The Orange County In-Home Licensed Childcare Program is helping meet childcare needs one small business at a time.
Blanca Acevedo runs Estela’s Playhouse Daycare in Mission Viejo, a bilingual small childcare business from her home, where she is able to create home-cooked meals, talk to the children in Spanish and have a close-knit connection with all of her families.
Acevedo always dreamt of running her own childcare business, but while she had the vision, she didn’t know how to turn it into a reality until she found the Orange County In-Home Licensed Childcare Program. The unique eight-week incubator program was started during the pandemic when economic challenges and the urgent need for childcare became in high demand for working parents.
For Acevedo, the program has allowed her to start a business that will continue to grow every year.
“I started by taking 36 hours of classes through Zoom, in October I got my license and I’ve been running my business since. I’m so grateful for everything I was able to learn through these classes because I knew I wanted to do this, but I didn’t know how to do the paperwork, what business skills I needed, what the process was… but through this program I learned everything,” she said.
At its core, the incubator program is a partnership between the Orange County Small Business Development Center (SBDC) and First 5 Orange County. Together, the two organizations have co-created a curriculum that prepares participants with the tools to run a childcare business, but also guides participants with how to navigate California’s strict licensing process. This collaborative effort shares resources between small business experts and early childhood educators, ensuring childcare providers offer quality learning environments while also managing their business for success.
The vision for this incubator program came to fruition during the financial fragility of the pandemic, according to Cristina Blevins, First 5 Orange County’s Early Learning senior program officer.
“The pandemic revealed the vulnerability of many family childcare businesses, which struggled to stay open amidst financial uncertainty — when California introduced a series of grants and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, family childcare providers sought guidance on accessing these resources. It was then that SBDC and First 5 saw the need to support this specific industry in a more tailored way,” Blevins said. “This incubator program allowed us to address the immediate need for struggling childcare providers, but also as a way to expand childcare for infants and toddlers, which is often the most difficult for families because of cost and accessibility.”
When it comes to childcare options, throughout Orange County, the lack of childcare options for infants and toddlers is one of the biggest challenges for parents — both economically and resource wise — according to a Child Care Landscape Analysis done by First 5 OC in 2020. The data revealed a significant shortage of care for infants and toddlers, with only enough licensed capacity for one in 21 children.
Additionally, the data spotlighted childcare hours needed to diversify — including early morning, graveyard or weekends, which made it difficult for working parents who didn’t have traditional Monday through Friday schedules to get proper care. Most families found themselves piecing together different types of care through family and friends, or just having to tailor their working hours.
“We had this vision of being able to help these small childcare programs to fill critical gaps for families that were not being met by bigger facilities,” said Belvins. “Our graduates are able to create intimate, nurturing environments of family in-home childcare and cater to the needs of families in their community. We have programs that provide graveyard shift or overnight hours, teach Farsi, musical programs or offer care for children with special needs. That’s the wonderful part of being able to help these small-business owners, we tell them to create a niche, focus on something that will make you stand out and provide more services.”
Since the program’s inception, they have already had 85 graduates, many of whom are licensed and operate their own in-home childcare services. Approximately 45 percent of graduates have launched successful businesses, a notable success rate compared to other industry incubators, which often see success rates of around 30 percent.
The Orange County In-Home Licensed Childcare Program will kick off a new eight-week program for interested participants starting Jan. 29. To sign up for future classes, visit: https://ocwbc.org/events/childcare-program-10-2/
By Cindy Arora
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