GILLETTE, Wyo. — On Tuesday, the Campbell County Board of Commissioners addressed a request for contingency funding from the Boys & Girls Club of Campbell County and reviewed a grant application for the Early Head Start program during its regular meeting.
Brittney Locken, executive director of the Boys & Girls Club, requested $11,350 in contingency funding from the county’s 1% fund for the 2024–25 fiscal year. Locken said the funding is essential to provide scholarships for families unable to afford the club’s tuition rates, ensuring all children have access to a safe environment before and after school.
“We use all of our county 1% funding to provide scholarships to our kiddos, and we also raised tuition rates in February of last year,” Locken said. “Since doing so, we’ve received 18 scholarship applications.”
Locken said the $11,350 requested is the amount that was previously cut from its initial funding request.
Commissioner Jim Ford inquired about the number of children and families served by the club. Locken reported the Boys & Girls Club currently has 560 active registered members with an average daily attendance of around 220 across five locations. Of those members, 55 are receiving scholarship funding, which covers 100% of the cost for a year. The club is also planning to expand its services to Wright in the fall.
Locken highlighted the club’s increased fundraising efforts, saying they expect to raise around $109,000 this year, a significant increase from around $30,000 in prior years.
Commissioners unanimously approved the request.
Early Head Start grant application
Nathan Grotrian, executive director of Children’s Developmental Services, and Stephanie Stevens, Early Head Start manager, presented the application for their five-year grant cycle. Grotrian said that while this is a five-year grant cycle, Early Head Start is required to submit annual applications for continuation. The grant application outlines the program’s goals and how the funding will be used.
Stevens said the goal of Head Start and Early Head Start is to prepare children for later success in school and support healthy and well-supported families. The Early Head Start program in Campbell County is primarily a home-based program, serving families with children from birth to age 3. The program has been in place in the county since 1998 or 1999.
The grant application seeks $440,570 in federal funding with a required local match of $110,143, for a total of $550,713. The grant contract period is from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026. Grotrian clarified that the local match will be included in their budget request to the county in April. He added the grant cycle was recently aligned with the county’s fiscal year.
Ford asked about any significant changes from the previous grant cycle. Stevens said that programmatically, no substantial changes are proposed due to well-established systems aligned with Head Start performance standards.
The commissioners gave the grant application their unanimous support.
The documents for the Boys & Girls Club request and the Early Head Start grant application are attached below:
