Dream Up! Child Care Supply-Building Grant Program - Closed The Dream Up! Child Care Supply-Building Grant Program kicked off a third cohort of competitive applications with additional funding of $2.5 million through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Originally, the Preschool Development Grant provided $7.9 million in funding for the Dream Up! grant program for Cohorts 1 & 2. Through this program, awarded communities receive strategic planning support and $75,000 in grant funding. Additional $5,000 stipends will be allocated to participating child care providers who submit updated business plans during the strategic planning process. Through a collaborative community approach, teams of community stakeholders, will work to evaluate, plan, sustain, and expand existing child care, and support new child care programs. Applications should be submitted by a team of invested community members. Teams are encourage to include a cross-sector of professionals. Team representatives may include (but are not limited to): Local business leaders Community and civic organizations Economic development programs Child care programs School districts Local government City or county administrations Individual child care programs are not eligible for this program as a stand-alone applicant, but may be a part of the team. This program is now facilitated in English or Spanish. Dream Up! Cohort 3 application are now closed. DCF announced awardees for Cohorts 1 and 2 in May 2022 and Cohort 3 in June 2023. DCF has also worked with a few communities to capture videos of the Dream Up! process. Catch up on the progress communities have been making by viewing these videos on our Innovative Communities Around Wisconsin. View Cohort 1 and 2 Awardees View Cohort 3 Awardees Dream Up! Cohort 3 Kick-Off Webinar In this webinar you will have the opportunity to hear about the Project Growth Dream Up! grant program, which opened applications for its third round of funding on February 20. Speakers: Kaitlin Ferrick (DCF), Andrea Cammilleri (DCF), Kari Stattelman (First Children’s Finance), and Kristin Grissom (Sun Prairie Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department) Para subtítulos en español, visite: Obtén información sobre cómo cambiar los subtítulos de vídeo del inglés al español Dream Up! Chart and Sample Scenarios The following scenarios are fictional examples to illustrate how a Dream Up! application and award may work. Each Wisconsin community will differ in how they organize their core teams, define their needs, plan, and allocate funds. If one of these scenarios resonates with your community or your hopes and dreams, or if they spark other ideas for you, please consider submitting an application! Dream Up! Informational Chart Download the Dream Up! Child Care Supply-Building Grant Program Activities to be Completed in 12-18 Months: an informational chart to learn more about how the Dream Up! process will work. Rural Community Scenario The Community and Child Care Challenge In a small-town employer forum, the school district and health care system both note their challenges around attracting and maintaining female workers with young children during the pandemic, which significantly exacerbates their teacher and nurse shortages. Other employers agree that they’ve lost out on hires who considered moving to the town, but ultimately declined due to lack of child care in the community. Manufacturing notes that their second shift workers are regularly complaining about the lack of child care. Information Gathering The group decides that they should take action and reaches out to their local Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) agency for data around the number of child care slots in their community and how many are available. When they meet with the CCR&R team they learn that the area is experiencing a major child care shortage, with about one slot for every four children aged birth to 5. There is also only one family care provider with eight slots for children ages birth to 12 that is open past 5:30 p.m. The CCR&R shares information on Dream Up! with the team, and suggests they reach out to local child care providers. They interview a few child care providers about their wait lists and challenges and hear that they all experience at least minor headaches managing the business aspects of their program. Coming Together: The Application Phase Together, they begin to recruit others to sign on to their Dream Up! application, including the child care providers, the United Way, their local economic development agency and Chamber of Commerce, the county health/human services staff, a Family Resource Center director, and a town council member. Next, they elect a lead who gathers more data about the town’s demographics, equity concerns, child care and after school programming, family supporting programs, and the number of children in early childhood special education or early intervention programs. They also consider the quality of existing programs and whether there are any unregulated child care providers operating. With this sense of what already exists in their community and what is missing, they draft and submit their application. Development of Strategic Supply-Building Plans and the Implementation Phase Once the community is selected for Dream Up!, they begin consultations with First Children’s Finance to help them work on their Strategic Supply-Building Plans to renovate a vacant city building into a new community center with early care and education, after school programming, and offices for additional early childhood program and services. A second feature of their Strategic Supply-Building Plan includes subsidized housing costs and hiring bonuses for anyone willing to complete entry-level child care teacher training. Last, the local businesses participating in Dream Up! agree to offer match funding to employee flex spending accounts to pay for child care at any local licensed provider. The First Children’s Finance facilitators guide the whole process and help them decide where to invest the $75,000 first, plus where to look for more funding going forward. Existing licensed or certified child care programs from this community and another rural community that was awarded a Dream Up! grant gather in the free Business Leadership Cohort trainings to enhance their