"We're all homeschoolers now." We talked about that shortly after schools across Montana were shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Many parents have now been forced to become homeschoolers for the first time. But many parents are still forced to work their day jobs; what do they for child care? What do the nurses and the doctors who are now working overtime to prepare for the coronavirus threat do?

Some cities and towns have set up additional daycare facilities. Billings for example, set up a daycare for health care workers inside the city library.

There's additional resources out there that you may not be aware of. I spoke with Erica Mackey. She's the co-founder and CEO of MyVillage.

Recently, MyVillage announced that they "raised emergency grant funding from impact investors to ensure that child care providers in its network can continue to educate young children into April. The goal of the funding is to minimize disruptions to educator income and help parents manage the cost incurred during a COVID-19-related exposure or absence." 

MACKEY: Early childhood educators are on the front lines as first responders to the pandemic right now. As small business owners, many MyVillage educators cannot access paid sick leave or other emergency support, so we wanted to step up to help them mitigate the impact on their business, while staying healthy and serving the communities that need them.

 

MyVillage is currently working with more than 120 educators across Montana and Colorado. Check out our full conversation with Ericka Mackey below:

 

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