While there are highly visible, and often highly competitive, grants available to the early care and education community – such as Early Head Start – Child Care Partnership grants – smaller, impactful grants are available for organizations to support child care providers and their community.
In a recently released opportunity from the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Refugee Resettlement, nonprofit agencies may apply for funding under the Refugee Family Child Care Microenterprise Development Project (RFCCMED). Applications for RFCCMED funding are due June 1, 2021, and the anticipated project start date is September 30, 2021. A summary and description of the grant opportunity is available on the ACF website.
There are three main objectives to the RFCCMED project (as listed in the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA)).
- Help refugees to achieve economic self-sufficiency by establishing licensed family child care (FCC) businesses;
- Help refugee families gain access to licensed FCC businesses which will meet the early care and developmental needs of refugee children; and
- Assist refugees in learning how to navigate mainstream child care services.
If your organization has experience supporting family child care providers and coordinates with the local refugee resettlement community, this could be a unique opportunity to extend your expertise to support refugees to establish their business and achieve self-sufficiency. Required activities in the FOA include training, including microenterprise development training, technical assistance, administration of participant stipends and other fees (e.g., licensing). Given the diverse population to be served with grant funding, all activities must be culturally and linguistically appropriate.
Is your organization a Head Start/Early Head Start grantee? Or have you applied for funding through ACF in the past? The requirements of this FOA will likely feel familiar. Applicants are required to describe the need for assistance, objectives, expected outcomes, approach, project timeline and milestones, organizational capacity, a plan for oversight of federal funds, and budget among other areas. Appendix items such as letters of support and third-party agreements are also required.
If this or other grant opportunities are of interest to your program, we encourage you to explore grants.gov, where you will find a variety of grant opportunities. Check out our blog post, Grant Funding Available to Enhance Program Services, for tips on how to navigate your search on grants.gov.
Foundations for Families’ Grant Writing Solutions include providing assistance preparing for, writing, and submitting federal grant applications. Our team of consultants is highly skilled at implementing services remotely. If your program is interested to learn more about how we can support your program to apply for grant funding, please contact us.
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