In three years, thanks to funding by Ramsey County, Think Small supported early childhood educators in opening and developing family child care programs and child care centers. Expanding options for early care and education, the Ramsey County Early Childhood Academy provided nearly an additional 500 child care slots for children of families in Ramsey County.
In 2022, Think Small partnered with Ramsey County and launched the Ramsey County Early Childhood Academy to provide incentives and support services to attract and retain child care providers and programs. The unique, three-year initiative was funded through the American Rescue Plan Act as part of the Ramsey County Investment and Support Efforts.
As the outreach coordinator for the program, I worked alongside educators out in the community. I heard about the needs and barriers individuals faced in the early care and education field and worked to ensure the program evolved to help alleviate some of those challenges.
We added new support services in response to what we heard in the field — Resource Toolkits for educators and the 50/50 Match Financial Support Grant. The Resource Toolkits were designed to meet the most common needs child care providers experience when opening new child care businesses. The 50/50 Grant was a financial match opportunity to help with up-front costs associated with opening a program or expanding a child care business.
Another exciting resource we added was the Ramsey County Early Childhood Academy Providers’ Resource Fair. We had a great turnout of community resource vendors, providers, and licensors. It was full of resources and opportunities for early childhood educators starting, sustaining or retaining their child care businesses.
Along with the incredible supports listed above, the Academy also offered free online training to help with licensing requirements or achieving Parent Aware ratings. We also offered one-to-one business support to help guide potential educators through the process of becoming licensed providers and access to a free online Child Development Associate (CDA) training program.
Since the program’s inception, Ramsey County Early Childhood Academy provided 184 child care providers with training for licensing and quality ratings, and 68 participants were able to start their CDA journey. The grant connected 158 educators with one-to-one, child care business support; 34 of these educators became licensed child care providers. Ramsey County also added a total of 27 family child care programs and seven child care centers. That’s a total of 493 new quality slots for children and 57 new jobs created in the county to date.
I was honored to be a part of this amazing three-year initiative. Watching participants receive Resource Toolkits, seeing their smiles of joy and gratitude, and knowing the materials they were receiving would help educate young learners in their care made what I have been doing very rewarding. I have had the privilege of connecting with so many amazing organizations and individuals in Ramsey County and beyond. It has been a privilege to build partnerships and have a positive impact in the lives of so many early childhood educators.
Written by Claire Juliber, Think Small Early Childhood Outreach Coordinator
