Front row left to right: Julie Reed, Geminus Corporation; Pamela Brookshire, BrightPoint; Lesa Cassel, BrightPoint; Sherry Searles, LaunchPad Director
Back row left to right: Allyn Decker, Ivy Tech Warsaw; Stephanie Overbey, Kosciusko County Community Foundation; Rob Parker, Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce. Photo provided by Kosciusko Chamber

News Release

WARSAW — On Tuesday, May 4, members of the LaunchPad Coalition gathered to announce and celebrate the availability of the Leap Child Care Scholarships to Kosciusko County families.

Kosciusko County Community Foundation made a commitment to fund the scholarship program for the next five years using dollars from a Lilly Endowment Inc. GIFT VII Large Scale Funding Opportunity grant.

The scholarship program helps meet the strategic goals of Launchpad to increase accessibility and affordability of high quality child care and early learning services for Kosciusko County families.

To qualify, families must reside in Kosciusko County, be employed, attending school or actively participating in a job training program and be at or below 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Guidelines (chart below). 

Preference will be given for families that meet any one of the following criteria:

• Have an infant,
• Have a child enrolled in On My Way PreK and need care for their additional children,
• Teen parents still enrolled in high school needing care so they can work and/or go to school,
• Are on the waiting list for a Child Care Development Fund voucher,
• Are employed in the Child Care sector and need care for their own children.

The scholarship may be used at any registered ministry, licensed home, licensed child care center or licensed-exempt center based in a public school.

For more information about the Leap scholarship, to apply, or for help finding child care, please visit http://www.mybrightpoint.org/LeapScholarship .

LaunchPad is a child care and early learning coalition established in 2018 under the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce. The coalition was formed to increase capacity and access to high quality child care and early learning for Kosciusko County families. For more information about LaunchPad, contact Sherry Searles at (574-) 267-6311 or at [email protected] . 

Brightpoint helps communities, families, and individuals remove the causes and conditions of poverty. Brightpoint has an office in the K21 Health Services Pavilion located at 1515 Provident Drive, Suite 270. For more information about this scholarship program, call 1-(800) 589-3506 or visit their website at http://www.mybrightpoint.org/LeapScholarship .

Kosciusko County Community Foundation, Inc. has helped donors achieve their charitable dreams since 1968. The Community Foundation is a public charity that grants about $3 million annually in the areas of education, health, arts and culture, recreation, civic projects, environment and human services. For more information, visit www.KCFoundation.org, call (574) 267-1901 or visit 102 E. Market St., Warsaw.