Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk announced Monday a total of $140,805 in grants to aid Allied Drive area residents with child-care and economic-assistance programs.
The south-side neighborhood, made up largely of low-rent apartment buildings, has struggled in recent years with drug problems, gang violence and a large number of poor, single-parent households.
The grants are from the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development and the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services. They will add to funds already directed at the low-income neighborhood through the Early Childhood Intervention Program, which provides help finding jobs for new parents who live in the often-violent Allied Drive area.
This money will be used to directly help families build stable homes,\ Falk said in a statement released Monday.
Falk said the money would go to families for child care, and will also help increase the number of licensed child-care providers in the Allied Drive area. The county will also fund a full-time position in the neighborhood, helping residents connect with government services that are often a major part of their lives.
According to Executive Assistant Lesley Sillaman, the Allied Drive area is ""a chief priority"" for Falk.
""Having access to child care is one of the keys to helping parents be able to go to work or go to school,"" Sillaman said. ""They need somewhere that they feel safe taking their children.""
The grants are not the first attempt to aid the Allied Drive neighborhood, which has one of Madison's highest crime rates and witnessed a shooting last week. The city already funds a special Allied Area Task Force to look at problems in the neighborhood.
County-funded services include Domestic Abuse Intervention and Project Respect, which provides services to women involved in prostitution and those affected by HIV and AIDS, Sillaman said.
But UW-Madison economics professor Barbara Wolfe said more is needed to set the Allied Drive area on the right track. She pointed to increased funding for lagging schools as a key in revitalizing the neighborhood.
According to Wolfe, the city often approaches troubled neighborhoods hoping to disperse residents throughout Madison. She said services within the Allied Drive area could be successful, but that current funding is insufficient.
""It's clearly a concentrated area with low income,"" Wolfe said. ""But this is not a great deal of money.""\
