Santa Barbara Foundation Child Care Grants (California)

The Santa Barbara Foundation offers Child Care grants to increase capacity among nonprofit child care providers in Santa Barbara County to meet the critical needs of young children and set the stage for lifelong learning success.

Donor Name: Santa Barbara Foundation

State: California

County: Santa Barbara County (CA)

Type of Grant: Grant

Deadline: 09/27/2023

Size of the Grant: $15,000

Grant Duration: 1 year

Details:

The Santa Barbara Foundation’s intent in offering this funding is to support and strengthen child care providers (for children between birth and five years of age) and the integral direct service providers that support them. The proposal must address one or more of the following areas:

• Childcare Workforce Pathway and Skill Development
  • Increase the number of qualified infant and toddler workforce professionals in the County. Strategies may include:
    • developing or participating in coaching and mentoring programs to enhance skills;
    • increasing the number of staff seeking infant/toddler qualifications who enroll in Early Childhood Education units;
    • collaborating with other service providers or child care organizations (i.e., SBCEO Child Care Planning Council, Children’s Resource and Referral of SBC, etc.);
• Supportive Organizational Business Model
  • Building a supporting organizational climate may include:
    • Through leadership professional development, facilitate the creation of new, licensed infant and toddler childcare spaces in Santa Barbara County.
    • increasing the ability to interpret data for goal setting for future program direction;
    • participating in technical assistance program that will support with facility grant applications, help in seuring lease or purchase agreements for operators, provide facility design recommendations, and help in navigating the planning and development system. participating in a sustainable technical assistance model that integrates business sustainability best practices;
    • assuring the successful day to day operation of a center; and
    • advocating for teachers.
• Family Engagement
  • Strategies should be cognizant of incorporating a family’s composition, language, and culture into their approach of collaborating with them. Applicants should clearly indentify a proven family engagement strategy to build relationships between themselves and families to maximize a child’s success. Strategies may include:
    • promoting partnerships with families;
    • fostering family leadership; and
    • building support and opportunities for families to foster their engagement in their child’s development and education.
• Building Content Specific Areas of Leadership
  • Strategies may include the following:
    • promoting fair and equitable access to child care opportunities;
    • systems thinking;
    • effective strategies for working with English language learners (ELL’s); and
    • working with special populations including special needs, homeless and foster children, or addressing other evident emerging needs.

Priorities 

Priority will be given to organizations that:

• Increase Child Care Workforce Pathway and Skill Development;
• Foster an organizational business model to retain and support Child Care Workforce; support child health, nutrition, and social-emotional well-being in a language-rich learning environment that respects diversity;
• arrange for subsidy funds for children and families that are most at risk (defined as children living in poverty, dual language learners, children whose parents have low levels of education, foster children and children with special needs);
• demonstrate adoption of, or progress toward the use of, best practices for parent engagement, such as Standard: Families in NAEYC Program Standards and/or the Protective Factors Framework;
• demonstrate participation in, or a plan toward participating in, the Santa Barbara County’s Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) and/or the NAEYC Accreditation process;
• support career paths for early care and education professionals, foster leadership and ongoing professional development opportunities, and other strategies that will attract and retain high-quality educators; and
• demonstrate engagement and or alignment with community-wide child development goals, i.e. CAPC, Child Care Planning Council, etc.

Funding Amounts and Duration

The maximum award for Child Care Grants is $15,000. The grant review panel may reduce or increase award amounts at its discretion. The grant period is up to one year from the award date. Reporting requirements will be noted in the award letter.

Eligibility Criteria 

• Organizations must be certified as tax exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code or use a fiscal sponsor with 501(c)(3) tax status. Applications that do not contain a valid EIN (tax ID) number will not be considered.
• The foundation accepts applications from public entities such as schools, universities, and libraries through an affiliate or supporting 501(c)(3) organization.
• An agency acting as the fiscal sponsor on behalf of a community collaborative may be eligible to submit proposals on behalf of its own agency needs as well as the needs of the collaborative.
• The child care provider receiving funding must be fully licensed by the State of California to provide childcare for the age groups it is serving and be in full compliance with the applicable codes governing childcare facilities.
• If the applicant is not a child care provider, the organization must be providing a direct service either on behalf of a child care provider to the children or families of the provider or be providing professional development or a training activity to staff of the provider.

For more information, visit SBF.