Training Family Child Care Providers in Baltimore

To com­bat the short­age of high-qual­i­ty child care providers, the state of Mary­land has part­nered with sev­er­al pri­vate non­prof­its — includ­ing the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion — to fund Grow­ing Oppor­tu­ni­ties for Fam­i­ly Child Care (GOFCC). This statewide ini­tia­tive pro­vides train­ing, coach­ing and resources to indi­vid­u­als inter­est­ed in own­ing a fam­i­ly child-care business. 

Access to child care is crit­i­cal to the well-being of chil­dren and fam­i­lies. Bal­ti­more is one of many Amer­i­can cities with ​“child care deserts,” neigh­bor­hoods in which high-qual­i­ty child care options are inad­e­quate. Licensed child care cen­ters oper­at­ed out of the owner’s house — com­mon­ly referred to as fam­i­ly child care — are a pop­u­lar and afford­able solu­tion for many work­ing par­ents. But the process of launch­ing these busi­ness­es can be daunt­ing for child care providers.

“Not only does this pro­gram help Baltimore’s work­ing par­ents access the child care they need in com­mu­ni­ties with lim­it­ed options, but it also con­nects entre­pre­neurs to what they need to start their own busi­ness­es,” said Sara Coop­er, a senior asso­ciate with the Foun­da­tion’s Bal­ti­more Civic Site.

What Is Grow­ing Oppor­tu­ni­ties for Fam­i­ly Child Care?

Bal­ti­more’s iter­a­tion of GOFCC began in 2022 and serves two functions:

1. expand­ing the avail­abil­i­ty of afford­able, qual­i­ty child care for fam­i­lies in Bal­ti­more; and
2. help­ing res­i­dents — many of whom are women of col­or — start their own small businesses.

“When we began design­ing the Bal­ti­more pro­gram, we ini­tial­ly focused on the south, east and south­west por­tions of the city that we believed had the largest child care deserts,” said Tra­cy Har­ris, direc­tor of the Bal­ti­more City Child Care Resource Cen­ter at The Fam­i­ly Tree, which leads train­ing in the city. ​“When we saw that there was demand for this kind of train­ing all across Bal­ti­more, we expand­ed our focus to the entire city.”

Par­tic­i­pants in the Bal­ti­more GOFCC pro­gram receive:

• per­son­al­ized guid­ance as they nav­i­gate the fam­i­ly child care licens­ing process;
• men­tor­ship from child care professionals;
• help with doc­u­men­ta­tion required by the Mary­land State Office of Child Care;
• assis­tance prepar­ing their homes for inspec­tion pri­or to licens­ing; and
• impor­tant resources and mate­ri­als, includ­ing a lap­top and print­er, the Gee­Whiz Edu­ca­tion child care cur­ricu­lum and 12 months of access to Brightwheel’s child care busi­ness man­age­ment soft­ware.

Small Busi­ness Suc­cess Stories

LaToya Turpin, a West Bal­ti­more res­i­dent, was work­ing in child care and inter­est­ed in start­ing her own busi­ness. A friend showed her a GOFCC flyer.

“When I reached out to the resource cen­ter, they answered a lot of ques­tions I had and extin­guished some of my fears about start­ing my own child care cen­ter,” said Turpin.

She found the pro­gram wel­com­ing — her instruc­tors were nev­er too busy to answer ques­tions or pro­vide assis­tance. ​“GOFCC nev­er felt like work to me. They real­ly made each class feel fun and encour­aged us to make con­nec­tions with our peers in the program.”

Upon com­plet­ing the pro­gram in 2023, Turpin received her fam­i­ly child care license and opened a fam­i­ly child care cen­ter. She notes the cur­ricu­lum taught her sev­er­al entre­pre­neur­ship basics, including:

• the impor­tance of cre­at­ing and main­tain­ing con­tracts;
• how to keep up with paper­work; and
• busi­ness mar­ket­ing strategies.

GOFCC also con­nect­ed Turpin to addi­tion­al child care classes.

She adds, ​“More than any­thing, GOFCC made me rec­og­nize that I’m not alone in this jour­ney and that I’m part of a com­mu­ni­ty of child care providers.”

Kylie Pet­tit, a grad­u­ate of GOFCC’s 2024 cohort, believes the program’s impact extends far beyond her per­son­al suc­cess as a child care provider. ​“GOFCC high­lights the need for more ini­tia­tives that empow­er aspir­ing child care providers with the tools and sup­port they need to thrive,” said Pet­tit. ​“The program’s holis­tic approach, com­bin­ing prac­ti­cal resources with emo­tion­al and pro­fes­sion­al sup­port, is a mod­el that should be repli­cat­ed to fos­ter more suc­cess­ful fam­i­ly child care businesses.”

New Fam­i­ly Child Care Pro­grams in Baltimore

To date, 35 new­ly licensed fam­i­ly child care pro­grams have opened in Bal­ti­more with assis­tance from GOFCC, and 94% remain in oper­a­tion. The program’s sec­ond cohort — which includ­ed 37 par­tic­i­pants — con­clud­ed in 2024, and Baltimore’s GOFCC is cur­rent­ly accept­ing appli­ca­tions for its third cohort.

Of the 35 pro­grams that were licensed with assis­tance and sup­port from GOFCC, 33 are reg­is­tered or pub­lished in Mary­land EXCELS, the state’s qual­i­ty rat­ing and improve­ment sys­tem for licensed child care and ear­ly edu­ca­tion pro­grams that meet nation­al­ly rec­og­nized qual­i­ty standards.

Read the 2023 KIDS COUNT^® Data Book to learn more about the cur­rent state of child care