Local News

USDA Rural Development Invests $1.2M in transformational community hub

Courtesy of Rutland County Parent-Child Center

Parent Child Center of Rutland County to expand space and services for rural families, affordable daycare

The Biden Administration recently announced that the United States Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) has provided $1.2 million to the Parent Child Center of Rutland County (PCC). Grant and loan funding will be used to renovate and modernize PCC’s Chaplin Campus into a community facility that includes a food pantry, affordable daycare programs and services for families disrupted by economic stress and substance abuse.

Acting USDA RD State Director of Vermont & New Hampshire, Cheryl Ducharme, was pleased to make the recent announcement. “Since 1984, the Parent Child Center of Rutland County has provided crucial services and rewarding educational experiences for area children and their families,” she said. “This funding will enable the PCC to provide additional services, create more space for families and staff, develop new programs and widen access to their food pantry. We are proud to support this project, as its positive impacts on the Rutland community will be felt for generations to come.”

In recognition of the Covod-19 pandemic’s harmful effects on community non-profit organizations, USDA allocated $367,600 to the project through a Community Facilities Disaster grant. An $833,900 loan from USDA’s Community Facilities Direct Loan & Grant Program, and a $299,999 block grant from the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development, complete the funding package.

The PCC’s Chaplin Campus 2Gen Whole Family Education Center will be a multidimensional, therapeutic community hub, providing a recovery-friendly social environment and resources to help reinvigorate and transform the social fabric in Rutland County. The center will house expanded childcare, parenting and recovery support, career-pathways programming, special-needs playgroups, a greenhouse and gardens, meeting space, and a commercial kitchen for community meals and social events.

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