21 Nov Your Dollars at Work – WoF Grant Makes a Difference
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| Photo: Susan Wilkerson, Sophia Williams, Deborah Alston, Teresa Wright, Talitha Sanders, and Ruth Reyes show off the supplies they received at the Family Child Care Business Institute. |
Child Care Networks, a first-time recipient of a Women of Fearrington grant, conducted a two-day business training institute for the owners of child care businesses – the first of its kind in Chatham County. Instructors (retired professionals) included volunteers from Fearrington Village. Child Care Networks’ press release below describes the Institute in detail. Events such as the Dress It Up! accessory sale and the seven cooking classes just completed this fall raise funds for these grants, as do the proceeds from the sale of the Beltie license plates and the re-introduced Beltie watches.
Child Care Businesses Complete Training
Six local child care business owners completed 12 hours of business training through Chatham County’s first Family Child Care Business Institute, culminating on November 15.
Participants learned about financial record keeping, marketing, professionalism, business structures, and determining costs, using a curriculum developed by Self-Help Credit Union specifically for child care businesses. Instructors included Child Care Networks staff and local retired professionals. Sophia Williams, owner of La La Kidz Day Care in Siler City, said about the class, “It was a lot of help. Before this I was not very business-minded. It’s helping me better manage my expenses, especially grocery shopping, so that my business can make a profit.”
The participants operate child care businesses in their homes with a license from the State of North Carolina. A licensed Family Child Care Home can care for up to eight children at a time. Child care homes offer a small-group environment and often more flexible hours than larger child care programs; many even care for children in the evening, overnight or on weekends. There are 27 licensed child care homes in Chatham County.
In addition to Williams, four other Siler City business owners participated in the Institute: Susan Wilkerson of Wilkerson’s Child Care Home, Deborah Alston of Deborah’s Day Care Home, Teresa Wright of The Wright Place Daycare, and Ruth Reyes of Jardines del Rio. The sixth participant, Talitha Sanders of The Children’s Hearth Home Care Center, operates in Pittsboro. Some of the participants have been operating an in-home child care business for more than 20 years, while one opened her business as recently as six weeks ago.
The Business Institute was made possible by a grant from the Women of Fearrington. Through this grant, participants received supplies to help them implement the business practices they learned, including file boxes, receipt books, calculators, and USB flash drives. Using a competitive application process, Women of Fearrington awarded nearly $14,000 in grants in 2013-14 to eight organizations in furtherance of the WoF mission to serve the needs of women and children in Chatham County. WoF conducts a number of fundraising activities, and the proceeds from each of them supports its grant program.
Support for the Institute also came from Smart Start through the Chatham County Partnership for Children (chathamkids.org). The Institute was organized by Child Care Networks, a Chatham County nonprofit agency which promotes safe, nurturing child care. For more information, see childcarenetworks.org.