business plans and they each receive a $5,000 stipend for their effort. This step is happening while the core teams are developing their Strategic Supply-Building Plan. At the end of the program, they feel much more united as a community network helping one another out and appreciated the chance to learn from others outside their community, too. They even decide to join a regional shared services network to share a sub pool, health care consultation, and materials for their programs! Urban Community Scenario The Community and Child Care Challenge An urban/suburban community was hit hard by business closure during COVID-19. Most employers in the area could not offer their staff the opportunity to work from home, resulting in more cases, exposure of children, and staff quitting their jobs to care for their children. Many families pulled out of child care due to fears about illness, routine child care closures, and/or inability to pay. At the same time, early care and education teachers started leaving in high numbers and their former classrooms sit empty. Information Gathering As the number of local COVID-19 cases fell, a local job training center began searching for new opportunities to create local jobs and help the unemployed get back to work, so they reached out to many area employers. Lots of issues came up, ranging from housing to transportation and job training, with child care as the most frequently-cited issue. Some employers were willing to consider offering space for child care, others could fund some hiring and training or start-up costs for child care, but all want one thing: more child care so they can hire more staff! Coming Together: The Application Phase The group brings in local philanthropists, churches, and the community teen center, all within two adjacent zip codes. They identify three local child care center directors who are fired up about wanting to make sure they can pay higher wages and benefits to maintain their long-time staff, along with a family, friend, neighbor provider who never formalized her business. Pretty soon, everybody is committed and motivated so they divvy up the application sections. Some do online research on the WECA, DCF, and local government websites. They cite many facts from the Preschool Development Grant Sandbox where they find data about unemployment and children in poverty, as well as child care access, affordability, quality and workforce information further illuminate the challenges families face in their community, which they can already recite from so many conversations. They also use the child care desert map to get a visual of how many programs are within a 20-minute commute of their community members, keeping in mind that deserts are defined as communities with more than three children per child care slot. Each member reports their share of the information needed for their Dream Up! application, and the job training center director acts as core team lead to submit it. Development of Strategic Supply-Building Plans and the Implementation Phase After the community is selected for Dream Up!, First Children’s Finance provides support through consultation to help them write up a multi-pronged Strategic Supply-Building Plan that invests in recruiting new teachers and offering apprenticeships at the three child care centers participating in the core team. They also invest in outreach to job training centers, high schools, and local colleges to help identify candidates for early care and education work. Their $75,000 Dream Up! grant also provides start-up money for three new providers—two family care programs in neighborhood homes and one center to open in an area church’s education wing. They can’t use the funds toward building, renovation, or vehicle purchases, so the group once again pulls together their data and applies for two other grants from local foundations, as suggested by their philanthropist core team member. Over twenty licensed or certified community providers complete the free Business Leadership Cohort trainings where they learn how to edit or create business plans. This step is happening while the core teams are developing their Strategic Supply-Building Plan. They’re now close to meeting requirements for a 3 Star program in YoungStar and they each receive a $5,000 stipend from Dream Up! that they decide to put toward staff hiring and training, retention bonuses, and some new classroom materials. Additional Resources Application and Scoring Details Consideration Priority will be given to communities who: Have child care desert status Lack infant/toddler care Need expanded hours Show readiness to collaborate across sectors to identify short- and long-term supports for sustainable child care business models Have evidence of commitment to equity and inclusion in the community’s core team engagement and stated goals for the grant Notes: Evaluators will rate the quality of data provided by applicants as evidence of their community's needs, including but not limited to whether or not they meet the above priorities. Efforts will be made to select communities in each region of the state. Evaluators will not prioritize communities that received DWD Workforce Innovation Grant funds related to child care efforts Communities that were awarded Dream Up! grants in 2022 may not receive a second award in 2023. However, individuals or organizations who worked on Dram Up! Core Teams may apply again to support a different geographic community in Cohort 3. Scoring Criteria Dream Up! applicants are encouraged to list 8-15 core team members and 3 alternates from a variety of sectors but must have a minimum of two team members to be scored. Frequently Asked Questions Have questions? Visit the Dream Up! Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) webpage. Program Funding This program has two funding sources: PDG — This program was made possible by Grant Number 90TP007601 from the Office of Child Care, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Office of Child Care, the Administration for Children and Families, or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ARPA — This program is funded with Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds from the U.S. Department of Treasury authorized by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Questions? Contact DCFMBDECEProjectGrowth@wisconsin.gov
