The Genesis Wales project has received 12.5m over three yearsfrom the European Structural Fund to target hard-to-reach, economicallyinactive parents.
The Welsh Assembly Government has stepped in to provide up to 600,000 of interim funding for the project for the first quarter of thenext financial year while additional funding is sought.
Children's minister Jane Hutt, who visited Genesis Community Day Nurseryin Tonyrefail last week, said the funding would help prevent job lossesand ensure continuity between projects.
She said, 'Genesis has been a great success story in the past threeyears, tackling head-on the very damaging problems of economicinactivity and child poverty at grass roots level. Genesis is making areal difference in our drive to halving child poverty in Wales by2020.'
Proposed projects to replace Genesis will continue its aim to reachparents and reduce barriers to work or training.
Twenty-two local authorities across Wales deliver Genesis project plans,tailored to the particular needs of each region. At the end of last yearGenesis had involved 13,000 parents, its target for the project, and hadprovided more than 10,000 childcare places against an overall target of8,500.
The Welsh Assembly will submit a formal bid for funding to the WelshEuropean Funding Office once a business plan has been drawn up andagreed on how future projects should be targeted.
