EARLY MATTERS QUALITY MATTERS FUND
Early childhood leaders in Hamilton County aim to strengthen the early childhood system. The Early Matters Quality Matters Fund was established to support access to high-quality child care in Hamilton County, TN. The 2025 Quality Matters Fund, application window is open until May 18, 2025. However, we encourage you to join the Chattanooga 2.0 email newsletter to be notified of future funding opportunities for the benefit of Hamilton County child care.
2018-2020
From 2019-2021, funds were made possible by public-private partnerships and were used to support capital improvement projects for child care agencies.
2022-2024
The 2023-2024 fund was made possible by an ARPA grant from the City of Chattanooga. This grant was used to provide child care teacher tuition assistance, dedicated substitutes, and unique skills training for child care teachers. These trainings included two cohorts of STEAM Fellows at the Creative Discovery Museum, two cohorts of UTC Wolf Trap Teaching Artist residencies within child care classrooms, a workshop on challenging behaviors at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and the registration fees for the annual TACEE conference in Chattanooga. Additionally, funds were used to develop and produce a childcare substitute lesson plan toolkit.
2025
In addition to continuing to fund tuition assistance for child care teachers pursuing higher education, Chattanooga 2.0 provided targeted funding to child care providers through two additional facility-focused supports. The Fire Marshal Fund helped providers cover facility-related costs required to meet fire marshal standards, reducing the financial burden of necessary compliance upgrades. Separately, the Building Fund supported small child care businesses with facility improvements designed to either increase child care capacity or improve the quality of learning environments. Together, these funds helped providers address immediate facility needs while also strengthening the local child care infrastructure for children, families, and educators.