CHILD CARE
THE ISSUE
Quality early care and education programs benefit children,
families, and communities. A considerable body of research
demonstrates the value of high quality early care and education
to improving the life chances of poor children. In addition,
child care supports parents’ ability to work or go to school
without worrying about the well-being of their children.
Licensed programs create local jobs (many available to
low-income residents), contribute tax dollars, and generate
expenditures on goods and services.
Recognition of these multiple benefits has resulted in the
investment of billions of federal and state dollars in child
care programs. Yet the supply of suitable spaces to house these
programs has not kept pace with the growth of the sector, and the
shortage is especially severe in low-income communities – both urban
and rural. In addition, while there are many important factors that
contribute to child care program quality, the physical environment is
one ingredient that is often overlooked.
Unlike the K-12 education system or affordable housing sector,
the child care field lacks the funding and organized infrastructure
to design, develop, finance and maintain appropriate buildings to support
the type of quality programming that leads to improved life chances for
young people and societal benefits.
PROGRAM STRATEGY
LIIF uses similar community-based financing and development strategies
to overcome the challenges faced by child care providers. Using capital,
capacity building, and public policy advocacy in concert, LIIF aims to build
sustainable community-based systems to support child care facility financing
and development. Since 1997, LIIF has provided
$30 million in loans and
$24.8 million in grants to create, upgrade, or improve
123,000
child care spaces. LIIF also delivers specialized training and technical assistance on all aspects
of facilities design, development and financing to child care operators,
community real estate developers, architects and others. LIIF works with
local communities to help identify and organize technical and financial resources
for facility development. Finally, LIIF advocates at the local, state and federal
levels for regulations supportive of child care facility development and for policies
to increase resources for capital and technical assistance.
For a list of our child care grantees, please go to the Child Care Grantees page.
CALIFORNIA
Statewide
California Counties
