WATERVILLE — Bank of America Maine recently awarded Educare Central Maine $5,000 towards young children’s uninterrupted quality early care and education, so their parents can work or attend school.

The bank funds also inspired a stronger focus to design and implement a Work and Education-Ready Parent Outreach pilot over the next year at Educare. The goal of the pilot is to assist parents with their educational and workforce goals in order to bring improved financial stability and self-sufficiency to their families.

Educare staff along with KVCAP’s Community Initiatives staff recently conducted one-on-one parent interviews from which to gather information about the barriers to educational or workforce development participation in addition to what was hindering their ability to leave all public assistance such as SNAP (food stamps), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and childcare subsidies for working parents, etc.

For more information, visit www.educarecentralmaine.org.