COUNTYWIDE : Grant Will Train Child-Care Providers

A Ventura County advocacy organization has received a $40,000 grant to train east county residents to provide licensed child care in their homes, officials said Monday.

Child Development Resources of Ventura County is one of 13 organizations statewide given grant money to recruit and train new child-care providers, said Sylvia Preston, resource and referral department manager.

Recruitment will focus on creating infant care and other child-care centers in homes in the Thousand Oaks and Moorpark areas, Preston said.

“There is very little in the way of center-based infant care available because it is very costly care to provide,” Preston said. The Conejo Valley area was singled out because of the high number of young families with infants there, Preston said.

There are more than 4,000 children under 3 years of age in Thousand Oaks alone, Preston said. But there are only about 240 licensed child-care spaces in town for that age group, she said.