Grants to increase Capacity among Nonprofit Child Care Providers in California

The Santa Barbara Foundation is accepting applications for its 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 (mm/dd/yyyy): 09/19/2022

Grant Size: $15,000

Details:

• Leadership and professional development: This area encompasses  pedagogical and administrative leadership. These opportunities can be for an individual, organization, or a community of practitioners.
  • Pedagogical: The focus here is on instructional leadership, which includes a commitment to curriculum thinking and activities that result in high quality interactions between educators and children. It also includes assessing children’s learning and development, optimizing learning environments and using data for evaluation and continuous program improvement. Strategies may include:
    • developing coaching and mentoring programs to enhance skills;
    • increasing the ability to apply child development theory and research;
    • using innovative ideas and information for early learning and development; and
    • increasing knowledge and implementation of evidence-based practice and assessment methodology.
  • Administrative: This leadership development is centered on administrative leadership. This work includes operational, strategic, advocacy and community leadership. Strategies may include:
    • building an effective organizational climate;
    • increasing the ability to interpret data;
    • collaborating with other service providers;
    • advocating for children;
    • assuring the successful day to day operation of a center; and
    • goal setting for future program direction.
• Family engagement: These 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. Strategies should also 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.
• Building content specific areas of leadership: These 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:

• 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 7: 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;
• align kindergarten readiness with a child development observational screening tool such as the KSEP (Kindergarten Student Entrance Profile);
• 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.

Funding Information

The maximum award for Child Care Grants is $15,000.

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. Please contact a member of the Community Engagement Team for more information and to discuss your specific situation.
• 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. For licensing questions, please speak with the Child Care Duty Officer at Community Care Licensing by calling (805) 562-0400.
• 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. In addition, there must be an MOU, service contract, formal agreement, or staff enrollment process in place prior to applying.

Limitations

Child Care grants are not for:

• Child care scholarships;
• General operating support;
• Services and programs that are not providing services for early care and education;
• Reimbursement for activities/purchases that occurred prior to the grant award date.

For more information, visit Santa Barbara Foundation.