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Additional Funding Opportunities

EMERGING & EXPANDING CHILD CARE GRANT PROGRAM

The Emerging and Expanding Child Care Grant Program has been created for the purpose of expanding access and availability of licensed child care throughout Colorado and especially in areas where there are child care deserts.

Eligible programs may apply and include: 1) Currently open and operating licensed programs, serving children birth to five, with a permanent or provisional license which are expanding their current licensed capacity; OR 2) An applicant actively pursuing a new child care license through the Division of Early Care & Learning Child Care Licensing Division.

Currently licensed programs and those who are actively seeking a child care license will be eligible for a grant award from $3,000 up to $50,000 in expenses related to the expansion of current capacity or the opening of a new child care program. Programs must serve children ages birth to five to be eligible.

Child Care Licensing Specialists and Early Childhood Councils will provide support at the local level including offering consultation to prospective programs on how to become licensed, and assisting existing child care programs to expand their licensed capacity.

“Program” refers to both licensed and those seeking a license that are family child care homes, or child care centers serving children birth to age five. Existing programs that have outstanding violation corrections from a recent inspection or be under the adverse licensing process, must meet these requirements before funds can be awarded. Programs that receive 100% of funding from public sources such as Head Start/Early Head Start or the Colorado Preschool Program will not be eligible. The intent of this grant is to offer working families more access to early education programming. Programs applying for this grant are required to provide full-time programming to be eligible for grant funding.


PROGRAM DOCUMENTS:

Final E&E Grant Guidance for ECCS
Overview of grant and directions to apply.  Programs must work with their licensing specialist and Council prior to application to be considered.
E&E Capital Improvement Project Application 8-9-21
Once a program has been awarded funding, this project application must be filled out for each capital improvement project.
E&E PROJECT CKLIST
Checklist that will help you get your all of  the Capital Improvement Project documents to the Council

Family Child Care Home Facilities Improvement Grant

The majority of Colorado children are cared for in home environments. According to a 2015 report by the U.S. Administration for Children and Families, between 2011 to 2015 the number of licensed family child care homes decreased by 15%. There are many reasons for this decrease, including a stronger economy with better paying jobs available and increasing child care regulations or local regulations that provide challenges the opening of family child care homes (e.g. adoption of the universal building codes by cities and towns).

To address the declining number of licensed slots within family child care homes and to improve quality within home-based learning environments, the Buell Foundation, along with the Daniels Fund,  granted funds to the Early Childhood Council Leadership Alliance (ECCLA) to provide facility improvement funding to family child care homes. This opportunity is intended to help family child care homes start up, expand, or maintain consistent operations, increase capacity and reduce the number of family child care homes closing their doors due to financial restrictions.

Go to: https://ecclacolorado.org/fcchgrant/ for more information.

Colorado Community Revitalization Grant

The Colorado Community Revitalization Grant provides gap funding for projects in creative districts, historic districts, main streets or neighborhood commercial centers. This grant will support creative projects that combine creative industry workforce housing, commercial spaces, performance space, community gathering spaces, child care centers, and retail partnerships for the purpose of economic recovery and diversification by supporting creative sector entrepreneurs, artisans, and community non-profit organizations.

For grant requests over $100,000, the awarded funding amount will not exceed more than 50% of the total costs of the project. Grants will be capped at a maximum of $5 million per project in order to distribute the funds broadly. Projects that are specifically designed for artist live/workspace may be eligible for grants higher than $5 million, not to exceed more than 50% of the total project cost.

Funding amounts will be based on these factors:

  • total project cost
  • other sources of secured permanent funding
  • gap amount needed for the project

This funding initiative was enacted in Senate Bill 21-252. Colorado Creative Industries and the Colorado Department of Local Affairs are managing this grant program.

 Pre-applications are open for this first round of funding.

https://oedit.colorado.gov/colorado-community-revitalization-grant