Woman Receives Government Grant Money To Start A Daycare!

One woman decided that she wanted to do something to honor the life of the son she lost a few years ago so she decided to open a daycare, and the state gave her over $50,000 to do it!

In researching programs and other things available for families with a disabled child the woman said she came up empty handed regarding daytime care. "There really wasn't anything here that was going to be beneficial to what my needs would have been," she said. Because of that, she decided to start her own child care center that will cater to children needing respite care but will be open to all children.

With the help of city staff, she applied for and received a grant through one of the government grant programs to renovate a property on a local road. It will eventually become the childcare center. The maximum amount of the grant is $480,000. Monies are distributed according to the cost of renovation or the number of full-time jobs the business will eventually create. For each job created, the grant awards $12,000. Depending on which amount is smaller, 50 percent of renovation costs or the number of jobs created, that is the amount awarded to the grantee.

The daycare plans to create eight full-time jobs once the center is open so that is why she was awarded $12,000 for each position.

"This is going to help our economic development initiative that we would like to have more businesses go in and reuse existing structures so that we can infill that with a viable business,"

"The grants that assist those businesses are designed to create jobs, and if you create jobs that will also help our economy in the local area." Not only will the business create jobs and provide much-needed childcare in the community, but it is hoped that it will also stimulate the economy. "To create those jobs is important to the city. Of course we want to increase the economy and hopefully with these people getting these jobs they'll be able to buy homes, they'll be able to contribute to our tax base - it will be a win-win situation for the people who have the jobs and also to the city." "Also it will be beneficial to have the building used instead of being run down and deteriorating."

The daycare center itself will eventually have space for 10 infants, 12 toddlers, four sick children and a few drop-ins. This will be the only center in the county that provides respite care and care for sick children, which requires a pediatric nurse on staff - thus making it eligible for yet more government grant money!
"It's going to increase the quality of life for many people and benefit families,"....."They need to be able to trust that somebody can take their child and have peace that if something were to arise, their needs would be met."

The renovations planned include updating the garage to become the classroom where sick children will be cared for and adding on a 900-square-foot space that will become the respite care classroom, among other things. The daycare center also hopes to eventually be able to provide respite care on evenings and weekends as well. The goal is to be able to offer this respite care seven days a week as needed. The daycare hopes to start renovations in the next few months and would like to have the center up and running by the first day of school this fall.


Since the first daycare center grant application, the city has a second one going through the consideration process and additional residents have shown interest in applying for the grant.


"Because of this grant, this project is possible," she said. "It just feels right, the space just feels right."

Comments Received

added 8/29/12

"How Do I Start My Own Daycare?"



Well one of the first things that you will have to decide is whether you are going to operate your daycare as a for-profit, a non-profit or a combination of both.


If you look on the side of this blog you will see where I mentioned that a lot of daycares operate on a marginal budget and not a lot of them make a lot of profit. That is where government grants for daycares comes into the picture!


You can start your daycare at first on a small basis. Some states allow this - where you are operating a smaller daycare - and you don't need a daycare license. It's best to check your state guidelines to see what you have to do.



Of course you should have some type of business plan before you open your daycare whether it's going to be a non-profit or not. This business plan will help you see the costs that you will incur when you are running your daycare.



Of course you can start small by operating your daycare at home and as your profits increase you can move to a larger facility.



Of course you should also be aware that it is not just the government that has grant programs! I blog a lot on my Grant Basics 101 Blog about grant programs being offered by groups other than the government. For instance if you want a grant to start your own daycare business then you should be looking for grant programs not just for starting your daycare business - you should be looking for grants to help you start your own business and not just daycare-related grants! For instance I know of one grant program for minorities (including women) who want to start their own business! The total grant award is $25,000 and previous grant recipients included a woman who started her own daycare business with this grant money.



So if you want to start your own daycare business you should do some planning beforehand - which includes deciding how you want to operate your daycare business and having a business plan before you start your own daycare business.