Child Care Success Stories
Recent Child Care grants have supported a number of regional and community projects to establish local child care facilities and increase the availability of quality, affordable child care for working Iowans.
Video Story: Helping Small Communities Grow
Communities need affordable child care if they hope to continue to attract new residents or keep the ones they already have. See how the Child Care Challenge Grant is helping the small town of Dysart become a place where small businesses can succeed. The grant has helped communities throughout the state of Iowa develop or improve upon child care offerings, building more opportunities for parents in more communities.
Video Story: Special Needs Child Care Growing in Ames Thanks to State Grant
Having a child care facility equipped to care for children with special needs is a top priority for their working parents. In Ames, Iowa, ChildServe has been providing child care for kids with Autism more than five years, and now they are able to expand their services thanks to the Child Care Challenge Grant.
Video Story: Grant Helps Iowa Community Build New Child Care Center
Creating more child care options is a priority for growing communities like Jefferson, Iowa. The Greene County Early Learning Center is moving into a new facility thanks in part to the Future Ready Iowa Child Care Challenge Grant. Find out how the grant helped the community create lasting partnerships, and how they came together to raise additional funding for the new building.
Video Story: Grant Helps Give Child Care New Life
Grant: Child Care Challenge (2021 and 2022)
The Child Care Challenge grant is already making a difference throughout Iowa. It provides funding opportunities for child care facilities to modernize, renovate, or update their child care space and support additional openings. Watch and learn how Precious Beginnings, a center based out of Des Moines used the specialized grant to finish a project 20 years in the making and what it means to the parents of local children in the surrounding community.
Video Story: Grant Creates New Child Care Spots in Iowa Community
Grant: Child Care Challenge (2021)
We know a thriving workforce depends on the availability of child care for working Iowans. The Child Care Challenge grant is just one way Iowa is helping providers find the necessary funding to provide this critical service to their communities. See how two entrepreneurs used the grant to start Little Sprouts Daycare in Algona and hear how they plan to expand their facility even further!
Mahaska County YMCA Expands New Child Care Facility
Grant: Child Care Challenge (2021)
The Mahaska County YMCA in Oskaloosa received a total of $817,500 in 2021 child care grants to expand infant and toddler child care slots and furnish 20 rooms of a new child care facility. The new building was built with money from the city of Oskaloosa, the Oskaloosa Community School District and the YMCA after more than 18 years of an unmet childcare need. Small operating margins previously had prevented the center from moving out of an old, outdated facility due to the difficulties associated with retiring expected construction debts.
The 2021 grants created larger rooms to expand slots by four infants and eight toddlers. The YMCA also used grant money to furnish 20 rooms in the new facility, including the purchase of furniture, computers, and a copier. YMCA staff now can use new technology to enhance their lesson planning and teaching, including using videos on tablets to explain more in-depth concepts that children are learning. Children run into the facility each morning with big smiles on their faces, anxious to get to “their new building.”