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July 31, 2024

Women’s Business Dev. Council, Office of Early Childhood pledge $6M to support child care businesses

Fran Pastore, founder and CEO of the Women's Business Development Council, speaks about the Child Care Business Support Program and Opportunity Fund during a news conference Wednesday at the State Capitol.

The Women’s Business Development Council (WBDC) and the state Office of Early Childhood (OEC) said Wednesday they have agreed to renew the WBDC Child Care Business Support Program and Opportunity Fund for another three years.

The fund offers financial support to help sustain and grow qualified child care businesses. The OEC said the program, launched in 2020, has been extended through June 2027 with $6 million from the WBDC after its successful response to the agency’s request for proposals.

Since 2020, the WBDC Child Care Business Support Program has helped create or retain 9,041 jobs and 38,108 child care slots in Connecticut, the organization said. 

The WBDC Child Care Business Opportunity Fund provides grants of up to $25,000 to qualified licensed and aspiring child care businesses in the state. Grant programs offered through the fund include:

Start Up Grant Program: Offers one-time cash grants of up to $25,000 to help individuals in financial need become licensed and operating child care providers with the OEC.
Emergency Facilities Grant Program: Offers grants of up to $15,000 to qualified child care businesses suffering severe revenue shortages to cover urgent facilities maintenance projects to keep their business open and operating safely.
Expansion Grant Program: Offers grants of up to $25,000 to qualified child care businesses preparing to expand their operations and create additional slots.

To date, the WBDC said, the fund has provided 669 grants totaling $7.3 million to providers.
Based in Stamford, the WBDC supports women-owned businesses and entrepreneurs.

Since 1997, WBDC said it has educated and trained more than 19,300 clients in all of Connecticut’s 169 towns, helping women to launch, sustain and scale over 14,500 businesses, create and maintain nearly 32,500 jobs in Connecticut, and access nearly $73.5 million in capital.
 

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