over the past five years, our mission to advance policies and programs to help give Montana kids a great start in life remains. From legislative policy and advocacy to our programmatic work with initiatives like Montana Child Care Business Connect, Zero to Five Montana strives to stabilize, innovate and build our early childhood system so families and communities thrive.

An increasingly impactful area of our work was funded through an American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Child Care Supplemental Grant awarded by the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services: the Montana Child Care Business Connect program (MCCBC) launched in June 2022 to address Montana’s shortage of high quality affordable child care.

Since launching in 2022, MCCBC has….