Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Grants & Starting A Daycare - Another question about starting......


Hi,
         My name is A~, and I live in San Antonio Texas. I am a single mother with a 1 year old son. I have been picking my brain about what I want to do. I have 3 years of college completed with about 5 thousand in student loans...I am very interested in opening my own daycare facility. Where do I start? Do you know a web-site that I can go to to look for grants! Thanks A~



Thank you for your email.

One of the clients that I did have was a single mother who was just looking to earn some money while she went to school.  Did you know that there is at least one organization that helps single mothers financially in many ways?  And if there's one organization then there maybe another one and another one and on and on........

As I have mentioned many times before there are programs that help pay at least part of a person's student loan(s) but each program is different in their requirements and you have to find out if you are eligible to apply. 

The whole "grant" process involves a lot of work and research and once you have found the grant programs you still have to read them thoroughly to make sure that you are eligible to apply.  You also have to understand the fact that there is no one kind of "daycare" grant program.  Each and every grant program has different requirements and guideline - there is no "one stop" grant program for daycare.  Which brings up the point of you having to additionally know that the grant programs that you do qualify to apply for will depend on the TYPE of daycare that you want to open.  You have many questions to answer - including whether your daycare will be a for-profit, non-profit or both.  Which also brings up the fact that you may be eligible for other types of grant programs including those for entrepreneurs/for-profit businesses.  There is even a grant program that awards a $500,000.00 grant (over a period of time) to people to help pursue their dreams.  So don't just look for "daycare" grants - find the grant programs that you are eligible to apply for!

Regarding your question about daycare.  Basically speaking almost any one can start a daycare.  It's being a LEGITIMATE daycare that is going to require finding out more about.  Every state may have different requirements and there is no getting around the fact that you will have to find out what the requirements are for your area.  This is not a too hard thing to do as I have found out - you just have to do the work to find the information.

As there is no "one" grant program for daycare there is no "one" grant website.  (And you're not including the grant programs that don't yet have a website but they do have a phone number and a mailing address).  Grant programs are offered by the government, foundations, organizations, businesses and even individuals - which means that there is no "one" site that could possible have all grant programs listed.  (This doesn't even include the fact that you're counting out new grant programs and whether or not the current grant programs are still - well - current).

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