A business incubator provides entrepreneurs a supportive place to launch their businesses and learn the business skills necessary to sustain a profitable enterprise. The Childcare Incubator Project is very important because it is going to address the shortage of childcare in the City of New Britain, as well as aid in the economic development of small businesses and entrepreneurs in the childcare sector. Our goal is to have positive impact on women, and encourage them to thrive.
The Childcare Incubator Project is the first in the state of CT and the first in the country to operate like this, so this has drawn a lot of positive attention to New Britain. The Childcare Incubator would support the new entrepreneurs with everything that they need to become family home day care providers. The participants would receive training about business literacy, business practices, finances literacy, early childhood, and OEC licensing. After four months of training, four participants would be selected to be part of the incubator.
The Childcare Incubator is Recruiting! That’s how phase one started in September 2022. During recruitment, we focused on women in New Britain that were interested in becoming entrepreneurs in the child care field. We participated in different events in the community to spread the word about the incubator. We did info sessions in person and online sharing what the incubator entails, and provided different sessions in English and Spanish. After a few months of recruitment we found the first ten participants.
On November 15, 2022, we received our first site visit and it was very special. During this site visit, many agency members, some of our incubator participants, and some of our advisory team were present. We were also able to count on the presence and support of the Commissioner of Early Childhood, Beth Bye. During our walkthrough site visit, we shared how the project started, and the different phases that we will be working through the next months.
We started training! Yay!
On December 6, 2022, we started the Childcare Incubator Training. We met twice a week in the evenings, switching between in person and online. The training curriculum was developed as a hybrid model, to create an important sense of balance during the training months. We partnered with Womens Business Development Council and Liberty Bank, who offered business and financial literacy training, Nurse Consultants that provided medication and EPI training, and Education Consultants offered information regarding aquiring an LLC.
On December 30, 2022, our Executive Director shared with all the YWCA branches that the Childcare Incubator Project had received an earmark funding.
As mentioned, in December 2022, we received the news that we acquired funding sponsored by Congresswoman Hayes and President Biden. On January 20, 2023, we had the pleasure of hosting Congresswoman Hayes at our childcare incubator site. We did a walkthrough of the space, and shared information about the project surrounded by community leaders.
The CIP was invited to interview to be part of the CT Children’s Collective.
The incubator in the news. We are getting attention all over the state and country!
On April 22nd, we were part of the Early Childhood Conversations. We presented our project to a group of early childhood professionals and educators.
On April 25th, the first group of ten women finalized the training program. Between laughter and tears, we concluded five months of training. The participants received a certificate for their hard work and dedication, and created binder that provides a road map of their journey for the future. We are very proud of all of our participants and we are looking forward to seeing them succeed.
On April 27, we participated in the Everyday Innovation for Early Learning Leadership and Practice Conference in Boston, MA. It was a great experience seeing other innovative colleagues that are doing amazing things for the early childhood field. We also watched The Saul Zaenz Challenge, where the incubator first started.
On May 11, the Incubator programs were invited to be part of the Blue Ribbon Panel on Childcare. We shared the projects happening in New Britain, Waterbury, and Danbury during our breakout session. It was very exciting to meet everyone and represent the project.
